With a tired yawn, Blaine walked up the back steps to his apartment. He liked the 12-hour shift schedule because it gave him bigger chunks of time off between them, but they could be pretty tiring, especially at the end of a run of three. He had the next two days off though—a weekend he was very much looking forward to.

He had no plans except lunch with his dad on Sunday. Other than that, he was putting his feet up and hopefully finishing Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, uninterrupted in his quiet little apartment. It was a small, one-bedroom box that he’d been renting since he left the academy. It wasn’t much, but it was home, and a darn sight better than moving back in with his dad.

It wasn’t that he didn’t love his father; he just couldn’t handle living with the guy. He didn’t realize that until after he left home and figured out how awesome it could be.

Stopping outside his door, he jiggled his key free on the ring and heard a noise coming from inside his place.

His eyebrows dipped as he quietly put the key in the lock and pushed the door open.

With a snicker and an eye roll, he kicked the door with his toe and walked into the living room, which had been taken over by his best friend. The guy had the ability to make himself at home wherever he was. He had a confidence that belied his stature. The guy was small and wiry, but he could make his presence known from across the room. His scruffy good looks and boyish charm won most people over in a heartbeat.

“I should’ve known you’d be here.”

Lucas shoved a chip in his mouth and pointed at the screen. “My cable’s out, and I’m not about to miss the game.”

Blaine threw his keys in the bowl on the coffee table and slumped onto the couch, quickly reading the score.

“The Jets are killing us. Why do you have to watch this game?”

“Dude. I’m a hardcore fan. I watch every game I can.”

“But we rarely win against them. It’s like this unwritten rule. You know that.” Blaine took the beer Lucas handed him.

“One day we will, and it will be sweet victory, my friend. We’re gonna pound them into the ice. And I’m not missing that.” He laughed and clinked his bottle against Blaine’s before taking a swig.

Blaine loosened his tie and undid the top button of his shirt. He leaned his head back against the plump cushions.

“Tough day?” Lucas asked.

“Pretty low-key. I was out on patrol for most of it.”

“How’s Ollie doing?”

“He was off again. His wife was puking her guts out this morning. Poor thing. I feel bad for her.”

“Eh, she’ll be fine,” Lucas said dismissively. “It’ll all be worth it.”

“Tell that to them when she’s heaving into a porcelain bowl while Andy wails for his mommy.”

Lucas snorted. “And people ask me why I don’t want a family.”

“Yeah, those tend to start with a girlfriend, which you never seem to have.”

“Fuck off.” Lucas shot his friend a good-natured grin. “I’m just…selective. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

Blaine barely managed to swallow his mouthful of beer before cracking up with laughter. “Dude, you don’t have a girlfriend because you’re afraid of commitment and you hate talking about your feelings.”

“I don’t know any guy who likes talking about their feelings,” Lucas scoffed. “And I am not afraid of commitment.”

“Whatever. You haven’t made it more than a couple of months with a single woman.”

Lucas rolled his eyes and stared at the screen while muttering, “It’s not like you can talk.”

“Hey, I have a serious girlfriend.”

Lucas gave Blaine a pointed look. “Who you’re refusing to move in with. She has to commute over an hour to get here. You guys are fucking crazy.”

Blaine didn’t have an answer for that. He still hadn’t been able to come up with a truly plausible reason for not moving in. Erin had been asking for months, and he had to keep coming up with excuses not to. Erin had an argument for every single one of them.

“I like the AFPD.”

“Oh, please. You don’t want to be a small-town cop all your life. You’re worth more than that.”

“I don’t want to be too far from my dad.”

“You lived away from him when you were at the academy and it didn’t dent your relationship. It’s only an hour away. Seriously, it’s not that far.”

The excuses were getting more and more lame the longer he put her off. He was running out of reasons, yet her arguments kept getting stronger.

Thing was, he really loved living on his own, and he loved small-town life. As much as he cared about Erin, he wasn’t ready to make that next big step.

Something was holding him back.

Rosie’s sweet face flashed through his mind and he frowned. Okay, it wasn’t her. He’d barely spoken to the heart-stealer.

She was a fantasy. The girl he’d studied every chance he got during the four years of hell that constituted high school.

He’d always remember the way she crossed her legs at the cafeteria table. Her foot would bob up and down while she talked to her pretty friends. It was like she couldn’t sit still even if she wanted to.

Her head would tip back when she laughed. Her nose would wrinkle when she didn’t like what people around her were saying. She wasn’t the type to go against her friends when they were bullying someone, but she never joined in.

She did slap Taylor on the arm once when he said something really mean to poor Penny Briggs. Blaine had watched from the sidelines as she whisper-barked to never hassle a girl about her weight.

It proved to him that Rosie had some fight in her. She may not have had the courage to walk away from the popular crowd, but she’d shown a spark of something then…and in the woods that day.

But she’d never spoken to him after that, which made her a fantasy.

A fantasy that was back in town.

He cleared his throat and quickly changed the subject before he accidentally blurted something to Lucas. “So, you got a case right now?”

His friend gave a reluctant nod and finished munching before licking his lips. “Yeah, I just started a new one today.”

Blaine arched an eyebrow. “Is it a good one?”

Lucas had started up his own PI business a while ago, and it had been hard to get things off the ground. He’d had a couple of good cases to motivate him, but pickings were slim, especially in Aspen Falls. It wasn’t like the town was a hotbed of criminal activity, but moving to Minneapolis or St. Paul, or any of the surrounding suburbs that had more need for PIs, hadn’t really interested him.

Lucas shrugged. “It’s okay. I’m tailing one of the students at the community college. She found herself some dicey new friends last year and followed them here to go to school with them. Her parents are worried, and they don’t live close enough to keep an eye on her.”

“You were hired by helicopter parents to keep tabs on their daughter?” Blaine balked.

“Hey, bills have to be paid, man.” Lucas frowned.

“So, shouldn’t you be out there right now, following her every move?”

“Ha-ha.” Lucas took a swig of beer before pulling out his phone. A few beeps later and he was holding up his device. “She’s currently in her dorm room, hopefully studying.”

“You tracked her phone.”

“With her parents’ permission.”

“Can’t they just do that?”

“Dude, stop coming up with excuses for me to not get paid! It’s a job!” His brown eyes bored into him and Blaine immediately shut up.

Lucas used to be a cop, just like him, until he was injured and the only offer of police work after that was a desk job. Whether it was to spite the police force and the powers that be who made the decision to take him off the streets, Blaine would never be sure, but Lucas became a PI and had been struggling to make ends meet ever since.

Blaine knew things would be easier if his friend would just up and move. But Lucas wanted to stay in Aspen Falls. Some people didn’t get it, but Blaine did.

Aspen Falls was home.

A sharp tap on the door made Blaine jerk up straight.

“Babe, it’s me. Hurry up and let me in.” Erin’s sharp command made Blaine leap from the couch.

Lucas scoffed and shook his head while Blaine flashed him a look of warning.

“Hey, sweetie.” Blaine greeted his redhead girlfriend with a smile and leaned down to kiss her.

Her lips hurriedly brushed his as she stepped into his apartment.

“It’s frickin’ freezing today,” she complained while shrugging out of her jacket and dumping it over the couch. Her hat and scarf followed suit. “Oh, hi, Lucas.”

Her enthusiasm was minimal. She’d never really warmed to Blaine’s best buddy. Probably because he was always around when she didn’t want him to be.

“Can I get you a drink?” Blaine rubbed her shoulders while she scraped her fingers through her hair.

Her muscles were taut with stress, and he readied himself for an interesting evening.

“Yeah, that’d be great. I’m starving too. I didn’t even get to stop for lunch today. Work is insane right now. One case after another, and even though I’m just assisting on half of them, I feel like I’m doing all the leg work!”

“So, why’d you come back for the weekend, then?” Lucas asked with a smile. “You know, if you’re so busy.”

From the way Lucas snickered, Erin must have been giving him one of her laser glares. Her voice was tight and unyielding when she answered. “Because I have a boyfriend, dipshit, and since he doesn’t live in Minneapolis with me, I have to come out here to see him.”

Blaine winced behind her back.

Yeah, it was definitely going to be a long, “interesting” evening.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t handle high-maintenance, and Erin wasn’t always hard work. If anything, it made him feel good that he could ease her tension and be the guy she needed.

But some nights he just didn’t feel like it.

Guilt singed him as he gazed longingly at his couch and pictured an evening of beer drinking, takeout and a hockey game with his buddy.

That wasn’t going to happen anymore.

He caught Lucas’s eye and was disappointed to see his friend nod and lean forward to start packing up his mess. “Well, I better head out. Let you guys have a little quality time.”

Erin’s shoulders sagged with relief.

“Sweetie, why don’t you go take a shower? I’ll make us some dinner, and you can sit down and relax.”

“Oh, thank you.” She spun to face him, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Blaine smiled and pecked her lips before letting her go.

When she disappeared into the bathroom, Lucas headed for the door.

“Sorry you won’t get to see the end of the game.” Blaine gave him an apologetic smile.

“Yeah I will. I’ll head to Shorty’s.” Shorty’s Tavern was the local bar for most of the Aspen Falls PD. They ate lunch at Lulu’s and drank beer at Shorty’s. The place was designed for loud conversation and raving sports fans.

“Say hi to Mick for me,” Blaine said.

“You know I will.” They grinned at each other as Lucas opened the door. “Good luck cooling off the dragon.”

“Get out of here.” Blaine lightly punched his arm with a laugh before he closed the door behind his friend.

Leaning against the wood, he tried to decide what to cook for dinner. Erin was on a low-carb, gluten-free diet, so it’d probably be some kind of stir-fry.

Walking to the kitchen, he started pulling vegetables out of the refrigerator while his mind hummed with images of Rosie.

He knew she’d made it to Lulu’s. He’d driven past to make sure her car was parked outside and it was, the little Escort pulled up against the curb, squeezed between a shiny SUV and a battered pickup truck.

He’d wanted to stop but knew it would’ve been pushing it to go in, even if he’d bought a coffee or something. He didn’t want to spy on her.

But he wondered what kind of reaction she’d gotten when she walked through the door.

All he could hope was that Louanne had wrapped Rosie in a tight hug and promised that everything was going to be okay.