Page 91 of Hot Cops

Landon grinned and said hello, chatting for just a minute with her cousin and her friends at the table.

Sunnie took advantage of the time to check him out. He looked great, wearing dark jeans and a collared short-sleeved shirt that accentuated his muscular arms. Somewhere along the line, he’d stopped shaving.

“You have a beard,” Sunnie said, interrupting him as he and Yvonne chatted about last night’s baseball game.

Way to state the obvious.

He stopped talking, and Yvonne gave her a curious look as she continued on with her tray. Landon rubbed his jaw, nodding. “Haven’t shaved since that damn video went viral. Thought it might help disguise me.”

“Is it working?”

Landon chuckled. “I’m not sure. Should we ask the fifteen women who followed me to the pub just now?”

She and her friends laughed.

Landon looked great, handsome and in good spirits. It appeared he was taking the fallout from the video in stride, handling the constant scrutiny better than she thought he was. Finn had led her to believe Landon wasn’t happy with all the photographers and women crowding the sidewalks outside his apartment and work.

Not that she was surprised. Landon had always been the quieter of the three of them, calmer, more introspective. Finn joked it was because he lacked the tainted Collins blood.

“Do you mind if I steal Sunnie for a minute?” Landon asked her girlfriends.

They both shook their heads, giving her looks that said they would definitely be demanding details upon her return. She’d already spent the better part of this week assuring her family, friends and work colleagues that the kiss had meant nothing.

It was funny that repeating that same thing over and over hadn’t convinced her it was the truth. In fact, it made her question what the kisses meant even more.

She stood up, allowing him to pull her to a table in a quiet corner of the pub.

“No work today?”

He shook his head. “Your dad made me take a vacation. Think he’s sick of the constant crowd of tabloid photographers on the sidewalk outside the precinct.”

Sunnie took a sip of the margarita she’d carried over with her when Yvonne approached and asked Landon he if wanted anything. He ordered a pint of Guinness and Yvonne went to get it.

Sunnie put down her nearly full glass. “I got the same invitation to stay away from the hospital today. My nursing supervisor said if she wanted to deal with that much paparazzi, she would have hired a Kardashian. She was joking, but even so, she was glad when the hospital granted me a week’s leave.”

“Fate is smiling on us. That’s how much time I’ve got off too.”

She gave him a funny look. “What’s fate got to do with it?”

He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. “We’re going to beat this thing. Together.”

“Beat it?”

“Yep. You owe me.”

Sunnie was confused. “Excuse me?”

“I wouldn’t be in this mess if you hadn’t decided to take a walk on the wild side the other night and fought that guy for your purse.”

She matched his position, leaning toward him. “Oh no. None of this ismyfault, Romeo. If you hadn’t laid that damn kiss on me in front of that reporter, that video wouldn’t have gone viral and we wouldn’t be in this situation. So really, it’s you who owesme.”

He shook his head, refusing to listen to her reasoning. “You kissed me at the April Fools party. We’re calling the kisses a draw.”

She narrowed her eyes. “I thought you didn’t remember the kiss at the party.”

Landon shrugged. “I lied.”

That response took her aback for a second. “I didn’t initiate that kiss.”

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