All I really cared about was coming before then.

But—thankfully—one of us had more sense than the other. We stopped before any more bodily fluids were swapped, as frustrated as that made me. I knew it was the right thing to do.

But fuuuuuck, that kiss. I wanted to shoot up from my seat, grab his face in my hands, and go in for round two.

Instead, I grabbed the Mickey Mouse mug and sipped on my hazelnut-infused coffee, the cream swirling in light honey-gold circles.

“You know, I was thinking about your, well, situation—”

“Situation,” I said with a chuckle. “Good way of putting it.”

“I was thinking that I wanted to help you get to the bottom of it. I’m not a professional detective by any means, but I think we might have a better shot than the people that had us on hold for forty-five minutes last night. I know it’s nothing like the books we like to read, but I’ve had to have absorbed something from the Fletchers and Hawkins of the world.”

I leaned back, looking up at the thunderstorm of a man who’d come crashing into my life from a random trip to the grocery store. “Jake, you really don’t have to get involved. You were already nice enough to let me crash here for the night. That’s honestly more than I was ever expecting.”

“So don’t expect anything, then. Consider whatever I do from here on out unexpected.”

I arched a brow, licked my lips. Honestly, the smell of buttered toast and cheesy, garlicky eggs wasn’t the only thing that made my mouth water. He set the plates down on the table, sitting down across from me, a smile playing on his lips.

The same lips that had cast an unbreakable and unexplainable spell on me.

“I wouldn’t even know where to start,” I said, deciding to play along with this. If he wanted to cosplay as Sherlock and Watson for a little bit, then fine, especially if it meant getting to hang out with him more often. And if we ended up figuring out who was behind that box, then it would be a win-win situation. Well, maybe not for the sick fuck who’d sent me that threat, but I knew I’d definitely be winning.

“I was thinking about that, too, actually. I think we need to make a visit to the police station first. I want to put in a request for any evidence they may have collected. I did some research, and apparently, we can also request to see the police officer’s dash cam footage from when they were dispatched. It’s a long shot, but maybe you can spot a familiar car or face. Maybe whoever did it stuck around to see your reaction and fled once the cops got there, putting them in front of the dash cam.”