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from smiling, because it was nice of her to go to all this trouble and because she was being—and looking—more than a little cute here, in spite of the obviously rough night.
    Cute.

    She’d twisted her hair up and fastened it with some kind of clasp thing—but some strands had come loose and fell around her face, making her look kind of soft and rumpled and just out of bed. He tried not to stare at her. There was absolutely no doubt about it—and Meehan cute was even more jarring than Meehan with wind chimes and lemon-scented flowers. He wondered idly why he hadn’t noticed it before. No, he must have noticed. He paid attention to things like that—half-dead or not.

    “Okay, okay,” he said. “But there’s one condition.”

    “What kind of condition?”

    “You let me buy you a steak in appreciation. A really big one—with fried onions and a cold beer. Today. Anywhere you say.”

    She was watching him closely, and he tried not to look as needy as he felt.

    “Today,” she said after a long moment.
    “Right.”

    “In appreciation for the throw.”
    “Right.”

    “Are you that desperate to get out?”

    “Yeah,” he said truthfully, and she laughed.

    “I’m desperate,” he said. “And I want to say thanks. You helped me out yesterday.”

    “I think maybe the help was mutual.”

    “Yeah, but I had Mrs. Bee’s foot in my back. You didn’t. Maybe we could just kill two birds with one dinner and call it even. Simple as that.”

    She was still watching him, and he let himself look into her eyes. Interesting eyes. Hazel blue. Nice.

    “Don’t you—?” she started to ask, then abruptly broke off. He had no problem guessing the direction she’d been about to take. She wanted to know why he was bothering her when he could be going out with his buddies—until she suddenly remembered that he didn’t have any buddies…and why.

    “So?” he persisted. At this point he’d take whatever he could get—even a pity outing.

    “Thanks, but I can’t. I just got off work and I still have some things to do. I have to sleep at some point. Besides, it’s really not necessary for you—”

    “Okay,” he interrupted. “Just a thought.”

    She began to walk away from him toward the porch steps, but she stopped before she got there and looked back. She didn’t say anything, and neither did he. He could almost feel her trying to make up her mind.

    He waited. She definitely had questions, but for some reason she wasn’t quite comfortable asking them.

    “It would have to be late,” she said finally.

    “No problem—fine with me. Did I say you get to drive?”

    “I guessed as much.”

    “Around nineteen hundred then? Or whenever. I’ll be here.”

    She was still looking at him, still sitting on the fence about it. “Okay. I’ll see you when I wake up. I get to pick the place, right?”
    “Right,”
    he
    said.

    She was smiling again—this smile a kind of spider-to-the-fly one that challenged him—and made him a little leery about her expectations. And he’d seen the boyfriend up close. There was money there and a lot of it. He, on the other hand…

    “Maybe you should bring along some plastic,” he said. “Just in case.”

    “Plastic,” she said as if she wasn’t sure she’d heard right.

    “Correct. Hey, you always got to have a contingency plan, Meehan.”

    “Right. And you military guys are all alike,” she said, the smile broadening. “See you later, Specialist.”

    She turned and ran lightly down the steps.

    “Outstanding,” he said under his breath—and he didn’t mean just her capitulation. He watched her as long as he could, infinitely pleased with himself, because he thought she was as surprised that she’d accepted his offer as he was. In any event he was actually going to get that steak and beer, and the company wasn’t half-bad, either. Meehan was used to men who had to hobble, and she knew all about Rita. He wouldn’t have to put up a macho