Page 19 of Champagne & Handcuffs

The sun had seton my final day in D.C., and Joss and I were on our fifth run through ofMiss Congeniality 2,when I heard the key in the lock. My heart fluttered. Hell, it had been doing that every single day when I would hear Seth come home or just straight up saw him sitting in the kitchen drinking coffee. I didn’t know what it was, but I’d never had this reaction to a guy before. And don’t even get me started on what seeing him in his cop uniform does to me. The virgin in me wanted to be bad. So bad. Bad to the point where I would be handcuffed and—

“Did you hear me?”

I blinked, realizing Seth was actually speaking to me as I stared at him. “Um, what?”

He chuckled. “I asked if you wanted to go bowling tonight.”

I looked back to Seth with only a shrug. “Yeah, sure. Whatever.”

“Good. I’m going to change, and then we’ll meet up with some friends of mine from the precinct.”

“Ohhhhh,” I sang. “We get to meet yourotherfriends?”

Seth chuckled. “Joss has already met them.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, and he stuck out his tongue at me. “Are any of them cute?” I asked Joss and smirked back at Seth. He rolled his eyes and went to his room. I wasn’t sure why he needed to change. He was in street clothes since he wasn’t on duty, but whatever.

“Not really.”

I sighed. “Well, that sucks.”

“I guess.” She shrugged.

“You guess? No D.C. boy has sparked your interest?”

Joss looked away, biting her lip as she stared at the white wall across the room. “Not interested.”

“Are you, like, interested in girls?”

Joss turned and rolled her eyes at me. “No.”

“Well, we need to find you a guy tonight. It’s my last night here.”

“And where do you want to do that?”

“I don’t know, but we need guys in our life other than this turd face.” I pointed to Seth as he walked back into the room. My words almost got stuck in my throat when I saw the black tee he was sporting. It was clinging to all his muscles, muscles he didn’t have the last time I’d seen him in Florida. Muscles I didn’t see under his cop uniform when we’d met him for lunch a few times.

“That ain’t gonna happen,” Seth stated.

“Pa-lease, 5-0. You might be my best friend and think you have to approve my boyfriends, but you have another thing comin’.”

“I at least get to do a background check, remember?”

“I’m eighteen, Seth. The guys I’m interested in are too young to have had enough time to have a criminal record.”

“You’ll be surprised, Kitty Cat. They could have juvy records or some shit.”

I groaned. “Whatever. Are you going to treat Joss the same way?” I gestured to her.

“No need. I won’t have time for boys,” Joss stated.

My head snapped back as if she’d slapped me with her ridiculous words. “What?”

“I’ve decided that I’m going to get my prereqs and then go to the academy like Seth.”

“You want to be a cop?” I asked.

“Yeah, I do.” She moved to the front door, apparently ready to leave.