Page 3 of Three Rules I'd Never Break

After turning on the shower, I pulled my hair into a ponytail, then smeared on a calming face mask. Calming probably meant it was for irritated skin, but right now I was willing to try anything. Maybe a mini spa session in the shower would relax me. It had to.

I pulled back the curtain to step into the shower and stopped when I heard a thunk. That sounded close.

Had I forgotten to lock the door? I closed my eyes, trying to remember. The jerk had called right after I’d stepped inside. I couldn’t remember if I’d locked the bolt.

I pressed my ear to the door.

Footsteps. Someone was definitely in my store.

Had that creep come in? If he’d snuck in, this wouldn’t end well for him. I could call the police, but my phone was on my bed across the hall.

I needed a plan.

The bathroom didn’t offer much in the way of defensive weapons. After a quick scan, I tightened the towel around me and picked up the plunger. Whoever got hit with this deserved it.

I pushed open the door and tiptoed into the hall.

“Hands up! Drop the... Delaney?” A figure stood with a flashlight in one hand and a gun in the other. The voice was all too familiar, but thankfully not the jerk’s.

The plunger hit the ground as my hands shot up. Even though I knew Eli had figured out it was me, I obeyed.

The man had a gun; I had a towel.

“What are you doing here, Eli?” I glanced down as the purple Egyptian cotton towel responded ever so slightly to the pull of gravity.

Why had I thrown my hands into the air with such gusto? Keeping the rise and fall of my chest to a bare minimum, I dropped my elbows lower.

Silently, I begged the towel not to slip.

“The burglar alarm.” He lowered his gun.

That was the other thing I’d forgotten. To turn off the silent alarm.

“Is there anyone else here with you?” He moved toward my bedroom door.

“There better not be. You can check.” If my dud of a date had snuck in, I’d rather Eli handle the greeting.

He swept the flashlight around my room. “It’s clear.”

The towel was definitely moving downward. “Um, can I put my hands down because if they stay up any longer, this towel is going to fall right off. And I’d prefer that not happen. I’ve sort of exceeded my embarrassment allotment for the... year.” I’d broken rule one. Literally. Not only had I been caught unprepared, but my mistakes had caused the situation.

He shifted the flashlight away from me. “Yeah. Sorry. Just keep your hands where I can see them, Miss Carter.”

Of all the deputies to respond to an alarm at my lingerie shop, it had to be the gorgeous one who had just pulled me over and could barely string a complete sentence together whenever I was around him. It was adorable in a way to see him all tongue-tied. But the chances of this guy asking me out were somewhere between zero and negative a thousand.

After tonight, he probably wouldn’t even look at me, let alone speak to me. That was a shame because he was one of the good guys. He checked all the boxes.

With my arms crossed in front of me, holding the towel in place, I cleared my throat. “Do you have some sort of report that needs to be filled out? Do I need to sign something saying that it was a false alarm?”

“Nope.” He looked at the wall beside me.

Why bother keeping my hands where he could see them? He was making a great effort not to look at me.

“So... can I turn off the alarm and get in the shower?”

His brow furrowed, and he stared at my face. He probably couldn’t even say what color my towel was. He hadn’t let his gaze drop that low. “Yep. But it’s not safe for you to be here...like that.”

“Why not?” I didn’t react well to being told what to do, or in this case, what not to do. Then I remembered how much Eli hated it when my friend Cami had lived in the back of the photography studio in the same strip mall.

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