“Who?”
Luke looked up at Drew. “Uh, Officer Delgado? Wasn’t that who we were talking about originally when Alex and Garrett brought her up?”
“Actually,” Cooper said. “That was the conversation before it got segued into you not looking for a relationship and Carmen not being interested in you.”
“Did she tell you she wasn’t interested?” Luke raised his eyes like a hungry puppy looking for confirmation that there were no more pieces of pepperoni being thrown his way. “I mean, not in me per se, but... Stop staring at me like that, you guys. I thought we were talking about relationships and people not looking for them.”
“Oh, boy.” Cooper retrieved a wooden game box off the television stand. “We better deal the cards while Gregson is still struggling to maintain his poker face.”
“I don’t have a poker face because I don’t need one for this stupid conversation that you idiots steered me into.”
“Well, to answer your question,” Cooper said, not trying to hide his smirk. “Carmen hasn’t said whether or not she was interested in you or in any other man at this particular moment. But I do know that she’s getting over some serious garbage she had to deal with in Las Vegas.”
Luke remembered his sons telling him she had worked as a cop with the Las Vegas Metro PD before moving here, and he wondered what might’ve happened to cause her to leave such a large department, which probably had a lot more options for upward mobility than the tiny Sugar Falls Police Department. Maybe a cheating boyfriend on the force?
“Apparently she’s taking out whatever the last guy did to her on men in general.” Luke took another drink, holding himself back from asking for more information. “She treats us like we’re all IEDs she needs to go out of her way to avoid.”
“Hmm.” His brother adjusted his gold-framed glasses. “She doesn’t act like that around me.”
“I’ve never gotten that impression from her, either,” Garrett said, grabbing more pizza.
“Okay, so it’s just me she can’t stand to be around. Anyway, I’m not trying to get Carmen to like me.” Oops. Had they heard Luke slip and use her first name?
“You could do worse,” Drew said, and the other men chuckled. “In fact I’ve seen you do way worse back in the day. Maybe that’s why you’re so attracted to Officer Delgado. Because she isn’t throwing herself at you.”
Yep. They’d caught the slip.
“Don’t try to psychoanalyze me, bro. Why can’t I just be attracted to her since she’s a beautiful woman who looks absolutely amazing in jeans and... Oh, shut up,” Luke finally said when he realized Alex and Garrett were giggling behind their beer bottles like a couple of teenagers.
An infant let out a wail, and Luke wanted to kiss his sweet niece for coming to his rescue.
“I will say this for Carmen Delgado,” Drew said. “She sure can put up with those adorable nephews of mine, so your battle to win her is halfway fought.”
“Just a word of advice,” Cooper said as he picked up plates to clear off the table. “You might want to take it slowly once you decide to finally bite the bullet and pursue her.”
“Who says I want to pursue anything with her?” Luke would’ve kept arguing, but he saw all the men double over in laughter.
What he didn’t see were his two blond curly-haired twins, standing on the other side of the door and giving each other a thumbs-up.
* * *
The following Saturday afternoon, Carmen pulled into the long driveway of the small riverside cottage she’d rented when she first moved to town. Her new home was on the southern border of Sugar Falls, and a little far from downtown, but she liked her privacy.
It was her third day off in a row, and she’d driven to the mall in Boise to stock up on makeup at her favorite department store. And to buy another pair of the jeans she’d been wearing Thursday night. It might’ve been just her imagination, but she could’ve sworn that Luke Gregson had been staring at her legs. At least until she’d knelt down to sign Aiden’s pretend cast and he’d leaned over to stare at something else.
He was probably just curious as to how she signed her name or what kind of message she’d written. Still. She’d experienced the heady rush of flattery for a split second. And, during that moment, she’d remembered that even though she’d had an emergency hysterectomy a year ago, the rest of her lady parts were still alive and well.
Then his words about his future children had turned her butterflies into blocks of concrete and her stomach had felt like lead when she’d tried to stand up.
She also recalled how pensive and eerily quiet Luke had gotten when Caden had brought up the boys’ mother, the love of Luke’s life. The man had completely shut down. His grief must be immeasurable to keep that kind of pain bottled up so tightly. A man that stuck on his dead wife was most likely not checking out Carmen in her civvies.
That was why she didn’t do butterflies anymore. It was also why she shouldn’t have wasted so much money at the mall earlier today.
As she parked her compact SUV next to her cottage, she caught sight of an empty canoe floating down the river behind her house. Uh-oh. That wasn’t good. She hopped out and ran toward the bank to see if she could spot the riders who’d possibly fallen out of their boat. The river was fairly gentle here because of the bend a few hundred yards ahead, which tended to slow its current.
If the rowers had lost their craft farther up north, and closer to town, where the rapids were stronger, she might not see them for a while. But if they’d somehow tipped over near here, then they were obviously novices—most likely tourists—who would be in way over their heads when the flow picked up speed half a mile down.
Running up to her back porch, she grabbed a long rope, then raced to the water’s edge. She didn’t have to keep her eyes peeled for long when she counted three people in bright yellow-and-blue life jackets coming her way. She tied off the rope to a sturdy tree trunk along the river’s edge and threw it across the water just as the trio floated by.
Her stomach tightened again when she saw who she’d just thrown a line to.
“Hey, Officer Carmen,” a little towheaded boy called out as the more than capable Captain Gregson grabbed hold of the rope. Aiden and Caden were both holding on to their father, who was pulling them toward the shore.
“We lost our boat!” The other eight-year-old smiled in excitement, as though he’d lost another tooth, not a hand-carved, custom teak watercraft.
“How’d that happen?” she asked, trying not to stare at the sinewy muscles moving in Luke’s biceps as he steadily alternated his grip, working his way up the rope.
Oh, to have those strong hands on her body, his arms flexing as he moved up her legs and...
Yep. Her lady parts were definitely still alive.
“You know, Delgado,” Luke called out, sounding frustrated but not the least bit winded, “we might get to the shore faster if you helped pull a little bit. Boys, stop wiggling.”
Duh. She’d been standing there salivating at the poor guy, as if he was a participant in a Navy SEAL wet T-shirt contest.
She grabbed on to the other end and put her own muscle into it. Lord, the man was as heavy as a tree trunk. Granted, he had the extra weight of his giggling and squirming sons to deal with, plus the river’s current was starting to pick up speed, creating more resistance.
It took