LITMIR.BIZ

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Mercy. This would be good. She just knew it. A man who looked like Aidan could certainly send a woman jetting straight to the stars.

      “Say, what’s going on here?” someone asked.

      The soaring and jetting came to an abrupt halt, and instead Bobbie did a crash-and-burn. Mainly because it wasn’t soaring-inducer, Aidan, who was doing the asking. Even in her passion-induced stupor, Bobbie figured that out.

      Their visitor was her best friend, Crystal, and her presence was both a blessing and a curse. Bobbie apparently wouldn’t get that eyelash-curling kiss after all, but freedom from a navel-ring attachment was only moments away.

      The other downside to this situation was that unless Bobbie could convince her friend that absolutely nothing carnal was going on, then for the next six years or so, Crystal would torment her with questions about this incident.

      Aidan tried to step back from her, but Bobbie caught onto his shoulders before he could do that. No sense injuring herself at this point.

      “Crystal,” Bobbie said as calmly as she could. “What are you doing here?”

      “I closed the salon early and thought I’d drop by and snag some leftovers for dinner. The front door was unlocked so I let myself in.”

      As usual. Crystal’s self-invitations didn’t normally bother Bobbie. In fact, she usually welcomed them. But then, she’d never been caught in a near lip-lock with a cute deputy either. “You scared the life out of us.”

      Crystal shook her head. “Mmmm. You sure that’s all I did? Because I think I might have interrupted something here.”

      But Crystal dismissed it with the flippant wave of her hand. “Hey, what am I saying? This is you—Bobbie Callahan. Senior citizens without access to Viagra see more action than you do.” She picked an apple out of a wicker basket, levered herself onto the counter and started to munch. “So, what’s really going on?”

      “Nothing, really. My navel ring got caught on his jeans,” Bobbie explained. “We’re having a little trouble untangling ourselves.”

      Crystal stopped in mid-bite. “How’d that happen?”

      “You don’t want to know,” Aidan mumbled.

      Bobbie quietly agreed. “Crystal, could you just get us loose and stop asking all these questions?”

      Crystal shook her head again, sending the heap of tiny tangerine-colored curls bouncing. “The idea of putting my hand on the front of his pants doesn’t appeal to me. Well, maybe it does a little, because he is on the hot side.” And with a chunk of apple still in her mouth, she winked and grinned at him. “But I wouldn’t feel right doing that since he’s sorta yours. I mean, you did win him in the lottery and all. That’d be like cheating if—”

      “Crystal!” Bobbie said through clenched teeth. “Get us loose now.”

      “All right. All right. Don’t go all crazy on me. I’ll get your big sharp chef’s knife from the drawer—”

      “No!” Aidan yelled. “No scissors or knives. It’s time to put an end to this.” He reached between them and used his thumbnail to saw the threads off the navel ring. After a few seconds, he had them free.

      Bobbie stepped back and pushed her hair out of her face. She didn’t look at Aidan. Couldn’t. And he no doubt felt the same. What in the name of heaven had she almost done? She wasn’t the kind of woman ruled by lust glands.

      She wasn’t even sure she had lust glands.

      Crystal stuck out her hand for Aidan to shake. “Crystal Pudney. You probably don’t remember me, but I own the Curl Up and Dye Beauty Palace over by the Piggly Wiggly on Main. We met the first day you got to Liffey.”

      Bobbie waited for Aidan to rattle off a plethora of unsavory details about Crystal the way he’d done to her in his office. But he merely nodded. No comment on the fact that Crystal had missed gobs of appointments and had scores of moving traffic violations. Just the briefest handshake in the history of that particular form of salutation.

      “I have to go,” Aidan announced.

      “Oh. I’ll see you to the door,” Bobbie offered when he took off like a fighter jet in that general direction. She had to sprint after him.

      Unfortunately, Crystal followed right on their heels. Shoot! Bobbie couldn’t very well ask for a moment alone with Aidan, or Crystal would think something was going on between them.

      Which there wasn’t.

      That almost-kiss had been a mere minor setback in her not-so-minor plan to swear off men forever and ever. It was also a hindrance to them dissolving their plan to rid themselves of romance and other assorted aggravations. But it wouldn’t happen again.

      Nope.

      Now, that she knew the potent effect of Aidan’s mouth, she’d just distance herself from those luscious lips. While she was at it, she’d subscribe to a couple more travel magazines. It would give her mind something else to do other than dwell on dwellings it shouldn’t be dwelling on.

      “You’ll call if you find out anything about the missing Gigolos. I mean, the underwear?” Bobbie asked.

      “Oh. Sure. Will do. Good evening, ladies.” At that same supersonic speed, Aidan turned on his afterburners and jetted out the door.

      “And don’t worry about that, uh, other thing,” Bobbie called out to him. “We’ll discuss it some other time. Not tomorrow though. I’ve got a meeting in Austin. But soon.”

      He didn’t even spare her a glance. “Okay.”

      “Well, well,” Crystal said coming up behind her. They both watched as Aidan flew away. “I thought the Aidan-o-rama didn’t interest you.”

      “It doesn’t.” And it was the truth. The lottery didn’t interest her.

      Too bad the lottery prize did.

      Crystal crunched into the apple again. “Hmmm. I figure one of two things could be happening here. You want to spend some time with Deputy Hot-Bod to get Jasper off your back. Or you just want to spend some time with Deputy Hot-Bod because he’s, well, a hot-bod. So, which is it?”

      Bobbie wanted to be mortified by that question. She wanted to flat-out deny it. She wanted to gasp and look outraged. Too bad she couldn’t. Crystal would detect the lie right away. It was a knack of hers. A kind of heightened sensory awareness in the region of her brain that sorted out malarkey from truth.

      Bobbie attributed it to Crystal’s overuse of hair dye.

      “Aidan is interesting. And not just because of his good looks but because he’s traveled all over the world,” Bobbie explained. “And it did occur to me that Jasper might leave me alone if—”

      “You were about to kiss Aidan when I walked in, and Jasper wasn’t around.” Crystal paused a heartbeat. “Guess you were practicing your pucker, huh? Or maybe you were just testing the durability of your lip gloss?”

      Bobbie huffed. “I thought you were here to get some leftovers for dinner.”

      Crystal giggled. “I rest my case. You’re sidestepping the questions, so that means you’re interested in Aidan. Can’t say I blame you, though, even if you’re too scared to risk getting another broken heart. After all, Jasper did pretty much turn you into an empty, broken shell incapable of future emotional entanglements and things like that.”

      And with that hurled gauntlet, Crystal headed for the fridge.

      It was a trick to get her to ’fess up, and Bobbie wasn’t about to fall for it. But she couldn’t just let it lie either. So, she lied. “I’m not interested in Aidan.”

      “Whatever.” Crystal hauled out some lasagna and a hefty slab of mocha cheesecake from the fridge, and with her dinner in hand, she headed for the door.

      “Don’t

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