Shane’s throat swelled with sudden emotion. “Don’t you have to get home to feed the kittens?” he ground out.

Novak smiled. “Charlotte’s home. She promised to pick me up later and maybe join us. Tomorrow, we plan to go visit Grace. Do some chores around her place and give her a break from the kids.”

Shane nodded. “I’ll drop by on Sunday if there’s anything she needs.”

He thought about his friends and then he thought about Yael’s text. For the first time since he’d joined the FBI, he was torn about which to choose. Maybe she’d wanna come out for a drink too? After all, she was the one who’d led them to Pierce…

“I have to take this evidence to the lab straightaway for the techs to run a bunch of forensics overnight before the computer people can get started analyzing what’s on them in the morning.” He checked his watch. Twenty-one hundred. “I’ll see you at the bar as soon as I am done.”

Novak nodded. “See if Yael would like to join us. I, for one, would love to buy her a drink.”

Shane huffed out a quiet laugh. He should have known he wasn’t fooling anyone. He thought about the misplaced guilt she carried on her shoulders for Dave Monteith’s death and how, because of her intelligence and hard work, they’d finally arrested the suspect. Even though he wanted to keep her all to himself it wasn’t his call. She’d just moved to the area so she’d probably enjoy getting to know more people.

But how awkward would that be if they stopped seeing one another?

If?

The if surprised him.

He didn’t remember the last time he’d had a relationship last longer than three weeks. Most tended to end as soon as Gold team actively deployed for their sixty-day operations stint.

He shook his head at himself.

It was early days. He had no idea where the two of them would end up eventually. And he knew he’d have to tread carefully around Yael to have any hope with her at all. She’d obviously been hurt in the past and he didn’t want to be the next chump to screw with her.

He felt something for her. He just didn’t know what those feelings were or if they’d last. He wasn’t sure he even wanted to be in any kind of relationship—Grace’s grief and her fatherless children were clear reasons not to get involved.