Hot Winter Nights (Heartbreaker Bay #6)(83)

She blushed. “Whatever. You sleep like a furnace and my feet were cold.”

He smiled. Her feet hadn’t been cold. His smile faded as fast as it’d come. “You have a lot of people who love and care about you very much, Molly.”

She rolled her eyes. “Some of them are way too overprotective. Joe and I are going to work on that together, probably the hard way. Now tell me something I don’t know.”

“I’m one of those people. It’s in my nature to protect and defend. It’s ingrained deep, and I won’t apologize for it. What I will apologize for is not fully understanding just how strong and capable and amazing you are.” He paused to let that sink in. “You don’t need someone to stand at your back, Molly. But I’d sure like to stand at your side, if you’re done self-destructing us.”

She just looked at him. Not angry and closed like before, but not quite on board with him yet either.

“Look at the case file I brought you,” he said, nudging his chin toward the iPad.

She swiped the screen active and skimmed the summary sheet. “This is a custody case gone bad. We don’t take these kinds of cases.”

“No,” Archer said, coming into the room from the back. He nodded a greeting at Lucas and they fist-bumped. “But our newest investigator does.”

Molly sucked in a breath and lifted her gaze. Not to Archer, but to Lucas, an entire world of hope in her eyes and he felt his heart swell. “New investigator?” she whispered.

“Yeah,” Lucas said. “Our resident expert.”

“On what?”

“On everything.”

Molly glanced at Archer.

He nodded at her and then turned and left them alone.

“You got me a case,” she breathed.

Lucas shook his head. “You got you a case. You earned it.”

“But you went to bat for me with Archer or this wouldn’t have happened.”

Actually, he’d gone to war with Archer, who didn’t doubt Molly’s abilities but did have concerns about her being a team player. Same problem he had with Lucas. But in the end, Archer had been willing to give Molly a shot rather than risk losing her, and that was all that mattered.

“You did this for me even though you’re worried about me going into the field,” she said.

He nodded again.

Her eyes went a little misty and filled with affection and more, much more, and mended his fractured heart.

“Why?” she whispered.

“You know why,” he said.



Ignoring that comment for now, Molly thumbed through the case Lucas had fought for her to have.

And she had no doubt that it had been a fight.

She could love him for that alone . . . She kept reading and the more she read, the more she could see how bad the case was and the happier she got.

Lucas, clearly seeing that on her face, had to laugh. “You’re an evil woman, Molly. I love it. I love you.”

She stilled and looked up at him, her heart on high alert. “Say it again,” she whispered.

“Molly Michelle Malone, I love you ridiculously.”

She gasped. “Joe has a big mouth.”

“Yeah, he does.”

“Hey!” Joe said behind them.

They both craned their necks and found Joe and the rest of the team all eavesdropping. Reyes was holding up his phone, FaceTiming with the girls, who appeared to be eating tacos from Ivy’s taco truck in the courtyard. Reyes shook his head. “I hate it when a couple argues and I missed the beginning and now I don’t know whose side I’m on.”

“The woman’s side,” Max said. “Always. It’s safer that way.”

“I heard from Old Man Eddie that Lucas wished on the fountain,” Max said. “I thought that was bullshit because, well hello, it’s Lucas, but now I actually think it might have happened.”

Lucas turned his back on the circus and faced Molly. “We have dumbass friends.”

“No doubt.” She was still feeling . . . wary. But other emotions were busting through that. Things like hope. And a tentative excitement. “You wished on the fountain?”

“Yes. Pure desperation.”

“Okay,” she said on a nod. “Well . . . first of all—”

“Oh shit,” Reyes said. “Our boy’s toast.”

Lucas turned and gave him a look.

“Sorry,” Reyes said, “but when a woman says ‘first of all,’ you should run hard and fast because she’s got research, data, charts, and is about to destroy you.”

Archer put a hand over Reyes’s face and nudged him to the back of the crowd. He then gave Molly and Lucas a go-ahead gesture.

Molly turned back to Lucas. “First of all . . .” she repeated and then bit her lower lip. “You’re really okay with this?” she asked, gesturing to the iPad and the case intel.

“Of course I am.”

“Just making sure,” she said. “Because it’s a part of me. And for me to be with you, I need to know you accept all of my parts.” She held her breath on his response.

“I love every single one of your parts.” He paused. “You want to be with me?”

His shock brought her a smile. “Very much,” she said.