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“Well, ’cause you’re the one who broke the law, and you don’t have arthritis.”

“Who cares? I don’t get it. He’s outright hostile to me, to you. To everyone! I hate him.”

“I know who he is, Devo,” I said. “But he’s also my neighbor and a resident of Wisper, so therefore, I check in on him just like I would any other person in this situation.”

“Correction. Every person except me.”

Was I right that this was less of a “things should be equal” thing and more of a “my feelings are hurt” thing? The little glint in her eyes and the way her beautiful mouth turned down into the smallest hint of a frown told me it was.

“You have a family and friends, co-workers. You have support. Red doesn’t.” Still, I felt bad, because she was right.

“That’s his own fault.”

Lifting my shoulder, I said, “Maybe. There’s some stuff you probably don’t know about him though.”

“Why does everyone keep sayin’ that?” She cocked a hip and planted her hand on it, and I watched how her thigh muscle jiggled a little as she turned her foot out. It was sexy. “Like what? I’d like to know what’s so great about Red Graves. What do you know that I don’t?”

“Ain’t my place to say,” I said, lifting my eyes back up to hers.

She scoffed. “It’s pretty ironic, you defendin’ the man who would be utterly disgusted at the way you’re lookin’ at me right now.”

“I’m not defendin’ him, but Devo, this is my job. Okay? I love my job. I’m good at my job. And sometimes, I don’t get a say in the things I have to do. Sometimes, I have to deal with people I’d rather not. I can hoot and holler about it all I want, but I still gotta do it, and in cases like Red’s, it’s easy to see it’s not so black-and-white.”

I walked further into the store and stood right in front of her. “I suspect Brady put you and Red up to this Freaky Friday stuff, hopin’ y’all might learn a thing or two, so maybe instead of accusin’ me of betrayin’ you, you could try to get somethin’ out of the experience.”

“Whatever,” she said.

I took off my hat, held it in front of my chest like a white flag, and took one more step toward her. I had been thinking about her. I did want to check in with her, but I didn’t know if she wanted that. “Are you okay? I think about you a lot. But I don’t know where the line is, y’know?”

She blinked and stepped closer to me too. “What line?”

“The line that tells me if I’m comin’ on too strong, or if I’m mixin’ my duties as a deputy with how I should act as your… friend, or like someone who?—”

In a quiet voice, she asked, “Someone who what?”

“Someone who likes you.”

Both of her dark eyebrows pitched up, and I wanted to trace them with my fingertip.

“You like me?”

I nodded, feeling kind of shy now that I was saying it out loud. “Yeah. You know, when you’re not bein’ a pain in my ass.”

“Fine,” she said, all exasperated with me suddenly, and she threw her hands up in the air again. “I will admit that I think about you too. Okay? About that… night, but this is me, Abey. I am a pain in the ass. It’s part of my?—”

Something came over me then, and I needed her in my arms. She’d finally admitted the pull between us wasn’t a one-sided thing. As I stomped toward her, I looked behind me, out the door, making sure no one could see what I was about to do. Red had boarded up the window, so that was a plus.

“What’re you doin’?”

Resting my hands over hers still on her hips, I steered her backward to the long checkout counter, then lifted her up and plopped her sexy ass on top of it. I looked up at her above me and said, “Kiss me.” I worked my body between her legs, loving how it felt when she wrapped them around my waist.

“Why?” she asked, looking in my eyes as her boots dug into my ass cheeks over my ugly, brown polyester work pants.

“Why kiss me?”

“Yeah. You sure you wanna kiss a pain-in-the-ass felon?”

I laughed under my breath. “You’re not a felon. At least not yet.”