was compact. Small kitchen, living room, bedroom, bath. Everything looked clean and neat, and the walls were decorated with what he knew were some of her drawings. He remembered how she was always doodling every chance she got—even when the rest of them were exhausted from the physical and mental requirements of boot camp. He’d thought she had talent. He’d been glad to hear from the judge that she worked for a design company and had done well for herself.
“So who is Lindy?” he asked again as he closed the door behind him.
Her cell phone chirped in her purse. Still seeming distracted, she pulled it out, checked the screen and let out a cry. “I forgot all about my date. Daniel is on his way. He could be here any minute.”
“Daniel?”
“My boyfriend.” Her eyes widened in alarm. “You have to leave.” She rushed toward him to open the door he’d just closed behind him. “Go! Hurry!” But even as she said it, he heard the door on the ground level open. A gust of winter air rushed up the stairs along with the sound of someone stomping snow off his boots.
“Sounds like it’s too late,” he noted.
Charlie looked around frantically as if searching for a place to hide him. From what he could see, there was only one other apartment on this floor and that door was closed. The only exit other than a rickety fire escape he could see through a window were the stairs that Daniel was now plodding up.
“Where would you suggest I go?”
She seemed to have come up with the same conclusion he had as she quickly pushed him back inside her apartment and slammed the door behind them.
Shep saw her panic. It was only a matter of minutes before her boyfriend would reach her door. “What’s the big deal?” he asked, curious about her boyfriend as well as her reaction. What kind of guy would this grown-up Charlie be into?
Charlie’s expression made it clear she wasn’t going to let them meet. “He doesn’t know about Lindy.”
“That makes two of us,” Shep said.
“You have to hide.”
“Wouldn’t it be simpler if you just introduced us?”
She shook her head. “I’m not ready for that.”
“Perhaps I could hide here in your apartment? Unless you want me to go out the window.” She actually glanced at the kitchen window. “That was a joke. I’m not going out the window.”
“Fine. Find a place to hide while I get dressed.” She rushed into the bedroom, threw open the closet door and pulled out a slinky red dress. When she turned, he was leaning against the doorjamb watching her.
“There isn’t much place to hide,” he said. It had taken him all of two seconds to realize that.
She groaned. “I can’t explain you without getting into all of the rest of it with him.”
“Why doesn’t your boyfriend know about this Lindy person?”
Charlie glared at him. “I don’t have time for this. Whatever you do, don’t answer the door,” she said as she pushed him back out of the doorway and closed the bedroom door in his face.
He could hear someone lumbering slowly up the last flights of stairs. She’d said the man was her boyfriend. “You’re not very close if you’re keeping something so frightening from him that you had to call the judge,” he said through the door.
The bedroom door flew open. “Daniel and I are close. Maybe I have my reasons for not telling him. Not that it is any of your business,” she said as she fought to get her dress zipped up.
He stepped to her and turned her around to pull the zipper up the rest of the way, trying his best not to notice the lacy black bra against her pale skin.
She spun around, flushed, her eyes bright. He stood back to take her in. The sight of her in that getup made him let out a low whistle—just before they both turned at the knock on the apartment door.
“Don’t worry,” he assured her. “I’ll hide in the bedroom. We can talk when you get back.”
“Wait, you aren’t planning to stay here.”
“Isn’t this where you keep seeing this person you call Lindy?” There was a more insistent knock at the door. “By the way, you look beautiful.”
Was that blush from being flattered? Or from anger? “I can’t imagine what the judge was thinking sending you,” she snapped.
Anger, he guessed. She shot him a warning look as he stepped into the bedroom. He started to close the door as she