Romance on the Edge 01 - Hooked

send you again, I hope I’ll be along to help.” He looked at her with enough yearning to cause her to envision pushing him down on the table hand-made from driftwood planks. It seemed sturdy enough to hold their weight.
    She took a deep breath. “We’d better get out of here.”
    “Yep.” He glanced at the table as though knowing what she’d been contemplating.
    They made their way back to the beach, after salvaging the best of the broken graham crackers and chocolate bars—the marshmallows showed no signs of damage—and sweeping up the rest of the mess. Too bad she couldn’t have swept Garrett’s kiss from her lips as easily. The crowd was still going strong when they reached the sand. Peter was doing a cooler-drum solo while the rest be-bopped along.
    That was, all but Aidan.
    “All right, finally, here are the goodies,” Wes announced. He had a wicked sweet tooth and was first to reach for the s’mores, opening the bag they’d stuffed everything into. He frowned. “What happened to the graham crackers?”
    “Clumsy fingers,” Sonya mumbled while trying not to look at Garrett, though she felt the heat of his stare.
    “Hope you get them working for picking fish tomorrow,” Wes said.
    “By the way, Garrett,” Aidan asked, “You working for the cannery or as crewman for someone?”
    “Neither.” Garrett paused. “I work for the State.”
    “State?” Sonya turned from unwrapping a chocolate bar. “Biologist? Fish and Game?”
    He slowly shook his head, his eyes holding hers. “AWT.”
    “You’re a fish cop ?” She’d kissed a freaking fish cop?
    He hardened his jaw. A jaw she’d wanted to nibble on a few minutes ago. “We prefer trooper.”
    “Trooper?” Gramps swiveled around, as though looking for the law, having just caught the tail end of the conversation. “Where?”
    “Right in front of you, Gramps. Turns out Garrett’s a trooper.” She really needed to have that talk with him over screening his “potentials.” Look at the position he’d put her in. Put them in.
    “Well, who in the dang blazes invited the enemy?” Gramps grabbed an marshmallow and stuffed it in his mouth.
    Who indeed. Sonya stared until Gramps pulled at his collar as though it was strangling him.
    She caught Aidan’s satisfied smile as he sat back, crossed his ankles, and watched.
    Sonya faced Garrett, her hands anchored to her hips, when they wanted to be grabbing him by his shirt and giving him a good shaking. “Were you planning on telling us who you were?”
    His brow furrowed. “Didn’t think it would be that big of a deal.”
    “Liar,” she said. “Why’d you really come to dinner?”
    Peter pointed an accusing finger. “It’s the fox in the hen house thing. He’s sizing us up.”
    “Is this part of a new trooper undercover program?” Wes asked, his normally steady demeanor looking a bit ruffled.
    “Find out anything useful?” Peter followed up with, not bothering to skewer a marshmallow on the end of his whittled willow branch. He held the stick like a rapier.
    “Nothing criminal if that’s what you mean.” Garrett ran a hand through his short hair and Sonya could feel his frustration. Good. “Listen,” he said, “your name came up on a list of potential problems. I thought it would be a good idea to see how much of a problem.”
    “Reeeally?” She dragged out the word until it sounded more like a challenge than a question. “You have no idea how much of a problem I can be.”
    “Now, Sonya.” Gramps moved in between them. “The man’s explained himself. He’s just doing his job.”
    Was he doing his job when he’d returned her kiss and about burned her up from the inside?
    “Cut the man some slack,” Gramps added, trying to be the voice of reason. Someone needed to be. It sure as hell wasn’t going to be her.
    “But, Gramps,” Peter said. “He came here and ate our food, schmoozed us into compliance, and watch, tomorrow he’ll be fast to write us up for some stupid infraction.”
    “Am I going to need to?” Garrett asked, his voice having gone all trooperish.
    Ooh, that shouldn’t excite her. She was getting confused. That kiss had shifted something inside her. Time to get some distance and sort it all out.
    “All right, that’s enough. Garrett, it’s time to say your goodbyes.” Sonya pushed him back, trying not to let her hand linger on his brick house of a chest. “Peter, Wes, we’ll be having an early start in the morning. Best clean up