This cramped closet of a room was as good a place as any. “We need to talk, Rachel.”
“What’s up, Sheriff?”
He rested his chin on her head and spoke, “This isn’t really working for me.”
She tried to untangle herself from his arms. “Are you dumping me? After sex?”
“What? No, of course not,” he said, holding her by her upper arms. By the look on her face, she was about to bolt. He kissed her lips. “I don’t want to sneak around anymore. I don’t want to keep our relationship a secret.”
She blinked a couple of times, startled. “This was a ‘for the time being’ hookup. If people know we have a thing, breaking up is going to be more complicated. More for you than for me. The second the OGs find out about us, they’ll have big plans for you. Ask Kyra and Mike. Those three grannies meddle like you wouldn’t believe. Whatever happens between us, we’ll have to give explanations.”
For some reason, hearing her talk about their relationship as a ‘“for the time being’ hookup” and “a thing” instead of acknowledging there was something more between them rubbed him the wrong way.
And he could deal with the OGs and all the stuff that came along with them. They already looked funny at him, though that could be his imagination.
“And sex won’t be easier to have in Alden,” she continued. “We’d have to sneak around for that too. Even more than now, because we’ll be watched 24/7.”
“This isn’t about being able to have more sex. This is about being able to be seen together and date publicly, without having to hide.” Of course, he wouldn’t turn down having more sex, but that was secondary.
She frowned. “You were the one who clearly stipulated the limits, Boomer. Only sex, remember?”
Yeah, he remembered. That he wanted more than fucking surprised him as much as anybody else. “Sex is not enough. Why? Is it enough for you?”
It took centuries for her to answer, or so it seemed to him. She shook her head. “I do like spending time with you. The drawbacks are too big, though.”
“I don’t think so, Grease Barbie.”
She patted his chest, very much unconvinced. “Let’s discuss it tonight, okay?”
Fine by him. “I’ll come pick you up when you close the shop.” And he’d bring along a list of irrefutable points why they should no longer date in secret.
They sneaked out of the storage room. As luck would have it, Julian wasn’t around and Rico was in the office. So far so good. When they reached XL and the other two, Adrian asked them how they were doing and chitchatted with them. By the time he said his goodbyes, Julian was back and Rico had left the office. And Josh, the opportunistic asshole, had parked his ride in front of the building and was walking toward Rachel.
He’d better leave now. Nodding in farewell, Adrian walked several steps toward his car when a loud whistle stopped him. He turned around. It was XL, motioning for Adrian to check the back of his pants. He couldn’t see anything, but Ash pointed toward the big mirror in the wall of the garage. Holy fuck, on the back of his light gray pants, he was sporting two handprints, one on each ass cheek.
His kids were laughing their butts off. Julian and Rico too. Even Josh looked amused.
Fine. He walked back in and went to Rachel. Cupping her neck, he kissed her deep and hard in front of everyone. “Sorry, baby. The cat is out of the bag. The proof is on my ass. Deal with it.” Then he turned to Josh. “My woman. Stop finding any excuse to touch her.”
And he left, while XL and Ash and Monti whistled and cheered.
Rachel made it out of her room and down the stairs in time to see the OGs standing in front of the couch, where Adrian was sitting. She grimaced. She’d known they should have met somewhere else. Adrian picking her up from home was asking for trouble.
“I really didn’t see this coming,” Rebecca whispered.
“Me either,” Greta answered, and then looked at her partners in crime. “Are we okay with this, girls?”
They remained quiet for a long while, pondering. “We ought to give him a chance,” Wilma finally said. “Depending, of course, upon the immediate return of our taser. Tasers.”
Greta and Rebecca agreed profusely. “And the commutation of our community service,” Greta added.
Adrian was already opening his mouth when Rachel broke into a run. “We’ll be on our way now,” she interrupted, grabbing him by the arm and helping him to his feet. “Bye-bye, ladies.”
“Bye, dear,” Wilma answered innocently, as if they hadn’t been about to blackmail the sheriff.
“The thing about the tasers. A joke, right?” he asked.
“What do you think? I told you this wasn’t a good idea,” Rachel whispered as they left Wilma’s house. The three grandmas stood on the porch, watching them.
He clicked the car open. “You should have thought about it before publicly marking my ass as yours.”
True. He hadn’t helped matters much, either, the way he’d jumped at the opportunity, practically shouting it from the rooftops. Be that as it may, news of the raunchy grease handprints on the sheriff’s ass had spread through Alden like wildfire. There were even jokes going around about his particular ability to fingerprint suspects.
“Where do you want to go?” she asked, jumping into the car.
“Nowhere in particular. Let’s get something to eat at the diner. Later, we could buy ice cream and sit on a bench in the park. All the things we haven’t been able to do before.”
“We could have done that before,” she reminded him. “And there wouldn’t have been as many expectations as there are now.”
Adrian disagreed, because he intertwined their fingers and lifted their joined hands. “Not like this we couldn’t.”
“Well, you could always have arrested and cuffed me—more or less the same result, but with a much less messy aftermath.” People wouldn’t blink at an arrest, but seeing them getting along or holding hands? That was a different ball game.
Remembering her rough skin, she tried to break the hold he had on her hand, but he wouldn’t let her. “What?”
“My skin’s too rough.”
His grip tightened. “So’s mine.”
“Calluses on men are sexy. On women… not so much.”
Without moving his eyes from the road, he brought her hand to his mouth and kissed it in several spots. “Nonsense. These are working hands. Very sexy.”
He parked in front of the diner and drew her in for a kiss, wrapping his arms around her.
“We better stop,” Rachel said. “Everyone is looking at us.”
“That’s nothing compared with the stares I got the other day before I could change my pants. I haven’t checked, but I’m pretty sure there’s a pic of my ass on Facebook.”
Several, actually. Some memes too.
“You ashamed of me?” he suddenly asked after they got out of the car.
Ha. She grabbed him by the collar and brought him to her, kissing him hard and long. “It’s your reputation that will suffer.” Having their relationship out in the open created expectations in many people. And once she and Adrian were done, questions were going to need to be answered.