Page 43 of Bachelor Cop Finally Caught? (Hot off the Press! 2)

“Longer than you think. You’ve probably been asleep for most of the afternoon.”

“It’s those pills,” she grumbled. “They knock me out. I don’t want to take any more of them.”

“You aren’t in any pain?”

Still without moving, she took a mental inventory. “My head hurts a little, I’ve got some sore muscles and a few throbbing bruises, and my mouth is so dry it feels dusty, but other than that, I’ve got no complaints.”

“I’ll get you a glass of water,” he said, standing.

She thought about sitting up while he was gone, but it seemed like too much effort just then. Her grandmother’s afghan was draped over her shoulders; she snuggled a bit more comfortably beneath it and let her eyelids close again. She wasn’t really sleepy now, just still drifting on a medication cloud. She rarely took pills of any sort, and when she did, she usually reacted strongly. She’d joked that ordinary aspirin could knock her out for hours.

She felt Dan’s hand brush her hair back from her face, his touch tender over the bulky bandage. “Are you going back to sleep?”

“No.” She moved against his hand like a sleepy cat. “Just taking my time waking up.”

“You want this water?”

That offer gave her the incentive to open her eyes and push herself upright, with the help of a hand from Dan. He’d put ice in the water, and it tasted cool and wonderful. She drained the glass.

“I needed that,” she said, setting the empty tumbler on the end table and smiling at him. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

She patted the couch beside her, wondering what the odds were that he would give her another one of the amazing kisses. “Sit down?”

He glanced at the couch, and then at the chair in which he’d been sitting earlier. She cleared her throat and patted the couch again.

Though he shot her a somewhat wary frown, he sat, perched almost on the edge of the couch.

Obviously he needed to relax a bit. And the best way to put Chief Dan Meadows at ease was to get him talking about work. “Tell me about the investigations. Has anything new come up?”

“Are you asking as a reporter or as an interested citizen?”

“I’m asking as Lindsey.”

“Oh, in that case…” He gave her a little smile. “None of your business.”

Feigning outrage, she punched his arm.

He laughed and rubbed his bicep. “Okay. I’m kidding. But really, there’s very little new to tell you. There was a report that Eddie Stamps was spotted in Little Rock yesterday, but we haven’t been able to confirm that. The arson inspectors found a couple of leads today—maybe there’s something traceable.”

She lifted her eyebrows at that. “Really? Like what?”

“I’ll let you know as soon as I get an official report.”

An annoying answer, but typical of Dan. He wasn’t going to suddenly turn chatty and expansive just because they’d kissed. And speaking of that kiss…

She oh-so-casually scooted a bit closer to him. “What else did you do while you were gone?”

He stretched to reach for the remote to turn down the television, the seemingly idle motion inching him a bit farther away from her. “Not much. Returned some calls, signed off on some paperwork, met for a few minutes with Mrs. Stamps.”

“How’s she holding up?”

“Not very well, as you can imagine. She wants answers about her son.”

“What about the boy’s father? Have you heard from him?”

“Merle’s on a drinking binge, I’m afraid. He’s not saying much of anything. Whether the bender started before his son’s disappearance or because of it, I couldn’t say.”

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