Page 79 of New Girl in Town
It was true: no matter how I sliced it, Grant was my man, and I smiled as I ran toward my car.
* * *
The tripto the police department was some of the tensest, most white-knuckle driving of my life. Five minutes had never seemed so long, or so fraught with what-ifs.
What if I couldn’t make the bail?
What if Grant had to spend the night in jail?
What if no one believed me about my ex-husband’s guilt?
How could I not have realized something was wrong when the gifts kept coming?
I groaned at myself. I’d been so wrapped up in my thoughts about Grant, nursing my bruised heart and drowning in my confusion, that I hadn’t taken the time to look around.
The Cartier necklace should have been the giveaway. Dylan had always had an eye for the expensive.
“Don’t think about that,” I told myself as I pulled into the parking lot of the police station. “Get in there, post bail, get your man, and leave.”
I had the money I needed to get him out, so I didn’t think he would have to spend very much time locked up. I threw my car in park and leaped out, preparing to march right into the police station and get the ball rolling on Grant’s bail, but I stopped short when I saw him sitting out front on a picnic table beside the station’s front door. He was laughing, having a cup of coffee and sitting with not one, not two, butthreeofficers, the three officers who had responded to the call not half an hour before.
“What the hell?” I tilted my head, trying to take in the scene that looked like the perfect PR shoot for the police force.
Grant looked up and saw me. His face lit up, and after a quick word to the cops at the table, he was up and loping toward me. Everything in me melted at the sight, and I sprinted toward him.
“Sweetheart.” His arms closed around me and he lifted me off the ground, burying his face in my neck.
“I thought you were going to be locked up,” I cried, giving his shoulders a smack. Hot tears pricked my eyes and spilled down my cheeks, and a sob caught in my chest. “What are you doing having coffee?”
He pulled back, giving me an assessing look. “Thanking them for not taking me in. I was about to get a lift back to see you.”
“I thought I was going to have to bail you out.”
“Nah, I know too many guys on the force for that.”
“Why didn’t you text me that everything was okay?”
“Phone’s back at the apartment.” He held me higher so that he was able to look up at me, even though I tried to cover my face with my hands.
“What about that one phone call they give you?” I shot back, still crying.
“I never got hooked, so I didn’t get a chance to make a call.” His hands came up to cup my cheeks, fingers wiping away my tears. “It’s okay, Aurora,” he soothed, but once I’d let the tears fall I found it was impossible to get them to stop.
“Baby.” He lowered me back down to the ground and leaned close to me, the bulk and warmth of his body grounding and comforting in a way that helped me suck in a breath. “Look at me,” he said, locking eyes with me. “It’s okay. It’s over, Aurora. You’re safe.”
“But what if he comes back?”
“He won’t.”
“He was in my apartment this morning,” I whispered. “How could he just come back like nothing?”
“I don’t know, but we will fix it. Do you hear me? File reports and anything else we need to do. And you don’t have to do it alone. I’m going to be right there with you, do you understand?” His eyes were as sincere as ever, and I knew he was speaking from his heart.
This man was going nowhere.
He was going to be there with me. I wasn’t alone.
I wiped at my tears with the back of my hand. “Does that mean you’re my man?” I asked.
