With a couple of hours until dinner, and knowing that we’d end up naked, sweaty, and tired if we hung around the house, we decided to drive down to The Strip and take a stroll along the riverwalk instead. Neither one of us had a clue about which flowers were which without reading the placards, but neither of us cared while we lazily walked along the river dividing Augusta, Georgia and North Augusta, South Carolina while holding hands, stealing kisses.

“What are you going to do about work? Is a suspension a big deal?” Evan asked while we watched a bee flitting from flower to flower in one of the gardens.

Evan sat down on a nearby bench, giving me plenty of time to reply. His calmness was a major contrast to the twitchy, bouncy, impulsive man who’d stormed across my yard to yell at me not all that long ago. I loved both sides of his personality, but thought this calmer, more mature man could easily be the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.

This is too crazy of a whirlwind. Slow down, cowboy.

Joining him on the bench, we grabbed each other’s hands. It was an automatic move already. I’d never been so quick to hold hands with any of the women I’d dated.

“Yes and no,” I finally said. “It depends. I should be fine, though. I’ve never been in trouble before at work.”

“What exactly happened?”

“Remember when Trey handed me his glass so he could run off to pee, or flirt with someone, or whatever?”

Evan shook his head.

“Well,” I continued. “Someone in there must have snapped a picture.”

“Who?”

It was my turn to shake my head. “No idea. The chief wouldn’t tell me.”

“Wasn’t that cop friend of yours there that night? O’Hara?”

“O’Brian,” I corrected, while trying to think back on the details of the night. “Yeah. He chased the guys down the alley.”

“Maybe you should talk to him and see if he saw anything.” Evan offered.

That was the night O’Brian lost two perps in a closed alley. What if there weren’t any guys there and he was the one who took the pictures? But why?

“Yeah, I think I will have to have a talk with him when I see him again.”

I couldn’t believe that O’Brian was mixed up in any of this, but if he wasn’t, and he didn’t take the pictures, what had he hoped to gain? Was he trying to make himself look better for a promotion?

I brought Evan’s hand to my mouth and gave it a quick kiss. “You know what the shittiest part is? I’ve cut way back on drinking since we started dating.”

Evan hugged against my arm. “That sounds nice. The dating, not the rest,” he quickly added.

I tipped my head to rest it on his and looked at the gardens. The vibrant colors danced with the lengthening shadows as the sun started diving toward the horizon.

“New topic,” I said. “What’s the endgame with the DJ thing? You seem pretty good, but I won’t lie, I don’t know shit about it. You going to disappear to Europe to DJ in arenas over there someday?”

“Mmm. What do I want to be when I grow up? The million-dollar question. I’ve been thinking about that a lot over the last year. Before meeting you, my goal was to find a way to get as far away from my family as possible. Now…”

“Now what?” I pushed, breathlessly.

“Now, I don’t care as long as I’m close to you.” Evan sat up quickly and added, “Not that I’m trying to rush anything, but, you know?”

“Yeah, man. I know. There’s something here, right?” I tapped his chest and then mine. “Something real. It’s crazy and I love it. I love you and want to see where this takes us.”

Evan sighed.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, suddenly worried that I had gone too far.

“I just wish there was an easy way for us to be together here and for me to take a shot at the big career. I should probably lie and say it doesn’t mean anything to me.” He flashed a quick, nervous smile at me. “But it’s important that I’m honest with you. It’s going to be something we’ll have to work through.”

“Noted, and thanks for trusting us to work it out. But don’t think that I’m necessarily stuck here in Georgia.” The bee, drunk on nectar, flew off over our heads, returning home. “I could be a cop anywhere, after all. Plus, I love protecting people, but I hate the bureaucracy some of the time. I’ve thought about becoming a PI or even a bodyguard for a hot, new, superstar DJ.”

Evan snorted. “Don’t be silly.” He leaned back against my shoulder.

“What?” I pretended his words hurt me. “I’m not good enough to be your bodyguard?”

“Jesus, you’re serious?” He pulled his head out from under mine again. All the up and down reminded me of the twitchy Evan I’d first met. He looked at me with a serious expression on his face, trying to tell if I was pulling his leg. “Of course I’d trust you to be my bodyguard, but that’s a lot of eggs to put into one basket. What if the DJ thing doesn’t work out? You should go the private investigator route so we have that to fall back on.”

“Deal,” I said, making sure to keep any hint of a smirk from my face.

“Deal,” Evan agreed, holding out a hand to seal the pretend agreement we’d just made.

I grabbed the hand and pulled him closer for a kiss, making sure to close my eyes and enjoy the moment. “There. Now that we’ve agreed, I’ll have to take a couple of business classes at the college to learn how to even get started running my own business.”

“Perfect. I’ll use the time to put together some original songs and try to line up some gigs outside of The Firehouse.”

Everything that we’d been saying hit me at once. We were really committing to each other and making plans like we expected to stay together long-term. Rather than feeling any fear or doubt, though, I wanted to run straight to the college to sign up. A future away from home with Evan was sounding even better than living in Georgia with him. Between the recent crimes and my questionable suspension, a change of environment didn’t sound all that bad.

“Damn,” I managed to say. “All of this talk is making me hungry. What do you want?”

Evan looked out over the river. “Let’s cross the bridge. We’ll go to that Hungry Elephant just over in South Carolina and get hot dogs and ice cream in another state. That sounds better than Mexican.”

“Sounds perfect. Should be quick and we can get back home for the real dessert.”

I pulled Evan to his feet and hurried him toward the bridge.