The Bridge (Para-Earth Series) (7 page)

             
As soon as they entered the restaurant, the head waiter escorted them to a private parlor.   Alex was already sitting there with several files stacked in front of him.  As soon as he spotted her he quickly put them away, and scooped up two more chairs from a table nearby. 

             
“All right Youngster, just what are your intentions towards my second-in-command?” Roy demanded, without ceremony.

             
Alex didn’t bat an eye, “Scandalous, Sir.”

             
“Any lascivious behavior planned?” the older man persisted.

             
“You’ll have to ask your Sergeant, but I’m hopeful,” Alex had replied, looking at her with big puppy dog eyes.

             
Veronica just shook her head wondering which of them she should be annoyed at.

             
“Fair enough,” her former partner nodded, “But, if you make her unhappy or God forbid cry, there’ll be a station full of police officers waiting to have a ‘talk’ with you.  And I’ll have you arrested and sent there before you can blink, no matter where you are.”

             
Alex stared at him before answering. “With all due respect, if I make her cry I’ll be worrying about the twenty years of police experience she’ll use on me there and then.  There might not be much left by the time your lot even hears about it”

             
As her boss roared with laughter, Veronica leaned over and whispered in Alex’s ear, “I should run you in for incitement.”

             
“Got your handcuffs on you?” he asked innocently.

             
“Yes, and I oiled them this morning,” she replied sweetly.

             
“What are my rights?”

             
“You can come along peacefully or you can resist.”

             
“What happens if I resist?” 

             
She’d been waiting for this.  “I’ll put your arm so far behind your back I’ll be able to introduce your left elbow to your right ear.”

             
Alex blinked several times before he spoke again. “And if I come along peacefully?”

             
“I’ll let you take me out to dinner and more dancing tonight.” 

             
“Coming along peacefully sounds good,” he nodded.

             
She smiled and decided to see what he was really made of.  “Afterwards I’ll take you back to my hotel room and break out my handcuffs.”

             
“You had me at the dancing,” he told her

             
“And the rest?” she purred, wondering if he would decide to cut his losses or turn out to be fetishist.

             
He looked at her with those dark piercing eyes and said, “Could we hold off on that until the third or fourth date?”

             
She raised an eyebrow, “Why not tonight?”

             
“Because I want to make sure that you know that I wasn’t just trying to nail you in bed.  I really like you.”

             
Her jaw fell.  This kind of honesty was not something she had expected. Especially the way he had said it.  There was no attempt at lying in his expression or voice.  He was being completely sincere.

             
So that evening the two them went out for dinner and more dancing.  The next day they explored Central Park, and in the evening went to dinner and a show. 

             
Then, she had to return to Connecticut.  They had already agreed to meet as soon as she could take a few days off and called each other every day for the next two weeks. 

             
The day before she was to return to the city, he called to cancel.  He was leaving town because his grandmother had passed away.  He hoped she would understand.  She told him she did.

             
After hanging up she muttered, “Grandmother, my ass.  You finally decided I’m too old for you.”

             
She was still telling herself this when she went in to work the next day.  Her mood was so bad that her coworkers kept their distance.  Roy finally contacted her by radio and suggested she get out of the station and go on patrol.  She later found out he had been inside his office trying to keep out of her way.

             
After driving around in her patrol car for about twenty minutes, a call came in about an alarm going off at a home not far from her present location.  It was one of the more peaceful and quiet areas of the New Swindon.  Large trees lined both sides of the road, with the occasional home peeking out from behind them.  Nothing happened very often out here. 

             
And now someone was trying to spoil it.  She smiled as she gunned the engine.  Whoever it was, had picked a really bad day to try and pull that kind of shit on her patrol.

             
Rounding a curve she spotted the place where the alarm was going off and caught her breath.  She recognized the small red house immediately, and knew that just beyond it stood a much larger building which was actually a private ballroom.  She had taken dancing lessons in there from the lady who had owned the house.  Her name had been Constance Hill, who had just passed away a few days ago.

             
“No way!” she muttered and quickly pulled into the driveway and behind the strange parked in front of the garage.  She was just about to get out of her vehicle when the person who had set off the alarm emerged.

             
It was Alex.

             
Smiling she switched on the loudspeaker of her vehicle.  “Hold it right there,” she ordered, knowing her voice would be altered by the system.  She also knew he was too far away to see inside her vehicle. 

             
Immediately he froze. 

             
“Hands on your head,” she instructed menacingly.

             
Her admirer obeyed, looking slightly worried.

             
“What are you doing here?

             
“I’m Ms. Hill’s grandson.  She left me this place in her will.  The lawyers gave me the keys but not the code for the alarm,” he answered quickly.

             
“And that’s why you broke a date with your Waltzing Redhead?”

             
His eyes widened, “Oh God, don’t tell me you work with her?  I didn’t make her cry did I?”

             
She got out of the car, microphone still in hand saying, “No, but she couldn’t help wondering if you’d decided she was too old for you after all.”

             
Relieved, he lowered his arms. “I see you brought your handcuffs.”

             
“Well, it was going to be date number four,” she winked, walking over and slipping her arms around his neck affectionately.

             
“Did you really think I was blowing you off?” he asked quietly.

             
“Kind of,” she admitted, feeling a little ashamed.  “You know the age difference?  Does absence really make the heart grow fonder and all that.”

             
He looked her straight in the eye and said, “It did for me.”

             
Blushing she smiled, “Me too.”

             
“Well in that case, I better keep this house and move in.”

             
“Are you serious?

             
He nodded, “I’m able to do most of my work by phone and internet.  Occasionally I’ll have to go in to the city, but I prefer being here.  I’ll have you, my own Ballroom and the old Cathouse just beyond those trees.”

             
“Cathouse?” she repeated, raising an eyebrow.

             
“It’s an old kennel where my Grandfather kept dogs and cats.  But it was mostly cats,” he explained. “My Gran’ always used to swat him whenever he called it that.  I’d get no dessert if I said it.”

             
She had to ask. “So what happened?”

             
“Gran’ used to get the summers off from making goodies,” he answered with a sad look.

             
She laughed out loud.  It felt good.   He was still quite a bit younger than her, but she realized that she’d already fallen for him.  “Are you doing this just because of me?” she asked him.

             
“Mostly, but I also really liked being here.  It became a second home for me,” he said wistfully.  “I spent quite a few summers with my grandparents.  We didn’t go into town much, but I didn’t mind.”

             
“Probably why I never saw you,” she commented.

             
“I was also a good kid.”

             
“Except for no goodies because you kept talking about Cathouses?”

             
Alex gave her a pathetic look, “Never said I was perfect.”

             
Smiling she asked, “Did your grandparents get you into dancing?”

             
He nodded, “Granddad developed heart troubles when I was twelve and wasn’t able to dance as much.  I knew he didn’t want Gran’ to stop so I asked them to teach me.  I’d dance with her, and he would step in and give me pointers.  He died when I was sixteen, so I made sure I stayed here in the summer and during vacation time to be with her.  I felt like I had to keep her dancing, for both their sakes.”

             
‘You are something else,’ she thought.  Then she asked, “So, when are you going to start giving dance lessons?”

             
His eyebrows shot up in surprise, “Who? Me?”

             
“You did a pretty good job back in the city.  And you’re grandmother used to give lessons.  She taught me for a couple of years on and off.”

             
Alex thought about it and said, “I’d need a partner to help me demonstrate.”

             
“I’m not that good,” she told him, knowing exactly where this was leading.

             
He pulled her closer, “Well I’ll just have to give you private lessons now won’t I?”

             
“I’m taller than you,” she pointed out, ‘As well as over a decade older too.’

             
He pressed her body close to his, “I don’t recall us having any trouble with that back in the city.”

             
The last of her resolve crumbled.  “When do we start?” she asked.

             
“I’d say we were off to a good start already,” he murmured and kissed her deeply.

             
She felt her heart racing with delight. But there was something she was forgetting... 

             
The radio on her shoulder crackled and a voice said loudly.  “Sergeant Ross is everything all right, copy?”

             
They both jumped backwards, like a couple of teenagers who had just been caught in the janitor’s closet. 

             
‘Sorry,’ she mouthed and answered her radio.  “Ross here, everything’s fine.”

             
“So I see.”

             
A horn beeped and they both turned around.  A patrol car was slowly creeping by.  Roy was in the driver’s seat.  “There’s a familiar looking Youngster,” he said into the radio.  “And still up to lascivious behavior I see.”

             
“Roy, you’d better not be using an open channel!” Veronica yelled.

             
“Now would I go and use an open channel just to embarrass my second-in-command?” he replied into the mike.

             
Before she could respond several other voices came over the radio. 

             
“I didn’t hear a thing, Sarge…”

             
“Lascivious behavior?  What’s that?”

             
“You go girl…. Er, Sarge.”

             
“They made me keep the channel open Ronnie…” this last one was the station’s dispatcher.

             
“Oh I’m gonna…” she growled and glared at Alex who had been grinning.  Suddenly, the smirk vanished in a puff of seriousness. “Oye, you shouldn’t be playing with official police equipment like that!” he yelled at her boss.

             
“I’ll make the judgment calls about staff and equipment, Youngster,” came her boss’s reply over the radio.  “In the meantime Sergeant Ross can write you a nice little warning about false alarms.  Next time there’ll be a fine.”

             
“What kind of fine, Chief?” she asked, trying to sound professional.