Page 25 of Carter

“Carter?”

“Huh?” I look up at him. “Yeah, sorry. Uh, favorite… yes. Teddy. She’s a retriever mix. So sweet. Scared of everything.”

“But not you?”

I huff a small laugh, thinking about her sweet little furry face. I love that dog so much.

“I’m patient with her. If I could take a dog home, it would be her, but she really needs someone around all the time. Even if I could afford a doggy daycare, she’d never survive there.”

“Maybe Teddy doesn’t need more attention,” he says.

I frown. “Then what does she need?”

“One person.”

“One person?”

He nods.

“One person who’s patient. One person who understands her. One person who keeps showing up, even when she doesn’t make it easy.”

For some reason, I can’t look away from him. His eyes… there’s something about them. Dark brown and so full of emotion. I don’t know what it is, but when I look into them, not a single part of me thinks he’s pretending.

It hits me a little too hard, right in the chest. It’s hard to breathe.

“That’s all?” I croak out.

“Sometimes that’s everything.”

All I can do is nod in response and finish eating my food, even though I don’t really want it. Detective Bennett pays the bill, even though I offer to. He glares like I’ve offended him, so I drop it.

It’s dark when we get outside. I hadn’t even realized that happened, but it is winter and the sun doesn’t like to show her face this time of year. We get into the truck that is as cold as it is outside, but it doesn’t take long for it to warm up.

“Thank you, Detective B—”

“Please, call me Nash.”

“Okay, Nash. Thank you for dinner.”

“You’re welcome.”

He takes a wide turn out onto the road. It’s not so busy now, and getting home shouldn’t take too long.

“You do realize this thing barely fits down these roads, right?” I say as he turns down a road that in no way should be a two-way, especially with vehicles this size on them.

“It fits.”

“You had to park it two blocks away to pick me up.”

“It was only one block.”

I chuckle.

“That doesn’t help your case.”

Another smirk.

I smile to myself and watch the buildings go by as Nash drives me to my apartment.