“He’s not going to give up on her. He loves her too much.” Asa’s voice had hints of guilt laced with penitence in it and I wondered if he was talking about the employee or something far closer to home.

Rome grunted and squeezed Cora hard enough that she squeaked. “We have to go. I wanna see my new baby.”

We followed them out of the bar and Cora looked at me over her shoulder before Rome hefted her up into his big truck and told me, “No escaping girls’ night, Royal. I’m making it happen.”

I groaned and agreed with a shrug. Asa gave me a questioning look as we headed the couple blocks from the Bar over to where the diner was located. After we were seated and had steaming cups of coffee sitting in front of us, I wanted to ask him exactly what was going on with the employee, but he beat me to it and questioned why I seemed less than thrilled to hang out with the girls.

I stirred copious amounts of sugar into my coffee and stared down at the table while I thought about how to answer that.

“I’ve never had a lot of friends. It’s always just been me and Dom. I like all those girls and I love Saint to death, but hanging out like that isn’t something I’m used to, and frankly I’m still slightly terrified your sister wants to kick my ass.”

He gave me an exasperated look that indicated how ridiculous he thought my fears where Ayden was concerned were, and picked up his own mug. His golden eyes gleamed at me over the rim as he asked, “Always just you and Dom, huh? There ever been anything there that’s gonna have a pissed-off cop on my ass if he finds out where you’ve been going when you can’t sleep?”

I had to blink for a second because what he was asking was so ridiculous it took a second for it to compute. “NO! God no. Dom has been my best friend my entire life and now he’s my partner. Nothing romantic has ever been between us, and he doesn’t get a say in who I choose to spend my time with just like I don’t get a vote in his personal life. We love each other but we aren’t in love with each other and never have been.”

Asa stared at me unblinkingly for a long moment before setting his coffee cup down and leaning a little closer to me with a smirk on his face. “How’s that possible? How does he spend endless hours around you, stuck in a patrol car with you day in and day out, and not try and get some? Doesn’t add up.”

I flushed under the scrutiny and gave the same response I did whenever anyone questioned how Dom and I could have a strictly platonic relationship over all these years.

“I’m not Dom’s type, and I know him too well to ever think we could work out.”

Asa leaned back in the booth and I could see the pieces of the word puzzle clicking into place in his head. He really was as smart as he was pretty. “Not his type?”

I shrugged a shoulder. “Nope. Not at all.”

“I see.” He sounded amused, and maybe it was wishful thinking but I think there was a hint of relief in his tone as well.

I copied his pose in the booth and asked, “Do you?”

“Red, there are only a handful of reasons any guy would consider you ‘not his type’ and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know what the main one might be.”

I let out a little breath of relief and didn’t say anything else as the waitress set down our food in front of us.

It was a question I had fielded a lot over the years, especially as Dom and I had gotten older and both of us went into law enforcement. In high school, we were even voted prom king and queen regardless of the fact that we were not, and had never been, a couple. Sure, maybe in a different world where Dominic liked girls instead of boys we could have fallen in love and lived happily ever after. As it was, I was absolutely NOT Dom’s type and we were just going to be best friends forever and I was simply grateful that I got to have him in my life in whatever form that happened to be. I never felt like it was my place to speak for Dom about why there was nothing romantic between us, so I was relieved Asa picked up on what I wasn’t saying and let the subject drop.

He was watching me in obvious amusement as I shoveled breakfast into my face with no delicacy. I didn’t care. I was hungry and he had already taken me to bed, so appearing ladylike and demure had no place here. After I polished off my entire plate and what was left on his, I sat back with a satisfied sigh and put my hands on my full tummy. He was still watching me and now his eyes were glowing like they were lit up from somewhere deep inside of him.

“You’re cute.” He sounded amused, so I wrinkled my nose at him.

“That doesn’t sound like a compliment.” I told the waitress no when she asked if we wanted anything else even though I totally could have gone for a chocolate milk shake. Asa asked for the bill and pulled his phone out to look at it. When he spoke it was with sincerity and honesty even though he wasn’t looking at me.

“It is. You surprise me. The way you look doesn’t always match up with the things you do … I’m never sure what to expect.”

I pushed my ponytail over my shoulder and slid out of the booth. He followed my lead after throwing a wad of bills on the table to cover the check. I melted a little on the inside when he took my hand. It seemed like such a normal thing for a guy to do for a girl he liked and so against the way he had behaved toward me up until this point.

“I get that a lot, you know? Like the way I look should have anything to do with anything—ever.” He rubbed his thumb along my wrist and my pulse jumped in response to the simple caress. “My mom is really beautiful and it’s never brought her anything but trouble.”

“If she looks like you, I can see that.”

I scoffed at him as we stepped off the curb. “People thought she was my sister or my friend when I got older. The guys in high school used to hit on her all the time, and I wanted to die. She just laughed it off. She was good at handling the attention; she was also really good at letting me find my own way when it became clear I wasn’t going to follow in her glamorous footsteps.”

He was watching me like every word I said held parts of my soul in it. Maybe it did. Sometimes it was easy to forget about all my mom’s wonderful attributes and get lost in her overzealous quest for Mr. Right.

“What do you mean?”

I smiled a little thinking about my mom showing up at soccer games in six-inch heels and in full hair and makeup. I shrugged a shoulder and told him, “She just let me be me and never questioned it. When I told her I wanted to follow Dom to the Police Academy, she didn’t miss a beat. She was worried about my safety but she never questioned whether or not I could do it. She just told me to go and be the best cop I could be and look fabulous while doing it. She’s always been supportive of anything I wanted to take on, and since it was always just me and her, having her approval was important to me. It still is.”