Page 58 of Bachelor Cop Finally Caught? (Hot off the Press! 2)

“Lindsey’s been pretty busy lately,” he said to B.J. “Always chasing stories for the paper.”

B.J. chuckled. “I still have the paper mailed to me, just to keep abreast of Edstown gossip. Lindsey pretty much writes the whole thing, doesn’t she?”

“Pretty much.”

“I will say that the quality of the paper has gone up considerably since Cameron North took over as managing editor. He gives the staff a lot more freedom to cover the news than Marvin did.”

“Yeah. Marvin was always afraid of making waves or ticking off someone influential. Cameron says he’s putting out a newspaper, not a piece of PR fluff.”

“I know Lindsey’s much happier working for him than she was Marvin. Still, has she said any more to you about getting a job in a bigger city?”

“Not lately.” Dan folded the paper and set it aside. “I’ve told her several times that her talents are underutilized here. She could work anywhere she wants.”

“Yeah, I’ve told her the same thing. Of course, being the overprotective big brother that I am, I rather like having her there in Edstown where I know she’s safe and sheltered from the big, bad world. And she has you there to watch out for her in my place.”

Dan grimaced. “I’m not a baby-sitter, B.J. And Lindsey doesn’t need one.”

“I know.” His friend sounded rueful. “She tells me often enough that I’ve got to stop treating her like a kid. She’s closer to thirty than twenty now, she’s always reminding me. But, you know how it is. I still think of her as my little sister.”

Dan swallowed.

“Oh, hell,” B.J. said after a moment. “I just want her to be happy. If that means she should move to a bigger city, then I’ll give her my full encouragement.”

“I’m sure she appreciates your support.”

“So, you’ve seen her lately?”

“Oh, sure. I see her often.”

“And she looks well to you? She’s really doing okay since Dad died?”

“She’s fine. Looks great. And she seems happy.”

“Good. You would tell me if there was any reason to be concerned.”

Dan rubbed his forehead, which was beginning to ache dully. “Yeah. Of course I would.”

“Is she dating anyone? Surely she isn’t working all the time.”

Dan had probably been more uncomfortably self-conscious at some point in the past couple of years—but not that he could remember. “I doubt that she would appreciate us gossiping about her behind her back.”

B.J. laughed. “You’re probably right. I imagine she’d tear a strip or two off my hide if she thought I was checking up on her. And she’d be especially mad about me asking you about her social life, considering the giant crush she once had on you.”

This was the third person in the past month to refer to Lindsey’s girlhood infatuation. First Marjorie, then Riley—in a conversation Dan had accidentally overheard—and now B.J.

“Since both of us have reason to be wary of Lindsey’s temper, we’d bett

er change the subject,” he said, attempting to inject a note of humor in his voice. “How are things in—where the hell are you these days?”

“I’m in Seoul at the moment. I’ll probably be here another six weeks or so, and then maybe I can get home for a visit.”

Six weeks. As B.J. chattered on about his recent activities, Dan wondered what would be going on between him and Lindsey in six weeks. Would their affair be over by then or still hovering in this tentative limbo? It might be that B.J. would never even know about it—which would suit Dan just fine if things didn’t work out. It would be bad enough to lose Lindsey. Ruining his longtime friendship with B.J. would be almost, if not quite, as devastating.

Dan was driving Lindsey crazy. Not a new development—he’d been doing so for years—but this was different. He should certainly know how she felt about him by now, but his feelings about her were more of a mystery than ever.

At his suggestion they were extremely discreet about the new direction their relationship had taken. In public they acted no differently toward each other than they ever had. She doubted that anyone—with the exception of Riley, of course—could tell that she and Dan had become lovers.

He said they deserved privacy during these early stages of their romance. They were both aware that if word got out about them, everyone they knew would be watching them, speculating and making comments. Lindsey could see Dan’s point—and yet sometimes she wanted very badly to shout from the rooftops that she was in love and deliriously happy. She’d have been perfectly content to run a front-page story about it with a banner headline—but if Dan wanted discretion, she could be patient. For now.

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