Bachelor Cop Finally Caught?

The song ended, and Dan set her away from him so quickly she nearly stumbled. “Uh…thanks for the dance,” he said.

Before she could respond, they were surrounded by acquaintances and eventually separated by the crowd. Lindsey was left to wonder if he’d gotten the message or if he’d convinced himself it was only a joke. Knowing Dan, it was probably the latter. He would find that a much more comfortable conclusion.

She knew that eventually she was going to have to openly confront him if she wanted to find out once and for all if there was even a slight possibility that they could ever be more than old friends. She not only wanted to know—she very much needed to know. She didn’t want to spend the rest of her life wondering about what might have been if only she’d had the courage to take a chance.

Chapter Four

Dan had to leave the party early when a call came in about a domestic dispute that had turned violent on the other side of town. He wouldn’t have responded to just any call that came in for his officers, but he knew the couple involved and feared the situation was a powder keg. Edstown was a small town with limited resources—one of the other officers was the mayor’s nephew, another Dan’s own cousin—so Dan helped out whenever he felt needed. That was one of the reasons he’d earned the reputation of being a workaholic.

Fortunately, Dan and two officers were able to handle the domestic problem rather quickly and without an excessive amount of trouble. That time, anyway. Because he found several more things to do when he returned to his office, it was late before he got home. Maybe he’d just been looking for an excuse to avoid returning to the mixer, he mused, as he stuck his key into the front door of the trailer he’d lived in since his divorce.

Flipping on the overhead light in his living room, he closed the door behind him. He’d already removed his tie and jacket. He tossed them over the back of a chair as he crossed the narrow room and turned on the television. He usually kept it on just for the noise.

He fell onto the couch, pushing aside the newspaper he’d left lying there earlier. Other than that, the place was pretty neat. He wasn’t home long enough to make a mess between the twice-monthly visits from the woman who cleaned for him.

Kicking off his shoes, he propped his stockinged feet on the coffee table, crossing them at the ankles. The late news was on. He tried to pay attention, but his thoughts kept wandering back to the party. Specifically to Lindsey.

She’d been joking when she’d made that crack about him finally getting the right idea. She must have been. He remembered watching her dance with Riley—standing close to him, chatting so comfortably, finishing with a kiss on the cheek. Her flirting with Dan must have been along the same lines—just harmless feminine teasing.

A man could finally get the right idea? That was what she’d said—as if she’d been trying to get a message to him for a while and he’d been missing it. He ran through a quick mental review of her behavior during the last few times they’d been together. She’d acted the same as always, right? Feisty. Argumentative. Exasperating. There was no reason for him to think she saw him any differently than she ever had—as a longtime friend.

She must have been teasing. But if she hadn’t been…

Lindsey Gray romantically interested in him? It was a possibility he’d never even considered. After all, she was young, pretty, vibrant, smart. She had an amazing future ahead of her, wherever she chose to settle. As for him—well, he was ten years older, still smarting from a bitter, ugly divorce, contentedly settled into a predictable routine here in generally unexciting little Edstown. She wasn’t the type for a curiosity-satisfying fling, so—

She must have been teasing.

Still, it was an intriguing thought, he discovered. Lindsey and him…if the possibility had ever flitted through his mind, he’d immediately suppressed it. First she’d been too young. And then he’d gotten involved with Melanie, making the incredibly stupid mistake of marrying her. When Lindsey had returned to Edstown—available and fully adult—he’d been newly divorced and admittedly bitter about it.

It had taken him this long to finally put that debacle behind him. He still wasn’t sure he was ready to risk his heart on another relationship. With anyone. Especially Lindsey—who, of course, had only been teasing.

A week passed with no more fires and no particularly newsworthy events. Lindsey’s reporting assignments consisted of a painfully dull city council meeting Monday evening, an equally painful junior high school talent show on Tuesday, a garden club meeting Wednesday afternoon and an assortment of other local-interest-only events.

Whether by coincidence or his design, she saw Dan only twice. Both times he greeted her amicably, exchanged quick, meaningless small talk and then made an excuse to leave. He was obviously avoiding her. And she would never know exactly why until she asked.

When she did run into him, it had nothing to do with either of their jobs. They met in the plumbing aisle of the hardware store early Saturday afternoon.

Dan was examining a display of supplies when Lindsey turned the corner into the same aisle. She stopped a bit too abruptly, then continued toward him. “Well, hi, there. This is a surprise.”

He seemed to freeze for a moment, then he turned with a smile that looked as forced as hers felt. “Following a hot hardware tip?”

“Actually, I’m here on personal business. Dripping faucet. Drives me batty at night.”