Jamie's phone rang as he and Eddie slowly walked downtown, taking their time and enjoying the weather and the city—and, of course, the company.
"Hey Danny," Jamie answered.
"Hey, kid. I just got off work and I couldn't watch the online stream, but Dad and Erin saw it live and they said you did great."
"They both called me right afterwards," Jamie said. "And yeah, it went better than I thought it would."
"How bad did you think it was gonna go? For the last three months you've done nothing but write, practice, edit, rewrite…"
"Have you ever had to give an hour-long speech in a two-thousand-seat auditorium?" Jamie challenged.
"Nope, and I never plan to," Danny replied. "But hey, I'm glad you did good. Dad told me the chief got sick and your partner had to take his place with the introduction."
"She did; she took over at the very last minute," Jamie confirmed. "She did a great job making me look like I deserved to be up there."
"How's that going, by the way? Hanging out with Eddie in a new city…right by the beach…fancy hotel…"
"Danny," Jamie admonished, though a glance at Eddie told him that she hadn't overheard.
"I'm just saying, kid, nobody would blame you if you let go of that famous self-control for once in your life."
"That's not why she's here," Jamie hissed, hoping Eddie still wasn't paying attention.
"Right, right—because why wouldn't a cop bring his beautiful partner to a police conference?" Danny's voice dripped with sarcasm. "Still can't figure out how you managed to convince Dad."
"It's his fault he wouldn't let the task force lieutenant come," Jamie said. "And it's your fault you didn't want to take off work. You could've been here. And anyway, you're saying you wouldn't bring Baez to a work conference?"
"What?" Eddie exaggeratedly gasped. "You mean I wasn't your first choice?"
Jamie grinned at her, knowing she was joking. He had told her about first inviting a task force lieutenant and then Danny before getting to her—though he hadn't told her he had gone to Frank first to ask if it was appropriate to bring his partner.
Would we be having this conversation if the partner in question was Tony or Vinny instead of a pretty blonde? Frank had asked, which was his way of giving Jamie his approval to invite her. Jamie had been surprised, since he figured Frank would've at least warned him to consider the optics, the department rumors it would fuel…
But even if Frank picked up on it, he had not acknowledged that Jamie wasn't asking about just any pretty blonde—it was the pretty blonde, it was Eddie, it was the idea of being alone with her and away from the prying eyes of New York City…
"Yeah, sure, blame Dad," Danny was saying. As unbothered as Frank seemed by the idea of Jamie and Eddie attending the conference together, Danny and Erin hadn't given him a break since finding out Eddie was going. "And no, I got a wife. I'd bring her. But you? You know you wanted to take Eddie all along. She's probably with you right now, isn't she? Hi, Officer Janko!"
"Cut it out," Jamie said. "She is. What, do you expect me to leave her by herself while I go out for drinks with all of Dad's important friends?" He offered the small lie, which earned him a look from Eddie, instead of giving Danny the satisfaction of knowing that they were, in fact, going out by themselves after ditching the conference all afternoon.
"Yeah, and I'm sure all of Dad's important friends totally believe that you're just partners."
"Why wouldn't they?" Jamie asked. "It's true."
"Please, with you two making eyes at each other all the time they're probably gonna call Dad and ask why they haven't gotten a wedding invitation yet."
"Shut up, Danny," Jamie groaned, but he was in too good a mood to really let the teasing bother him.
"Yeah, yeah. Look, have fun, kid. I gotta go. Don't do anything I wouldn't do."
"Alright, Danny."
"See ya when you get back."
"Yep, see you. Bye."
Eddie was scrolling on her phone as they walked. "You feel like a bar or someplace nicer?" she asked once Jamie's call ended. "We can find anything we want around here."
"We're right on the border and you aren't craving Mexican food?"
"Oh! Good idea!" Eddie exclaimed. She went back to her phone. "Here's one with 300 five-star reviews. Are we close to Island Avenue?"
"A couple blocks that way."
They changed direction, passing a couple of impressive high-rise residential buildings as they headed for the taco place.
"I could go back to law and then maybe I could afford a one-bedroom in one of these places," Jamie said.
"Yeah, imagine those headlines. World's most impressive beat cop abandons NYPD after giving speech about how great he is."
"Okay, that's not what it was about. And I don't think that would make the newspapers."
"Maybe not what it was actually about, but it's what everyone thought of you," Eddie pointed out. "And you're the PC's kid, Jamie. Some nosy reporter in the city would find out and try to make it into a big scandal."
"And that would be my dad's problem, because I'd be living it up in my new beachfront condo." He looked up at the shiny all-glass condo community on their left.
"You could never do it," Eddie said. "Move across the country away from your whole family? You've got too much in New York to just leave it all behind."
"Yeah, and even if I had a million-dollar house, I don't think I could ever be happy if I wasn't a cop," he continued—though the thought floating through his head at that moment was I don't know if I could ever be happy if I wasn't with you.
