separated at birth.”
“Yeah? Well, do the guy a favor,” David suggested dryly. “When he finally cracks and pours his heart out to you, don’t tell him you love him like a brother.”
Kristie groaned in frustration. “You’ve seen us together, attacking the crossword puzzle and laughing on break, and you think it’s romantic. But it’s not. We’re just kindred spirits. There’s no chemistry. No longing glances or any of that.”
She sighed as she added, “Don’t get me wrong. The guy’s gorgeous. I’d have to be dead not to notice that. But there’s no spark. Nothing. Nada.”
“Fine. My mistake. Forget I said anything.”
She studied him warily. “You’re his best friend. Has he said something to you?”
“Nope.”
“But you really think…?”
David shrugged his shoulders. “Obviously I was wrong.”
She smiled, relieved. “Thanks for scaring me to death.”
“Whatever.”
He was too quick to look down at his shirtfront, picking at some microscopic piece of lint, and she realized he wasn’t yet convinced. And considering how well he knew Ray, that was beginning to worry her.
“I’m not his type, David. You of all people should know that.”
“I should?”
“You’ve met his ex-wife, right? I found out all about her when I was doing research for my job interview. Red hair, green eyes, svelte. There was another girl, too, one he was engaged to when he was in the army. Angela something. Same type as the wife. And that senator from Ohio that he had a fling with. The one with the gorgeous auburn curls. That’s how I got the idea for Melissa Daniels. Red wig, green contacts, flashy makeup and a push-up bra. The works.” With a wicked smile, she admitted, “It was dirty pool, but I wanted to throw him off guard so he wouldn’t notice any little imperfections in my cover story. I did my best to impersonate his favorite female fantasy.”
David arched an eyebrow. “You intentionally made Ray fall for you?”
“Not for me. For Melissa.” Kristie gave her fellow spinner a halfhearted glare. “This is nuts. If it’s true—if he really does have a harmless little crush on me—it’s a simple case of transference.”
Yeah. Tell him that,” David drawled. “It’ll make him feel so much better.”
“Hey, you two.” Beth bustled over to the spinners and scolded them playfully. “For some reason, Ray thinks he’s in charge. And since he can see the two of you sitting here gabbing, I can’t exactly cover for you.”
Kristie shot a quick look toward the office, and was again relieved to see that Ray wasn’t watching them. Not that there was anything to watch. And not that Ray shouldn’t look at her whenever he wanted—
“Thanks a lot, David,” she muttered. “You’ve completely freaked me out.”
“Sorry. Just remember not to use the b-word when tou talk to him.”
“B-word?”
“Brother.”
Grimacing, she nodded, then hurried to her boss’s glass-walled office.
“Ray? Beth said you wanted to see me.”
Without looking up, he told her, “Close the door and take a seat, Kristie. I’ll be with you in a minute.”
She was relieved to note that the blinds were wide open. And he wanted her to sit on the other side of the desk from him. Business as usual. No sexual tension. He barely seemed to know she was there.
Slipping into a chair, she took a moment to study him. He was a truly handsome man with a ramrod build, raven-black hair and an endearingly boring habit of wearing a white shirt and conservative tie every single day.
Would she have been attracted to him had they met under other circumstances? Probably not. She was a firm believer in chemistry, and there simply wasn’t any between them, at least, not on her part.
Realizing that a full minute had passed in silence, she murmured, “If this is a bad time, I can come back.”
“I’ll be with you as soon as I finish this list.”
“Sounds mysterious. What kind of list?”
He raised his gaze to hers, stunning her with the cold gleam in his usually sweet eyes. “I thought it would be easier if we went infraction by infraction.”
“Oh.” She coughed to clear the surprise from her throat. “I get it.”
“You ‘get’ it? That’s all you have to say for yourself?” Exploding out of his chair, he began gesturing wildly. “What the hell were you thinking?”
“Ray—”
“Don’t ‘Ray’ me!” He took a deep breath, visibly getting his temper under control, then sat back down and began tapping the items on his list. “You used an unregistered, unmonitored cell phone for SPIN business. That alone is a basis for dismissal, and it’s the least of your offenses.”
She squirmed, then offered lamely, “I was afraid if a monitor heard what we were up to, they wouldn’t understand. And there wasn’t time—”
“Five minutes! That’s all it would have taken to call me and clear your plan—”
“And you would have said no!”
“You bet your unregistered cell phone I would have said no. And I would have been right.” He raked his fingers through his thick black hair. “It worked out great. I’m as happy as anyone that the Rodriguez girl is safe. But there were other ways to accomplish it. Ways that didn’t jeopardize Russo’s career, not to mention mine.”
She mentally cringed, but didn’t dare interrupt.
“Do you understand what a disaster it would have been if you’d been wrong? You would have single-handedly destroyed our relationship with the local cops—guys who were busting their asses to find that kid. They didn’t deserve to be made fools of. Plus, you would have ruined the prosecutor’s case and probably gotten us sued for violating the brother’s civil rights.”
“I knew Randy wasn’t guilty, Ray. So I knew none of that would happen.”
“You’re a frickin’ genius,” he agreed dryly.
“I didn’t say that. But it went well—”
“Did it? Since there’s no tape of the call, I’ll never know exactly what you said to that kid. But the unofficial story is you promised him his sister was still alive and you were going to find her. What if Horton had already killed her? Dammit, Kris, what were you thinking?”
“I had a feeling—”
“Screw
