Page 44 of Offside

Part of me braced for something.

"Do you want to keep a toothbrush here for next time?"

I looked at him.

"Not asking you to move in," he said. "But if you stay..."

"Yes. Keep one for me."

He nodded as if I'd answered a mundane question. "There's a new one under the sink. Still wrapped."

"You always keep spare toothbrushes under your kitchen sink?"

"Sometimes family stays." He drank from the black mug.

"You told me nobody stays here after sleeping with you."

"Nobody I've slept with," Bishop said. "My sister isn't part of that statistic."

"Thank goodness for that." I held back a smirk.

His mouth shifted into an almost smile.

I put the mug on the cleared counter. "What happens between us when we go back to work tomorrow?"

Bishop didn't answer quickly. He'd never used speed to disguise that he was thinking. "Zoe handles the shoulder," he said. "I don't give you updates, and I don't ask what you think about her plan."

Bishop put his mug down.

"What happens if you get hurt on the ice again?"

"I go to the designated person," Bishop said. "Emergency exception stays what Reyes said. No stretching it because you're closer."

"Yes. We keep any emergency exceptions narrow and documented."

"We don't hide from the people who need to know," he continued. "Vicki, Reyes, Zoe, Park already do. If somebody else needs the information for an actual reason, we tell them together unless one of us can't be there."

"What do we tell the rest of the team tomorrow?"

"The team doesn't need to know Monday morning," Bishop said.

"I agree. We don't need our private life on display."

"But I'm not going to act like you can't stand next to me. Privacy doesn't mean that I'm ashamed of you," he pointed out.

That struck harder than I expected.

"Privacy isn't shame. I don't want you confusing them," I said.

"That's what I mean. We keep what's ours because it's ours. We don't turn it into a secret."

I picked up the green mug again and nodded.

"And if Marchetti asks about the recusal, I stay inside what you approved."

"If he wants more, ask me first," I said.

He nodded. I took another drink.