Serving Up Trouble

really was a loon before ignoring her.

The woman who cried wolf. That’s who he thought she was. A thrill seeker. A hanger-on.

She was none of those things, and she wanted him to know it. She’d take his suspect’s prints with her new kit, and then she’d call him. She’d give him the prints. She’d take charge.

Yep, first day of the rest of her life. She moved toward the car. Not being completely stupid, she glanced up and down the alley first, but there was no one in sight. Surely she had enough time to get a print, then get out of the way and make the call.

She set her tools down on the ground, knelt by the door handle and concentrated on the directions she’d memorized. It wasn’t as easy under pressure, and she messed up her first try. But before she could try again, she heard a noise and rushed to her feet. As she did, she reached into her pocket for her cell phone, and-

Came face-to-face with a police officer who didn’t look nearly as happy to see her as she was to see him.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Oh, Officer, great.” She sent him a megawatt smile, both because he’d scared the living day lights out of her, and because she was relieved it was a cop who had managed to sneak up on her, not a bad guy. “I was just going to call you.”

“Really. What a coincidence.”

“Yes. I have reason to believe that the owner of this car is a wanted man.”

“Wanted for what?”

“What’s going on here?” A man stepped out. Not the suspect, but the tall, elegantly dressed one, and he looked more than a touch annoyed. “This is my car.”

The officer looked at Angie.

Angie sighed. “I thought the other guy owned the car, the one who came with this man.”

The man shook his head. “I’m alone.”

“But I saw him. He was standing right next to you in the alley.”

“There was never anyone with me this morning.”

It was the officer’s turn to sigh. “It’s too early for this.”

“I’ll say.” The owner brushed past her, inspected the door for scratches, then gestured for Angie to move out of his way so he could get in.

“You’re going to let him go?” Angie asked the officer.

“I’m going to let you go.”

“Yeah.” She supposed she’d have to start the rest of her life tomorrow.

She went to see Sam in his lion’s den-er, his office. She refrained from making any cracks about the condition of his office, but it wasn’t easy.

And given the vaguely amused way he watched her as she entered, he knew it.

“You should know,” she said right off, wanting to just spit it out. “I had a little chat with a very nice policeman today in the alley where I was at tempting to take fingerprints off a car I thought was your suspect’s.”

He blinked, shook his head, blinked again and still didn’t appear to be able to speak.

“I know you’re going to say I shouldn’t have interfered, but it’s done. And no, I didn’t get the prints. Turns out I’m not quite as adept as I thought I was.”

He rose out of his chair and came to stand in front of her. He slowly reached out, cupped her jaw and stared into her face. “First of all, are you hurt?”

His fingers on her skin sent an electrical charge through her body, not that she could concentrate on that through her confusion. She’d been so certain he’d be furious. Why wasn’t he furious? “Um…no. I’m not hurt. Not at all.”

“Well, thank God for small favors. Now tell me what happened.”

“I saw two men by the car. One was your suspect. I had looked down for just a minute but assumed he’d gotten out of the same car and-”

“And he didn’t, I take it.”

“No. And then the other guy thought I was some sort of a loon, so the policeman wasn’t happy with me. I realized after I left that I didn’t even get the car’s license plate number.” She bit her lower lip, waited for his annoyance. His frustration.

Instead, his thumb continued to stroke her jaw, his gaze following the motion in tensely.

She almost wished he wouldn’t, because she was looking at him, feeling him, seeing an almost…tender side she hadn’t realized existed.

She was a sucker for tender. “Sam?”

With a sigh, his eyes cleared. He dropped his hand. “You terrify me, you know that?”

“Why?”

“What if the other guy had come back and found you alone in the alley?”

“Well, I thought they were together, you see, and the first man, the owner of the car, was talking into his cell phone and he said he’d be a half an hour, so I thought…”

“You thought you were safe,” he finished grimly, and shoved his fingers through his hair. “Promise me you won’t do anything like that again.”

She looked into his eyes, saw his intensity, his worry for her. She really wanted to be able to make the promise, she really did. She wanted a whole heck of a lot, she was discovering, when it came to him. “Sam, I can help you on this case.”

He closed his eyes and sighed again. And when he opened them back up, she saw another heart-stopping flash of that tenderness.

“Angie, I know you felt helpless at the bank holdup. I know you felt weak and defenseless, when you’re none of those things. But making up for it by catching a different bad guy isn’t the answer. I want you to promise me you won’t do anything like this again.”

“I can promise you I won’t get hurt,” she said softly, begging him with her eyes to understand. To let her help.

But he shook his head and turned away, staring blindly out the window. “That’s a promise you can’t keep, so let’s not even go there.”

The end of the week came. The entire seven days had been one big exercise in frustration for Sam. The holdup. Angie. The consequential news pa per extravaganza. Angie. The calls. The paperwork.

Angie.

She just wouldn’t go away, and yet she confused the hell out of him because even as she wanted to be in his life to solve his case-which still bugged him-she didn’t want to be in his life.

And yet in his experience, women wanted in. So what made Angie so different? Why couldn’t he put her out of his mind?

Because he was afraid she was going to get herself killed, that’s why. It was that simple. He had the incident in the alley as an example.

No doubt, she terrified him.

He just had no idea what to do about it. So he checked on her. Stopped by the cafe. Stopped by her apartment.

All in the name of duty.

Mostly.

Angie turned out to be a busy woman, not as easy to peg as he’d imagined. Which is how he found himself three mornings in a row sitting in the kitchen of the cafe, drinking the best coffee he’d ever had, bantering with Josephine and watching Angie when she wasn’t looking.

No doubt, she loved what she did. She made that clear with every smile, every laugh, every touch. She remembered orders without writing them down, and always had a kind word. It was amazing.

She was amazing.

She was also the sweetest, most giving, warmest woman he’d ever met. And completely guile less. If he’d harbored any doubt of her sincerity and naivete, it’d vanished while watching her serve her customers those mornings.

God help him, there was some thing about the fanciful, joyous, wide-eyed and oddly vulnerable beauty that tugged at him, when he didn’t want to be tugged at.