Before he could speak, she said, “Go home, Chief.”

“I’m not off until seven.”

“Go home,” she said again. “In fact, get in the car. I’ll take you.”

“But—”

“I have things covered. The storm is waning. Power’s back on the north side of Main. There are crews out working on the rest—Dom’s with them. The worst we have is some broken glass on some storefronts and some flooded basements.”

He followed to where she was unlocking the squad car. “But we should check on people without power. If power’s still out on the south side, Carol Dyson will need help. She won’t be able to get up and down the stairs.” Carol had one of those automated lifts, which shuttled her from the second-floor apartment to the salon.

“Already done. Joel is driving her to her daughter’s place right now.”

“But—”

“Sawyer. You’ve done enough superheroing today. Go home. Warm up. I promise we’ll call you if we need you. Get in the car.”

And so he did. On the short drive, his body just started…deflating. By the time Olivia pulled up to his house, the worst of the storm had passed, but it was still raining steadily. Olivia had said the power was restored to the north side of Main, so he should ask her to drive Evie home. “Can you…”

She looked at him with raised eyebrows as his request died in his throat. The thing was, he didn’t want to send Evie out to be driven home by Olivia. He was going to crash—soon, and hard. But he wanted to look at Evie first. To see with his own eyes that she was okay.

Or, hell, maybe he could talk her into staying the night. Clara was at a friend’s house, and she’d texted him when the flash flood warnings started, saying that she was going to spend the night there. So Evie could sleep in her room. As ridiculous as it was, the idea of Evie sleeping in the next room was profoundly soothing.

So, yeah, though he was usually good at fighting his Evie-related impulses, he was too damn tired to do so right now. If she wanted to go home, he’d rally and drive her. But in the time it took him to do that, he would at least get to be with her for a few minutes.

He was such a goner. He would get a hold of himself soon, though. He would look into her eyes, and then he would tamp this shit back down.