Fireball (Cheap Thrills #1)(24)

As I was walking back in from my trip to the garbage can outside, I heard Jose muse, “Guess she doesn’t like kale either. Might wanna change the flavor of your shakes there, Sheriff.”

I expected some form of denial or loyalty to his gross vegetable shake tendencies, but instead he just said one word. “Done.”





Chapter Seven





“DB”





It had been twenty-four hours since I’d had breakfast at Jose’s house, and I hadn’t seen Tabby since. We’d just finished up eating when I’d gotten called back out to the retirement home for another altercation between residents. Apparently being old made you ornery as fuck because this time it was two gentlemen swinging walking sticks at each other over pudding. After that call, it had been one after the other, and it appeared my quiet town was being hit by breakins with five being reported so far. During it, Dad’s irritating wife had called my phone repeatedly, not taking the hint when I didn’t answer. I ended up blocking her number, but it would only be a day until she tried calling me on a new one. By the end of the day, I was exhausted and had fallen asleep as soon as my head hit the pillows.

Today had been the day of discussing the breakins, getting feedback from the evidence collected by the crime scene inspectors at the breakins, reading the reports from the rest of the department, and trying not to think of the pink haired fireball that had crashed into my life.

I’d asked myself repeatedly what it was about her that got my attention to her the way it was, and so far the list was huge. I loved the fact she owned her pink hair. A lot of people might do it for effect and attention, but with Tabby it was just because it was who she was. She’d been through a lot by the sounds of it, but she was unapologetically her. Her hair, her tattoos, her personality, her way of living – she did it because it was how she expressed herself. She didn’t seem to be jaded by anything she’d gone through and I liked that. I liked that she was certain enough to have the tattoos she’d had done so visibly and that they all meant something to her rather than being just because she’d seen them and liked them. It seemed like she was making life what she wanted it to be – and wasn’t that how people should live? I was restricted with my ink because of my job, the same went for how I acted in public, but she’d made me test boundaries I’d never tested before when I’d put her in the cell until she’d agreed to go out with me. Even Rita’s bullshit that night hadn’t put me in the foul mood it normally would have.

Which brought me to now, pulling up in front of her house to see her. I’d driven by Jose’s making sure she was ok, and when I’d seen that Tab’s car wasn’t there, I’d come here. Both women had new security installed, there was a panic alarm, sensors everywhere, and I suspected that Ellis wasn’t too far away from Jose, so the worry over her and Olivia’s safety wasn’t as suffocating for all of us as it had been. This must have been why Tabby was now at home.

Shutting the engine off and getting out, I checked the time on my watch, surprised that no lights were on inside the house at eight thirty at night. Just as I raised my hand to knock on her door, there was a splash from around the back of the property, and walked in its direction. I rounded the corner just in time to see a perfectly round ass covered in small pink bottoms disappear under the water.

Taking off my utility belt and carefully removing my gun and placing it under the cushion of the seats she’d set up beside the pool, I bent down to unlace my boots before toeing them off. I did a mental run through of what I had on me that couldn’t go into the water and decided that I was just going to remove my uniform altogether. I wasn’t sure what the chlorine would do to it, and they were expensive as hell to replace.

Dropping it all onto the chair, I walked over to the deep end of the pool in my boxers, and waited until she was close enough to me, then dove over her head into the water behind her. I heard her shriek under the water and grinned as I pushed my way back up to the surface where I was met with a face full of water.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” she snapped, moving to launch another spray of water at me, stopping when I grabbed her wrist and used it to pull her closer to me. I didn’t say a word throughout her lecturing and wriggling, instead focusing on the wet strands of pink hair now stuck to her face. “Well, what do you have to say for yourself?”

She sounded like an angry teacher talking to a pupil, but looked like a half-drowned doll, and I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. For a second her face softened as she watched me, and then a look of shocked outrage took over her face.

“I’m sorry, baby,” I chuckled, pulling her up against me and feeling her bare stomach against my own. The water was cool, but there was no mistaking how soft and warm she felt. “You sounded like my seventh grade English teacher when you said that, but you look like a cute little fairy with your pink hair.”

“A cute little…” she gasped, “fairy? Sheriff, I’m not a fairy, I’m a damn Rottweiler.”

Laughing even harder, I wrapped my arms around her back and buried my face in her neck, feeling the long wet strands of hair sticking to my cheek. “A Rottweiler?”

“Yeah, one that’s trained to kill.”

I wasn’t sure if she was aware of the fact that while she said this, she was wrapping her legs around my waist bringing her crotch into contact with mine, but I wasn’t going to risk losing it by pointing it out. Instead, I kept my head where it was and breathed her in. Shifting my grip so that my left arm supported her, I slowly moved my right hand up and down her back, pausing briefly over the knot of her bikini top. I wanted to undo it, but that wasn’t why I’d come here. Plus, she’d probably geld me if I did, the little hellion. Unfortunately, this made me think of what sort of nipples she had. Would they be small, medium, or large?