Page 87 of After All

“Yeah, well, it’s not really a good time for those girls that are missing either.”

Scott scowled at the tabletop. “That was low.”

“I don’t fucking care. I want you on this with me.”

Scott blew out a breath. “I appreciate that. I just can’t really…drop things right now.”

“So don’t drop them. Put them on hold. For fuck’s sake, Hansen, I can’t believe I’m even having to ask more than once.”

Scott felt a squeeze on his hand and looked up into Peyton’s eyes.

“You okay?” she asked quietly.

He wasn’t.

He wanted to go to North Dakota. He needed to go. But things here were just getting solid. How could he pick up and leave Peyton when he was just now able to show her how good and steady this was? That was what Peyton had never had…a home that was good and steady. Where she could count on the people and the routine to be the same, no matter what else happened. She’d had toleaveher childhood home to find the good things that made her feel better. He wanted those good things she needed to be inside these four walls.

He had to make a decision here though. “I’ll call you right back,” he told Lance. Then he disconnected before the other man could give him any more grief.

“What’s going on?” Peyton looked legitimately concerned.

“It’s…the task force,” Scott told her. Might as well be honest about it. Damn, why couldn’t this be two or three months from now? Or six? Or twelve? He wanted things stable here before he left to make something—someone—else his priority. Even temporarily.

“They need you?” she asked.

He nodded.

“Why did you tell him this wasn’t a good time?” she asked. “Is your leg bothering you too much?”

“My leg’s not an issue,” he said. There’d be no kicking down doors or running down back alleys. At least, not at first.

“So then you have to go.”

“The op is in North Dakota,” he said. “And I’ll be gone two weeks, minimum. Maybe more. And totally cut off, at least for part of it. I don’t know when I’ll be able to call or even text.”

“Oh.” That seemed to make her think. She straightened after a moment. “Well, you still have to go. If that’s where they need you, that’s where you have to go.”

“I told him I had to think about it.”

“What’s to think about?”

Okay, fine. Scott leaned in, pinning her with a direct gaze. “You and me. And all of this.”

“All of this?”

“Us being together. We’re just getting started,” he told her.

She didn’t laugh, but she did smile. Sweetly. And not even a little sarcastically. “We started a long time ago, Scott.”

“And it took me a hell of a time to get you to this point,” he said. “And I don’t know if the time we’ve had is enough to keep things solid.”

She leaned in too. “Well, where am I going to go? You’ve ruined me for all other men. You’ve got that new showerhead that I love. You make the best homemade pizza I’ve ever had. You go get the bad guys and save the day, then come home. I’ll be here.”

Her words rocked through him. Yeah, the ones about ruining her for other men were good. He liked those. A lot. But it was theI’ll be herethat made his heart feel like it might pound right out of his chest. He’d said that to her a hundred times. But she’d never said it to him.

She was here. With him. She was good. Happy. Content. And Sapphire Falls was good. It was the safe, happy, peaceful place he wanted, noneeded, it to be.

That was all he’d ever really wanted. Home. And her.

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