Seal It With A Kiss (McClellan Trilogy) by Judy Hagemann Page A

back to tonight and how different Brock was than her ex Kevin. It was as if they were night and day. Kevin had always come home from work and waited for her to come home to fix supper. He would never dream of even heating up leftovers on his own. Helping out in the kitchen at all was taboo for him. Then there was the fact that he could wait on himself just fine until she got home, but as soon as Holly walked through the door, he quickly forgot how.
    Brock on the other hand, not only insisted on helping out with supper, but he also set the table and when the meal was over he helped clear it, and stayed to help dry the dishes! Yep, night and day, she thought.
    There was still one fact that was still bothering her about Brock—last Friday he had suggested the friends with benefits because he wanted to pursue a sexual relationship with her, and she had agreed to it, but he had yet to make any move to get her into bed. Now that she thought about it, he had his hands on her more before the suggestion last Friday than he has since! That one fact is what puzzled Holly.
    Her minds eye started replaying events since that time, one by one and then it hit her like a freight train. He left work on Friday to go to the walk in clinic for blood tests. He would have certainly gotten the results back by now. “Oh my God.” Holly said aloud. “He got the tests back and he has a STD!”
    Brock arrived at the precinct to find that Holly wasn’t at work yet. He was a few minutes early, but she was always at work way ahead of him, and he was starting to get concerned. Just when he was getting ready to call her, she walked in, “Good morning Cavanaugh.”
    “What the hell is so good about it?”
    “Have a rough night did we?”
    She glared in his direction, “It was just dandy.”
    “Are you sure?”
    “Are we here to work or chit chat about my night?” She said in a cool tone.
    “Whoa, I didn’t mean anything by it, it’s just that you are normally here before I am, and today you weren’t.”
    “Is that a problem Detective McClellan?”
    Brock wondered what the hell happened to the Holly he left last night, because she sure as hell didn’t show up today. “Nope. No problem at all.”
    “Great—now can I get to work on trying to find a connection to the vics and these bars that we narrowed it down to?”
    Brock stepped aside and motioned to her chair, “Help yourself.”
    Brock noticed that the only time Holly spoke to him all day was when she would update him on information she was able to gather for the whiteboard. She was definitely all business and never once mentioned supper or maybe getting together tonight—nothing. What the hell did he do now? He must have done something to bring out this evil twin that he originally met and referred to as the ice queen, but he couldn’t for the life of him come up with a reason.
    At the end of the day he decided he would try to find out. “Cavanaugh, would you like to come over to my house tonight? I’ll cook this time.”
    Holly looked up from where she was sitting, “No, thank you.”
    ‘Hmmm—polite, but still ‘ice queen’ he thought to himself. “Do you have other plans?”
    “I didn’t realize I had to clear my schedule in case you wanted to cook supper.”
    “If you have other plans, that’s fine. It was just an offer.”
    “As a matter of fact, I don’t have any plans, but I plan to re-heat last night’s leftovers and go to bed.”
    “Did I do something?”
    “I don’t know. Is there anything you would like to tell me?”
    Brock must have given her the ‘deer in the headlights’ look because she quickly slammed the file folder on the table and stomped out of the office slamming the door. He must have stood there for a full five minutes in shock at what just happened—still not believing that it had. What did she mean “ Is there anything you would like to tell me ?” What could have possibly happened after he left her house last night? He went straight