Page 20 of Fools in Love

There were several cheers.

“Yes, since it was a huge success last year, they’ve added a carriage. The Porta-Potties will be set up on second street, by the firehouse. We will need bodies to man the—” Before Aiden could finish, several people raised their hands. “The booth.” Aiden rolled his eyes. Then he turned to him. “Tom and Nick, you’re up this year.”

Everyone who had their hands up groaned.

“The rest of you are on traffic and parking duty.” There were more groans.

Once the conversation about the July Fourth celebration finished, the rest of the meeting was about schedules and standard reminders.

He’d worked parking for all of last year’s festivals. They held one four times a year—in the spring, Fourth of July, in the fall, and another to light the huge Christmas tree in the town square.

Parking lot duty was by far the worst job he could think of during the festival. Standing in the police booth, you got to chat and visit with everyone who walked by. You usually handed out plastic police badge pins to the little kids along with little bags filled with stickers, coloring books, and other fun items. You talked to the townspeople about their concerns or just stood there, watching everyone else have fun.

He was looking forward to manning the booth and wondered what he and Nick had done to get on Aiden’s good side. Whatever it was, he wasn’t going to knock the opportunity.

As he and Nick walked out and headed to their patrol car, Nick slapped his shoulder.

“We just won the freaking lottery,” Nick joked.

“No kidding. What’d you do? Butter Aiden up?” Tom asked.

“Me?” Nick laughed. “I was thinking you’d done something.” He slid into the patrol car.

Tom headed out towards the school, since they were on parking lot duty again this morning. “Nope. I did run into him last night while Kate and I—”

“Oh?” Nick broke in. “You were what?”

“Having dinner at the Golden Oar,” he finished. “I ran into her at the gym, and she suggested we grab food since I was driving her home. She’d walked to the gym,” he said quickly, feeling the need to explain.

“Easy bro.” Nick chuckled and slapped his shoulder again. “I know, my folks mentioned it to me last night. They said you’re going to teach her how to box?”

Tom relaxed. “Yeah, and she’s going to show me how to work out on those Pilate machines.”

Nick laughed. “Now that I’d pay to see.”

“No.” He practically growled it, causing Nick to laugh even more.

As they strapped on their vests and started waving traffic through, he thought about that night. He was really looking forward to spending more time with Kate.

Since his first run-in with her, she’d changed. He understood the frustration she felt, losing her way of life so quickly. Having it ripped from her by a madman. But she was lucky to have her family here to support her. Lucky to have people who loved her and helped her get back on her feet.

Tom hadn’t had anyone. Until he’d moved to Pride, that is.

Near lunchtime, he and Nick headed to Baked for food and ran into a group of high school kids. They ended up hanging with the teens until they had to head back to school.

It was strange how well liked the police were with the majority of the kids. In Vegas, the last thing any of the teens would want to do was chill with the cops in a pizza shop. Hell, when he’d been a kid, he would have never even looked at an officer, for fear of getting their attention. He hadn’t gotten in a lot of trouble, but still, his father would have given him a hard time if he’d known he was hanging out with those he deemed the enemy.

The rest of his shift flew by, with more than a half dozen minor calls. When he grabbed his gym bag and headed for the door, Nick asked.

“Heading to the B&G Club?”

“Yeah, I’m meeting your sister there for boxing lessons.”

Nick smiled. “And your Pilates lessons.” He nudged him with his elbow.

“Hey, if it gets your sister out of the house…” He shrugged.

Nick slapped him on the shoulder. “Hey, man, I saw the way she looks at you. Like you’re her freaking savior.”