Nine-Month Protector. Julie Miller

      “We’ll get these bastards. Don’t worry.” Seth had misread Coop’s frustration, but his reassurance offered an easy excuse.

      “I know. We’ll get ’em.”

      While Coop mopped at the mess with a paper napkin, John Kincaid finished his briefing. “I’ll contact you individually with your assignments as they come up. In the meantime, return to your normal duties at your home precinct.” Coop tossed the cup and napkin into a nearby trash can as the captain dismissed them. “And remember to keep a twenty-four-hour line of contact open. We want to be able to mobilize our team the instant something new breaks on this case.”

      “Yes, sir,” Coop answered, joining the chorus of responses from the task force members as they stood and filed from the room. Wadding up a handful of paper towels from the sink near the exit, he traded gibes and snippets of friendly conversation with his fellow cops as they walked past. Soon it was just him wiping down the table where he’d spilled his coffee, and Seth, waiting at the door for him so they could ride back to the Fourth Precinct building together.

      A soft knock at the door echoed in the room’s sudden quiet.

      “Hey, kiddo.”

      Coop recognized what Seth’s familiar greeting meant. He braced for the figurative punch in the gut, even before he turned around to see his partner swallow up his twin sister in a hug.

      “Hey, Seth.” Sarah planted a kiss on her brother’s cheek as she pulled away.

      Coop stood back and watched, remembering, comparing that chaste kiss to the brazen thrust of her tongue in his mouth. Damn. Muscles clenched in hidden places, and he was suffused with a sudden heat that made him itchy beneath his skin.

      He turned away while the brother and sister, who obviously shared such a deep connection, caught up on the past couple of weeks since they’d last seen each other. He couldn’t deny them the joy this impromptu reunion gave them, not when Coop shared the same kind of bond with his own family. But he didn’t have to stand there and watch and want, and wonder how he could be jealous of Seth—Sarah’s brother. Coop’s partner. His best friend.

      Feeling like an unwanted fly at a picnic, Cooper concentrated very hard on carrying the coffee-soaked towels to the trash and dumping them. If there was a back door to this tenth-floor meeting room, he’d already be gone.

      “Hey, Coop.”

      Was that a hesitation he heard in Sarah’s voice? Or was that just his own reluctance to act like nothing had changed between them when everything felt different—twisted—inside him. Of course, he’d made the effort to call her, to stop by her apartment. But her absences and lack of response had made it embarrassingly clear that he was the only one interested in making something happen between them. Or, at the very least, he was the only one interested in making sense of what had felt like a real relationship to him for about twelve hours or so.

      So hell, yeah. If she could pretend nothing had happened that morning, then so could he. Coop strolled over to the doorway to join them, grabbing his KCPD ball cap and pasting on a grin along the way. “Hey, Sarah. So what brings you to Cop Land?”

      “I was hoping I could take you to lunch.”

      She was still a pint-sized ball of pretty. Neither time nor distance nor three months of a cold shoulder that could have raised goose bumps diminished that fact. Today she wore a denim jumper over a deep-green turtleneck that brought out the color of her eyes. Her wheat-and-honey-colored ponytail was the only evidence of the tomboy she’d once been, because there was nothing boyish about the slightly crooked, all sexy mouth beneath the peachy tint of her lipstick.

      “I’ll leave you to it. If you need a ride back to the precinct, Seth, just give me a call.” Coop circled around him and tried to slide out the door without touching Sarah. “See ya.”

      “I meant you, Coop.” He paused at the tug on his sleeve. But when he turned to look down at the hand on his arm, Sarah quickly folded her fingers into her palm and tucked her fist back under the jacket she’d draped over her forearms. “My treat.”

      The upturned eyes pleaded but didn’t explain the out-of-the-blue request. What the hell?

      “Hey, what about me?” Seth protested. “Don’t I rate an invitation?”

      Sarah turned back to her brother, leaving Coop to quiz the possibilities on his own. “I happen to know that Rebecca is picking you up downstairs at noon. She said she has plans for you today.” She cocked her head to one side. “Something about china patterns and silverware?”

      Seth groaned and reached over her to clasp Coop by the shoulder. “Save me.”

      “Hey, don’t look at me. You’re the one who proposed.” It was easier to joke than to let anything get too serious with Sarah standing between them. “I see you as sort of a ‘pewter goblet’ kind of guy myself.”

      “I am wearing a gun, remember?”

      “Cut it out, you two,” Sarah chided them both. “Look, if it makes you feel any better, Rebecca did say something about being able to get the job done in twenty minutes and then having the rest of her lunch break to do whatever it is you two do when you have…free time together?” The wink-wink teasing in her voice was obvious.

      And Seth was eating it up. “Hmm. I think pickin’ out dishes just got a little more interesting.”

      “You wish, Cartwright.” Coop had rarely seen a smile on his partner’s face during the eight long months he’d worked undercover at the casino and gotten cozy with the mob. He wasn’t about to douse Seth’s well-deserved happiness by bringing up anything like the fact he’d slept with his sister and then hadn’t spoken to her for twelve weeks. Even if the latter hadn’t been his choice.

      Seth was already anxious to leave. “So what are you two going to do? If you’re ganging up as best man and maid of honor to pull some kind of prank at the reception or the bachelor party, you can just forget it.” He pointed a stern finger at Sarah. “I know you’re a good girl, but you…?”

      Coop threw his hands up in mock surrender at the accusatory finger now pointed his way. “I’m a good girl, too.”

      “Yeah, right.” Seth’s laugh demanded that Coop and Sarah join in, too. “You guys have fun.” He kissed his sister’s cheek, then poked that finger against Coop’s chest. “Not too much fun, though. You mind your manners.”

      Sarah nudged her brother down the hallway. “I’ll make sure he does. Now go. Don’t keep Rebecca waiting.”

      Seth spared them a glance over his shoulder. “I guess I won’t be needing to bum that ride back to the Fourth. I’ll have Bec drop me off after we…lunch.”

      “Braggart.”

      With a laugh, Seth strutted off toward the elevators. The hallway outside the briefing room was awkwardly quiet, now that Coop was alone with Sarah.

      “Wow.” Sarah hugged her jacket to her waist and watched her brother all the way until his parting salute from behind the closing elevator doors. “I haven’t seen Seth this happy in months. He’s like the young guy he used to be before…” Her voice trailed away as though she was surprised to discover just how distasteful the end of that sentence was going to be. She leveled her shoulders and turned back to Coop. “Who’d have thought his arch-nemesis Rebecca Page would turn out to be so good for him?”

      “Yeah. Who’d’ve thunk?” Coop agreed. Sarah’s gaze danced to the left. He studied the corduroy collar on her jacket. Yeah, this was awkward. “Don’t you have school today?” he asked, needing to hear something besides strained silence.

      Green eyes met his. “I took the morning off. I had a doctor’s appointment.”

      A flare of genuine concern made him lean in half a step. He understood bad news from the doctor better than most. “Are you sick? Hurt?”

      She