like a lot of bull to me, Ramsey.”
Dan sat down. “Try me, then. I don’t mind being put on the hot seat. I’m used to being there,” he offered, letting a grin leak through his professional demeanor. Gradually, Parker was losing the chip on his shoulder. Dan was confident of his diplomacy skills. What excited him most was getting the best out of each person he met. Parker was no exception, so Dan took up the challenge of changing the chief’s perception about working with the marines of Reed.
* * *
Rose poked her head around his door after Parker had left. “Not bad, Captain. He stayed a whole hour. What’d ya do? Hog-tie him?”
“Almost,” Dan said dryly. He pulled his sack lunch out of a drawer in his desk. “I’m starving to death.”
“Sorry, Captain, but you’ve got another visitor.”
Frowning, he unwrapped the beef sandwich he’d fixed for himself earlier that morning at his apartment. “Who now?”
“Don’t get that unhappy look on your face. This one will make you smile. Libby Tyler’s here.”
Libby. Dan set the sandwich aside. “God, I promised her I’d get back to her before this.” He started rummaging frantically through the teetering stack of files on his desk. “Send her in, Rose.”
“Sure thing, boss.”
Locating the file, Dan pulled it out. Just as he opened it, Libby entered his office and suddenly his pressured, demanding day melted away. Her sable hair was caught in a loose ponytail tied with a yellow ribbon, and she looked like a freshly scrubbed college girl. Escaped tendrils curled at her temples, and the thick bangs across her brow emphasized her large green eyes. She wore a long-sleeved, pale yellow cotton blouse that complemented her canary yellow riding breeches. More than anything, Dan liked the flush to her freckled cheeks and her sensual mouth.
He stood quickly, nearly tipping over his chair as he rose. Grimacing, he caught it and dropped the file on the desk. “Hi, come on in.”
Libby hesitated in the doorway. Yes, Dan Ramsey was still just as pulverizingly handsome as she’d remembered. For three days now, she’d been trying valiantly to push him out of her mind—and heart. “I was in the neighborhood and thought I’d drop by, Captain.”
“Sure, no problem,” he said, bending down to retrieve the file. “Sit down. I’m glad you dropped by.” He liked the way she walked, with a fluid kind of grace. Despite her height, she reminded him of a quietly flowing river. Did horseback riding impart that ballerinalike quality? It must. “I’ve got to apologize,” he said, motioning to his overflowing investigation files. “I think everyone on base heard I was here. The cases coming in have been more like an avalanche than a dribble.”
She nodded and sat down. “Then you must be very good at what you do.” Her pulse bounded when he smiled ruefully and sat, opening the file in front of him. Libby found herself wanting to stare deeply into his amused azure eyes. The crow’s-feet around Dan’s eyes were deep, as were the lines around his mouth. This man knew how to laugh, how to find the positive in life, she thought, violently fighting the desire to like him even more.
Seeing the opened sandwich and paper bag at his right elbow, she felt bad at having interrupted his late lunch. “What did you find out about the horses?” she asked eagerly.
Dan rapidly read Joe’s typed report. “Mr. Garwood feels it’s a group of teenage dependents doing it, Libby.”
Libby stood up. “Boys! He told me the same thing four months ago! I didn’t buy it then, and I don’t buy it now.”
Dan held up his hand. “He promised my sergeant that he’d post one of his men at the stable for the next seven nights and catch them.” Looking up, he saw Libby’s disgust and agitation. “Isn’t that enough?”
“Oh, I don’t know. My gut feeling tells me it isn’t a bunch of rowdy dependents looking for a good time.”
Sitting back, Dan absorbed her fiery beauty. She had the most beautiful green eyes he’d ever seen—like emeralds held up to sunlight. Right now, they were narrowed, reflecting her agitation. “Listen, I haven’t even had lunch yet. How about I take you over to the Officers’ Club and we’ll grab a bite to eat and discuss this issue further?” Dan suggested, as surprised as she apparently was that he’d asked her out. After grieving for the loss of his marriage, he’d carefully avoided any kind of relationship—until now. He noted the way her lovely eyes had gone wide at his invitation, a pink flush delicately tinting her freckled cheekbones.
Was it Libby who had aroused this sudden change in him? Or was it the fact that he was finally starting to come out of his long tunnel of grief? Dan digested the possibilities, acutely attuned to her reaction.
She motioned to his desk. “What’s that on your desk, Captain?”
“Er…oh, that.” He grinned sheepishly. “Just an old beef sandwich. Something I threw together this morning. I’m not much of a cook,” he offered. He’d forgotten that it had been sitting at his elbow all along. Not a very smart move, Ramsey. Not smart at all. He hoped Libby would buy his explanation.
“I doubt very seriously we would have anything to discuss about this investigation that would take up a whole lunch hour,” Libby said, her words clipped.
She was angry. Why? “I just thought that if there was any background information you didn’t fill me in on that might help this case, we could do it over lunch.” Dan was damned if he was going to let go of the opportunity and back down. He wanted to know Libby a hell of a lot better.
Squirming, she shoved her hands into the pockets of her breeches. “Captain, I don’t date marines over issues of business or for pleasure,” she rattled in a low, off-key voice. “And I don’t like you trying to take advantage of the situation to maneuver me into going to lunch with you.”
Dan felt heat rushing to his face. Was he blushing? Maybe he ought to be, under the circumstances. “I just thought that—”
“Captain, I don’t date marines. Is that clear?”
“Sure is.” He cocked his head, holding her furious gaze. “My invitation just kinda slipped out.”
“I don’t know whether to be insulted or complimented,” she admitted.
“It was a compliment, believe me.”
Libby avoided the warmth in his voice and eyes. “Never mind, Captain. I’ve got a short fuse about the topic of marines, that’s all.”
“I didn’t mean to imply that if you didn’t go to lunch with me, the investigation would be dropped. It won’t be, I promise.”
“I know, I know. I’ve just got some touchy spots in my life regarding the Marine Corps,” Libby muttered. The frightening thing was, a part of her did want to go to lunch with Dan. She couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t married. Perhaps he was divorced? Libby told herself she shouldn’t care one way or another.
“Mind if I ask why?”
Hurt rose in Libby at the softness in Dan’s voice. Then tears unexpectedly stung her eyes. She turned away so he wouldn’t see them. “Captain Ramsey, I won’t discuss
