Bachelor Cop Finally Caught? (Hot Off The Press Book 2) Read online

  She had a monster headache and her ears were ringing from the explosion.

  Lindsey sat on the examining table, her bare legs dangling beneath the short hem of the hospital gown. Dan stood beside her, where he’d been almost the entire time since she’d arrived. It had been a near miracle that neither she nor anyone else was seriously injured.

  Finally the doctors allowed Dan to drive her home. Reluctantly listening to his orders and taking her medicine, she said, “There. Are you happy?”

  He gently lifted a hand to the bandage on her forehead. “How can you even ask me that when you look like this?”

  A wave of warmth flooded through her, making her knees weak. It was hard to be sensible and levelheaded when he said things like that. When he looked at her that way.

  Then he abruptly stepped back. “Now, get into bed. You need to rest.”

  “Fine.” She surrendered with a yawn. Lindsey just wished she knew exactly what lay behind Dan’s tender solicitations. Friendship—or more?

  Dear Reader, Silhouette Books publishes many stars in romance fiction, but now we want to make you a star! Tell us in 500 words or less how Silhouette makes love come alive for you. Look inside for details of our “Silhouette Makes You A Star” contest—you could win a luxurious weekend in New York!

  Reader favorite Gina Wilkins’s love comes alive year after year with over sixty Harlequin and Silhouette romances to her credit. Though her first two manuscripts were rejected, she pursued her goal of becoming a writer. And she has this advice to offer to aspiring authors: “First, read everything you can, not just from the romance genre. Study pacing and characterization,” Gina says. “Then, forget everything you’ve read and create something that is your own. Never imitate.” Gina’s Bachelor Cop Finally Caught? is available this month. When a small-town reporter is guilty of loving the police chief from afar and then tries to make a quick getaway, will the busy chief be too busy with the law to notice love?

  And don’t miss these great romances from Special Edition. In Sherryl Woods’s Courting the Enemy, a widow who refused to sell her ranch to a longtime archrival has a different plan when it comes to her heart. Tall, Dark and Difficult is the only way to describe the handsome former test pilot hero of Patricia Coughlin’s latest novel. When Marsh Bravo is reunited with his love and discovers the child he never knew, The Marriage Agreement by Christine Rimmer is the only solution! Her Hand-Picked Family by Jennifer Mikels is what the heroine discovers when her search for her long-lost sister leads to a few lessons in love. And sparks fly when her mysterious new lover turns out to be her new boss in Jean Brashear’s Millionaire in Disguise!

  Enjoy this month’s lineup. And don’t forget to look inside for exciting details of the “Silhouette Makes You A Star” contest.

  Best,

  Karen Taylor Richman, Senior Editor

  Bachelor Cop Finally Caught?

  GINA WILKINS

  For Sally, still crazy after all these years.

  Books by Gina Wilkins

  Silhouette Special Edition The Father Next Door #1082

  *It Could Happen To You #1119

  Valentine Baby #1153

  †Her Very Own Family #1243

  †That First Special Kiss #1269

  Surprise Partners #1318

  **The Stranger in Room 205 #1399

  **Bachelor Cop Finally Caught? #1413

  Previously published as Gina Ferris

  Silhouette Special Edition Healing Sympathy #496

  Lady Beware #549

  In From the Rain #677

  Prodigal Father #711

  §Full of Grace #793

  §Hardworking Man #806

  §Fair and Wise #819

  §Far To Go #862

  §Loving and Giving #879

  Babies on Board #913

  Previously published as Gina Ferris Wilkins

  Silhouette Special Edition ‡A Man for Mom #955

  ‡A Match for Celia #967

  ‡A Home for Adam #980

  ‡Cody’s Fiancée #1006

  Silhouette Books Mother’s Day Collection 1995

  Three Mothers and a Cradle “Beginnings”

  GINA WILKINS

  is a bestselling and award-winning author who has written more than fifty books for Harlequin and Silhouette. She credits her successful career in romance to her long, happy marriage and her three “extraordinary” children.

  A lifelong resident of central Arkansas, Ms. Wilkins sold her first book to Harlequin in 1987 and has been writing full-time since. She has appeared on the Waldenbooks, B. Dalton and USA Today bestseller lists. She is a three-time recipient of the Maggie Award for Excellence, sponsored by Georgia Romance Writers, and has won several awards from the reviewers of Romantic Times Magazine.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter One

  Twenty-six candles blazed on the birthday cake in front of Lindsey. A roomful of people crowded around the table at her friend Serena’s to watch her blow them out. All too aware of the one person who wasn’t there—Dan Meadows—she drew in a deep breath and efficiently extinguished all the tiny flames. Her audience applauded enthusiastically.

  “Happy birthday, Lindsey.” Serena Schaffer North, the party’s hostess, gave her friend a quick hug as she spoke.

  Lindsey responded warmly. “Thank you. It’s a great party, Serena.”

  “It is, isn’t it?” Visibly satisfied, Serena cast a quick glance around the roomful of chattering, laughing guests. “I’m so glad everyone could make it.”

  Not everyone, Lindsey couldn’t help thinking.

  As if she’d developed a sudden, disconcerting talent for mind reading, Serena said, “I wish Dan was here. He said he would try.”

  “He’s probably out beating the bushes for clues about the firebug.”

  “Probably.” With a frown, Serena shook her head. “I hope he catches the guy soon. Dan’s starting to look so stressed lately. Frankly, I think he needs a vacation.”

  “So do I.” Lindsey remembered the lines that were slowly carving themselves around Dan’s eyes and mouth. Dan needed more in his life than his work. He needed a reason to go home at night.

  So did she.

  Serena’s husband of almost three months, Cameron North—Lindsey’s boss and editor at the newspaper—joined them just then, sliding his arm around his wife’s waist. “Aren’t you going to have any of your own birthday cake, Lindsey? You’d better hurry or those vultures will eat it all up before you get any.”

  “Someone will save me a slice.” Not particularly concerned about the cake, Lindsey studied the quiet contentment on the faces of the couple in front of her.

  Serena and Cameron had met under extraordinary circumstances—she’d found him lying on the side of a road, beaten half to death, with no memory of who he was or how he’d gotten there. Just about five months later they were married. Cameron had recovered most of his memories of his past, but he had told Lindsey without embarrassment that, as far as he was concerned, his life hadn’t really begun until he’d awoken in a hospital room to find Serena leaning over him.

  Though she’d teased him about being a sentimental softie, Lindsey had actually been touch
ed by Cameron’s confession. She’d also been aware of a ripple of envy. Serena and Cam had known so quickly that they were right for each other. How could it have been that easy?

  Okay, so she knew it hadn’t been that easy. She had seen the way Serena suffered during the weeks that Cameron had gone back to Texas to rediscover his past, before he’d come to the realization that this was where he wanted to spend his future. But it certainly hadn’t taken him twenty years to learn to appreciate what had been right in front of him.

  Determined not to waste any more of her birthday moping over Dan, she pasted on a bright smile and playfully demanded that someone bring her a slice of her birthday cake. She laughed when at least six people immediately thrust plates of cake in front of her. She had lots of friends, she reminded herself. A job she enjoyed. The freedom to pursue her dreams wherever they led her. And if the romantic dream that had led her back here wasn’t meant to be—well, she’d find a new dream somewhere else.

  Twenty years was long enough to invest in a fantasy that she was beginning to believe was never meant to come true.

  The following morning, as she did on the rare Saturday mornings when she wasn’t working, Lindsey made a haphazard attempt at housework, zipping through the house in which she’d grown up, a dust cloth in one hand and a broom in the other. She’d inherited the three-bedroom house three months ago, when her father had passed away after a lengthy illness. He’d died on the Monday after New Year’s Day, a sad holiday this year—just as Christmas had been, since he’d been becoming weaker and weaker. Lindsey’s many friends in Edstown had made sure she’d spent little time alone during the holidays.

  Her older brother, B.J., a career military man, had insisted that the house should be Lindsey’s as she’d spent the past two years living there and taking care of their father. Even though she’d argued that she’d done so only because she wanted to, B.J. had refused to accept part ownership of the house, settling, instead, for a portion of the modest insurance settlement.

  During the past couple of weeks, Lindsey had been thinking about putting the house on the market. When it sold, she would insist that B.J. accept part of the proceeds. She could take a job in a bigger market— Little Rock, Atlanta, maybe Dallas—where she could start a new life. She had the credentials, the ambition, a few connections. There was nothing holding her here now.

  Nothing at all, she thought with a wistful little sigh.

  Her doorbell rang just as she finished running the vacuum cleaner in the living room. Glancing down, she wrinkled her nose at her appearance. Oversize green T-shirt, baggy denim shorts, fuzzy purple house shoes. Her hair stood in messy red spikes around her smudged face. She looked like an orphan from the cast of Annie, she thought with a shake of her head. Hoping her caller was a salesperson or a close pal rather than her minister or the mayor’s wife—neither of whom she was expecting—she opened the door.

  As it had for the better part of twenty years, her heart tripped when she saw Dan Meadows on her doorstep. As she had since she’d gotten old enough to understand the meaning of the word “pride,” she hid her reaction behind an impudent grin. “Well, hey, Chief. Whazzup?”

  Dressed in an oatmeal-colored cotton sweater and a pair of faded jeans, he eyed her skimpy attire. “Lose your calendar? It’s the first week of March, not the middle of summer.”

  “I’ve been cleaning,” she said with a shrug.

  “Ah. That explains your new perfume. I thought you’d switched to Eau d’Pine.”

  Wrinkling her nose in response to the bad joke, she opened the door wider and motioned for him to enter. “Since the place is clean, you might as well come in.”

  “How could I resist that gracious invitation?” Pulling his right hand from behind his back, he handed her a wrapped package as he passed her. “Happy birthday, Lindsey. Sorry it’s a day late.”

  Kicking the door closed behind him, she studied the pretty paper and the jaunty bow. “No way you wrapped that. It’s too pretty.”

  “You’re right. I had it wrapped at the store.”

  “It’s almost too fancy to open.”

  He grinned. “What makes you think there’s anything inside? Maybe the pretty package is all I got you.”

  “And maybe you’re full of hot air.”

  Laughing, he ruffled her hair—exactly the way he had when she was a kid tagging at his and her brother’s heels. His nine-inch advantage over her five-foot-three height made it even easier for him to treat her like a kid. “Just open the present, princess.”

  His use of the childhood nickname made it difficult for her to keep her smile in place. “Yeah. Sure.”

  With the ease of someone who’d spent a lot of time in this house during the past twenty years, Dan settled on the couch, an arm draped across the back, his legs stretched in front of him. His chestnut hair tumbled over his forehead, ending in a fringe just over his dark brown eyes. He looked tired, and there was a slight touch of gray at his temples now, but Lindsey could still see traces of the handsome teenager he’d been in the roughly good-looking man he had become.

  She sat in a nearby chair, the gift in her lap. Though she usually ripped into her presents at light speed, she opened this one with excruciating slowness—just because she knew it would drive Dan crazy.

  “You’re going to have another birthday before you get into that,” he complained, as she’d known he would.

  “I want to savor the moment. You’re usually giving me grief instead of presents.”

  “I give you grief? You’re the gung-ho reporter who stays on my heels all the time looking for a hot lead—as if there’s all that much to report in Edstown.”

  “Just doing my job, Chief.”

  “Yeah, well, you sure as hell make it tough for me to do mine sometimes.”

  Because this was an old and generally unproductive argument, Lindsey let the comment pass as she peeled the last bit of paper away from the box. A moment later she swallowed a lump in her throat so she could say, “Dan, it’s beautiful. Thank you.”

  His smile was just a bit smug. “Do I know what you like or what?”

  Yes, he knew what she liked—when she was twelve. She had collected unicorn figurines from the time she was a little girl until she’d gone off to college. Her room had been filled with them, the walls covered with unicorn posters. Now Dan had bought her a blown-glass unicorn for her twenty-sixth birthday. Somehow he’d completely missed the fact that she was no longer the little girl he’d known so long ago.

  Her heart aching, she set the unicorn—a perfect symbol for hopeless fantasies, she reflected glumly—on the coffee table. “Have you had lunch? I was just about to eat.”

  “As a matter of fact, I’m starved. What’ve you got?”

  “Sandwiches.”

  “Just what I had a craving for,” he drawled.

  With a weak laugh, Lindsey led the way into the kitchen. They spent the next half hour munching ham-and-Swiss-on-rye sandwiches, pickle spears, and raw vegetables with ranch dip. During the casual meal, they talked about her brother—Dan’s best friend since adolescence—and their mutual friends in Edstown. She asked about his parents, who were, as usual, spending the winter at an RV park in southern Texas; he assured her they were fine, that he’d spoken to them only the day before.

  There were a couple of subjects they carefully avoided, such as the arsonist who’d been eluding the local authorities. And then there was the one topic neither of them ever mentioned—Dan’s bitterly unpleasant divorce two and a half years ago, barely six months before Lindsey had moved back to take care of her father. Even if Lindsey had wanted to bring up his marriage debacle—which she didn’t—Dan would not have cooperated. He’d forbidden everyone to even mention his ex-wife’s name in his presence.

  “So, anyway, the noise Mrs. Treadway reported hearing outside her window was nothing more than a broken tree branch tapping against the glass. Unfortunately, by the time we managed to find that out, Jack and I were wet to the bone, covered
in mud, half-frozen, and we’d narrowly escaped being midnight snacks for Mrs. Treadway’s rottweiler.”

  Lindsey winced even as she laughed at Dan’s wryly told anecdote. “So you had a close encounter with Baby, did you?”

  He all but shuddered. “Baby missed biting me in a very sensitive area by an extremely narrow margin. I swear I felt his hot breath right on my—”

  “I get the picture,” Lindsey said quickly. There were some mental images she wasn’t prepared to deal with right now—Dan’s “sensitive areas” among them. “Baby’s not as bad as he pretends to be. Around Mrs. Treadway, he’s just a big, dopey puppy.”

  “Yeah, well, thanks to Baby I almost had to switch from the bass section of the church choir to the soprano section.”

  She smiled and nodded toward his empty plate. “Would you like anything else to eat? I have some leftover birthday cake that Serena insisted I bring home.”

  “Cake sounds good, if you have an extra slice.”

  “I have plenty,” she assured him and rose to cut him a piece.

  “I’m sorry I had to miss your party. I got tied up at the station and didn’t get away until after eleven.”

  “Which explains the dark circles under your eyes.” She studied his face as she set the dessert plate in front of him. “You aren’t getting enough rest lately, Dan. Serena thinks you need a vacation.”

  “She does, does she?”

  “When’s the last time you took more than twenty-four hours off?”

  He shrugged. “It’s been a while,” he admitted. “But I won’t be taking a vacation anytime soon—not with some crackpot trying to burn down every building in the damned town.”