I'm now standing on the front porch. I have raised and put my hand down three times. Butterflies swarm around my belly as I try to gather the courage to knock on the door. Sure, I could have called Anna to let her know I was pulling up, but I didn't. I wanted to knock like the big girl I am. My body doesn't think I'm a good girl though, because it's a struggle to knock.I saw Cedric's truck outside along with Anna's' car, so I see they are both inside. I don't know what I'm going to say to Cedric, and I realize that's the reason my belly feels like it's flipping inside of me. It was nothing I know, he just stayed over to make sure I was safe. I appreciate he did that so much, even if I gave him a little attitude about it.The warm pan I have the cookies sitting in weighs heavily inside my hands as I bite my bottom lip, balance the pan with one hand, and knock.Please don't let Cedric be the one to answer the door.The door swung open a minute later, and the breath that I didn't reali

Later that night, I'm sitting in the police station. Cedric and Lucas called it in, and soon I had law enforcement cars filling up my driveway. They had roped off my kitchen. Which is a shame because when I'm stressed, I like to bake, and I'm extremely stressed, and I would like nothing more than to be in my kitchen right now baking up a storm.Sadly, I'm not in my kitchen. I'm sitting in a cold room. In front of a mirror that i know is a two-way mirror. Grey bricks surrounding the room. Cedric had another officer named Williams drive me here. He said it would be safe for me. Safe while he looked around my home. Before I left, I had seen forensic guys combing over my little kitchen. Hopefully, they cleaned up my counter, I couldn't help but think.I'll need about three containers of bleach before it will satisfy me that my kitchen is once again baking worthy. I use my counter to roll my dough. So, I require it to be cleaned. Before I got into the police station, Cedric had grabbed my

We are finally pulling into his driveway minutes later. I have to admit, I'm a bit blown away. It's beautiful here. He lives on the edge of a lake. My eyes slowly scan the surrounding area, and for a moment, I'm stunned. I'm just enjoying looking into the water. Birds flying around his square shaped dock.“This is it.” He says as he turns his truck off. “We can go fishing anytime you want. I have extra poles in the shed.” He added with a shrug.“I don't know how” I whispered, a little embarrassed to admit that. My father wasn't really an outdoors man. Instead, we would play board games and work on puzzles together.“Never?” He asked, shock clear in his tone.I didn't need to look over towards him to know whether he was looking at me or not. I could feel him. His eyes digging into me.“Nope.” I mumbled while quickly opening the door and stepping out. “Nice place.” I added when my feet hit the grass.“Thanks. I love it here. No neighbors. Just peace and the occasional fishers passing by

This entire situation wasn't good for my health. I'm not exaggerating. Cedric drove us to the local home store, and I'm now standing in front of twenty different coffee pot brands.Twenty.“Babe, just grab one.” Cedric grunted as he leaned against the cart. “Don't have time for this. I need to get to the station.” “I can't just grab one. My grandma told me that a coffee maker is one of the most important things in your kitchen.” I snapped, continued to read the tags under each pot before twisting my head towards him with a frown on my face. “And stop calling me babe.”A decided happily on a forty-two dollar coffee pot. It holds five cups of water and had two different compartments, one for hot coffee and one for cold.See, I couldn't just pick one. My mood was already going up as I walked towards the checkout counter. This morning was a little stressful. Before we left the house, I told Cedric I was not leaving in the same clothes. I would be embarrassed if anyone witnessed that a

That man never called back, thank goodness. The rest of my shift was good, nobody was seriously injured, and everyone who called us for help today got the help they needed. Today was a pretty good day. I'm now sitting at the burger joint just a few blocks from the station, eating a messy hamburger with Cedric. This is not a date I have to keep repeating inside my head.“How was work?” Cedric asked, laying down his burger and grabbed a handful of fries. “It was good. Someone pranked called the center today, and it was just strange.” I shrugged and took another bite of my burger. “This is wonderful.” I commented.“I told you. It's the best place in town for burgers.” He smiled and popped a few fries into his mouth. “What was the call about? What was weird about it?”“I didn't tell you, so you would turn all cop on me, Cedric.” I murmured, not wanting to bring up that disturbing call again.“I'm always a cop, Avery.” He grunted and raised an eyebrow. “ Tell me.” He ordered. Ugh, I d