Page 63 of Midnight Secrets

The man smiled and picked up the phone. “Let me see if he’s free.”

I nodded. “Thank you.”

After a short pause, the officer spoke into the receiver. “Detective, Claire Holmes is here to see you.” A moment later, he pulled the phone away from his ear to look at it with a frown. His brown eyes met mine. “He hung up.”

Before I could say anything, a door down the hall opened and Ozzie stepped out, a deep scowl on his handsome face.

Uh-oh. Maybe I really had been stood up.

He crooked a finger.

I glanced at the officer and gave him a wary smile. “Thank you.”

The man raised an eyebrow, looking at Ozzie’s dark expression, then at me. “Good luck, ma’am.”

Filling my lungs, I raised my chin. Ozzie would not intimidate me.

With determined strides, even if they were uneven, I walked toward him. My two different boots made soft thuds on the tile floor, and I wished I’d worn a low heel on my good foot. The sound would add an air of confidence.

Stopping a little over a foot away, I held out the coffee. “Good morning.”

His dark eyes held mine for several heartbeats before he reached out and took the drink. With a quick tip of his head, he motioned me into his office.

Not missing a beat, I walked in, head held high. He followed me in and closed the door as I turned to look at him.

Dark gaze fixed on me, he moved around the desk to his chair. “Why are you here, Claire?”

“We had a date, remember?” I knew I was pushing it, calling it a date. Especially when he hadn’t even agreed to meet me. He hadn’t disagreed, either, though.

One perfect black eyebrow shot up. “A date, huh?”

I walked around and perched on the corner of his desk. “That’s probably what it should be, don’t you think? After Thursday evening?”

He sat back with a sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Claire, I don’t really have time to discuss this. I have?—”

“A murder to solve.” I waved a hand as I cut him off. “I know. And I’m not asking you to forget about your case. Just take a break.”

He lifted the coffee and took a sip. “Seems I don’t have a choice.”

I rolled my eyes. “Stop with the passive-aggressive stuff. If you don’t want me here, just say so.” My heart lodged in mythroat, but I was proud of myself. The words had come out with confidence.

Ozzie blew out a quick breath and sat up. “It’s not that.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Dammit, Claire. It’s… complicated.”

“It’s really not, Ozzie,” I said quietly. “I think I’ve made it pretty clear how I feel. What I want. The whole reason I asked to meet you for coffee this morning was so we could discuss whether to move forward with this.” I wagged a finger between us.

“I realize that. It’s just not that simple. I…” He trailed off, looking away for several moments, deep in thought. When his gaze met mine again, the guard he’d thrown up when I arrived was down.

“You know I’m attracted to you. I can’t deny that, and I don’t want to. But until this case is solved, we can’t do anything about it.”

I raised my cup, taking a drink to hide the disappointment flattening my mouth.

“It’s probably best if we don’t see each other unless it’s for official purposes,” he continued.

“And what if you never solve this case?” Because the way things were looking, that was a distinct possibility. He didn’t have many leads that I knew of.

“We’ll cross that bridge if we get to it.”

I hummed, not liking that answer.

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