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Cool morning air wafted over Ophelia's face as she cracked her window and started the car. Usually, she'd take the forest path during weather like this - sunny and far warmer than a February day should be - but the recent attacks had soured her enjoyment of secluded places. Fear followed her like a bad odor, tainting her thoughts and causing her to second-guess her habits.
So, walking was out. Driving was in.
As she pulled out of the parking lot, the wind carried a faint echo of a favorite song from a passing car, and Ophelia switched on the radio to the only good station in town. The song blared to life, and even the excess static from worn speakers couldn't dim her small smile of contentment. She dared to sing along - softly, because the window was open and someone might hear - and let herself relax into the seat that had conformed to her body shape over their long years together.
"Because your kiss is on my list of the best things in life..."
Today, she'd been invited by Farah and Nate to a Valentine card making event at a local elder care home, Sunny Meadows. Ophelia had agreed less because she had artistic talent and more because it was a good cause - each volunteer was given the names of several older people living in the facility and asked to make a card for each of them. The volunteers could make cards for other people, too, but Ophelia didn't really care about that. Who would she give a Valentine card to, anyway?
She supposed she could make a card for Tina, who loved that kind of thing, especially if it involved copious amounts of glitter. And... perhaps Verda would appreciate the thought? Though she'd definitely leave the glitter off that one.
She could make cards for Unit Bravo, too, she supposed.
A vision of Adam and Morgan's confused expressions as she handed them paper hearts was enough for her to wilt into her seat. She bit her lip. Farah and Nate would be there, and it would only be right to make cards for them. Neither of them would laugh at her for it. Farah, like Tina, would be over the moon, and Nate...
Her chest suddenly felt tight as she imagined Nate's pleased expression, his warm brown eyes crinkled with joy and that soft, slightly crooked smile he sometimes gave her. She'd never seen him use it with anyone but her, so she'd begun thinking of it as her smile.
Even though it probably wasn't true.
Even though it was a terrible idea to let the tender feelings grow any stronger.
Ophelia pulled into the drive for Sunny Meadows just as the song ended. She parked, rolled up her window, and reached into her messenger bag to grab hold of her facility-issued taser. A quick look around assured her no one was likely to jump out at her, so she got out of the car and began walking with intention toward the home's front door. As she approached, two figures detached from a shaded alcove, and Opehlia tensed.
"Don't get your knickers in a twist!" Farah's voice called. "It's just us."
They stepped into the sunlight a moment later, Farah bouncing on her toes and grinning wide. Nate's smile was warm but subdued. It strengthened, however, as they drew closer, and Ophelia swallowed to alleviate her suddenly dry throat. She shook her head and focused on Farah.
"Where did you learn that phrase?"
"I've been watching old movies to learn more about human history, and there are some real gems in those period dramas, let me tell you."
"I'm not sure we should consider Bridgerton an historically accurate period drama," Nate said with an indulgent smile.
He caught Ophelia's eye and raised a brow as if they were sharing a joke. Ophelia smiled in return, and with his hair styled back from his face - the longer locks sweeping away from his crown in artful swoops - she could see the way his whole face brightened.
He'd let his hair grow since they'd met, and the strands now curled over his collar. She had to fight back the urge to reach up and thread her fingers through the dark locks every time she saw him.
Her fingers itched. She bit her lip, and Nate's expression slid into something more sultry. Her heart picked up its pace-
Farah cleared her throat in that pointed way that meant Ophelia had been staring. Her cheeks heated as she turned away from Nate.
"Excited to get started?" she asked Farah.
"Oh yeah," Farah said, her grin widening further. "I've got a huge list."
"We're here to make cards for people in the home, Farah," Nate reminded her.
Farah rolled her eyes. "I know."
Nate harrumphed but then shot a wink in Ophelia's direction, setting afire the cheeks that had begun to cool. "True be told, I have a bit of a list myself."
Farah laughed and playfully punched Nate in the arm. "You big hypocrite." She then took hold of Ophelia's hand and began drawing her toward the entrance. "What about you, Detective?"
"Me?"
Instead of paying attention to the conversation, Ophelia was busy processing the fact that Farah had so casually touched her. Was still touching her. And, strangest of all, she didn't feel uncomfortable at all.
Which, of course, set off every internal alarm for self protection she'd cultivated over the past thirty or so years. She gently extracted her hand on the pretext of digging through her bag for lip balm. Luckily, Farah seemed oblivious.
"Who's on your list?" she asked.
Farah waggled her brows, and Ophelia couldn't help the small smile that broke through even as she shook her head. "Tina would like something like this, I suppose, so I'll probably make her a card if I have time."
"Anyone else?" Farah prompted.
Ophelia spread vanilla balm over her suddenly dry lips and tried not to glance at Nate. She failed, and even though it happened all the time, she was still startled to find him already looking at her. Or rather, at her mouth.
She bit back a gasp and looked away. Farah rolled her eyes and turned to push through the door, and Ophelia quickly followed.
"I thought about Verda," she answered with a shrug. "But he probably gets too much junk like this from his kids."
Farah stopped so fast, Ophelia ran right into her back. Farah pulled away and put her hands on her hips as she turned to face Ophelia, a deep frown overtaking her formerly joyful expression.
"What do you mean 'junk'?"
"Nothing bad," Ophelia said, unrepentant. "Kids just make a lot of things in school. Verda has some of it up around his desk, but I imagine he gets stuff like Valentine cards all the time. He might not want yet another thing to clutter up his desk."
"Then he's a Scrooge, and I don't like him."
Nate snorted, and Ophelia blinked as she realized how close he was standing behind her. Her body tingled with awareness, and she clenched and unclenched her fingers around her bag strap.
"He's not a Scrooge. He's a tired father."
And a scared father. She held back the grimace at the thought of the forthcoming dinner with Eric and Verda. And she had yet to choose which of her Unit Bravo partners to bring.
Nate was the obvious choice. She didn't know why she was still wavering. Farah was too likely to say something scary just to make a "joke," and taking Adam or Morgan would be a disaster. They wouldn't be sympathetic to a human's fears at all, whereas Nate-
"Helloooo?" Farah sang. "Earth to the Detective."
Ophelia cleared her throat and started following the posted signs. "We should sign in and get started."
The signs led them to an open room with dingy vinyl flooring made worse by green-tinged fluorescent lighting. The only saving graces were the red and pink string lights along the walls, the heart decorations hanging from the ceilings, and the pink and white fake flowers in red vases at each table. They'd arrived early, but a few people of various ages already sat around the tables, scissors and glue in hand. Ophelia caught sight of a couple of young girls sitting at a table to their left, a sign to "check in" adhered to the front with blue tape, and approached with her "public servant" smile firmly in place.
Too bad neither of the girls spared her a glance.
"Oh, hello!" said the more outgoing girl of the two, her blond hair shining and make-up picture perfect. She stood up and leaned toward Nate. "Are you here to make cards for the old people?"
"The residents!" hissed her dark-haired companion before standing and hip-checking her friend to move her over. "You can sign up here - just your name, email, and phone number. Then we'll get you a list of Sunny Meadows residents, and you can get started."
Nate took the clipboard she offered with a warm smile, and the girl looked like she might melt into the floor. Ophelia wished she couldn't relate quite so much with a love-struck teenager, but she'd been on the receiving end of that smile too many times to not appreciate its power.
When Nate glanced down, however, the smile slipped into confusion. "There doesn't seem to be a place on the form for a phone number?"
The blond-haired girl smiled and leaned in front of her companion. "Oh, you can just write it-"
"Why don't you let me sign up," Ophelia interrupted as she placed a hand on the clipboard, "and you and Farah can go find us a table?"
Nate looked down at her, his warm smile returning as he let her take the clipboard. She ignored the fizzling heat threatening to turn her cheeks as pink as the gaudy hearts dangling from the ceiling.
"Gladly," he said before leaning a little closer and murmuring, "We'll be waiting for you."
Heat barreled over her willpower, rushing to her cheeks and burning the tips of her ears, but she managed to keep a neutral expression as she nodded. The blond girl watched him go and then turned narrowed eyes on Ophelia.
"We'll need three lists, please," Ophelia said to her with a raised brow.
The girl huffed but turned around to pick up three pre-made lists from the pile behind them as Ophelia filled out the signup sheet. She passed the clipboard back to the dark-haired girl, who handed her the lists and offered a vaguely guilty smile in return.
"Have fun!"
Ophelia gave her a tight-lipped smile and a nod. A short line had formed behind her, so she stepped to the side, looking around to see where her companions had gone.
Farah was easy to spot, grinning and waving from a table in the opposite corner of the room. Beside her, Nate smiled his warmest smile, emitting a thousand-watt wave of heat even from across the room. Ophelia blew out a breath as a bundle of nerves tied themselves into knots in her stomach.
She'd hoped that Nate's interest in her would've petered out by now. But with every moment they spent together, he only seemed to grow more intent on showering her with affection. Since the moment at the carnival when she'd told him she wasn't ready to date, though, he'd been more careful with his words and touches, which had almost made things worse... because now she couldn't fall back on the idea that he wouldn't respect her boundaries.
In short, everything was a mess, and she had only herself to blame. She should've been more firm. Told him she didn't want to date him. But he'd looked at her with those soulful brown eyes, and she'd allowed herself to imagine a day far in the future when his attention didn't make her whole body buzz while also feeling like she was being torn in half on a rack.
And all of that wasn't even taking the Adam problem into account. Green eyes flashed in her mind's eye, but she shook away the vision and headed for the table.
By the time she crossed the room, Farah had cut out four hearts and was making generous use of the glitter glue. Ophelia deliberately avoided Nate's gaze as she chose to sit next to Farah, the younger vampire now sandwiched between them. A swooping line of flashing gold on a bright pink card begged the recipient to "Be mine."
"That's... really good, Farah," Ophelia said.
Farah snorted. "You sound surprised."
"I just didn't realize you had such a talent for lettering."
"It's from all the journaling I've been doing."
Nate hummed. "The journal Adam got you?"
"Mmmhmmm. He said I should write out my troubles, but it was more fun to draw in it. I've got all these fun pens, too." She looked up at Nate. "Not like your fancy old-people pens from the dark ages, though."
Nate barked a laugh, though he kept his eyes on the scissors and paper as he painstakingly cut out a perfect heart shape. "Fountain pens might be based on quill pens, but they aren't quite that old. What do you know about the dark ages, anyway?"
Ophelia pressed her lips together to hold back a smile as the two of them bantered. Farah often drove her up the wall with her teasing and prodding at sensitive topics, but she couldn't deny the youngest member of Unit Bravo had a special kind of charm.
The two continued to chat back and forth as Ophelia pulled a piece of bright red paper out of the pile in the middle of the table. She glanced at Farah's single hearts again before watching Nate finish the final flourish on his own, slightly larger heart on a soft pink paper. She pressed her lips together and let her gaze scan over the myriad of decorating supplies Farah had pulled out of the plastic tub: glitter glue in shades of gold, silver, hot pink, and red; stencils of hearts and letters and curving filigrees; pens and markers of various colors and thicknesses; decorative scissors that made patterns when cutting paper; and even a few heart stamps and ink pads.
Ophelia bit her lip. She'd never been good at creative things, though not for lack of trying. She reached for a pair of regular scissors, but as soon as her fingers touched the metal, she pulled her hand back to hover over the decorative scissors, instead. She liked the idea of perfectly filigreed edges.
Though... maybe she should draw a line to follow before cutting? She passed over the scissors and picked up the heart-shaped stencil instead. She slowly lowered it back to the table as she glanced at Farah's beautiful lettering and then eyed the glitter glue-
"I believe the best advice in a situation like this is to keep it simple, sweetheart."
Ophelia's breath stilled in her lungs, and she blinked up at Nate, who was leaning toward her over the table and giving her that smile again. "Did... did you just call me 'sweetheart'?"
Nate cleared his throat, and his smile slipped into something more like a wry smirk. "Ah, well... the usual phrase is rather unflattering if Morgan is to be believed. And I could never call you that, especially not when you're one of the sweetest, most intelligent people I know."
Her unattractive sputtering only lasted for a few seconds, but the heat of embarrassment lingered on her cheeks far longer. She tore her gaze away from him to stare at her hands as they fumbled with the stencil, using all her will-power to fight the urge to run away.
"And I had to use something that starts with 's,'" Nate continued in a matter-of-fact tone, seemingly oblivious to her emotional breakdown, "because I rather like the acronym: KISS. So, sweetheart it is. Appropriate for Valentines' Day as well, don't you think?"
The heat in her cheeks had reached critical levels. She muttered a few unintelligible grunts of vague agreement but couldn't bear to look up at him again. Why did he have to say things like that? Out loud?
"I'm gonna move tables if you two are going to awkwardly flirt over me like this."
Farah's deadpan tone broke Ophelia from her daze just as Nate let out a little grunt of pain and whipped his head over to frown at Farah. Ophelia snatched up a stencil, laid it over her paper and proceeded to stare at it a beat too long.
"Fold the paper over before you stencil, and you can make a heart-shaped card," Farah suggested in a softer tone before turning to Nate. "There's a light pink glitter glue over there. Can you get it for me pretty please with sugar on top?"
"Why can't you-"
"Pleeeeeease, Nate?"
She fluttered her long, dark lashes as she begged. Nate sighed, seemed to hesitate, and then stood and walked away. Farah grabbed up a piece of foil paper and started playing with it, the crackling loud in the space between them. Ophelia looked up with a frown but Farah was already talking.
"He doesn't mean to come on so strong. He just hasn't quite figured you out, yet."
"And you have?" Ophelia asked with a raised brow. Her insides still squirmed, but Nate's distance had calmed the worst of the feeling.
"Nope. Not a bit. But I recognize a flight risk when I see one, and I want a Valentine's card from you to pad my collection. Besides, if you don't do your share of these lists, Nate's gonna make me stay and help him, and my list is long enough as it is."
Ophelia opened her mouth but realized she had no response to that. A bottle of light pink glitter glue appeared in front of Farah's face, and she dropped the foil paper to snatch the glue bottle.
"You're the best, Natey-kins!"
Ophelia kept her eyes on her red paper, carefully aligning the edges long ways before using the side of the scissors handle to press the fold perfectly flat. From the corner of her vision, she could see Nate's hands curled into fists on the table. Farah's hand briefly came to rest on one of them, and the fist uncurled to squeeze her hand before reaching for his discarded project.
Picking up the stencil, Ophelia focused on drawing a row of hearts down the half page, making sure to leave off just enough of one side of the heart to make a fold. By flipping the stencil, she managed to fit five on the sheet. She picked up the scissors and began carefully cutting along the stencil lines. When she had five perfectly stacked heart cards, she looked at Farah.
"Uh, now what?"
"Just write some lovey dovey phrases on them. I looked up a bunch before we came so I'd get the human phrases right, but there's also a suggestion sheet over there."
Ophelia looked at the sheet Farah had pointed out and half stood from her chair to reach over the table for it. It was a little too far away, but before she could push away from the table to properly stand up and get it, Nate picked it up and offered it to her. She swallowed and managed to meet his gaze for a heartbeat as she mumbled her thanks and took the sheet. To her frustration, heat flooded her cheeks again.
She grabbed the pencil, plotting out the letters of the first phrase. It'd been a while since she'd used cursive, but she liked the look of the looping script best. After finishing her sketches, she decided to leave the glitter to Farah and reached for a gold metallic marker instead.
As they worked, the room filled with more people until every table had at least one or two volunteers. A few older people began filing into the room as well, and she realized these were likely the residents themselves come to take part in the festivities.
The influx of people also meant more children yelling at each other as they ran around the tables, glitter streaked over their hands and sometimes their faces and hair, too. Ophelia tried not to grimace when a child got too close to them, their shrieking grating over her senses like metal grinding against metal. She would never begrudge them their fun, but she realized she hadn't adequately considered the environment when planning for this outing, the anticipation of seeing Nate and Farah for the first time in weeks blinding her to the possibility of a sensory overload. She longed for her headphones but did her best to tune out the noise as she worked.
When she'd made the final curl of the "e" in a card asking someone to "Be My Valentine," she was discouraged to find Farah had already filled a quarter of their table with her glitter-tastic creations. Ophelia looked over her comparatively bland designs, her lips twisting to the side.
A quick glance revealed Nate had his own pile of cut-out hearts along with squares of paper with smaller hearts glued on in cute groupings around his writing. She took a moment to appreciate the beauty of his flowing script. He didn't look up but seemed to notice her attention all the same.
"I've had a lot of practice with this kind of writing," he said as he flicked his wrist to add a looping flourish at the bottom of the card.
"Did you learn it in school?" she asked, curiosity overtaking her residual embarrassment.
"I had a tutor during my early years for reading and writing. His penmanship was impeccable."
"And he expected nothing less from you?"
"Just so," Nate said, glancing up to meet her gaze for a brief moment before focusing once more on his writing.
Mesmerized by the way his long fingers moved the pen, Ophelia only nodded. A small smile curved his lips, and she glanced away to finish her own projects.
She had five completed cards, but the resident lists had six names for each of them. Despite her reservations about the appropriateness of her cards compared to Farah's, the simplicity of the designs suited her, so she decided to stick with it. She repeated the process with a light pink and then hot pink paper. Once she had them all cut out and lined up, she embellished with a few drawn-on hearts before moving through her list, addressing each resident by name, adding a short note hoping they have a happy Valentine's Day, and printing her name at the bottom. She put each one in a provided envelope and wrote the names on the outside as well.
"There, I've completed this list. Who wants to do the next one?"
Farah looked up from her latest creation - a monstrosity of hearts and glitter - and reached out with a surprisingly clean hand.
"I think some of my first ones might be dry enough."
Nate plucked the lists from Ophelia's hands before Farah could grab them. "Let's wait on yours a little longer. I don't want to give the residents any smeared Valentine's cards."
Farah shrugged and went back to work adding metallic dots around a red glitter flower. Nate pulled a few of his cards out and began writing. Ophelia looked down at her remaining cards, considering her options. She drew a light pink heart from the pile and picked up a bottle of red glitter glue.
By the time Nate finished his resident cards and added them to the pile, Ophelia had a small pile of her own completed cards - one each for Verda, Tina, Haley, and even a generic one for Doug. She wavered on who should get the last five cards. It seemed unfair to give cards to Nate and Farah and not Adam and Morgan, even if they wouldn't appreciate the effort. Still...
She spread out the cards and picked one for each vampire based on the sayings: "Life without you would be rather blue" for Farah, "I'm stuck on you" for Morgan (with an added "like old chewing gum on the bottom of your shoe" written in small print below the scripted saying), and "You're a sweetheart" for Nate as a sort-of apology for how poorly she'd reacted to his earlier words.
She was down to the final two cards - "My one and only Valentine" and "I heart you" - before she realized she should probably give one to Rebecca as well. She grimaced and bit her lip, wishing she'd thought more about her message choices earlier. Perhaps she could make another set-
"Okay, that's it for me!" Farah said as she crossed the final name of her list. "I'll take these to those lovely girls so they don't try to eat you up, Natey."
Nate lifted a brow. "I think I can handle a couple of children."
Farah sucked a breath through her teeth. "Oooh, burn! I'll be sure not to tell them you called them that. It'd probably send them into some sort of broken heart coma."
Farah gathered up the envelopes and the list and skipped off to the front, and Ophelia knew her time was up. She grabbed the cards and wrote the first words that came to her, signed her name, and shoved them in their envelopes.
"Did you get to make cards for everyone?" Nate asked.
She jerked a little at how close his voice sounded and turned to find him sitting in Farah's seat. The smile was barely there now, his face strangely neutral as he watched her. She opened her mouth to answer, but Farah was already calling out for them as she approached and rested her hands on the back of the nearest chair.
"Okay! So... I didn't really think about it, but... I don't have a way to get the ones with wet glue back to the warehouse without making a million trips. Think you could help me out, Detective?"
She batted her eyes at Ophelia just as she'd done to Nate earlier. Ophelia snorted.
"You want me to get glitter all over my back seat because you used too much glitter glue?"
"Yep!" Farah affirmed with a wide grin.
They held gazes, and Farah winked. Ophelia thought of the way Farah had tried to comfort her after her brain had melted from Nate's overwhelming attention. She let her shoulders fall in defeat.
"Fine," she said in a displeased tone.
Farah jumped up and clapped her hands. Nate chuckled and offered to find something to help move the cards to the car. They ended up borrowing some of the home's dinner trays and lining the seats, floorboards, and even her small trunk with all of Farah's cards. They said their temporary goodbyes, and Ophelia ignored the lingering look Nate gave her before he blurred away after Farah.
When she arrived, Morgan and Adam were waiting outside along with Nate and Farah. Ophelia's body flashed hot and then cold, especially with the way Adam's gaze pierced through the windshield and straight into her. She ignored the reaction in favor of parking carefully and unlocking the car.
Adam opened her door before she'd even taken the key out of the ignition, leaning down to eye her up and down while Farah opened the passenger door and immediately began passing Valentine's cards to Morgan and Nate to carry inside. Heat flashed through Ophelia again as her gaze collided with Adam's.
"I thought you said the Detective needed our help," Adam accused as he stood up and looked over the roof at Farah, a frown pulling at his stern features.
"Technically," Ophelia said, doing her best not to glance at the thick, jean-clad thighs right at eye level, "I do need help getting Farah's monstrous confections out of my vehicle before it looks like a glitter bomb went off inside."
She realized her mistake as soon as she stood from the car. Adam was closer than she'd thought, and the proximity engaged both a desire to run and a desire to lean closer. The result was a wobble that drew Adam's instant attention. His hand wrapped around her waist to steady her - gods, his hand was big - and his frown deepened into a scowl.
"Are you unwell?"
"No." The word came out as a whisper. She cleared her throat and tried again. "No, I'm fine."
His palm was like a brand against her skin, even through several layers of clothing. She couldn't look away. His green gaze softened, drifting from hers to wander over her face. When it landed on her lips, he took a step closer.
"I'm fine," she repeated.
Or tried to. She couldn't seem to draw quite enough air into her lungs to make them work the way she wanted.
"Are you two gonna help?" Morgan griped as she returned from her first trip, flicking her lighter. "If I have to carry more than my share, I'm going to start setting them on the fire."
Farah's screech echoed through the empty space of the warehouse facade - that she'd heard Morgan and that she'd better not ruin Farah's hard work. Adam jolted and took a long step back, and Ophelia darted away, her entire body buzzing like a live wire, her breathing reduced to soft, uneven huffs.
She rounded the back of the car, lifting the hatch to reveal rows of red, pink, and gold. Her fingers curled around the cold metal, and she squeezed her eyes shut, willing her body to calm as she sucked in a long breath, held it, and then exhaled. At the same time, she saw Adam pick up a few of Farah's cards from the front seat before speeding away.
When Nate's calm tone followed close behind Farah's, a well of guilt bubbled up in her throat, but she swallowed it back. She'd never promised Nate anything, never given him reason to treat her as anything but a friend. If he was reading into her physical reactions to him, it was his own damn fault. She couldn't help her involuntary reaction to him any more than she could help the way her body reacted to Adam's closeness. It didn't mean she wanted to do anything about it - with either of them.
The fine hairs rose up on her arms and neck as Nate appeared at her side. She bit her lip and leaned down to grab the edges of a card. A slight breeze blew it from her fingers, and she cursed, grabbing for it as it fell.
In a flash too fast to be seen, Nate snatched the card out of the air before it could land face down on her trunk lining. It did, however, release a puff of glitter into the fuzzy fabric. Ophelia groaned and then huffed out a laugh.
"Thanks," she said, sending him a sidelong glance.
"I'll gladly save you from glue catastrophes any day," Nate said in a faux serious tone. "But I fear we're both already doomed by the glitter."
He bumped her shoulder with his own, and she bumped back before finally looking him full in the eye for the first time since that awkward moment around the table. His smile had returned to normal, warmth crinkling the edges of his eyes. She smiled back and nodded.
Together, they managed to relocate all of the cards onto the dining table with only a few casualties to the wind. Morgan grunted that she needed a shower to get rid of all the fake sunshine, but before the reticent vampire could stalk away, Ophelia cleared her throat, catching everyone's attention.
"Uh, I made some things, too, and... um..." she trailed off as she struggled to pull the envelopes from her coat pocket. "And these are for you."
While carefully avoiding eye contact, she handed out a card to each of them and then began backing toward the exit. "I've got to drop by the station to catch up on some paperwork, and I'm sure you all are busy, too. So... happy Valentine's Day, I guess. And... I'll see you around."
She hurried out the door, ignoring the cut-off sound of protest from Nate. She had no intention of making them feel like they needed to open the cards in front of her or - gods forbid - thank her for the shoddy crafting.
And she definitely didn't want to be there to watch Adam give her a tight smile of insincere thanks before he chucked the card in the trash.
The station was safe. She could stop by the cafe to bring Haley her card, leave the cards for Verda, Tina, and Doug on their desks, and then use the slowness of the weekend to catch up on Agency paperwork from her last case with them. She could forget about the way she'd felt when Nate's smooth voice had called her "sweetheart" and the equally concerning way she'd wanted Adam to step even closer during their brief encounter.
Work was finite and knowable. It was all she'd ever needed up to now, and she'd make sure it stayed that way.
Even if it killed her.
Adam watched Farah remove her hand from Nate's arm. She'd clearly held him back from going after the Detective, but he was unclear on the context of the action. Had something happened during their outing?
He stared down at the card in his hand, his name staring back up at him in the blocky print letters he'd come to know almost as well as his own. His fingers clenched, and the paper cracked in protest. He quickly loosened his grip, terrified he'd ruined whatever was inside.
"Ha!" Morgan barked, a rare wide grin on her face. "Old chewing gum."
"Is that the Detective's card? What'd she write?"
Farah crowded close to Morgan, trying to see over her shoulder, but Morgan scowled and whipped the card away. "Stop snooping. You've got your own card."
"What does yours say, Farah?" Nate asked.
"That her life would be blue without me," Farah said with a flip of her coily hair. "What about yours?"
"It says I'm a sweetheart," Nate replied with a wink.
"Ohhhh! That's clever subtext." Farah frowned. "That is subtext, right?"
Nate laughed, joy apparent in every line of his face. "It is, yes."
Adam's heart clenched, though he did his best to regulate his reactions. However, the more time he spent around Oph... the Detective, the more difficult it became. Although he still patrolled around her apartment most nights, he hadn't seen her in weeks due to their busy schedules. He'd been almost desperate enough to tag along to their crafting outing just to hear her voice again.
And then he'd been so distracted by her nearness earlier that he'd almost ruined everything.
He needed to stop this. He needed to focus on their next mission-
"What subtext?" Adam asked instead.
Nate's smile dimmed a little. "I may have... overwhelmed Ophelia earlier today with something I said, but this card is obviously her way of telling me things are okay between us."
Adam's heart clenched again, harder this time. Nate's smile faded completely into a concerned expression, and he cocked his head to the side.
"You haven't opened your card."
Adam looked down at the envelope in his hand. He shoved it into his back pocket and shrugged.
"You have another card there, too," Adam observed.
"Yes," Nate said with a frown, patting the sealed envelope against his opposite palm. "It's for Ophelia, but she left before I could give it to her."
"I think you mean 'ran out,'" Farah corrected. "The girl was in a hurry. Didn't take my card for her either."
"She's a busy woman," Adam said in a stiffer tone than he'd meant to use. Everyone turned to look at him, and he cleared his throat. "I'm sure we'll see her again soon enough. Until then, we have work to do. We should get changed and meet in the living room in five."
A rumble of discontent came from Farah and Morgan, but a moment later, they flashed away to follow orders. Nate stayed a moment longer, his expression still concerned and perhaps a bit wary. He opened his mouth, but then closed it again.
"Do you have something to say?"
Nate huffed out a breath. He glanced down at the unopened card in his hand, and then turned an assessing eye on Adam.
"How long do you think this mission will take?"
"About the same amount of time as the last one. Unit Alpha is taking our patrols."
Nate's expression soured into discontent but then faded into acceptance. "I suppose there's no help for it. I'll see you in a few minutes."
Nate flashed away before Adam could respond, so Adam followed suit, entering his bedroom and pulling out his tactical gear. He paused, however, to pull the card from his back pocket, carefully flatten the slight curl of the paper caused by its time in his pocket, and pop open the sealed envelope.
A flash of bright pink caught his eye. He extracted the heart-shaped paper, gaze taking in the golden lettering proclaiming "My one and only Valentine."
His throat constricted even as his heart leapt in his chest. It took him three tries to swallow through it as his eyes traced over the letters again and again. Was it just a random saying? The words were clearly written in her hand, though in a script instead of her usual print. Was it just a coincidence that she wrote down the exact words that would most turn his world upside down?
His hands shook as he realized the heart was folded over. He opened it to find her familiar print scrawled over both sides.
I know you've had little reason to trust or care about humans in your long years as a vampire and even less reason to care about dumb human holidays. But... in the spirit of the day, I wanted you to know that over the past few months, you've been the only one my rock in the chaos of this new world. I wouldn't have survived it without you. Literally. So... thanks. - Ophelia
PS: Let's agree to never speak of this, okay?
Adam let out a surprised bark of laughter at the post script, but to his shock and dismay, the sound came out watery. He dropped the card on the bed and rubbed his hands over his face.
No. NO.
He couldn't let this happen!
He turned away and pulled on his gear with a quickness only a vampire could manage. He had less than a minute before he needed to be in the living room, so he flashed to the door, his hand on the knob.
He leaned forward until his forehead hit the door, and he groaned.
Walking back to the bed, his gaze caught on the words once more as he picked up the paper. A leather-bound printing of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight sat on his nightstand - a printing press first edition that he'd picked up during his travels with the Agency. He opened to his favorite scene and let his gaze linger on the carnival photo of himself and Ophelia already ensconced between the pages. The bright paper found its home below the picture. After a final look, he closed the book and sped off to do his duty to the Agency.
And if he replayed Ophelia's words over in his head during the long hours of waiting and reporting during the following weeks, he was the only one who knew it.