Bachelor Cop Finally Caught?

“Look, I didn’t join you so you could buy my food.”

“Lindsey—I’m buying. Now drop it.”

She hated it when Dan used the same voice her brother used when he was annoyed with her. Dan wasn’t her brother, damn it. But it seemed as though there was nothing she could do to change his perception of her—which meant she’d blown a few hundred dollars worth of hairstyling aids, cosmetics and a great new dress.

“Hi, Lindsey. Looking good tonight.” A lean cowboy in a flashy red shirt and sprayed-on jeans strolled past the booth, tipping the Western hat he hadn’t bothered to remove as he sent Lindsey a slow smile.

Her feminine ego had needed that boost. She smiled back at him. “Thanks, Bo. How’s it going?”

“Can’t complain. Save me a dance later?”

“Maybe.”

The vague response seemed to satisfy him. He touched his hat again, nodded a greeting to Dan, then sauntered on.

Dan was wearing another frown. “Someone you know?”

She was tempted to point out how silly the question was, since she’d spoken to Bo by name, but considering that Dan wasn’t in the best mood, she merely replied, “We went to school together.”

“Were you expecting to see him here tonight?”

Lifting her eyebrows in response to the inquisition, she answered a bit coolly, “No.”

“This isn’t really a great place for a single young woman to hang out on a Friday night. Especially later in the evening when the booze has been flowing for a few hours. We get a lot of calls out here on weekends.”

Drumming her painted nails on the scarred table-top, she replied, “Perhaps I should remind you again that I am an adult? And this is one of the few places around here for single young adults to hang out.”

He held up a hand, a peacekeeping gesture that did little to appease her. “Just making a comment.”

Nothing about this evening had gone the way Lindsey would have liked. She might as well have stayed home in her T-shirt, shorts and fuzzy slippers. She could have crashed in front of the TV and dined on chips and dip. That would have spared her the humiliation of having Dan sitting right across the table, totally oblivious to the changes she’d made during the past week, lecturing her as if she were a naive high school student.

Sure, Jimmy and Bo seemed to find her attractive—but face it, those two were attracted to anything with breasts. It was Dan’s interest she’d hoped to catch tonight—but not like this.

Throwing some money on the table, Dan glanced at his watch. “I need to run by the station for a few minutes. I’ll walk you to your car.”

“Who said I was ready to leave?”

Dan went still for a moment. “You’re through eating, aren’t you?”

She glanced toward the dance floor, which was just starting to come to life. “Yes, but I’m not necessarily in a hurry to get home. There’s nothing waiting for me there.”

“So you’re going to do what? Hang out here drinking beer and dancing with cowboy Bob? Is that why you got all gussied up tonight with the hair and makeup and the low-cut dress?”

So he had noticed the changes. And this was his way of acknowledging it—not as a compliment but a criticism. She slammed both hands on the table. “His name is Bo. And, yes, maybe I’ll dance with him. Maybe I’ll even sleep with him. Heck, I could have a quickie with him out in the parking lot and then come back for a tumble with Jimmy.”

Her quietly furious outburst made Dan’s jaw clench, his eyes going hard and narrow. “Just what the hell is your problem tonight?”

She stood and leaned over the table, making sure he had a good view of what Jimmy and Bo had seemed to find intriguing despite her small size. “My problem is that I’ve grown up, Dan Meadows. And it seems like just about every guy in this town has finally figured that out—except for you.”

Before he could come up with an answer, she straightened and smoothed her dress, trying to get a grip on her temper. “Thanks for dinner. Now I’ll let you get back to work—I’m sure that’s where you’d rather be, anyway.”

She turned on one heel and walked away without looking back. A group of singles was beginning to gather in the far corner of the big room, laughing, flirting, drinking and dancing. It wasn’t Lindsey’s usual type of entertainment, but maybe it was time for her to make some changes. She’d spent the past two years taking care of her father and fantasizing about Dan. But her father was gone, and now she was tired of sitting in her house alone, waiting for something that was obviously never going to happen.

Bo saw Lindsey approaching, grinned and pulled out a chair. The music was louder in this corner, as were the patrons, so he practically had to yell for her to hear him. “Have you ditched the chaperon?”

Chaperon. That was exactly the way Dan had been acting, Lindsey mused angrily. Or like an older brother. “Yeah, he’s gone,” she agreed without looking around to make sure that was true. “You said something about a dance?”

Bo promptly stood, dropped his hat on his chair and ran a hand through his dark hair. “Yes, ma’am.”

She wasn’t really planning to sleep with Bo—or anyone else—tonight. But there was no need for Dan to know that. It was none of his business how she chose to spend her Friday evening. And that was his choice, she reminded herself.

Damn the man.

Dan was still seething late the next afternoon. Every time he thought about Lindsey—too many times in the past few hours for his peace of mind—he got mad all over again.

What had gotten into her last night? In all the years he’d known her, he’d never seen her act that way. Never heard her talk that way.

He could still see her leaning over the table, green fire in her eyes, a flush of temper on her face, the gaping neckline of her sexy black dress revealing slender, creamy curves that he was male enough to appreciate. He felt vaguely guilty about the number of times he’d mentally replayed that picture…not to mention the unwanted stirrings of response he felt every time he did so.

Hell, he was no better than Jimmy or cowboy Bo, practically drooling over her—even worse, because he was old enough to know better. He’d known Lindsey Gray since she was in pigtails, damn it.

She wasn’t a little girl now.

He might have followed that line of thought a bit further, but he was distracted just then by his work.

Someone had called in another fire.

Lindsey showed up at the scene, of course, a camera around her neck and a notebook in her hand. It annoyed Dan greatly that for the first time her presence distracted him from his work. He had never allowed that to happen before—and he was impatient with himself for doing so now. It had to be because he was still perturbed with her behavior last night, wondering what she’d been trying to prove.

She still looked different, he noted as she marched toward him, her reporter’s look of determination on her face. Her new haircut made her coppery hair lie more softly around her face than the choppy style she’d worn before. Her green eyes were highlighted again by judicious use of cosmetics, and her stubbornly set mouth glistened with a light coat of shiny gloss. Instead of her usual jeans and sweatshirt, she wore a soft-looking, heather-colored mock turtleneck and close-fitting black slacks with black boots.

She looked like a classy, competent, professional woman, he realized abruptly. A far cry from the grubby urchin he’d once known so well. Even as he reluctantly admired the woman, he found himself missing the urchin.

Sidestepping a water hose, Lindsey stopped in front of Dan. “Looks like they wrapped it up quickly.”

He nodded. “We were fortunate this time. A delivery driver saw the smoke from his van and called it in. The fire trucks arrived before the fire had spread from the kitchen to the rest of the house.”

Lindsey turned to survey the smoke-darkened back of the frame bungalow. “You’re certain this fire has nothing to do with the arsonist you’re looking for?”

“Yeah. Mrs. O’Malley went next door to visit her neighbor, got distracted by a television program over there and forgot she’d left something cooking on the stove. I came by to make sure, of course, as soon as I heard there was a fire run in this neighborhood, because it’s in the same general area as the arson fires, but I’m convinced this was totally unrelated.”

She nodded and made a note in her pad.

As the firefighters gathered their equipment in preparation to leave, Dan let his thoughts wander away from work again. “You look…well rested,” he said to Lindsey.

“I was home before ten last night,” she said a bit curtly. “Alone. Are you happy?”

He didn’t understand the distance that seemed to be developing between them—and he didn’t like it. Maybe it was his fault. He cleared his throat. “Listen, you were right about last night. It was none of my business if you wanted to stay and have fun with your friends.”