“Caldwell,” Jackson said into his cell phone.
“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the way you Bureau guys answer your phones,” Jenna replied. Without waiting for a response, she continued, “I think I have something you might be interested in, Jackson.”
He could think of many things Jenna had that he wanted, but he didn’t figure she would appreciate his saying so. Better keep it neutral since she was probably talking about the case. “Really? What have you got?”
“Uh-uh. I found out something that could be valuable to you and you owe me dinner now.”
“Gee, Jenna…Sounds like you don’t think you can trust me to make good on dinner when I’ve been offering it for months.”
Jackson heard the faint sound of laughing on the other end of the phone. Either he was reading too much into it or she was flirting. “No. I’m just saying that it’s almost six and I’m starving. I say we save time and make it a working dinner.”
“A working dinner?” After starting out as fiery lovers, they were barely back to being friends. Now she wanted to move even further away to the realm of colleagues? No way, he thought to himself. It was going to be difficult to win Jenna back if he couldn’t get her to go on a real dinner date with him.
“Hey, you want the info and I want food.” The hint of something sly entered her tone. “Or you’re welcome to come by my office on Monday morning and we can try to pencil in dinner for another time.”
No, getting penciled in was even worse than a working dinner. A pencil made it far too easy for her to erase him from her schedule. And life. “No need to pull out the calendars. I’m free tonight. Do you have anywhere special in mind?”
“Yeah,” she answered, casual. “My place.”
That didn’t make sense. “I thought I owed you dinner.”
“You do, but I’m not in the mood for a noisy restaurant tonight. I thought it might be nice if you picked up something on your way. I’m leaving the office now. Can you be over in about an hour, Jackson?”
“Sure. I’ll be there.”
“Good. I’ll see you soon then.”
Not soon enough, he mused, slipping his cell into the pocket of his black suit jacket.
Dinsley didn’t seem to be in his office, so Jackson picked up his keys and left the building without bothering to look for him. After his stunt of sending him to see Skylar Montgomery without so much as a heads up about her attitude, he reasoned his new partner didn’t care much where he was. For that matter, Agent Brandon Disley may not care about catching Raptor either.
But Jackson sure did.
As the lingering doubts about his partner’s loyalty to the Bureau faded from his mind, Jackson crossed the parking lot to his car. He wasn’t sure what Jenna had discovered – since he cared more about seeing her than finding out – but he was intrigued by her invitation all the same. Whether her playful demeanor on the phone signaled good news for the case or for their relationship was anyone’s guess.
If her good mood held up once he got to her condo, maybe tonight was the time to make it clear to Jenna that she was more to him than just a professional contact.
Remembering the way it felt when she told him she didn’t love him at the airport on Christmas Eve, his grin faded from his lips. Was he ready to hear that, not only didn’t she love him, but she wasn’t even interested in dating him? Could he handle that?
It didn’t matter. Jackson Caldwell was a man of action. Sitting on his hands and waiting for the right time to confess his feelings to Jenna was killing him in ways he’d never imagined possible.
If the axe was going to drop, severing the last thread supporting their second chance, it would drop tonight.
© 2010, Sydney Katt. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use of content will result in dragon attacks.
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Now I’m excited! Can’t wait for this little dinner