Let them all look, she thought as a group of women stopped talking to watch him go by, one of them actually having the nerve to lick her lips. He’s all mine. The funny thing was, if you could call it funny, he didn’t even notice the women checking him out. His gaze was fixed firmly on Scotty, watching over the boy as always.

Snuggled up to him, Sam could tell he was favoring his left side, which meant he was probably more injured than he was letting on. She withdrew her phone from her jacket pocket, looked for their friend Harry’s phone number in her contacts and put through the call before Nick noticed.

“Hi there,” Sam said when Harry answered. “Am I getting you at a bad time?”

“Not at all. What’s up?”

“Your buddy Nick took a hard hit to the left side during a hockey game just now, in the same neighborhood as the earlier rib fracture. I was wondering if you might be able to meet us at the ER in about ninety minutes or so.”

“Why the delay?”

“I’m told I have to feed him first.”

Nick scowled playfully down at her, but she could see the pain reflected in his hazel eyes.

“Tell him to be careful,” Harry said. “I doubt he wants to go through another collapsed lung.”

“No chance of that,” Nick said, speaking toward the phone so Harry could hear him.

“See you in an hour and a half,” Harry said.

“Thanks, Harry.”

“No problem. You two are enough on your own to keep me in business.”

“Hardy har-har.” Harry was still laughing when she closed the phone and stashed it in her pocket. “Always a comedian, that one.”

When they reached Nick’s black BMW, he held the passenger door for her.

“No way, buster. You’re not driving. Get in.”

“I’ll remember this the next time you have blood streaming down your face and tell me you’re fine and don’t need a doctor.” This was said as he moved gingerly into the car.

Scotty snorted behind his hand and got into the backseat after stashing Nick’s hockey bag and stick in the trunk.

“I heard that,” Sam said to Scotty when she got into the driver’s seat. She loved driving Nick’s car. It was like a vacation from her basic, boring department car. When she punched the accelerator in his car, things happened.

They went for pizza at the same place Nick had taken her when they first got together during the O’Connor investigation. As soon as they were seated, he reached for her hand under the table and winked at her, reminding her of the night they’d held hands under the cover of the tablecloth when their relationship was still the best-kept secret in Washington.