Page 63 of Bachelor Cop Finally Caught? (Hot off the Press! 2)

He nodded. “Is he going to be there Saturday night?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t talked to him lately.” She slid her feet into her shoes, then reached up to smooth her own tousled hair.

Dan shoved his hands in his pockets and cleared his throat. “You know, there’s no reason you shouldn’t go out and have a good time occasionally. I certainly don’t expect you to sit around at home waiting for a good time for us to be together.”

She froze, one hand still in her hair. Very slowly she dropped her arm to her side. “Surely you aren’t suggesting that I should go out with other men.”

His face could have been carved from marble for all the expression she could read there. “You just said yourself that you would like to get out more.”

“I meant with you.”

He had to hear the emotions in her voice—the hurt, the disappointment. The disbelief. “Look, Lindsey—”

Drawing herself up to her full five feet three inches, she crossed her arms over her chest and gazed unblinkingly at him. “You really wouldn’t mind if I go out again with Bo? Someone else, maybe?”

“I—”

“When were you planning to ask me out, Dan? On a real date, I mean. Or did you ever intend to appear in public with me?”

“Look, you know how I feel about my privacy.”

“Yes,” she whispered. “I know how you feel about that. What I don’t know is how you feel about me. About us.”

He couldn’t seem to come up with an answer. He just stood there, looking at her with that inscrutable expression.

“There has to be a reason you don’t want anyone to know about us,” she continued. “Is it because you don’t see a future for us? I’m just a secret affair for you until you get tired of me? Or maybe you’re already tired of me. Maybe that’s why you’ve been trying to convince me to date other men. Even to move away. Is that it, Dan?”

“You don’t understand. I’ve kept our affair a secret as much for your sake as for mine.”

“For my sake?” She might have laughed if she hadn’t been so upset.

“Yes. You have a lot of friends in this town. People you admire and care about. I don’t want it to be awkward for you here when—if this thing between us falls apart.”

“When this thing falls apart. That’s what you really mean, isn’t it? You don’t give us a chance, do you?”

“I’m just trying to be realistic. One of us has to be.”

“And what does that mean?”

He was beginning to go on the defensive, which was obviously making him irritable. “We both know there’s no guarantee that this will work out. With all the initial strikes against us, in addition to the usual pressures of a new relationship, it’s quite likely that one or both of us will decide it would be better if we just go back to being friends.”

She tightened her arms around herself. “I won’t be the one to decide that.”

Taking a step toward her, he spoke more gently. “You can’t know that for certain. We’re in new territory here. You could very well decide that reality isn’t nearly as interesting or exciting as infatuation.”

The word hit her with the force of a slap. “Infatuation?” she repeated carefully.

His expression turned wary again. “Maybe I phrased that badly. What I meant was—”

“I think I know exactly what you meant.” Almost vibrating with temper, she glared at him, remembering the conversation with Riley that she now suspected Dan had overheard. “Are you under the impression that I still have a starry-eyed schoolgirl crush on you? You think I’m too dense or too naive to know the difference between love and infatuation?”

He seemed to pale a bit at her use of the L word—which, of course, only made her angrier. “I know I’m not an easy guy to be involved with,” he offered. “I work too much and I’m too settled in my rather dull routines, and I have a hard time showing my feelings. No one would blame you for getting bored with all that.”

She stamped her foot—then immediately regretted doing so because she didn’t want him thinking of her as a temperamental kid. But he made her so furious. “Damn it, I am not Melanie!” she shouted. “I hate her for what she put you through—but mostly I hate her because I’m the one having to deal with the aftermath. If you’re afraid of getting involved again, afraid of being hurt again—say so! Don’t you dare try to put it all off on me.”

“I’m just trying to be sensible,” he muttered without quite meeting her eyes.

She had never been so hurt or so angry in her entire adult life. “You never intended to tell anyone about us, did you? You let me chase you—let me make a fool out of myself over you—and then you decided to humor me until I…what? Outgrew the crush I had on you? Got bored and moved on in search of bigger, better adventures? After all, an immature, empty-headed little princess like me couldn’t possibly know what she really wants, right? It was up to you, the responsible, mature, sensible one to make sure neither of us would be embarrassed when I realized my terrible mistake.”

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