Page 143 of Girl Between

Jake moved her around the dance floor. They traded small talk for a while. But in the quiet lull between songs, Dana finally asked. “Where’ve you been?”

“The bar, mostly.”

“Not tonight,” she amended.

He smiled. “What happened to putting the questions aside for the night?”

“I know I agreed to that but?—”

His laughter cut her off. “I knew you couldn’t do it.”

“Then why’d you ask me to?”

“Because we deserve it. This,” he said, gesturing to the deep purple night sky above them. “You showed me that. I shouldn’t have given you hell for coming here. I still don’t like the way you left, but I get it now. Needing to take some time for yourself. I never do that. I go from case to case to case, thinking I’ll take time after the next one, but there’s always something else, some other case more important than my plans. I don’t want to live like that anymore.”

“Jake … what are you saying?”

“Not sure. Maybe nothing.” But that wasn’t true. The decision he made wasn’t nothing. Their connection wasn’t nothing. If he told her the truth, potentially, this could be everything.

Dana gave him a penetrating look. Like always she seemed to see past his defenses and cut right to his core. “Are you leaving the bureau?”

“I don’t belong there anymore.” Saying it out loud felt foreign.

“Jake, if being here is putting your career in jeopardy …”

“It’s not that.”

“Then what?”

“It’s hard to explain.”

“Try,” she encouraged, her arms encircling his neck a bit tighter.

He sighed, pondering where to start. “The longer I’ve stretched my time away the less I feel like going back.”

“That’s normal when you take time off. And if anyone deserves a vacation, it’s you.”

Jake smirked. “I know you’re into this kind of stuff, Doc, but traipsing through graveyards isn’t exactly my idea of vacation.”

“Exactly my point,” she said. “You should do something for you.”

“I think that’s what I’ve realized stepping back from the bureau would be.”

“Jake, I know you. You like structure, knowing you’re helping people.”

“Yeah, I do. But maybe I can find another way to do that.”

She looked at him. “You’re serious.”

His plan withered like a sapling under the summer’s sun when she turned the full force of her intense gaze on him. He wanted to shrug off his ridiculous idea and change the subject. But he couldn’t. He’d already pulled the pin on this grenade. Now he needed to assess the damage.

But he needed a moment.

Dana seemed to understand. She let him pull her closer. Together, they swayed under the blanket of stars, content in the quietness for a moment.

Dana spoke first. “You’ve already left, haven’t you?”

He swallowed thickly but nodded.