Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 99040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 495(@200wpm)___ 396(@250wpm)___ 330(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 495(@200wpm)___ 396(@250wpm)___ 330(@300wpm)
The outlaw biker and the rookie cop.
What a fucking joke.
CHAPTER SEVEN
TWO DAYS OFF did wonders for Jo’s psyche as far as work went and wreaked havoc on her mind as far as Fin was concerned. She’d spent way too much time admiring her new tattoo in the mirror and even more time wondering why Fin was able to see something in her no one else had noticed. Not her family. Not her friends. Not her significant other of two years. The man Jo thought she’d marry until she woke up one day and realized she was miserable working as a realtor and living with a man who didn’t spark near the desire in her Fin did the first time she met him.
Like everyone else in her life, he couldn’t understand why someone as pretty as her, as ‘feminine’ as her, would want to throw on a uniform and hit the streets as a cop every day. Not when she’d been successful as a realtor. Her winning smile and reputation as a southern beauty queen drew business in droves. Colin had loved bragging about her pageant titles and sales stats, two things she, herself, kept quiet.
He'd fit so well with her family. A man’s man, watching sports and drinking beer on the weekends with her brothers and father while her mother prepared the meals and gossiped over who was getting married and having children that week. Meanwhile, she’d have given anything to be handed a beer and asked to hang out in front of the television, watching the football game. What did they expect from a girl who grew up in a male-dominated house? They expected her to be the stereotypical portrayal of a girly pageant queen.
And she wasn’t. Not in her heart and not in her head, even if she wore the outward mask for too many years.
Colin hadn’t been a bad guy and had not been a bad boyfriend by any stretch of the imagination. Guilt still rode her hard for stringing him along for so long. It hadn’t been her intention.
In the beginning, she’d thought she could do it.
Thought she should try to be with a man her family loved.
Thought she was supposed to fall in line, work as a realtor, get married in her mid-twenties, and start popping out kids.
And then someone she went to high school with died. She’d never been close to them, didn’t really know them well, but they’d been the same age. Had some classes together. Anne was hit by a drunk driver, and her life ended in the blink of an eye. All Jo could think of was if it had been her, she’d have left the earth without doing a single thing for herself. Without loving her job, pursuing her interests, or loving her man the way he deserved to be loved and she deserved to experience love.
So she’d broken Colin’s heart, shocked her family, and joined the police academy after vowing no one would deter her from living her life for her.
Not her family.
Not her own hang-ups.
And not a man.
And now, one tattooed bad boy threatened all of that by being sweet and seeing what no one else had bothered to look for. She wasn’t a rebel. She didn’t enjoy shocking people with her career choice. She just wanted to be who she was and have the freedom to live for herself.
And Fin not only saw that but memorialized it on her in permanent ink.
“Hey, you okay?” Andrew asked, pulling her from her head.
She blinked and glanced around. They were parked in front of her favorite local coffee shop. “Yeah, sorry. I was thinking about some stuff. Didn’t mean to zone out on you.”
Andrew studied her for a movement. “Look, Jo, I feel like we’ve butted heads a few times lately, and I wanna make sure we’re okay. As partners, we need to be able to trust each other completely.”
With a sigh, she faced the driver’s seat, where Andrew sat frowning. He was handsome in a conventional, all-American football playing kind of way. “We’re good, Andrew. Just because we think differently about some things doesn’t mean you can’t count on me or vice versa, I hope.”
He nodded, then nudged her with his elbow. “Of course, you can count on me. I’ll always have your back, partner.”
She nearly snorted. Always have her back? Not with the lieutenant, apparently, but she understood what he meant and appreciated the effort. “Thanks, partner.”
It felt good to have that taken care of. Thankfully, Andrew didn’t want to hash it all out and get into the nitty gritty of their differences in opinions. They could work well together as partners and still disagree about the world and even certain parts of the job.
“You feel like a coffee?” he asked with a smile.
“Hell yes. An extra-large iced coffee would hit the spot.” She hadn’t had much sleep. Fin had texted around eleven to see how her tattoo was healing, which crumbled her resolve to stay away from him, resulting in an exhausting but oh-so-satisfying night.