Page 15 of Fire and Ice

"There's hope yet," Jack drawled.

"Maia makes pies from scratch," Grace piped in as she turned around to prepare a sandwich for Jack.

"I love pies," Jack said. "Are you taking requests? My favorite is apple pie."

It looked like Jack had gotten over his snit this morning, Maia thought.

"This weekend."

Jack groaned. "I'm at New Park this Saturday but will be back that evening. Can I have it for Sunday breakfast?"

"Apple pie for breakfast?" Maia thought that weird.

"Did you miss the part where I said I love pie," Jack retorted.

"Pie for breakfast it is."

Grace's back was to the couple talking about pie, but she was smiling broadly at their exchange.

"Man, you are right. This is one of the best burgers I've ever had," Maia declared, licking her fingers clean.

They were late getting into Westcove Tavern because Jack's meeting ran too long. The place was packed on a Thursday night, so they opted to sit at the bar because customers occupied every available booth and table.

"Sorry for getting you here so late. You looked like you were ready to eat me for dinner when I got out of that meeting," Jack teased, but Maia didn't fall for his double-meaning again. He'd been making sexual innuendos the whole afternoon but she had successfully ignored them.

He was right though, by 8:30 pm she was starving, and probably looked murderous. She did not do hungry well.

"Girl, you did a good job with that burger. How do you stay so skinny?" Their bartender, Tina, came back to clear their plates.

"You don't wanna know," Maia replied.

Jack chuckled.

"Another beer?"

"No, I'm switching to tequila later. Give me a few minutes," Maia told Tina.

"So you're a tequila kind of girl, huh?" Jack said, his eyes twinkling. He was obviously in a good mood.

Maia didn't respond; she had been distracted by a group of rowdy guys having an argument a few seats over. They needed to call it a night, since they had clearly had too much to drink. One of the results of her job was heightened vigilance of possible threats. It would take a few days for her to decompress and stop seeming paranoid. Which was why she loved the ocean: listening to waves rolling in brought her to her zen place.

"Maia?"

She stiffened and felt Jack freeze beside her too.

She turned around and faced Detective Rick Tanner.

Oh, fuck.

"I thought that was you. Never forget a pretty face. Now, what did I say about going around by yourself," Rick admonished. For a detective, he was certainly clueless not to have picked up that she was there with Jack, unless he thought that Jack had picked her up because they were sitting at the bar.

"Actually, she's here with me," Jack said bitingly, possessiveness and territoriality emanating from him forcefully. "What I wanna know is how you met Maia, Rick?"

Okay, no introductions necessary, they know each other.

Rick frowned. "Maia was accosted on the beach this morning by three fuckwads who rolled into town three weeks ago." He looked at Maia questioningly and a little bit smug, as if he knew something Jack didn't. "You didn't tell him? Honey, there's no shame ..."

"Detective..." Maia quickly tried to shush him. Jeez, for a detective he sure had a big mouth.

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