Free Abound in Love by Rosemarie Naramore Page A

drove us…”
    “She
left you standing here, without a means to get home?” he demanded
incredulously.
    “Well,
I think something important came up and…”
    He
shook his head.  “Laura, get in the car.”
    “But,
you’re on duty.  I don’t want you to get in trouble for conducting personal
business on the job.”
    He
laughed without humor.  “Hey, you’re a citizen who is legitimately in
distress…”
    “I’m
not in distress,” she assured him.
    “Well,
I am,” he muttered, raking a hand through his hair.  “Please, get in.”
    She
climbed in and immediately felt claustrophobic in the front compartment of the
car.  Gadgets galore clogged the space, a rifle mounted left of her leg dug
into her thigh, and being petite, she could barely see over the dash.
    “Nice,”
she mused, prompting Dalton to laugh.
    “Yeah, you
look really comfortable.”  He arched his brows in question.  “Hey, did Candace
feed you?”
    She
laughed.  “Well, no, we didn’t get around to eating, but I’m a big girl.  I can
actually ‘feed’ myself.”
    He gave
her a rueful glance.  “I was going to ask you if you’d like to join me for
dinner?”
    “Do you
have time?”
    “Even
cops get to eat,” he assured her, as he pulled into traffic.
    Laura
glanced around her, still surprised at the extensive growth of new business in
the small town. 
    “The
ol’ hometown’s really changed, hasn’t it?” he observed.
    She
nodded.  “I can’t get over all the new homes.  I saw so many new developments
as I drove in.  And that new interchange off of I-5 is awfully handy, isn’t
it?”
    He
nodded.  “Hey, what sounds good to you?”
    “Whatever
works for you,” she said agreeably.
    “I tend
to steer clear of the drive-throughs, in favor of buffet-style eating.”
    Laura
immediately understood his meaning.  “A lot easier to tell if your food’s been
tampered with, eh?”
    “Yeah. 
I just abhor ordering a burger and finding a citizen has spit in it.”
    “Ah,
Officer Jance, you do sound awfully jaded,” she told him, smiling
sympathetically.
    “You’re
in the news biz.  You know it happens all the time.”  He spoke as if reading a
newspaper headline.  “Officer finds cockroach in burger.”
    “A
buffet sounds delightful,” Laura said with a grin. 
    A
moment later, he steered his patrol car into a local pizza establishment that
offered an evening buffet and salad bar.  “Do you like pizza?” he inquired of
Laura as he pulled to a stop.
    “Pizza
is also just fine,” she told him.
    He was
out of the car in the blink of an eye and rounding the car.  He reached her
door as she was climbing out.  “Hey, I was going to get your door.”
    “Sorry. 
Next time I’ll lag a bit,” she teased.
    Together
they walked into the pizzeria, Dalton escorting her along with a hand at her
lower back.  Though the gesture was anything but intimate, it caused her once
again to remember her fondest desire as a love-sick adolescent—to go on a date
with Dalton Jance.
    Of
course, tonight certainly didn’t qualify as a date.  It was more a ‘rescue’
operation.  The poor man was both hungry, and stuck with her.  What else could
he do but ask her to join him?  In order to actually get a dinner break, he
likely had to take it during lulls between calls.  Lucky for her, he’d
apparently found her during one of those lulls.
    Sitting
at a booth, Laura glanced around the pizzeria.  It was crowded with Friday
night patrons enjoying a respite from cooking after a long workweek.  To
Laura’s surprise, she actually recognized many of the faces around her.
    “Do you
see somebody you know?” Dalton asked with a smile.
    She
nodded and turned to meet his eyes.  “I’m surprised.  It’s been ten years since
I left town the first time.” 
    “That’s
right.  You went off at eighteen, to finish up your junior and senior year in
college, didn’t you?”
    Since
she had attended community college from the