Noel almost laughed out loud when he heard that.
He caught it just in time, pressed his lips together and looked at his desk. He silently counted two seconds in his head until the urge passed.
Charmed the chief?
He had known the man for five days. Before those five days, he had never known the person called Hale before in his life. Both past and present.
Those five days he had spent with the chief were days of ledgers and a broken cup and one burn wound and a dinner where they sat at the same table. That was the total of it.
Also, the chief had been married and was recently divorced. He had presumably spent the entirety of that marriage being attracted to his wife, or at least attempting to be, which meant whatever people thought they were seeing was something else entirely.
And Noel had been actively trying to push Maria toward him.
"I have no business with the chief," he said.
