Free In Harm's Way by Ridley Pearson Page A

the hair and tugged and laughed privately again and said more softly, “Oh my God.”
    He answered not with words—couldn’t find any; they’d all deserted him—but with a squeeze of her hand and by lying next to her and hooking his ankle over hers so that their feet embraced as their bodies just had. They stared at the ceiling together.
    “You must promise me,” she said, “that you’ll never pretend that didn’t happen. It’s all I ask.”
    “Promise.”
    Five minutes passed into ten. She offered little touches as if making sure he was still there beside her, as if reassuring herself. “There are moments you never forget,” she said. “This is one of them.”
    “Agreed.”
    “I’m not saying it has to happen again. I’m not saying it won’t. I’m just saying . . . it had to happen now and it did and we can’t have any regrets.”
    “No. None. Not from me,” he said.
    “You don’t have to court me, but you mustn’t ignore me.”
    “Never. Not possible.”
    “And I promise to keep it professional in public. I know that can’t be easy for you. I don’t want you worrying about that.”
    “I’m not even thinking right now. I’m certainly not worrying about anything, except disappointing you, because I never want to, I don’t intend to. If I could wrap up all the happiness in the world into a package, if I could give you that, I would. Whatever the word means to you, whatever it is you want—I would give you that.”
    “Then you’d wrap up yourself,” she said, her fingers absentmindedly finding his face and the tips of her fingers searching his expression like a blind person’s. Finding a grin, they pulled away, satisfied.
    “I know you can’t stay,” she said, “but I want you to, you’re welcome to as long as you can. I’d like to fall asleep in your arms. I’d like to never wake up.”
    “I’d like to take a shower with you,” he said. “To soap you all over.”
    “Now?”
    “Why not?”
    Later, he could hear the water still bubbling in the kettle, the chorus of night creatures—crickets, frogs, and things that go chirp in the dark; beneath it all he heard the steady, comforting sound of a cat purring and his eye finally lighted on the tabby balled up by a pillow on the loveseat, so still he’d not seen it.
    “What’s its name?” he asked.
    “Her,” she said. “Angel.”
    He nodded.
    “It never hurts to have an angel around,” she said. She wore a terry-cloth robe pulled tightly around her slim waist as she fixed them both tea and brought him a cup. He wore his uniform again, its shoulders damp from his wet hair.
    She sat cross-legged on the couch.
    He stared at her. The cat got up and climbed into her lap.
    “I like this about you,” he said.
    “The silence?”
    “Umm.”
    “Me, too.” She hesitated. “You were like an eighteen-year-old tonight.”
    “Had a few, have you?”
    She threw her spoon at him and hit him in the chest. He caught it as it fell and placed it on the coffee table.
    “Don’t overthink this,” she said.
    “It’s tempting,” he said, “but no. I don’t plan to.”
    “You’re welcome here anytime. Standing invitation.”
    “Standing, as in the shower?”
    “Don’t get fresh.”
    “Please?”
    She laughed.
    “I’ve heard you laugh more tonight than in two years of knowing you.”
    “Maybe you haven’t known me.”
    “Maybe not,” he admitted. “Although in the Biblical sense—”
    “Shut up! If I had another spoon to throw, I would.”
    He passed her the spoon. Her eyes shone brightly as she teased a second throw, and she set it down.
    He sighed contentedly.
    They stared.
    “I want you to know,” she said, “I’m serious about this. But it doesn’t mean you have to be. This is your free pass out of jail. Tonight. Right now. No harm. No foul. But if you don’t take the pass, if you stay in jail and decide to roll the dice, that’s something else entirely.”
    “Understood,” he said. He didn’t want a pass.