“I see you like Danley’s too,” the woman said.
“Apparently,” Boone said.
“You never brought me here on a date,” the woman said.
Boone glanced at Charly. Charly was staring at the woman because she was now staring at Charly. Then the woman smiled. “Lowering your standards, I see,” she said to Boone.
Boone frowned. “Now? No. I’m not lowering my standards. But I was when I was with you.”
The woman’s smile left, as if she was surprised he didn’t allow her putdown of Charly to stand. She also, to Charly, seemed just as hurt as she was angry. “You are such an asshole, Boone Ryan!” she said to him, and then left in a huff.
But just as Boone and Charly were just adjusting to the dynamic that first one had brought to their table, another woman walked over. As if she was just standing in the wings, Charly felt, waiting for the first one to leave. Both Boone and Charly looked at her too.
“Hello, Boone,” the woman said. She was even younger than the first one, barely in her early twenties. But just as attractive.
Boone, it seemed to Charly, apparently had a definite type of woman: small, white, and blonde, and extremely attractive in a way that seemed to suggest their looks were all they had going for them. A type, Charly knew, she most certainly was not.
Boone didn’t recognize the younger lady, but was willing to bet she was another one of his one-night stands. To his shame, he had so many. “Hello,” he said flatly to the woman, hoping that his lack of enthusiasm would be enough to get her to move on too.
But it wasn’t. “How have you been?” she asked him.
Charly could see his uneasiness. Was she his girlfriend? She certainly was acting like it. But she only proved to Charly that Chief Ryan apparently had an additional type: young. He apparently liked them young. Nearly half his age. Which felt like a letdown to Charly. But the fact that she felt letdown, when dating younger women was absolutely his prerogative and absolutely none of her business, made her uneasy.
“I’ve been good,” Boone said, answering the young lady’s question. “And you?”
“Still waiting for that phone call you promised me.”
Boone glanced over at Charly with a look of embarrassment in his eyes. As if those women were exposing faults he didn’t think she’d already picked up on. It was a telling look to Charly.
“How about that,” Boone finally said to the woman, and sipped from his glass of wine.
“Yeah, how about that,” the young lady said with bitterness in her voice. “But my bad believing a bastard like you.” Then she looked at Charly. “You’ve obviously been busy,” she added, and then left their table. Like the previous lady, she was in a huff too. But she was able to shield it better.
Boone looked at Charly. The little respect she had for him, if she had any at all, probably just flew out the window. But if she was disappointed in him, she didn’t show it. To his surprise, she actually smiled.
“You get around, don’t you?” she said.
Boone smiled too. He really liked this girl! “I plead the fifth,” he said, and sipped more wine.
Charly laughed. And their evening was back on track.
After dinner, he walked her to her car. He followed slightly behind her, staring at her butt. He wanted to follow her home and spend the night with her desperately. He could only imagine what being with her would be like. Besides, he was never a fan of sleeping alone. Usually any woman would do. But not this time. He wanted Charly beneath him.
But she extended her hand. She apparently didn’t want him on top of her, he thought.
“Thanks for the info, Chief,” she said so formally it surprised him. “I’ll pay close attention to the students on your lists, although I will not judge them simply because they’re on a list. I won’t do that. But I’ll keep my eyes open.”
Her hand was lingering out there momentarily, and then Boone shook it. “Thanks,” he said. “That’s all I ask.”
But even as she was about to pull her hand away from his, he continued to hold her hand. “Call me if you see anything at all. Even if it’s minor. Let me decide how important it might or might not be. Understood?”
Charly nodded. That was a reasonable request. “Yes.”
“I don’t want you playing cop on me,” Boone said. “They may be kids, but the people they work for aren’t. The people they work for aren’t above violence.”
That brought a shiver to Charly’s spine. And she nodded again. “I’ll be sure to contact you,” she said.
He patted her small hand with his other large hand and continued to hold her hand. He wanted to be with her that night. He wanted her beneath him so badly he could taste it!
But he knew she was not the hit and run type. And even if she was, he wasn’t hitting and running on her. Not her. He released her hand.
Charly smiled again, got into her Nissan Sentra, and drove away.
Leave her alone, Boone had to convince himself as he made his way to his Ferrari. There were too many fish in the sea. Why get all in his feelings over her when all he had to do was get in his car and go get whatever woman he wanted, even one of the two that came to their table earlier. Despite their big talk and bitterness, he was a man very comfortable in his abilities in bed. They’d go with him lightening quick, and he knew it.
But when he got in his car, ready to go bag him a fish, he kept thinking about Charly. She was the one, he realized, he wanted that night, not some random female.
That was why he didn’t go fishing at all.
He just went home.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“How did it go?”
Charly didn’t understand what she meant. It was Saturday morning, she had just entered the main office at the school and was making a beeline for her own office when Minnie Fennel, the school’s secretary, stopped her. “Sorry?” she asked Minnie.
“Your first week on the job,” Minnie said. “You’ve been here over a week. How would you rate it?”
“Oh!” said Charly. For some irrational reason, she though Minnie was inappropriately asking about her dinner date with Chief Ryan. Although that date occurred nearly a week ago. Although he hadn’t bothered to so much as pick up a phone and ask how she was faring. But he was still on her mind.
“And I’m not trying to pry into your business,” Minnie added before Charly could answer her question. “It’s just that it’s a small town. You’ve got to get used to that. People are going to talk and tell all day long.”
“People are talking?”
“Yes, they are.”
Charly knew Minnie expected her to ask what those people were saying, but Charly wasn’t about to. She didn’t care what they were saying. She had a job to do and she aimed to do it.
But Minnie told her anyway. “They’re saying you’re having a rough go of it. That you don’t know what you’re doing. That you’re in over your head.”
Charly smiled. They would say that, she thought. “Did the alternative placement list come in yet?” she asked instead.
Minnie appeared surprised that Charly didn’t defend herself. She would have if they were talking about her like that! “No, ma’am,” she said to Charly. “But I’ll call the school board and see what’s the hold up. They aren’t open on Saturdays, as you know, but I’ll check on Monday.”