“Junior—” Chad wasn’t actually a junior, but because of his reputation as an expert driver, he’d been nicknamed Dale Earnhardt, Jr. “The problem is that you don’t get personal with anyone,” the commander continued, “not since your wife died.”
Chad sucked in a breath. Although it had been four years since Luanne’s death, those last three words struck him like a battering ram in the gut. He still missed her—what they’d had and what they could have had—what they should have had.
“It’s been a long time, Chad,” Paddy said, his deep voice soft with sympathy and understanding.
Chad nodded. “Yeah. Sometimes too long. Sometimes not long enough…” For the loss to stop hurting.
Paddy’s eyes locked on Chad’s. “It’s been long enough. Luanne would have wanted you to move on.”
She probably would have, but Chad wasn’t ready. He doubted he’d ever be ready.
“How long you been divorced, Paddy?” he asked his friend.
The watch commander dropped his gaze to his desk as he shuffled some files. “That’s different.”
“Yeah.” Paddy could see his ex again whereas Luanne was gone forever. If only she hadn’t been speeding that day…He’d warned her so many times to slow down.
He was kidding himself to think Tessa Howard would learn anything in the academy. If he hadn’t been able to get through to his own wife, how would he get through to her? “This was a bad idea.”
“What was?” Paddy asked distractedly as he shoveled through the files on his desk. The radio next to a flat-screen monitor crackled with the dispatcher’s voice sending out units on the latest 911 calls. Messages also flashed across the screen. The watch commander divided his attention between the calls and the files. But from the half-empty coffee mugs on his desk and atop the file cabinets, he was used to people dropping by his office to talk, too.
So Chad didn’t feel too badly for taking up his time. “I should have kept my mouth shut in court.” He sighed. “Hell, I probably shouldn’t have shown up at all.”
“The judge would have thrown out the ticket then.”
“He threw it out anyway.” Because of Chad’s interference. He pushed a hand through his hair. “Do you really need my help with the academy?”
Paddy looked up from his paperwork, his eyes narrowed. Then he nodded. “I can’t wait to meet Ms. Howard.”
“It’s not like that…”
“Like what?” Paddy asked. “She isn’t young and pretty?”
“She’s twenty-seven,” he recalled from her license, which had actually had a good picture—although he couldn’t imagine her taking a bad one. “So yeah, she’s young.” He glanced at his watch, but he didn’t have anyplace to go. His shift had ended.
“And pretty?”
She wasn’t just pretty. With her spunk and sass, she was so much more. Thinking of her bright blue eyes and golden blond hair, gorgeous was the word that most readily sprang to his mind. Since the day he had pulled her over, he had thought about her—too much. The way she had batted her thick black lashes and had spoken in a breathy voice, trying to flirt her way out of the ticket. Then in court, the way she’d gnawed her bottom lip…
He suppressed a groan and lied to the watch commander, “I hadn’t noticed.”
Paddy laughed, knowing him so well that he had to realize Chad lied. “Well, helping me out as one of the class instructors will give you time to notice.”
“She probably won’t even show up.” He hoped.
HIS STOMACH FLIPPED as Tessa Howard, blond hair swinging around her shoulders, settled onto a chair at the table in the front row—just feet away from where Chad Michalski sat with the other instructors. While most of the rest of the class had dressed casually in either jeans or khakis and sweaters or sweatshirts, Tessa wore a suit similar to the one she’d worn in court. A tailored, pinstriped navy blue jacket cinched her slim waist while a slim pencil skirt ended above her knees but inched farther up her thighs as she crossed her legs.
Chad swallowed hard and shifted on his chair. If only he’d kept quiet in court…
The watch commander nudged his shoulder. “Tessa Howard?”
He nodded.
“Now I understand why—”
Chad nudged him back. “Don’t you have a class to teach?”
Paddy grinned, but stood up and addressed the group of citizens and instructors gathered in the third-floor meeting room. “Welcome to the Lakewood Police Department’s Citizens’ Police Academy.”
Welcome? Tessa bit her bottom lip to hold in a chuckle. Welcome implied she attended the class of her own free will. Her attention shifted from the man standing before the table at the front of the spacious, white-walled, low-ceilinged room to one of the men sitting behind the table. Her gaze locked with Lieutenant Chad Michalski’s.
“Oh, good choice,” murmured the girl beside Tessa. She leaned closer as if they were passing notes in class. “He’s single, too. I already checked. He’s a little old for me, though, but he sure is yummy.”
Tessa snorted although she wasn’t certain to what she’d taken exception—the lieutenant being called yummy or old. He definitely wasn’t old; she estimated early thirties, at the most. He continued to stare at her, his jaw taut probably with disapproval, as if she were the one talking during class. Because she’d been late, she’d had no choice of where to sit—the chair next to the young girl at the first table had been the only one still vacant.
“We’re going to go around the room and have everyone introduce themselves,” the officer continued. He was obviously the leader of the class. From the e-mail she had received with the date, time and directions to the police department, she had learned his name was Lieutenant Patrick O’Donnell. “And then I’ll introduce the other instructors. A little later we’ll meet the chief of police and the district captains.”
Tessa had lived her entire twenty-seven years in Lakewood, Michigan, but yet she had no idea how many districts comprised the bustling, midsized city. The only contact she’d had with the police department, besides getting and paying for tickets, had been when she’d tried to sign them up for their phone and Internet service accounts.
O’Donnell stepped forward and rapped his knuckles against the table at which Tessa sat, her briefcase propped against her chair. “Let’s start with this table.”
With a giggle, the young girl spoke up. “My name’s Amy, Amy Wilson. I’m a college student, and I joined the academy because I’m interested in law enforcement.”
Tessa held in another derisive snort. The girl was obviously more interested in law enforcers than enforcement. The dark-haired woman on the other side of Tessa smiled, apparently having drawn the same conclusion. Lieutenant O’Donnell nodded at Tessa to introduce herself. “Tessa Howard. I’m a sales rep for a telecommunications company.”
“And your reason for joining the academy?” he prodded.
She glanced at Chad, who smirked. The truth stuck in her throat, so she smiled and joked, “I thought maybe I’d get some inside information on where the speed traps are.”
The class and some of the instructors chuckled. But not Chad. The slight grin dropped from his handsome face, and his green eyes hardened with definite disapproval. The guy had no sense of humor.
It was going to be a long fifteen weeks…
“I’M SURPRISED you showed up,” a deep voice murmured close to her ear as Tessa waited