Page 27 of Even if You Fall

“Making the happiest person on the planet cry is listening to me?”

“I told you, it’s an act,” I said, defending myself, then stood from his chair. “And I didn’tmakeher cry. She started crying because she was afraid to talk about our suspect. I was being nice.”

Disbelief poured from him as he studied me.

“She was about to talk,” I told him. “She was about to tell me what she knew—and I’m positive we need what she knows—but she was scared because it’s gonna make her look bad.”

“You don’t know that.”

“That’s whatshetoldme,” I countered, surprising Briggs.

His gaze snapped to the closed door for long seconds before he mumbled, “Wait for her to come to you.” At the scoff that bled from me, he added, “She knows you wanna know. She’ll come to you when she’s ready.”

Even if I hadn’t been so cold to her this week, I would’ve doubted that, given her reaction just then. But I just nodded as I left his office and headed for my desk.

For the rest of the day, I dove back into the case, trying dozens of new angles to find something on the superintendent. All throughout, my attention pulled toward the front as the ridiculous part of me that kept falling for Chloe’s lies worried about her and begged me to go check on her.

So instead, I stayed where I was until long after she’d already left for the weekend.

Ihad no idea what I was doing.

Not that I was sure anyone knew what to do at a one-year-old’s birthday party other than talk to each other and fawn over the baby. And even though I was sure I’dhadbirthday parties when I was a kid, I couldn’t tell you anything about them. They’d stopped when I was young—too young to remember. And I’d never had any friends to gototheir parties.

I’d also been told by Lainey that I could make it an hour and a half or so without hiding away with a book, so to leave my books at home.

Not that I’d listened—I mean, who goes anywhere without at least one book in case of emergencies—but then all our belongings had been stored away in a different room, and I’d been too afraid to go searching for my bag.

Not to mention, this was really for Asher’s friends. Which, before this week, had really only been Lainey for me. Well, and I guess her younger sister, Wren, and their great-aunt Ada. But even though everyone knew everyone in a town as small as Huntley, I’d only really gotten to know them after Lainey moved in with me.

And even though I’d technically met Cameron a handful of times in the past few months, it was usually just long enough for a quick word or two. There’d only been one night the four of us had gone out to eat in Huntley Square.

But with Ada having worked for Asher for so long, and Wren knowing the Shadow Industries crew much better than I did—and having a much better rapport, given the way I’d been watching her work through the men, except Asher, flirting in a way that put Hudson to shame—it was clear I was the odd woman out.

It all made for an awkward and somewhat uncomfortable time for me because, let’s face it, I would’ve much rather been hiding in a corner with a book.

Not that I let that show. My smile hadn’t once left my face as I’d happily chatted with Lainey, Ada, and Cameron when they’d been near, and excitedly played with Kaia whenever she’d come up to me. Handing me toys and balls and blocks before unsteadily tottering away and falling heavily to her diapered butt that was covered in the cutest tulle tutu.

“What’s this?” I asked as I dropped to a crouch, balancing on my stilettos, when Kaia found her way to me again, hand outstretched. A soft, feigned gasp left me when she held out a floppy, stuffed bunny. “For me?”

She pointed at one of the blocks in my hand, babbling nonsense as if we were in the middle of an important, comprehensible trade deal.

“Oh, of course,” I told her seriously as I held out the block, ready to trade it for the bunny.

Just as I started standing, my gaze automatically swept toward the opposite side of the room, where Adam had made sure to keep himself from me at all times. Not that I’d been keeping track...it’d just been impossible to miss. You know...during the dozens of times my traitorous starehad sought him out in the hour we’d been in Asher’s large farmhouse, wanting even a glimpse of that angry stare.

I stilled halfway out of my crouch when I realized Wren had moved onto Adam. Something ugly and hot burned in my chest as I watched her grip at his muscled forearm, her fingers absently trailing over his tattoos as she laughed at something he’d said.

The sight of them standing together shouldn’t bother me at all. I barely knew Adam, and whenever Ihadbeen around him this week, he’d been unnecessarily cruel. And yet, every male character I’d read about this week had looked like him in my mind. I’d anxiously hoped for any chance to talk to him each day, all while chickening out on asking him to finish helping me learn my job until yesterday. And as I watched him blatantly flirt with Wren, I realized I was horrifically jealous.

The anger in his eyes had disappeared completely. His smile transformed his face, making him look so different and unfairly handsome. He looked comfortable in a way I had yet to see him as he turned toward her, giving Wren his undivided attention. And even from over here, I knew he was also giving Hudson a run for his money.

“This is unexpected.”

I jolted at the equally unexpected voice and shot upright, my heart pounding as I glanced at where Hudson was standing directly beside me, as if just thinking about him had conjured the man.

“What?” I asked, trying to play dumb and hoping he hadn’t witnessed my embarrassing and unfounded moment of jealousy. I clearly needed to take a break from the romance genre for a while.

Hudson reached for me, gently tugging at where my shirt was tied into a knot at my waist. “No nerd shirt today.”

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