Page 35 of Fifty First Times (Sharing You 0.40)
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Once Bitten
COLE GIBSEN
CAREFUL TO BREATHE through my nose, I picked at the edge of a piece of masking tape stuck to a butcher-papered bundle. A dark spot stained the bottom. I tilted the package toward the ground so the blood, if it spilled, would soak into the grass instead of my jeans. Blood was a bitch to get out of clothes.
The sound of tires crunching over gravel pulled my attention away from the package. I looked up to find a black-and-white police cruiser rolled up my driveway. My stomach clenched and I groaned. “Oh, God, please no.”
Two weeks earlier, while getting my hair cut, I heard a rumor that not only was he back in town, but he’d acquired a job on the force. With ten officers in the department, surely the odds were in my favor that whoever was about to exit the vehicle wouldn’t be him.
However, when the door opened and I was met with a pair of melted chocolate–colored eyes, I realized luck had never been my strong suit. “Shit,” I murmured. I turned my eyes away from the sandy-haired man approaching me and instead focused on the hunk of flesh in my hand. It took everything I had to keep from flinging it in his face.
“Avery Brown.” Even without looking, I heard the smile in his voice. My jaw clenched in response. “How long has it been?”
I pressed my lips together. You mean how long has it been since you left for boot camp, deleted your Facebook account, and stopped calling and texting me?
Four years.
Four years since prom when you gave me a ring and promised the army wouldn’t change us.
Four years since you broke that promise and shredded my heart into pieces.
I would have thought I was over it by now, but the way my heart skipped at the sound of his voice proved I was anything but.
“I don’t remember.” Forgetting the tape, I ripped into the butcher paper with my fingers. “What do you want, Officer Wade?”
“Avery.” His lips pinched into a frown as if I’d hurt him. Good. “You can call me Tanner.”
I met his eyes, trying my best to ignore the thousands of memories they resurfaced. “There are a dozen other things I’d like to call you. But in order to keep this civil, let’s stick with Officer Wade.”
A smile twitched the corner of his mouth. “Fair enough.” He motioned to the deli package in my hands. “Am I interrupting your lunch? Looks a little rare.” A ghost of a dimple appeared, only to disappear just as quickly.
A knot rose in my throat and I struggled to swallow around it. If I closed my eyes I could remember what it was like to kiss that dimple. I knew what it felt like to have his sandy curls twist around my fingers as I ran my hands through them. I could almost feel the heat of his skin as it bled into mine, and the ripples of his chest and the way I used to trail my fingers down to his stomach where the hair grew darker and thinner and . . . Damn it!
I shook my head, hoping to dislodge the memories. Why would my body betray me by wanting something my brain so clearly knew was bad for me? I didn’t realize my hands were shaking until I looked down and saw the package trembling. Hoping Tanner hadn’t noticed, I peeled the last of the paper back and revealed the bloody mass underneath. “This isn’t lunch.”
He wrinkled his nose and stepped backward. “What the hell is it?”
“Pig skin.” I pinched the hunk of meat between my fingers, lifted it from the paper, an
d jiggled it in the air. Thank God for pig skin. Nothing could extinguish the fires of attraction faster than a hunk of bloody flesh. Feeling much more like myself again, I deposited the skin inside a water-filled mason jar and screwed the lid on tight. I set the jar down in a particularly sunny spot on the sidewalk and glanced skyward. “Lots of sun. That’s good.”
He folded his arms across his chest and looked skyward. “Why is that good? And just what the hell are you doing with pig skin, anyway?”
Just what the hell are you doing here asking me what I’m doing? I wanted to ask right back. Instead, I shrugged. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing how much his absence, and his return, affected me. “I’m making cadaver juice.”
His skin paled. “What?”
I couldn’t help but smile at his discomfort. “How much do you know about forensics, Officer Wade?” He opened his mouth but I cut him off before he could speak. “Did you know the closest you can get to the smell of a human corpse is decaying pig flesh?” I walked to the side of a building and grabbed a jar I’d left sitting out for a month. The skin inside had turned from bright pink to a sickly gray. The flesh itself appeared swollen and torn in papery layers. Carefully, I unscrewed the lid and set the jar at my feet. “Some dog trainers will pay for a pseudo cadaver scent. But I found there’s no substitution for the real thing.”
Tanner made a noise that suspiciously sounded like a gag. He quickly masked it with a cough. “That’s disgusting.”
“Exactly why I like to work alone.” I squatted down in front of the jar, careful to keep breathing through my mouth. One whiff of what sat inside the jar and I’d be bent over the bushes showing Tanner what I had for lunch. It didn’t matter that I’d been training search and rescue dogs for over three years—ever since I graduated high school. The smell of death was something you never got used to. “I train dogs to find missing people. And as much as I want my dogs to find them alive, they have to be prepared for the alternative.”
I dared a glance up to find him looking at me appraisingly. Turning back to my task, I had to remind myself I didn’t care what he thought of me, anymore. My junior year, though only four years passed, suddenly felt like an eternity ago now that the person I’d given my heart to showed up out of the blue and wanted to play “Guess the Hidden Meaning of My Expression.” I was too old for that shit. Still, I dared another quick look. Goddamn did he fill out that uniform.
Focus on your work, Avery. I withdrew a syringe from the carpenter’s apron I wore, dipped it inside the jar, and filled it halfway. When I was finished, I screwed the lid back on and set the jar aside.
