Jo offered a one-arm hug, holding on to her duffel bag.

“It’s Texas . . . we’re always hot.”

She dropped her bag and shrugged out of her jacket.

Zoe reached down. “Anything in baggage claim?”

“It’s a long weekend. How much do I need?”

Zoe tested the weight of the bag with a bicep curl. “So long as you left your weapons at home.”

Jo glanced around.

“It’s Texas. We like guns here.”

“Not in an airport.”

Zoe slid her Ralph Lauren sunglasses over her eyes and led Jo toward the garage that housed her car.

“I can’t believe you didn’t bail,” Zoe said once they were in the car with the air conditioner cranked on high.

Jo released a long-suffering sigh and rested her head back. “I considered it, but my vagina protested.”

Zoe busted out.

They arrived at the booth to pay the parking fee, but were unable to speak to the attendant because of their laughter.

Just when the laughter ebbed, Zoe glanced at Jo and started giggling again.

“How long has it been?” Zoe asked.

“I can’t even tell you. It’s embarrassing.”

“You can and will tell me. I need to know if you’re going to jump on the first penis that presents itself or if you’re going to make him work for it.”

“And here I thought we were going to look at houses.”

Zoe turned onto the frontage road that led to the freeway. “We’ll do that, too. I have a few houses to look at tomorrow. I scheduled time with the Realtor at one, and again at two on Sunday. So we can live large at night and sleep in the next day.”

“I like the way you think, Brown.”

Zoe liked how every once in a while Jo would use her last name as if it were a badge. Zoe had always considered it a curse.

“So really . . . how long since you hooked up with something that didn’t involve a battery?”

“Almost two years. Wait!” Jo glanced up as if the answer to Zoe’s question were written on the underside of the visor. “Nope, two years.”

“That sucks.”

“Yeah, well . . . hooking up in River Bend is out of the question, and Eugene is too far away for anything with any regularity.”

“Not if you met the right person.”

Jo twisted in her seat and pointed two fingers to the right side of her chest. “You know what my badge has taught me?”

Zoe thought she knew what her friend was going to say but let her say it anyway. “What’s that?”

“That cops aren’t meant to have a love life.”

“That’s stupid. Lots of cops are married.”

“And even more of them are divorced.”

Zoe slowed for traffic and kept half an eye on Jo as she spoke. “You don’t have to get married, or divorced. You can simply date someone once in a while.”

“Problem with that is most of the guys I have met, limited though they were, all bailed the second I told them my profession.”

“Men like to take care of women. Most don’t know what to do with someone as independent as you.” Zoe knew that from personal experience.

“I think it has more to do with the kind of guys I’m attracted to.”

“You always liked the bad boys in high school,” Zoe reminded her.

“That hasn’t changed,” Jo said with a sigh. “Conflict of interest at this point in the game.”

“So the two years is more because you’ve avoided the whole scene . . . or no one has presented himself?” Zoe eased off the freeway and headed toward her apartment.

“Both. But thinking he will present himself by materializing on my doorstep is probably an unrealistic expectation.”

Zoe smiled. “Stellar evaluation.”

“I should be a detective.”

Zoe parked and turned off the car.

The heat hit them as they pushed open the doors. “I don’t think I could ever get used to this,” Jo told her.

“This isn’t even that bad. Summer is worse.”

“A whole lot hotter than home.”

Zoe didn’t want to think about River Bend being home. “Yeah, well . . . drama creates its own heat.”

Jo followed her inside, where the air conditioner was already running.

“Speaking of drama, have you spoken with your sister?” Jo asked.

Zoe tossed her keys in a bowl by the front door and placed her purse on the same table. “She isn’t pregnant. Thank God!”

“So I heard.”

“But she could have been, hence the pee stick in the bathroom.” Zoe walked through her place, inviting Jo to follow. She stopped in her second bedroom and waved a hand at the bed.

Jo took the hint and placed her bag on the chair beside it. “I was a little worried I’d have to cuff your mom to keep her from ripping off Mylo’s dick.”

“She’d have to stand in line. I’d be more worried about Zane.”

Zoe’s brother was the unpredictable one. Took after their father with his temper.

“Zane has kept his nose clean since last summer.” Jo sat on the bed and did that bounce thing people did when testing the mattress. “He has a legitimate job in Waterville, and Josie says he hasn’t been a regular for months.”

Josie owned R&B’s, the local bar in River Bend.

Zoe had heard the same news from her mom, but hearing it from Jo meant there was truth in the information. Her mom tended to sugarcoat ugly things. Well, not when it came to a possible second grandchild. But when it came to Zane, their mom had always looked the other way, blamed herself for a lack of a father in his life.