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“I hate to say it, but maybe tonight’s a good night for you to be gone. I’m working most of the night.”

“Is everything okay?”

“We have a tip to follow up on. Kelly and I will be observing some activity down at the docks.”

“Lucky him,” I mutter, wishing I could be on a stakeout with Walker.

“Dammit, Emi.”

“What?”

“That right there is one of the reasons you aren’t going to run me off. Call me tonight when everyone leaves and let me know how it goes. Then, tomorrow, I’ll remind you of all the other reasons I’m not going anywhere.” He hangs up, leaving me with a warm buzzing inside.

I lock up and get in my car, setting up the hands-free to call Maren on the drive.

“Don’t fret, I’ll be at your parents’ house by five,” she informs me before I can even say hello.

“You will?”

“Yes, your mom’s been busy. She’s having all the girls over for drinks tonight. My mom is making lasagna, and the rest of the ladies are bringing dishes to add for dinner.”

I knew it!

“Ugh, great.”

“I’m not leaving you to the wolves alone. Besides, my mom was worried about me, saying she hasn’t seen me much since the break-up, so it’s perfect.”

“I guess, but there’s a reason we moved across town away from our parents.”

“We’ll get through it, and when they’re satisfied with all their questions, we have some work to do. I spent last night and this morning going over notes and researching in to Bailey’s request. On the surface, Justin is clean, but I did find a few oddities in his bank accounts.”

“You hacked into his accounts?”

“Well, she gave me some information. It wasn’t very hard.”

“What did you find?

“A transfer into a private account. Looks like some sort of membership to a club. But all the research has led me to nothing. I think we need to actually follow him a little, see where he leads us. If I have an address, we’ll find out a lot more.”

“Where would we start?”

“I’ll tell you more tonight. I have a few ideas.”

“Sounds good.”

“See you in a few hours.”

I drive the rest of the way, thinking about exactly how much to tell my parents about my relationship. The part I left out with Walker is that if I don’t spin this exactly right, my mom will get encouraged, which means her mind will automatically switch to wedding watch.

She’s never held back her concern over my lackadaisical love life. The longest relationship, if you’d call it that, lasted a whole month in college. He never made it home to meet the parents, much to her dismay. I had to explain that I wasn’t ready to settle down, and school was getting harder, so it was best I concentrate. What I left out is that the guy I was dating was boring. The two times we had sex was less than impressive, which was the killer. I couldn’t date someone who considered foreplay unnecessary, especially when I got no pleasure either time. So, we ended our tryst.

I was fine with that. Over the years, I’ve dated, hooked-up, and even had sex. But being in a relatively small town, I’ve been selective and discreet. The last guy I had sex with before Walker was over a year ago, and he was a co-worker. He was pretty fun, but when he was transferred, neither of us made the effort to keep in contact.

Maren told me that my mom was secretly working in cahoots with Oliver’s mom to get us together. But it was never going to happen. I knew too much about Oliver, and he too much about me. We would never be compatible.

When Maren got engaged, my mom then tried to encourage me to date any of Carlton’s single friends. Then she met them at the engagement party and apologized. That was a funny conversation.

For a long time, she has laid off, only mentioning my dating life once in a while. This morning that came to a screeching halt.