Free All Through the Night: A Troubleshooter Christmas by Suzanne Brockmann

off again, then handed him back his license and put the copy she’d made in with her notes.
    â€œYou can have my phone number, too, if you really want it.” He put his wallet back into his pocket.
    â€œConsidering Jules works for the FBI,” Dolphina said sweetly, “I’m sure we’ll be able to find you. If we have a reason to.”
    â€œGreat,” he said, although he didn’t sound as if he meant it.
    Because William Schroeder was not on today’s guest list. A fact that he clearly knew, since party-crashers tended to know that they were crashing a party.
    Despite the fact that this wedding shower was being held here in Jules and Robin’s home, the official hosts were both Robin’s sister Jane and her husband, Cosmo, and Jules’s best friends, Sam Starrett and Alyssa Locke. Dolphina had helped them by being in charge of the guest list and all the RSVPs that had come in.
    She’d done significantly better with
that
task than she had with her job of getting the grooms to the surprise party in something other than their underwear.
    â€œSo, do
you
drink?” Will asked her now.
    Dolphina found herself blinking at him. Surely he knew that
she
now knew he’d crashed this party…
    â€œBecause if you do, maybe we could, you know, go out for drinks some time,” he finished.
    â€œYou’re asking me out,” she clarified.
    â€œYes, I am.” He was definite. “The stupification’s wearing off. I find I’m regaining my usual working vocabulary, and I would like very much to go out with you. I don’t suppose you want to copy your driver’s license for
me
?”
    That
was so not going to happen. “Thank you, but no, Mr. Schroeder,” she told him. “Both to the copying and the drink. I’m very much unavailable. For the entire rest of my life.”
    â€œSo…” he said, actually settling in to talk, perching on the arm of the leather sofa that was under the bay windows that looked out onto the busy street. “You’re seeing someone and it’s serious?”
    â€œNo,” she said. “I’m not. But thanks for offering that as an option for a tactful excuse. Thing is, I’m just not feeling the need for tact right now.”
    He laughed. “Then you’re just…not interested?” he asked. “Because maybe I’m wrong, but I’m picking up what feels like at least a little bit of interest.”
    â€œAbsolutely,” she admitted truthfully. “I think you’re very interesting. Too interesting.”
    â€œToo interesting,” he repeated. “Is that really possible?”
    â€œYou tell me,” she countered, sitting down behind her computer and turning it on. “Or should I just Google you?”
    He was so busted—there was no way now that he was going to just sit there and pretend that he wasn’t.
    â€œLook,” he started to say, but whatever he was going to tell her, he didn’t get a chance to finish.
    â€œHey, Dolph.” That was Jules shouting down the hall. “Is Robin with you?”
    â€œNo, he’s not,” she shouted back. They really had to get an intercom. “He said something about giving someone a tour of the house?”
    â€œWill you do me a favor?” Jules came down the hall to ask at lower decibel levels. He was carrying Robin’s little nephew on his hip. “Oh, hey, hi, how are you?” he greeted Will. “I’m sorry, Dolph, but would you mind running to the third floor, see if he’s maybe locked in the library again?” He rolled his eyes at Will. “We have a slight issue with the locking mechanisms on the doors. They’re all really old—the wood’s mahogany. They’re beautiful, but you never know when a knob’s going to just…come off in your hand. You pull and…If it happens when the door’s closed…you’re