Free Sleeping Beauty by Dallas Schulze

her thought process with reasonable accuracy. Like Neill, she'd never known anyone whose emotions were so easily read. Or who underrated themselves so completely.
    "So why don't you go by the motel and see him?" she suggested casually, keeping her eyes on the ribbon.
    "I can't do that," Anne said, startled. "I don't want him to think I'm..."
    "Interested?" Lisa lifted an eyebrow. "You think he'll be offended?"
    "Yes. No. How should I know what he'd be?" she demanded crossly. '1 don't even know the man."
    "And you probably won't get to know him if you don't let him know you're interested."
    "What's the point, when he'll be leaving as soon as David gets the parts he needs to fix his bike?"
    "So? Ouch, damn!" Lisa lifted her thumb to her mouth to suck at the spot where the needle had jabbed. She glared at Anne across the wounded digit, her green eyes sharp with impatience. 'Tm not suggesting that you sleep with him," she said, talking around her thumb. "I'm just suggesting that you could drop in at the motel, maybe offer to show him the sights."
    "There are no sights," Anne pointed out dryly.
    "Make up a few." Satisfied that the bleeding had stopped, Lisa lowered her hand from her mouth. "The point is, it wouldn't hurt you to spend a couple of days in the company of an attractive man who was not born and raised within a twenty-mile radius of this town. The fact that he'll be gone soon is probably a good thing, since he won't have a chance to get boring."
    Remembering the way her lunch hour had flown by, Anne found it difficult to imagine that Neill would become boring on closer acquaintance. She had an uneasy feeling that the real problem might be just the opposite.
    "If you don't watch out, you're going to end up marrying Frank Miller by default," Lisa continued, frowning at her over the top of her glasses. "That's where he's headed, you know. In his methodical, dull-as-ditch-water way, Frank is courting you. Another three or four years of dating and he'll probably be ready to propose. And if you don't do something about it, you'll end up accepting just because he's there and you can't think of a good reason not to say yes."
    "There's nothing wrong with Frank." Anne's protest was halfhearted. The truth was, she'd had the same thought herself.
    Lisa nodded. "'Frank is a decent man, and Jack says he's a decent cop. He's also more predictable than an atomic clock, and just about as entertaining to talk to. He's the sort of worthy guy who should marry a worthy woman someday and raise lots of worthy little children who are every bit as deadly dull as he is. I'd hate to see you fall into that trap."
    "Not worthy enough?" Anne asked, her smile concealing the fear she felt listening to Lisa's tart-tongued picture. It was a little too easy to picture herself standing in a neatly-decorated little house with three or four neatly-dressed little Franks lined up before her, all looking at her with the same calm expression. It was not a reassuring image. She shook her head as if to physically shake it away and decided that a change of subject was in order.
    "Speaking of worthy marriages, are you and Jack going to risk an actual engagement or do the smart thing and run off to Vegas?" Lisa had told her that the two of them had been discussing marriage, and Anne had been expecting an announcement or an elopement any time. It had seemed like a reasonable question, but she regretted it when she saw hurt flit across Lisa's eyes in the instant before her expression closed up.
    "Maybe neither one. I'm not sure there is an engagement" Lisa jerked a shoulder to show how little it mattered. She reached for the length of velvet ribbon, but her hands weren't quite steady, and she let them drop into her lap.
    Anne looked at her uncertainly. She'd never seen Lisa look so...defeated.
    "I...it's none of my business but, if you want to talk about it... Jack is my brother, but you're my best friend. If it would help to talk... If you quarreled..."
    "Quarreled?"