Page 28 of Bachelor Cop Finally Caught? (Hot off the Press! 2)

“You’ve got her married off already to a guy she hasn’t even met yet?” Dan had tried to speak dryly but was afraid he’d sounded cutting, instead.

“It isn’t as if they’re total strangers. They knew each other in high school, even though he was a class or two ahead of her.”

Dan shook his head, knowing his disapproval must be evident on his face. “I doubt that Lindsey would appreciate being set up like this.”

“Oh, I’m not blindsiding her. I’ve told her Scott’s going to be here. I even told her she could bring a date if she wanted. She has several young men friends, you know.”

Dan grimly pictured Lindsey snuggled up with cowboy Bo and a bowling ball. “So she’s bringing a date to a party that’s being planned primarily to fix her up with another guy? And you don’t think that’s awkward?”

She laughed again, though Dan wasn’t sure exactly what she found so amusing. “I suppose it would be. But she said she won’t be bringing a date, so that’s not really an issue.”

Dan still hated the whole idea. There was just something…well, tawdry about it, he decided. Putting Lindsey on display for some hotshot young doctor to look over…she deserved better than that.

“Oh, don’t look so negative, Dan. I’m not putting her up for auction. It’s just a party, and she and Scott will both be there. If nothing happens between them, it’s no big deal. I just thought they might enjoy seeing each other again while Scott’s in town.”

Put that way, it didn’t sound quite so unsavory. But he still didn’t like it.

“I don’t get to play matchmaker much now that my girls are both taken.” Marjorie sounded as if she were lamenting a favorite hobby she’d been forced to give up. “I tried a couple of times with Riley, but he made it very clear he isn’t interested in getting involved with anyone now. He’s too busy playing and being entirely self-indulgent.”

“Yeah, well, that’s Riley.”

“And as for you…”

Dan grimaced and pushed his coffee cup away, ready to bolt. “No, thanks.”

“Oh, I know.” She waved a dismissive hand. “You’re committed to being a crusty old bachelor. You know, I actually considered trying to fix you up with Lindsey for a time. But I quickly figured out that you weren’t interested.”

Dan had to clear his throat before he murmured, “I sincerely doubt that Lindsey would have been interested, either.”

Marjorie reached out to pat his clenched hand, almost as if he were a pouting child. “Well, probably not anymore, anyway. She seems to have put her girlhood crush behind her and moved on. Which is why I’ve decided it’s a good time to brush up on my matchmaking skills.”

Someone called Marjorie’s name from across the diner, sounding a bit frantic. Marjorie sighed. “I have got to hire a new employee,” she murmured. “Excuse me, Dan, I must get back to work. Don’t forget my party Saturday evening, okay? Seven o’clock, right here.”

“I won’t forget,” Dan mumbled, though he made no promises about being there. He was still trying to process Marjorie’s implication that Lindsey had once had a crush on him but had since moved on.

Okay, so he’d known she had a little crush on him when she’d been an impressionable kid and he’d been her brother’s teenage friend. But he assumed she’d outgrown that when she entered high school and started dating guys her own age. She’d certainly given him no hints since then that she thought of him as anything other than an honorary big brother.

Or had she?

He remembered a few excerpts from recent conversations they’d had….

“My problem is that I’ve grown up, Dan Meadows,” she had said. “And it seems like just about every guy in this town has finally figured that out—except for you.”

And then there’d been that comment about him finally getting the right idea when he’d danced with her.

And the one at her house, when he’d asked why she’d had him over to fix her pipe when she claimed to have been perfectly capable of fixing it herself.

“If you weren’t such a blind, stubborn, thickheaded male, you’d have figured that one out yourself,” she had declared.

Had he really been blind? Or deliberately obtuse? Or was he even now reading things into her words that she hadn’t meant at all? Had he simply let himself be unduly influenced by Marjorie’s fanciful ramblings so that he was now misinterpreting perfectly innocent remarks?

He’d better get to work, he told himself, standing so abruptly he nearly knocked his chair over. As frustrating as his job had been lately, he still felt more comfortable pursuing clues than trying to figure out what had been going through Lindsey’s head lately. Or trying to define his own convoluted feelings for her.

Lindsey woke with a gasp, her heart pounding, her skin flushed, her tangled nightclothes testifying to her very restless sleep. The numerals on her clock glowed red in the darkness—3:24 a.m.

“Damn.”

She shoved an unsteady hand through her hair, not at all surprised to find it damp and tangled. Her bedclothes were half on, half off the bed, and she didn’t know what had become of her pillow.

---