“Yeah, whatever. What’s up with that grim face? Not get enough beauty sleep?”
“Fuck you.”
“No thanks, you aren’t my type.” Aaron batted his eyes at Cole. “But seriously. What’s up with you the last few days?”
He considered blowing the question off, but Aaron was possibly his closest friend. “Tanya and I are having some issues.”
“That’s fucked up. Sleeping on the couch?”
“Hell, no.” Cole knew he was lucky that his problem was more from the lack of sleep and abundance of sex, rather than being relegated to the couch. It was such a difficult place to be.
Aaron shook his head. “Women are traps, man.”
Cole peered at his friend. “Something going on with you and,” he scrambled to remember Aaron’s fiancée’s name, “Angela?”
“Angel. This wedding stuff is for the birds.”
Cole didn’t want to point it out, but when a man’s best friend didn’t even know the name of the woman he was going to marry, things probably weren’t all they were cracked up to be. Cole had had some reservations about Angel since the beginning, but had only met her a handful of times. To him the relationship seemed to be happening too fast, with too much outside pressure from family and friends who’d set them up. Cole didn’t see the same kind of excitement or passion he felt for Tanya when Aaron talked about Angel.
“What are you two yapping about?” Officer Jake Vant strolled toward them, his gaze on the passing crowd.
It was somewhat frustrating being on-site today. They weren’t even at an entrance, but instead were set up inside the Village. Probably an attempt to give them a break and still have them on hand.
“Women,” Cole answered.
“Ah.” Jake nodded. His wife Nicole was a spitfire.
“What did you do this time?” Jake asked Aaron.
“Me? We were discussing Cole’s transgressions, not mine,” Aaron said.
“You?” Jake gave Cole a disbelieving once-over. “You fucked up, Sarge?”
Jake almost always addressed him as Sergeant, regardless of the situation. Cole could only imagine it amused him. Jake was a good ’ol boy, several years older than Cole and perfectly happy to be some of the brute muscle on the team. Taller than either Aaron or Cole, he was only a little narrower through the shoulders.
“I did not fuck up,” Cole said. “Now if you don’t mind, I am not going to discuss my wife with the two of you idiots.”
“Then why are you sleep deprived?” Aaron asked.
Cole didn’t reply immediately. Jake howled with laughter, drawing the attention of those nearest them.
“I think you’re applying the wrong answer.” Jake continued to snicker.
“Are you three working or jacking off?” Officer Becca Jameson sauntered up, giving all three of them the evil eye.
“Do we get to chose? Because I’d take option number two.” Aaron waggled his brows at Becca, who merely snorted and rolled her eyes at him.
“Figures,” she muttered.
Cole glanced between the two. There had always been a thread of tension there, hostile or horny, he couldn’t quite tell, but in his book they’d make a better fit than Aaron and Angel, and Becca and whoever she was shacking up with these days.
“Actually we’re discussing Sarge’s sex life. Seems his wife is keeping him up a lot lately,” Jake offered, oh so helpful like.
“Is that what it is? Damn, I hope my girl gets pissed and just wants to fuck. That’s the kind of fight I want to have.” Aaron grinned.
“I hope what’s-her-face never wants to see your dick, ever,” Becca retorted.
“Calm down, kids.” Jake held his hands out, still snickering.
“Her name is Angel,” Aaron offered.
“Of course it is. Gag me, please.” Becca leaned against the building next to Cole.
Aaron leaned around the column to peer at their fellow officer. “Is that how you like it?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Becca grinned, but the light didn’t touch her eyes.
Aaron never noticed a thing. He tossed his head back and laughed.
Interesting.
Jake’s smile was firmly in place, but his gaze roved over the nearly empty pathways. “Anyone want to see some of the Games?”
“I could be down for that,” Cole replied, thankful for any other topic, entertaining as the sexual tension between his fellow officers was.
“Yeah, let me see what Angel wants to do.” Aaron patted his pockets for his phone.
“Someone’s whipped,” Becca taunted, intentionally not looking in Aaron’s direction. “I’ll be there. Might as well get to take in some of this stuff.”
Oh boy. They were going to get to go through this again. With significant others along.
Cole couldn’t wait.
* * * * *
Tanya flopped on the metal bench and jumped back up. “Fuck, that’s hot.”
Mallory cackled and chose instead the safer option of landing on the grass. They’d just finished a five-mile skate around the park’s perimeter on the jogging loop. Tanya had been ready to throw in the towel after one lap. The sidewalks were so much harder to skate on than the polished rink surfaces, add in the rolling hills and her legs were completely made of jelly.
Tanya gingerly touched the burned skin on the backs of her thighs. She sank down next to her friend and extended her legs toward the sidewalk.
“Hey, thanks for joining me tonight.” Mallory removed her helmet and lay down on the well-manicured park lawn.
“My pleasure. This was exactly what I needed.” With Cole working so much overtime thanks to the Games, it was nice to have distractions.
“How are things?” Mallory asked, and Tanya knew exactly what she meant.
“Good.”
“Oh come on, details!”
Tanya held up her hand to block the fresh grass clippings her friend threw at her. She bit her lip. Discussing her sex life had never been something she did with as much ease as her teammates.
“Tanya…”
“It’s good, okay?”
“Okay, that’s all you’re going to give me? Seriously?”
“What am I supposed to say?”
“That you’re having hot sex or something, I don’t know.”
“Would you really want to know?” Tanya rolled to her side. She wrinkled her nose, honestly perplexed by the idea of dishing about their bedroom antics.
“It’s kind of interesting listening to the heterosexual side of things,” Mallory replied. “Do you want me to tell you about my sex life? Would that make you feel better?”
“Uh, I don’t know.”
Mallory sighed and stared up at the twilight sky. It dawned on Tanya that there was something her friend wasn’t saying, something maybe she wanted to talk about.
Tanya rolled to her side and prodded Mallory’s shoulder. “What’s up?”
She shrugged. “Aaliyah’s being a pill. Nothing new.”
It was difficult for Tanya to merge the idea of the fun-loving Aussie transplant and the cutthroat, take-no-prisoners African suffragette. Maybe it was their differences that brought them together.
“We want to have kids, but no one will let a lesbian couple adopt. We have to be married, but since the state overturned the same-sex marriage bill last fall, we don’t qualify. You can imagine how pleasant that makes her.”
“Mallory—that sucks.” Tanya didn’t know how to respond. Aaliyah was not Tanya’s favorite person, but she loved Mallory. The couple had been together for years, through so much. Mallory’s parents disowning her, news of Aaliyah’s family’s death, and each had a tough time getting U.S. citizenship. If anyone deserved to have a happy life together, it was the two of them.
“Yeah. It does. We’ll get our day though. They can’t keep us out forever.” Mallory grinned up with her trademark carefree grin. “And you know when we can get married, we’ll have the biggest, craziest party.”
�
�You will.”
“What would you think of being my bridesmaid?”
Tanya stared at her friend, surprise and warmth bouncing around in her breast. “Me? Really?”
“Yeah.” Mallory shrugged. “My family thinks I might as well be dead, and you’re my closest friend, so why not?”
“Of course. I didn’t know you were engaged though.”
Mallory snorted and her brow wrinkled. “What do we need to be engaged for? Aaliyah and I both know we’re inevitably going to end up together for the rest of our lives. A ring isn’t going to change that.”
“I’d love to be your bridesmaid. Or best woman. I don’t even know what you’d call the attendants in a lesbian wedding…”
“Neither do I.”
They both giggled.
“Would you wear the dress or would Aaliyah? Or would you even wear dresses?” Tanya resisted a deep sigh. She’d loved every minute of her wedding, which had been held in her grandparents’ hay barn. Everyone had drunk from mason jars and most people had worn boots. It was one of the happiest days of her life.
“Am I supposed to know these things now? Shit, I don’t know. We’d probably do it at the rink or something before a bout. Do you really think Aaliyah or I are going to wear a frilly dress or even a suit?”
“You’ve got a point there.”
“Throw the brakes on the planning stuff, crazy woman. Sheesh.” Mallory grinned at her. “I’m glad you’ll be there though.”
“I wouldn’t miss it.”
Tanya indulged in her sigh and rolled those precious memories of her wedding around in her mind. Their love had matured, grown. They’d get through this rough patch. She had faith in them.
Chapter Six
Cole roused slowly from sleep, coming awake a little at a time. At first he was aware that the TV was still airing the Olympic coverage, then the aroma of sizzling meat, seasoning and butter let him know he was no longer alone in the house. He’d practically fallen face-first on the couch after getting home. He’d worked the late shift at the Village, come home and slept a few hours before getting an early call to execute a warrant before heading back to the Village.
He rolled onto his back and stretched. At least now he felt more human. He’d still sleep like the dead tonight. A glance at his watch told him it was well into the evening, so Tanya must have been tiptoeing around him for hours. He’d anticipated the afternoon sun waking him up, but again, his wife must have pulled the blackout curtains because the only light was that from the TV and the kitchen.
Cole didn’t deserve this kind of treatment.
Guilt ate at him for how he’d snapped at her the day before. He wasn’t looking forward to the conversation they were going to have, but it was a long time coming. He’d own the fact that there were a lot of things he’d swallowed over the last few years instead of making a fuss. And he’d never thought about it from her perspective before. What he’d viewed as lazy was her trying to make things easier for him. Hell, just a five-minute conversation had given him some important insight.
Maybe she was on to something.
“Hey, you’re awake.” Tanya bent over him, her voice low.
“Yeah, just woke up.” He rubbed the side of his face.
“I bet you’re exhausted. Dinner’s ready. Do you want me to bring you a plate?”
“Nah, I’ll come get it.”
Tanya returned to the kitchen. He followed, dragging his feet and stretching the kinks out of his shoulders and neck. The table was not set, he noticed.
They fixed their plates, moving around each other with ease and practice born of years of familiarity. He followed her lead and took his plate back to the den, where she’d turned up the volume on the TV and curled up on one side of the couch with her bowl of pasta.
“They changed the schedule again today, but I should still have Saturday night off,” he said.
“Awesome. Should I make you a ‘Mrs. Hot Tango’ t-shirt?” Tanya grinned at him.
Cole didn’t understand a lot of the social ins and outs of the roller derby community. Most of it was his own fault for not taking a more active role, but it demanded a lot of time he couldn’t commit. Still, he liked that Tanya had more going on than her work. She was having fun, and as much as she enjoyed her job, he firmly believed she needed something else. It also didn’t hurt that her full schedule kept her from sitting at home while he was called out on missions.
“Can it be pink?” he asked.
“If you want it to be.” She laughed and spooned more food into her mouth.
Cole ate but didn’t taste the food, which was a shame because one of Tanya’s many talents was cooking. He took a drink and cleared his throat. “About yesterday—”
“I’m okay waiting to talk about it if you don’t feel like it now.” The tone of her voice was so serious. Reading between the lines, he knew she hadn’t forgotten and they were going to discuss it.
He shifted so he faced her and rested the bowl on his knee. “Okay. Maybe those points we should talk about later, but I was thinking you were right about one thing. We don’t talk like we used to anymore. I think one of the things with you traveling so much was that we had set times we did talk, and now that we’re always around each other we don’t communicate.”
Tanya nodded slowly. “I can see that. I think we’ve gone days without saying more than a bullet list of our schedule.”
“I’m not saying it’s your fault or mine.”
“It takes two to tango.” Tanya set her bowl on the coffee table and crawled across the couch to lay her head in his lap.
He stroked her hair and rolled an idea around inside his head. At work they had daily briefings, where the whole team got together to go over regular things, touch base and check in with each other. Most of the time he was better connected to his teammates than he was to his wife. So why not take a page from the SWAT handbook?
“I was thinking, what if we set aside times to talk?” Cole suggested.
Tanya rolled onto her back, gazing up at him. “Build new habits. I like it.”
He cracked a grin. “Will you check your schedule and see when you can squeeze me in?”
She rolled her eyes, but he could see the relief relaxing her body, the way she eased into him more. “I think I can do that.”
“Perfect.” He chuckled and spooned another bite into his mouth. The flavors burst on his tongue, tangy with a hint of spice and fantastic. “Mm, this is really good, babe.”
She hummed and curled over on her side, one hand under her cheek. He finished off his dinner and settled in to watch gymnasts compete. It was fascinating from a physical standpoint—the kind of stamina it took to participate at that level. And the girls bouncing around on the mat were less than half his age on average.
“Are you falling asleep?” He stroked Tanya’s hair.
“No.”
“Did you think about that thing I texted you about earlier?”
Tanya propped her chin on her hand and peeked up at him. “You mean that text you sent me that just said ‘Red or black box?’ and nothing else?”
“Yeah, that one.”
“I don’t know what to say. Yes? Do I get to pick this time?”
“If you want.”
She chewed her lip for a moment before sitting up. “Okay.”
“I’ll put the dinner stuff away.”
“Deal.”
They each got to their feet and headed in opposite directions. He was tired, but for Tanya he could muster up some energy.
Cole put away the rest of the food and got the dishes in the washer. He did a quick pass through the rest of the house, checking the window locks, back door and garage out of habit before entering the bedroom.
Tanya was sitting on her side of the bed, the comforter turned down. She wore one of his SWAT t-shirts. Not exactly sexy attire, but he liked her best in his clothes. In her hand was a card.
“What essential ingredient to our sex lives do we have tonight?” he a
sked as he scooted in beside her.
She held up the paper, a serious expression on her face. “Remember the simple pleasures.”
Cole paused and rolled the words around in his head. Simple pleasures?
“I want to cuddle,” Tanya said on a rush of breath.
“Okay.” Because what else was he supposed to say?
Tanya leaned over and flipped the bedside light switch and the room slowly dimmed. Cole removed his clothes down to his boxer-briefs and lay down. Tanya scooted over until she curled around him, her head on his shoulder and hand splayed across his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and drew her in closer.
“I miss this,” she said into the darkness.
“Cuddling?” He struggled saying the word. So he was a guy. Some things didn’t come naturally to him.
“Yeah. We only really cuddle after sex or during a movie. It’s nice to be held.”
He tightened his hold on her. Damn it. Tanya didn’t ask him for much. He’d have to remember this.
“Where do we stand in the medal count?” he asked, not quite ready to sleep yet.
“Last I looked we were behind China for gold, like eighteen to sixteen, but the games barely started.” She stroked his hand over his chest in a distracted manner.
“Do you want to try to get tickets to go see something this week or next? Some of the guys were talking about trying to go together. Interested?”
“Sure. Who is going?”
“Aaron and his girlfriend, Jake, Nicole and some others probably.”
Tanya groaned. “Nicole? Really?”
“I know you don’t really like her, but it’s not like we can just invite Jake and not Nicole.”
“Fine. I’m just going to flirt with Aaron instead.”
“I don’t know about that.” Cole squeezed her tighter.
“Oh? Is that jealousy?” She batted her eyelashes at him.
“No, I just think Aaron is in over his head.”
“I sense gossip. Tell me!”
“Fine. There’s something between him and one of our female officers, Becca Jameson.”
“Brunette, little shorter than me?”
“That’s the one.”
“She’s hot. And a badass.”
“Yup. Anyways, I shouldn’t say anything but this fiancée of his just seems weird to me. He barely knows her and I’m his best friend and I don’t know more than five facts about her.”
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