Page 11 of The Harborer
Shit! You gotta stop letting these kinds of thoughts roll around inside your head, dude.
“How about I take a few and pass them around for you?” he offered.
“Aw, thank you.” She tilted her head. “The gun and the badass badge just don’t jive with the sweet personality, though I like the way the hat fits. Just sayin’.” She turned up the wattage on her grin.
Heat sparked in his veins. Was she flirting with him? Nah, he was letting his imagination gallop into places it didn’t belong. He jabbed a thumb against his chest before lifting a few cups from her tray. “You think I’msweet?”
She bobbed her head. “Anyone who volunteers to spend his precious time in my store spec’ing out security cameras—and won’t accept anything in return except for a cup of coffee and maybe a day-old-pastry if I twist his arm—ismorethan sweet in my book.”
Shane felt the creep of heat up his chest, spreading its way upward, making his ears hot. Usually he let compliments like Amy’s roll off his back, but coming from her, the words had an impact that made his chest swell.
“I’ll stop by to take care of that as soon as my shift here is over,” he promised.
Figuring out camera placement for her wouldn’t be a big deal. He’d be in and out in a half hour, though if he lingered, he might score a few moments of alone time with Amy. He always enjoyed talking to her, the words flowing easily between them, whether the conversation was about her different coffee blends or the tortuous yoga poses they sometimes endured. And those conversations always seemed to end too soon, leaving him with more to say than what he’d started out with. With most folks, his buddies included, he didn’t spare more words than he needed to, and then he was done. Not with her, though.
“Who’s sweet?” a familiar voice boomed behind them.
Amy lifted her chin at Shane. “This guy.”
“O’Brien? Sweet?” Reece, the oldestHunnicutt brother, guffawed. Reece was the head of the county’s search and rescue operation, and he was also Shane’s best friend. “Did a rock fall on your head and give you a concussion, Amy? Maybe I should take a look.” He mimed pulling out a penlight and shining it in her eyes.
Reece’s words were a little thick and hard to decipher—not because he was drunk but because he was talking around an unlit cigar clenched between his teeth. Shane had seen Reece puff on the occasional stick during a poker game, but he had never known his buddy to chew on cigars outdoors in the middle of the day.
“Fuck you, Hunnicutt.” Shane shoved a coffee at his best friend. “Take this so Amy doesn’t have as much to carry.”
“Why aren’t you helping her with it?” Reece posed logically.
“She won’t let me.” Shane swiped a few more coffees and handed them out to random people. “What’s with the cigar?”
“Glad you asked.” Beaming, Reece reached into the inner pocket of his parka and extracted a cigar he offered to Shane. “I’m told it’s a tradition to hand these out when you’re going to be a father.”
Shane’s mouth dropped open. He absently tucked away the cigar. “Are you fucking kidding me? You and Neve? She doesn’t evenlookpregnant.”
Reece removed the cigar from between his teeth. “Of course Neve, dumbass. Who else?” Neve, the town vet, was also Reece’s wife. “We just passed the first trimester, so she said I could let the cat out of the kennel. So to speak.”
“Isn’t it great?” Amy whisper-shouted. “She’s due in February! Oops! Sorry, Reece. Didn’t mean to steal your thunder.”
He flapped a hand at her. “It’s okay, Amy. I get it. The excitement’s kinda catching.”
Ignoring the twinge of hurt, Shane aimed his gape her way. “Wait. How come you knew this and I’m only now finding out?” Before she could answer him, he turned an accusing tone on Reece. “Isn’t there some sort of bro code that dictates yourbrogets the news first?” He gave Amy an apologetic side-eye. “No offense, Amy.”
He and Reece had been best friends since they’d been toddlers, so it only made sense—to Shane anyway—that Reece would confide in him before anyone else found out, including Amy.
“None taken,” she chirped gleefully. “This time, my investigative skills were a little sharper than yours, Deputy.” Amy didn’t seem to notice her tray was emptying without her having to move because Shane either handed out cups or people grabbed them as they passed by. He grinned inside at herinvestigative skills, especially when she lifted her chin in triumph. “I thought it was strange Neve stopped drinking coffee and switched to frothed milk, so my nosy self finally asked her about it. I knew something was up the instant she turned bright pink. When she said the acid from the coffee was making hersick and that milk was healthier anyway, I guessed. So technically, she didn’t tell me. She simply admitted the truth because Neve doesn’t know how to lie.”
“Neve is aterribleliar, so she doesn’t even try.” Reece stuffed the cigar back in his mouth.
Okay. That made Shane feel alittlebetter. He clapped Reece on the shoulder. “Well, I’ll be damned! Congratulations, Pops! Your mom must be over the moon.”
“Dad too,” Reece agreed. He shifted his cigar from one side of his mouth to the other. “And there’s my bride now!” Neve waved from the platform. “Welp, I’m gonna keep passing these out. Gives me an excuse to tell everyone else before they find out from Neve.”
“Take some coffees with you,” Shane ordered. As he watched Reece wend his way through the crowd, he scratched the back of his head.
“You okay there, Deputy?”
Shane slid a glance Amy’s way. Her tray held only two cups now. “Yeah, just a little surprised.” Not long ago, Reece and Shane had taken a bachelorhood oath together. They were probably drunk at the time, but Shane had believed they’d stick with it for a while longer nonetheless. Instead, Reece had left singlehood in the dust for something that seemed to fulfill him in ways Shane could only imagine. Shane had never seen his friend happier. And now he was on his way to building the next generation of Hunnicutts. Exactly why that notion struck a melancholy chord in Shane’s chest, he had no idea.
Amy yanked him back to the present when she sighed, “The world doesn’t stand still. And he and Neve are bothin their thirties. Guess we all grow up sometime.”
