Page 15 of Johnathan

Abby looked at her watch. Shit. It was already five. “Uh, just about an hour or so.”

“Right. Look, you can run back to your apartment, and I’ll follow in my SUV to make sure you get there safely. But you need to go home, Abby.”

“John. I’m fine. I don’t want to stop in the middle of my run. I can’t run for much more anyway, or I’ll be late getting ready for school.”

“Sam would kill me if he knew you were out here running in the dark and I just let you go.”

“Good thing he doesn’t need to know.”

“I wouldn’t lie to him, sweetheart. In fact, I’ve got half a mind to call him up right now and let him know what you’ve been up to.”

“Feel free. He’s not my father. I’m a grown woman who can make her own decisions.”

She would have sworn he grumbled something about knowing just how much of a grown woman she was, but before she could sass him again, he crossed his arms and glared at her.

“Fine. You don’t want to go home right now, which I can understand, and I can’t let you run around by yourself. Seems like there’s only one solution.”

“And what is that?”

“You hop in the car and do a ride along until the end of my shift.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I’ve got to finish some paperwork, but I was planning on stopping into Bell Ridge Bagels in about an hour and parking over by the lake for the sunrise.”

“Okay.”

Holy fuck. Her heart was going to fall out of her chest. Sharing a sunrise with him? While he was in uniform. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. She was so screwed, in nearly the best way possible.

“Let’s go.” John held out his hand, and she waited for only a second before taking it.

“Do you want to sit down by the lake?”

“No!” She’d realized almost immediately how terrified she’d sounded at his suggestion and sank back against her seat.

He raised his eyebrows.

“Okay. There a reason that got such an intense reaction from you?” He pulled her bagel out and handed it to her.

“It’s super embarrassing.”

“What is?”

She wrinkled her nose and shrugged. “I can’t swim.”

John stared at her like she’d grown a second head. It wasn’t all that uncommon of a thing, was it?

“I know I’ve been in that lake about a thousand times with Sam and Jackson growing up. You never went swimming with him?”

“He wanted me to. But I hated it. There’s just always been this thought in my mind that I’m going to die from drowning. I don’t know. Sam went under the water once when I was four or five and I was hysterical. I thought for sure he wasn’t coming back up and it just grew into this thing I’ve never been able to face.” Abby took a bite of her bagel and moaned in delight. The cinnamon cream cheese had become slightly melted from the warmth of the bagel. It was heaven after her running session.

John stared at her, his tongue licking out slightly against his lips. He reached over, his calloused thumb wiping at the corner of her mouth.

“Is it really that good?”

Her heart picked up pace as he brought his thumb back to his mouth and licked off the cream cheese.

“Yes.” She couldn’t hold back the wink she gave him even if she had wanted to.

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