Free Blind Dates Can Be Murder by Mindy Starns Clark Page A

date, Jo made a beeline for the restroom. Once there, she quickly touched up her makeup and hair and checked the lines of her skirt. She was dressed more professionally than the night before, but she was still pleased with the overall effect. Now that Brock Dentyne was more than just a name, she wanted to look nice for him.
    Just by virtue of the way God made him, he certainly would look nice for her!

    Danny was in a sitting when his cell phone rang. Startled, he realized that he had been so caught up in his work that he had lost track of time—and he almost missed catching Jo after her class. Fortunately, she was the one who was calling.
    “Excuse me a minute,” he told the man who was posed and waiting for his picture to be taken. “This is important.” Crossing the room, he pressed the button and spoke into the phone. “Jo?”
    “Hey. You busy this afternoon?”
    “Not necessarily. I was hoping—”
    He was about to say that he was hoping he and Jo could go somewhere to celebrate some big news, but before he could even get the words out, she cut him off.
    “Great. Listen, you know how we talked about you being the photographer for my book on housekeeping? It’s kind of a long story, and I don’t have time to go into it right now, but I made an appointment for us at four to go to this guy’s house out in the country.”
    “Who?”
    “A man I just met. He came to my class. I think he might be useful in writing the book.”
    Danny exhaled slowly, pinching the bridge of his nose.
    “Jo, with all that happened last night, you want to go to some guy’s house out in the country?”
    “Danny—”
    “A guy you don’t know?”
    “But—”
    “Should I bring along the rope and the knife, or should we just see if he has any there? And how ’bout a gun?”
    Danny glanced over at his client, who was looking a bit startled.
    “You don’t understand,” Jo told him. “I’ll tell you more later, but he’s a businessman with a big fancy house that he’s willing to have photographed. He wants to hire me as a consultant to help him design a cleaner house.”
    Danny checked his watch.
    “Look, I have a break after this appointment,” he told her, lowering his voice. “You’re in the building, right? I’ll come find you in about ten minutes and then we can talk.”
    “No can do. I’ve got a lunch date, remember?”
    Oh. Of course. How could he have forgotten?
    “I’m about to leave now for that,” she continued, “so why don’t I just call you when I’m done? Try to keep four o’clock clear, if you can. Well, actually, we’d need to leave about three thirty.”
    Danny’s teeth clinched in frustration, and not just because he had big news he wanted to share or because he was jealous of her date. He was mad because she was making some bad decisions: Only a day after the weirdest night on record, she was ready to have lunch with one male stranger and go to the home of another! Had she lost her grip on reality?
    “Jo, look,” he said, sounding sharper than he intended, “I don’t think this is safe, meeting this guy for lunch. We still have no idea what really happened last night.”
    Jo was silent on the other end of the phone. As he waited for her to reply, there was a soft tap on the door. Danny gave another apologetic wave to his client, who was beginning to look very irritated, and then he stepped toward the door and opened it up. Jo was standing there, phone in hand. She smiled and hung up.
    “Sorry to bother you while you’re working,” she told him in a soft voice, “but I have to say this to you in person.”
    “What?” he asked, also hanging up his phone.
    She met his worried gaze with her beautiful green eyes. Just looking into them, he felt calmer—and less calm—than before.
    “I am not stupid,” she said, counting off on her fingers. “I will not leave the restaurant with Brock, it’s broad daylight, we’re in the middle of downtown Mulberry Glen, I’ll have my cell phone