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“I missed you,” she says.

“Missed you, too. You smell delicious, like blueberries and sugar.” I wrap my arm around her and kiss the softness of her neck.

“Your body’s cold.” She stiffens when I press my chest against her back.

“Then warm me up.”

She presses her ass against me and I’m thinking of all the bad things I want to do, but I can tell she’s exhausted. There were so many muffins that Travis gave her a paid day off; but I’m sure Viola had something to do with that.

“You owe me big time,” she reminds me with a small laugh. Minutes later, I hear her breathing become more stable, and I know she’s fallen back asleep.

“You’ve already got my heart,” I whisper.

It’s hard for me to fall asleep. There’s too much running through my mind. By the time my body relaxes enough to sleep, it seems like the alarm instantly goes off. I wake exhausted and to an empty bed.

Once I sit up, Courtney comes in with two cups of coffee, just the way I like it—black. She hands me the cup, and I stand up to kiss her then yawn. She’s already dressed in blue jeans and a black shirt that falls off her shoulders. I want to kiss every inch of her skin, and she notices.

“Get dressed, Deputy. We can’t be late.”

“We don’t have twenty minutes?” I give her a smile.

“As much as I want to say yes, and I want to say yes so bad, we can’t because being late makes my brain explode and Kayla’s going to be waiting for us already.”

I let out a small laugh. “Okay. You’re going to regret it, though.”

“I already do.”

I put on a pair of jeans and a Sacramento PD polo that we wear for special events like this.

Courtney’s eyes widen as I walk into the living room. She saunters over to me and runs her finger across the embroidered badge with my name below it on the top left breast of my shirt.

“Officer Fisher,” she says slyly.

“How can I be at your service?”

She stands on her tiptoes and kisses me slow and sensual. When we break apart, she’s breathing hard and staring at my lips. My heart is racing, and for a moment, I don’t care about being late.

“Damn this! Can’t we just stay home?” She sticks her bottom lip out and pouts.

“And eat five hundred muffins ourselves?”

“It wouldn’t be the worst thing that could happen.” She grins.

I pull her back to me and kiss her one last time before we load up the muffins in the truck.

On time, we drive over to the city park where the annual benefit for fallen officers is being held. It’s an emotional time and reminds me of how inherently dangerous my job can be. At the Academy, it’s ingrained into us that every day we put on that uniform, it could be our last. Regardless of the risk, I willingly took the oath to protect my community. Events like this bring that truth closer to home.

We arrive, and Kayla runs across the grass with a big smile on her face and grabs as many muffins as she can carry. I’m happy she’s here, and I’m sure Logan is too, although he won’t admit it.

“There you two are. It took forever for you to get here,” she says excitedly.

Courtney laughs and rolls her eyes. “We’re ten minutes early. How long have you been here?”

“An hour. I even helped set up our tent close to the festivities near the stage.”

“Any sight of Logan?” Courtney drags his name out, and I can only imagine what they say about me. It makes me laugh at how fast they get lost in the conversation.

We drop off the first load of muffins and Logan comes over and helps us carry the rest. Kayla instantly perks up when she sees him and tries to make small talk. Surprisingly enough, he’s actually responding. She’s learning not to be so pushy, which is good. Logan’s a hard shell to crack on a good day.

“This is a shit ton of muffins,” he says, carrying as many as he can. “You should feel guilty for forcing them to make these.”

“It wasn’t so bad,” Kayla says, giving me a wink as she sets them down on the table.

Courtney laughs as she neatly spreads hundreds of muffins out. They smell like heaven.

“Oh, he’s going to pay.” Lifting her eyes to meet mine, I know exactly what she’s referring to. I swallow hard, and Logan shakes his head with a smile on his face.

Several other women walk over and help Courtney and Kayla. They are naturals at getting involved and helping wherever it’s needed. I make a mental note to volunteer them for double the amount of muffins next year, even though they might all kill me.

The crowd begins filing in, and I know the event will start any minute.