Troy died before he had the chance to break my heart. Somehow that made it worse.
Fifteen years as Fairlake’s chief of police and I’ve gotten good at keeping my head down and my personal life nonexistent. Then Ethan Crane shows up at my station with a press pass, a smile that short-circuits my better judgment, and more nerve than anyone I’ve met in twenty years of police work. He’s twenty-something, reckless, and already driving me insane.
He’s also exactly what I need. I’ve got a drug operation running through the woods outside town and no clean way to investigate it without tipping them off. Ethan’s spent his career embedding himself in the world’s worst situations to drag the truth into the light.
His idea of quietly is a fake relationship.
His car in my driveway. His name tangled up with mine in the town gossip. A cover story that gives him access and gives me a reason to keep him close.
The problem is I’m a bad liar. And somewhere between the banter and the late nights and the way he looks at me like I’m worth figuring out, the fake part stops being accurate.
I buried what I felt for Troy and built a life around the absence of it. Ethan isn’t asking me to dig that up.
He’s just asking if I’m willing to let something in.
