Page 4 of Bachelor Cop Finally Caught? (Hot off the Press! 2)

Some impulse made her speak, just as Dan started down the front steps. “I’m thinking about selling the house.”

He stopped and turned to look at her in obvious surprise. “No kidding? Why? Is it too much for you to keep up?”

“No. I can handle the maintenance. I’m considering looking for a job in a bigger city. Dallas or Atlanta, maybe.”

“Oh.” He shoved his hands in his pockets, looking as though he didn’t quite know how to respond. “Well…I can see where you’d have better career prospects in a bigger market, but…you’d be missed here.”

She noted that he didn’t say who would be missing her if she left. “I haven’t really made a final decision yet. I’m just mulling it over.”

“I see. Well, you do what you think is best for your future. I’ve gotta go, okay? See you around.”

“Yeah.” Lindsey leaned against the doorjamb and watched him climb into his car. “See you around, Dan.”

Sometime later she carried the unicorn into her bedroom and set it on the dresser. Her childhood collection had been packed away since she’d left home for college—not that Dan would know that. It had been years since he’d seen the inside of her bedroom.

He probably still pictured ruffles and teddy bears, she thought glumly.

Stupid man.

She caught a glimpse of herself in the full-length mirror attached to one of her closet doors. A low groan escaped her as she studied the grubby clothes that dwarfed her petite figure, and the fuzzy house shoes that would have looked more at home at a teen slumber party. She ran a hand over her spiky hair and glared at the smudge of dust on her unpainted cheek.

“No wonder he still thinks I’m twelve,” she muttered. She winced when she remembered his ex-wife, with her perfect hair, perfect face, perfect teeth, perfect breasts. Lindsey turned sideways and poked out her chest, eyeing the results in the mirror. “Pitiful,” she grumbled. “Just pitiful.”

She mentally replayed the way she’d bantered with Dan, swapping put-downs and bad jokes, pretty much the way she and her brother carried on when he was home. When they met on a professional basis, she and Dan usually ended up yelling at each other—and she’d admit that she usually started it. Maybe it was just a teensy bit her fault that he hadn’t seen her as a sexy, desirable woman.

If she gave up now and moved away, putting her dreams behind her, would she always regret not giving it one more try? She’d never been a quitter, and had never been hesitant to go after something she wanted—except for Dan. What did she have to lose—except her dignity, her pride and her ego?

The grubby woman in the mirror suddenly looked a little pale, but there was a new look of determination in her green eyes.

Dan Meadows was about to find himself with a brand-new problem on his hands.

Chapter Two

“What are you doing here already?” Dan’s secretary said, glaring at him from his office doorway.

He looked up from the paperwork littering his desk and said, “Excuse me?”

“I heard you didn’t leave here until after ten last night. Now here it is not even eight in the morning and you’re already at it again.” Hazel Sumners shook her head in exasperation. “You are not Superman, Dan Meadows. You need rest.”

He heaved a gusty sigh. “I’ll have you know I got nearly eight hours’ sleep last night. That’s plenty of rest for a grown man.”

“Rest involves more than a few hours of sleep,” she scolded. “How about leisure time? You know—fun? You didn’t even take time off for Lindsey’s birthday party Friday night.”

“I saw Lindsey on Saturday,” he retorted. “I didn’t totally ignore her birthday.”

“That isn’t the point. You should have been at that party having a good time with your friends. You should have taken off Saturday afternoon to go fishing with Cameron, and a few hours yesterday for church and a nice Sunday dinner somewhere. But what did you do? You worked, except for having a quick sandwich with Lindsey.”

“How did you—”

“I saw Lindsey at church yesterday morning, and I asked her if she’d seen you during the weekend. She told me you popped in to tell her happy birthday and then came right back to the office.”

“Do you ask everyone about my business, or just a select few?” He kept his tone mild, but he couldn’t help being a bit annoyed that Hazel had been monitoring his actions so closely. Her job was to keep up with his work schedule, not his personal life.

“Your friends are worried about you, Dan—and so are your co-workers. You’re working too long and too hard, and if you don’t slow down you’re going to crash just as hard.”

It was with some effort that he held on to his patience. “I’ll take some time off as soon as we catch whoever has been setting fires around here.”

Still scowling, she shook her spray-stiffened, salt-and-pepper head. “This is just like those break-ins that took all your time last summer. You said that as soon as you solved those, you’d take a vacation. But Delbert Farley’s been in jail for weeks now and you’re still working just as hard as ever. Catch this firebug and something else will come up. And before you know it, your whole life will have passed you by.”

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