Page 25 of Cop-Off

The fiery red-head was just her cup of tea. Confident. Loud. And really funny. Except for now. In this moment, she didn’t recognise her new friend. She was shy. Awkward. And was that a blush on her cheeks?

Two minutes ago, Hunter had entered the bakery. Even though Cat had only met him once, briefly, she recognised him instantly. He was a friend of Zach’s, a fellow firefighter. Who looked a lot like the hulk.

The air had charged as soon as the shop bell rang. He’d pretended to peruse the display case, and she’d pretended not to notice him. Looks had been exchanged. But not many words had been muttered. In fact, Cat had only heard Hunter grunt.

There he goes again.

Another grunt.

“Well...uh...enjoy!” Rachel said to the big man as she handed him a huge box of doughnuts.

He gave her one silent nod before giving her his back and disappearing down the terracotta side walk.

“What was that?”

A cherry red ponytail flicked in her direction, giving her a good look at Rachel’s very rosy cheeks. “What do you mean?”

Oh, yeah. Something is definitely up.

“I mean, what was that weird as hell exchange you were having with the big man?”

He looked even bigger next to Rachel, who couldn’t have been any more than five-foot-two or three.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, sugar.” Cat lost eye contact as her friend busied herself behind the counter, wiping up invisible spills. “Hunter just came in to pick up his usual doughnut order...for the guys at the fire station.”

Yeah, right.Cat had a feeling that Hunter came in for something, but it had nothing to do with doughnuts.

Cat hummed for a while. “If that’s the story you’re sticking with, honey, then who am I to argue?”

That got her a glare. Her first one from Rachel. She was impressed. She didn’t know the woman had it in her—she was always so chirpy.

“You know, people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”

Cat rolled her eyes. “Let me guess, we’re back to talking about Cody?”

“Actually, we’re going tostarttalking about Cody,” her friend corrected. “All you’ve done so far is avoid my questions and brush me off.”

She had done that. Which was silly because Cat wanted to talk about Cody. She just kept chickening out.

Time to start talking.

After breathing out a sigh, she decided to bite the bullet. “Something did happen last night,” she started, but stopped when Rachel finally unbusied herself to give Cat her full attention.

“Sugar, no offence, but when you turn up here in last night’s dress at nine in the morning, I kind of get the feeling I already know what happened last night.”

How rude.

Cat glanced down at her outfit and frowned. To be fair, she’d forgotten she’d come straight from Cody’s to the bakery. She was still in a bit of a daze.

“Yeah, well,thathappened. But something else did, too. Something that...I don’t know if I would say I’m embarrassed about exactly, but it’s definitely up there on the humiliation meter.” Cat began picking at her leftover cupcake. Fingering crumbs and then dropping them back into the paper casing.

“Okay. What happened?”

“Promise this doesn’t leave the room?”

She would tell Libby. Eventually. The last thing she needed was her friend hearing it second hand.

“Of course. Cross my heart.” Rachel had gone from sassy to soft in an instant, concern now clouding her bright blue eyes.

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