More Than Friends by Erin Dutton Page A

But she’d much rather get a night with the crime-suppression unit. At least they got to look for guns and drugs.
    Across the table, Evelyn slouched in one of the yellow, hard-plastic chairs that had been there longer than both of them. She twirled a pen between her fingers and, when she met Kendall’s eyes, she winked. Evelyn didn’t share her disdain for an evening of enforcement. Being in a uniform made Evelyn happy, no matter what task she was given.
    Sergeant Stahlman finished his briefing and excused the shift to hit the streets. She and Evelyn headed for the parking lot. A group of guys clustered around a row of white Harley-Davidson motorcycles parked next to the curb. They all had the same swagger, walking like they’d just spent hours in the saddle. They resembled a motorcycle gang, dressed alike in Ray-Bans and navy uniforms, their pants tucked into calf-high boots meant to keep errant hems away from moving parts.
    “All right, guys. What are we getting into tonight?” Evelyn asked as they approached the group.
    “Seems we’ve got a problem with speeding on our interstates,” one of them said.
    “Surely not,” Kendall shot back sarcastically.
    “Let’s ride, fellas,” the supervisor, a seasoned sergeant who had spent most of his tenure in motors, called as he strode across the parking lot. When he reached the group, he handed Evelyn and Kendall each a hard-plastic case. “Lidar guns. You hit ’em, we’ll chase ’em.”
    “Wonderful,” Kendall muttered as she turned and slid into her car. Now she could look forward to an evening of sitting stationary on the side of the interstate playing with a laser speed gun.
    Thirty minutes later, she’d settled into her assigned spot on the eastbound side of Interstate 40 with half the motor group, calibrating her equipment and listening to the chatter on the radio from Evelyn and the guys stationed on a stretch on the westbound side.
    “All set,” she said into her radio once she had the Lidar ready to go. She rolled down her window and rested the speed gun on the door sill, glad she’d at least be able to enjoy the pleasant evening. Last month, she’d been freezing her butt off on a similar assignment.
    Her car was situated just after a sweeping curve, safely well off the shoulder and in a blind spot for the approaching drivers. Before long, she’d clocked three cars at more than ten over the posted limit and called out the descriptions to the motor officers waiting a quarter of a mile up the road.
    A subtle chime indicated a new text message on her cell, and, without looking at the display, she punched the button to retrieve it.
    “Bored yet?” Evelyn asked.
    “Yep. Gonna be a long night.” She smiled to herself. She could always count on Evelyn to know when she needed a distraction. In fact, she didn’t know what she would have done without Evelyn these past few months.
    When Evelyn told her about talking Melanie into going to the bar last weekend, she realized that she’d already mentally staked ownership of Evelyn’s friendship. She’d essentially lumped Evelyn into the pile that fell on her side as she and Melanie divided up their things. Realizing that Evelyn had contact with Melanie so recently had thrown her a bit.
     
    Working out tonight?
     
    Evelyn’s text interrupted her thoughts and made her feel guilty for her possessiveness. She needed to respect Evelyn’s obvious desire to stay friends with both of them. Should she have more right to her loyalty because they worked together? Logically, she knew the answer was no, but given the trust fellow police officers often placed in each other, the lines between personal loyalty and professional blurred.
     
    Not tonight. I have a date.
     
    Her days had finally begun to fall into a routine that didn’t include brooding over Melanie. She’d started working out seriously again, sometimes meeting up with Jeb Riggs or Evelyn and hitting the weights after their shift. But she’d also been