“Freaking Tinker Bell, reminding me I have my final dress fitting at six.” She glanced at her watch. Just after five. Where the hell had this day gone? “I’m going to hit SVU before I head out of here. You’re on the rest?”

“Yep.”

“Shoot me a report at home. I’ll authorize overtime.”

“For what?” asked a voice behind her.

Sam spun around to find her captain and mentor standing with his hands on his hips, his silver eyebrows knitted.

“Has there been a murder I don’t know about?”

Pressed for time, Sam glanced at Freddie. “Will you please fill in the captain?”

“You got it.”

“Dress fitting,” Sam said sheepishly.

Malone grinned. “Will you take video so we can laugh at you later?”

The phrase “bite me” was on the tip of her tongue.

“She has something she’s dying to say,” Freddie said, sharing a laugh with the captain.

God, she couldn’t wait to get the wedding behind her. “Get to work, Cruz.”

He choked back a grin and said, “Yes, ma’am.”

Sam forced a phony smile for her boss. “Captain.”

“Lieutenant.” He tapped his watch. “Don’t be late now.”

“Bite me,” she muttered under her breath and felt better even as laughter followed her out. Navigating her way through HQ, she took the elevator to the third floor where the special victims unit resided. Sam asked the department’s admin assistant for Detective Ramsey.

“One minute, Lieutenant. Let me see if he’s available.”

While she waited, Sam made a quick call to her sister Tracy to let her know she hadn’t forgotten about the fitting and would be there shortly. She knew she’d been a bit of a handful as a distracted bride. That was why Shelby, the wedding planner she called “Tinker Bell,” had programmed reminders into her cell phone. Without them, Sam would’ve been even more of a disaster. She had no doubt it would be a wonderful, beautiful, memorable day. But she was ready for the hoopla to be over and life to return to normal.

That thought made her laugh to herself. Since reconnecting with Nick six years after a memorable one-night stand, her life had been anything but “normal,” and she wouldn’t have it any other way. Suddenly, she was anxious to see him, to be with him, to feel the way she did just being in the same room with him. She’d missed him, and it was time to get things back on track between them.

“Lieutenant?” the admin said. “Detective Ramsey will see you in the conference room. Right this way.”