Page 32 of Time to Bounce

You tended to make friends with the men and women you talked to, day in and day out.

They also stopped by to bring treats to thank us.

I guess I should’ve expected to not hear from, or see, Gable, though.

I mean, he was undercover, and had been for months.

He was undercover more than any cop I’d ever known.

He’d been in two such stints since I’d known him, and from what the Carter family had shared in my presence, Gable stayed fairly hidden in case he was needed to go undercover again.

My car puttered into the parking lot, and I quickly took a look around to see if I could spot Gable’s bike.

I couldn’t believe I was back at the bar, but it was the only way I knew I could get ahold of him.

It took a lot of courage for me to ask him.

I mean, we’d had sex two times.

Sure, it’d been in a single day, but on his way out he had said if I needed anything, to just get in touch with him.

This counted, right?

I found his bike—and him—in the corner of the lot, standing underneath a streetlight that’d just turned on for the night.

He saw me instantly and narrowed his eyes.

My eyes were locked on the woman in the circle of his arms.

My heart shattered in two at the beautiful woman.

She was everything that I would never be.

Tall, blonde, big boobs, and fantastic legs.

She looked like Carrie Underwood.

Was she his type?

Was…

“What the fuck are you doing here?” he asked.

When had he walked toward me?

How had I missed that?

“I’m, uh, here…” I didn’t know what to say.

There was no way that I could tell him what I’d actually come to tell him.

I had to make something up. Fast.

Only, the longer he looked at me, the more I felt like I was most assuredly not wanted, and that made my tongue tie up even further.

“Why are you here, Athena?” he pushed.

I opened my mouth, closed it, then just blurted it out.

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