“Hey, speaking of. How is Rafe?” she asks, giving me a look with a bite of her lip and fidget in her fingers that tells me maybe she’s a little too curious about Rafe.

When I walked in the door, I decided that I did not want to talk about him here. I just wanted to be a regular adult woman who has a drink in public to relax and have fun. But of course, like everything else these days, it always comes back to him.

“He’s good, I guess. I rarely see him,” I lie. “He works a lot.”

“To be honest,” Laini adds, leaning against the bar. “I hadn’t thought about him in a long time since you brought him up the other day. Really threw me for a loop, and I can’t get the guy out of my head now. Are you two…?”

My skin burns hot as I stare at her. How the hell am I supposed to answer that?

“Ummm....” I drawl, staring down at my drink.

“Enough said,” Laini laughs. “I remember that phase of dating Rafe Nolan all too well. And for that, you need another drink.” As she turns away to start making my drink, the hearty voiced old man saddles up to the barstool next to me.

“Officer Nolan?” he asks. He looks like a kind man, with a stark white Tom Selleck mustache and copper tan skin.

“Yeah,” I mumble. Seriously, why can’t we stop talking about him? Does everyone have history with this guy?

“He saved my daughter’s life. I owe that guy everything.”

My heart stops as I stare at the guy. Rafe saved someone? Mister broody boxer with an attitude problem is capable of doing good?

“Oh yeah,” Laini calls from the ice machine. “I forgot about that, Tom.”

“How?” I breathe.

Laini sets down my drink as I stare at the man.

“She got mixed up with a bad crowd after high school. Got picked up for having some drugs on her. We tried to keep her home with us, but she was addicted. Didn’t care what her mother and I had to say, but Rafe didn’t stop. He checked up on her nearly every day. Helped us keep tabs on her. He tracked down the guys who were selling to her, and when he found her passed out in the backseat of her car, he did CPR until the ambulance came.”

“Oh, my God,” I gasp.

“She’s been clean six years now,” he says proudly, and he and Laini raise their glasses. I slowly bring mine up to meet his, trying to reconcile this version of Rafe with the one I know. I’m fairly certain that checking up on addicts after they’ve been released is not part of his job. Why would he do that?

After Tom and Laini take turns buying me drinks, I buy them each a round and before I know it, it’s two o’clock in the morning, and Laini is walking me out to my Uber. I give her a tight hug, like she’s my new best friend.