“Wait,” his uncle interrupted. “Don’t you want to know how long the assignment will last?”

Cisco lost a little of his exuberance. Right. It was mid-June now, and even if camps were starting to ramp up for the summer, the season only lasted a few months and would be shutting down at the end of August. Did that mean both the camp gig and his change of shift were only temporary things?

“How long?” he asked cautiously.

“Well, the camp part of your assignment is only for two-and-a-half months.”

Just what Cisco had figured. His enthusiasm waned.

Frank, however, was still talking. “But after that’s wrapped up, if the day shift still seems to be agreeing with you, we can make that part of your schedule permanent.”

“Seriously?” Now Cisco was smiling again.

“I wouldn’t kid you about something like that,” Uncle Frank told him, also standing up. “You’ve worked hard. Probably harder than anyone on the force to prove your worth. And you’ve had to do it because everyone knows we’re almost family. Which means I waited this long to give you a better schedule so no one could cry favoritism. Now, any potential naysayers can one-hundred percent see that your years of service and your merits speak for themselves. You’ve earned this, son.”

Cisco would normally shake the man’s hand if there were people around. But since they were alone, he practically danced around the desk to give his nominal uncle a big, heartfelt bear hug.

“Thanks, Uncle Frank,” he said, his voice choking up a bit. “You won’t regret this.”

Uncle Frank clapped him on the back and spoke gruffly. “I know I won’t. But if I do, I’ll kick your ass back onto the three-to-eleven without blinking.”

Cisco stepped away and grinned. “Of course you will. But we both know that’s not going to happen.”

“See that it doesn’t. And son?”

His words stopped Cisco as he turned to head to the door. “Yeah, Uncle Frank?”

“Now that you have your nights free, your Aunt Suze wants you and your parents to come over for dinner this Thursday night. How does that sound?”

“Great,” Cisco replied. “But I’d like to be the first to tell Mom and Dad the good news. So can Aunt Suze hold off before she calls with her invitation?”

“Not a problem. She’s not back from her quilting thing until Sunday night. Does that give you enough time?”

“Perfect,” Cisco agreed. He normally saw his parents on Monday or Tuesday evening for dinner since those had been his full days off, but now that he was going to have a “regular person’s” schedule, he’d surprise the hell out of them by dropping in tomorrow afternoon. He’d surely have his business at the camp wrapped up by then.

He didn’t live far from his childhood home. Five years earlier he’d purchased his own small, rough but well-appointed bungalow just a few miles east of town, and had done a lot to fix it up and make it home, but he still liked his mom’s cooking, that was for sure.

Cisco grabbed the doorknob, but before he let himself out, he turned back. “I can’t say thank you, enough,” he told his uncle, nearly tearing up. “This is going to be a life-changer for me.”

Uncle Frank winked. “Just don’t use all your free nights from now on trolling the local bars.”

Cisco laughed. Six months ago, the good-natured warning might have been necessary. These days? Not so much.

But Cisco sure as hell was going out to celebrate tonight.

Two hours later, just short of closing time at the Suds Hole, Cisco nursed his second beer of the evening and sighed. Yeah, the place was packed and rocking. Same as always. And also true to form, he’d been approached and propositioned by three different women who’d eyed him like a slab of bacon, but…he hadn’t been able to muster the energy to engage.

He was tired of all the noise, and the fake tits being waved in front of his face; over the insincerity of it all. How could anyone decide if they wanted to go home with someone when, due to the loud music, they couldn’t even hold a decent conversation?

Shit. That made him sound old. But…

Superficial had seen its day, and Cisco was embracing it. He was ready for…more.

He saw how things were with the people in his life to whom he was close. His parents were a perfect couple, as were his de facto uncle and aunt, Kyle with Rowan, Doug with Pixie, and most recently, Mike with Joelle. Yeah, Cisco knew what a healthy relationship looked like these days. He just didn’t know how to go about finding one.

When he wasn’t at a club or a bar in his off time, he was patrolling town on his Harley Road King, which was a female-magnet on its own. Woman practically turned themselves inside out to touch his chromed-up bike, drooling over his motorcycle-unit gear. Apparently, there was something intrinsically sexy to the female population regarding a man in a leather jacket, breeches, and tall boots. But just like meeting women in bars, the adoration he received while on the job had gotten old. Cisco was tired of all the superficial bullshit, and knew there had to be more.

There were, of course, plenty of great women on the department roster and on his SWAT team, but Cisco just couldn’t see himself dating any of them. They were his buddies; his contemporaries. Which meant when he wanted to spar or needed back-up, he couldn’t ask for a better bunch. But not one of them roused in him any sexual-attraction vibes. He didn’t know why, but that’s just the way it was with his brain. Colleagues were colleagues, and dates were… Strangers?

Right. That was telling. He’d only ever been out for anonymous liaisons previous to his newly embraced mental awakening, and that needed to change.

Recently he’d made it a point to chat with Everlee, the SWAT team’s go-to person for all things protocol and mental health. She was their SWAT chief’s wife, but also a brilliant and insightful therapist and mentor. She’d reiterated that he might be self-sabotaging with his choice of nameless women, but her advice thereafter, had, unfortunately, sounded like his mother.

Why don’t you join a church, do some volunteer work, or take up a hobby? Find a woman you don’t work with, but can also relate to and respect.

That advice might have been solid, but it wasn’t going to work for him. None of those venues were viable options when your free hours were basically ten to two except for Mondays and Tuesdays. And as boring as it sounded, on those days off, Cisco tended to catch up on chores and the ongoing renovations to his home. Maybe now, though, with his shift rotation changed…

Yeah. He’d finally have weekends free like normal people, as well as every evening after work. It was going to take some getting used to after nine years of being on the clock until eleven, but it might make a difference in his love life…

“Hey handsome.”

Great.

Yet another fake-lipped woman to turn down before she grabbed his dick. Cisco gave her a tepid smile. “Sorry, but I’m just finishing up here.” He chugged the last of his warm beer. “It’s time for me to head home.”

She moved closer and rubbed her leg up against Cisco’s thigh. “I wouldn’t mind being invited back to your place,” she brazenly responded.

Shit. How was it he always attracted the women who were in it to score some cock?

The lie came to his tongue easily. “Uh, sorry. I have a tiny apartment and my grandmother is visiting. Maybe next time.”

Without waiting to see if she pursed those enormous lips of hers in a pout, Cisco got up on the opposite side of his stool from the hopeful man-consumer, threw a few bills on the bar, and strode across the floor, pushing out into the fresh, night air.

He drew in a deep breath, his shoulders dropping from where they’d been parked around his ears.

Goddammit. There had to be a better way.

CHAPTER TWO

Hilly double-timed it to the dining hall.

Frickity-frickity-fuck. She was going to be late for her first meeting with her counselors, and it was all because of that odious developer, Langford Cottins, who wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Ever since her paternal grandmother had died and willed the camp to Hilly a little more than three seasons ago, the man had been at her again and again, to sell. And why did she have her suspicions that her father—who she now referred to as her sperm donor—had his hand up the back of that puppet? Maybe because he’d let everyone know how pissed off he was that his mother hadn’t left the money and camp property to him, and that he’d also tried to get Hilly to give him part of what he so blatantly screamed was not hers.

She wasn’t having any of it.