Free Just a Little Series (Parts 1 - 4) by Tracie Puckett

love him?”
    Matt looked up at me from a sheet of
cookies, his eyes widening.
    “Not possible, Julie,” he said. “You’ve
known Luke for what, two and a half weeks?”
    “Something like that.”
    “Love takes time to mature,” he said with a
definite sense of finality. Matt had never been one to believe in
love at first sight. I thought that his recent circumstances with
Hannah might’ve changed his mind, but it clearly hadn’t. “You’re
not in love, Julie. It’s just an infatuation. It’ll wear off in
time.”
    “But Detective Bruno—”
    “ Is a nut,” he said, carefully
decorating the cookies with a fiery red icing.
    “I guess,” I wished somewhere deep inside
that maybe Bruno had seen something I had failed to.
    “Are you hanging out with Hannah tonight?” I
expected his answer to be the same as it had been every night since
Wednesday. The two of them were practically inseparable.
    “Yeah,” he nodded at the baking sheet, “I
promised to take her some of my famous cookies.”
    “You’re going over there ?” I asked,
surprised that I would be getting an evening away from Hannah for a
change. Her presence had been a bit overbearing because when that
girl visited, she didn’t show up without a string of personal
questions and a bad attitude. She had no sense of personal
boundaries, and I had no idea what Matt saw in her.
    “Yeah,” he said as though there were no
other option, “I didn’t want to expose her to Dad’s poker
night.”
    “Poker night?” I asked. “Here?”
    “He didn’t tell you?” Matt asked, almost
regretful that he hadn’t mentioned it sooner. “Dad has one big
poker night every year. Tonight’s the night. And between Dad,
Bruno, and some of the other guys from the station, it gets pretty
rowdy.”
    “Other guys?” I wondered if Luke was
included among the others . Bruno had mentioned that
Luke would be back in time for a game. “What time is this thing
supposed to start?”
    “They’ll be showing up any minute,” he put
the final touches on the last cookie. “And yes, since I know you’re
dying to know, Trigger will be here.”
    “Oh,” I nodded as if his information didn’t
faze me. What he didn’t need to know was that I felt like a giddy
schoolgirl; I could feel every one of nerves jumping up and down
with excitement. I glanced at the clock and back to Matt. “Well,
have fun with Hannah tonight. I’m going to run up and get a
shower.”
    “To impress Trigger?”
    “So that I don’t look like a slob for
Charlie’s guests.”
    “You never look like a slob.”
    “Bye, Matt,” I called over my shoulder as I
ran up the back staircase taking two steps at a time.
    After a quick shower, I spent a while
styling my hair and perfecting my make-up, taking extra time to
choose a very special outfit. If Luke was going to be in the house
this evening, especially in a casual capacity, I wanted to make
sure he couldn’t help but look my way.
    I stood at the closet with the towel still
wrapped around me, plucking through each shirt, skirt, and dress I
owned. When I finally settled on an orange turtleneck dress, I took
one last glance in the mirror and ruled myself perfectly
acceptable.
    A roar of laughter came from the kitchen
five minutes later. Obviously the men had already arrived, and from
the sound of things, had taken no time to break out the alcohol and
get the party started. For a group of educated cops, they sounded
like a room full of frat boys.
    I walked downstairs to find Charlie, Bruno,
and a few handfuls of other men sitting around three poker tables.
They were all smoking cigars, all except Luke, who was at the
farthest table, carefully dealing out a hand to his fellow players.
He never once glanced up to notice me as I announced myself with a
simple, “Hello.”
    Most of the men turned to greet me, and a
few even let their gaze linger a little longer than appropriate. I
peeked at Luke once again, hoping to get some kind of
acknowledgement,