Flamingo Fugitive (Supernatural Bounty Hunters 5) by E A Price Page B

lyrical about ‘love juice’, she had a lot of trouble saying the word.  Just thinking about it brought back those few seconds where she really worried he was going to force himself on her.  She felt tears prickle her eyes, and her flamingo tried to soothe her.  She felt exhausted.  It had been a long night, and she just wanted to crawl into bed.  And top it off her mascara wasn’t even waterproof!
    The detective passed her a handkerchief, and Francine giggled through her tears.  “Monogrammed handkerchiefs?  Really?”
    He shrugged, nonchalantly, but the blazing hue of his blush deepened.  “Would you like me to fetch a female officer?”
    Francine immediately thought of the mountainous she-bear.  “No, I’m fine, just… overtired.”  She carefully dabbed at her eyes, determined that they wouldn’t puff up before her appearance tomorrow.
    “I’ll get someone to show you to a holding cell – it’s late, so you might as well stay here tonight.  I’ll make sure you don’t have to share with anyone, and I’ll get you some, ah, things.  Any… female things you may need.”
    He was way too embarrassed by this she reflected, stifling another laugh.  Apparently he could look at dead bodies and catch murderers, but the idea of tampons and pantyhose turned him into a teenager.  She considered that he was kind of cute, in a blonde, ruddy pink-faced kind of way. 
    “Thank you, that’s very nice,” she said putting him out of his misery
    “It’s my pleasure.  Make me a list, I’ll be back in a few moments.”  He paused at the door.  Because he was already embarrassed and decided it couldn’t get any worse he added, “You know, I saw you in the stage production of Robin Hood last year.”
    Francine smiled automatically.  It was a reflex rather than an actual smile borne of pleasure.  The production had been a feminist reimagining where all the male roles were assayed by female actors and vice versa.  The reviews had been scathing .
    He smiled, bashfully.  “You made an excellent Alana a Dale.”  She was originally up for the role of Wilhelmina Scarlet, but when the director realized she could sing, she switched roles.
    “You’re very kind.  It was an experimental production…”  She felt the need to explain, but he didn’t seem to notice.
    “You have a wonderful singing voice.”  He seemed to find his blush again and excused himself.
    Francine blew her nose noisily.  Huh .  A little bit of sunshine on a dark night.
     

Chapter Ten
    Stone went through his normal routine.  Run, juice, workout and shower.  He was done with the shower and on his way out the door when he noticed the text from Caitlyn.  His rhino groused uneasily.  Like ripping a band-aid off, Stone quickly read the text.  Best to get worrying things over and done with quickly. 
    I’m sorry about last night.  Let’s not fight.
    His rhino paced.  Stone’s stomach ached.  It never ached.  He was too healthy and ate too well for it ever to feel bad.  But it was like the sinking feeling you have when you know something bad is coming.  You can see the signs.  You know everything is going bad, but you just don’t know what to do about it.  It was the slowly sinking feeling.
    No, he did know what to do.
    Caitlyn had it in her head that there was something more to their relationship.  He knew what to do.  He fired off a text to her that said, ‘don’t worry, we can still be friends, see you around’.  There, that should do it - firm but friendly.
    His beast snorted, clearly thinking that his friendly approach wasn’t going to help anything.  But Stone didn’t want to be cruel.  Texting ‘back off you crazy bitch’ would probably make her worse and then he’d be the bad guy.  There were no bad guys in this; there was just a misunderstanding.  Brushing off what happened last night and firmly putting her in the friend category sent the right message.
    The rhino shook his head.  The animal