Page 118 of His Greatest Treasure

“Thank you.”

“I still have hope Avery will be able to knock that grumpiness right out of you.”

“You’d miss it,” I say.

“Ain’t that the sad truth. I’ll see you in the morning for shift. Try not to get stuck on desk this time, yeah? Missed you calling the shots out there.”

When he pulls back and pushes his hair out of his eyes, I jerk my chin in agreement. “I’ll be fine.”

“And for the love of God, make sure this is the last shift without Avery waiting for you at home. I can’t take sad Oliver anymore,” he adds.

“That’s the plan.”

“Great. If you need anything else, don’t ask me. I need to sit in a hot bath until work tomorrow.” He waves at Hart. “Finish with your arts and crafts and get home, rookie. You don’t get points for coming into work exhausted.”

She flips him off before collecting the paintbrushes on the table into a plastic cup. “See you tomorrow, sunshine.”

Adams whistles while he leaves, and a minute later, Hart starts shoving all of her stuff into her purse. I take the paperplate with paint swirled over it and dump it into the garbage bag by the counter.

“They’ll love this, Oliver. It was a nice gesture,” she says.

“Hopefully. Anything less and I’ll be figuring out something else to do.”

“If you need any help with that, I’m up for the challenge.”

“Thanks, rookie.”

“Becs works. Even Rebecca.”

“You’ll be rookie for a long while still. Better to get used to it.”

She huffs. “Right.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

“Good night, Lieutenant.”

I hold the door open for her as she steps out onto the street and disappears into a tiny car. Once she’s gone, I turn the lock on the door and survey the changes to the shop.

It’s so close to the finish line.

I just hope I am too.

39

AVERY

“Thank you, Gracie,”I say, leaning my arms against the rim of the unrolled window.

The Range Rover is fancy enough that I feel bad touching it this way, but the position helps keep my back to the building behind me, a boundary held in place for a couple of minutes longer.

Gracie slips her designer sunglasses up into her hair and winks at me. “I’m always up to play driver for you, sweetheart.”

“Can I just stand here for a second?”

“You can stand there for as long as you need. I’m in no rush.”

I offer her a slight smile. The papers in my hand are thick and heavy. “What do you think he’ll do when I tell him what I want?”

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