That Unexpected Kiss Page 9

  “I’ll take your word for it,” Julie answered dryly. They spoke a few more minutes on the phone and decided on a day to meet for lunch the following week, before Julie finally hung up the phone.

  Julie stood up from the desk. If she was really going to try and visit Dylan, she’d better go home first to change clothes and do something with her hair.

  Just as she gathered her purse and was ready to escape, Justine, one of the waitresses, appeared in the office doorway. “Julie? I’ve got a lady out here who says she wants to interview for the assistant job you have opening.” She cupped her mouth, whispering, “I didn’t know what she was talking about, so I thought I’d better come back here and ask.”

  Julie started laughing. “That’s alright, Justine. There’s actually a job opening up, but I haven’t put the ad...” Julie’s eyes went wide. “Did she say anything else?”

  “I think she mentioned Dylan sent her?”

  Ah, hah. So he had remembered. “Have her fill out the standard application. I can ask her anything else I need to know.”

  “Here,” Justine said, handing over some paperwork. “She brought her resume along.”

  Fifteen minutes later, Julie was anxious to get a look at this wonder woman Dylan had recommended. She sounded perfect for the job.

  But what would a woman with her credentials be doing applying at a bar and grill?

  Granted, the Tap did a great business since her father had remodeled and changed the way her grandfather had run the place. Great food and weekly entertainment had been key, as well as reinvesting in the business.

  Julie liked the looks of the lady who walked into the office immediately. Wearing a denim skirt and jacket, she was classy and professional, but not overdressed. She was a few years younger than Julie’s dad, according to her resume.

  Hmm. Anne Endicott was also very pretty with her deep blue eyes and shoulder length auburn hair. It was weird, Julie thought suddenly, why did this woman seem slightly familiar?

  Would she be able to get along with her dad? Hopefully. She had a great resume. She’d worked in accounting for a couple of well-known restaurants in Eastern Wisconsin, and had managed the entertainment as well.

  “It’s really nice to meet you Julie,” Anne said, walking into the office and reaching out with her hand.

  Julie shook it and motioned for Anne to sit down. “It’s really nice to meet you too Anne. You have a great resume. You’ve worked in some very popular restaurants. Can I ask why you’d like to work here?” Julie cleared her throat. “Not that I’m not proud of the family business. But it’s kind of a step down for you. Isn’t it?”

  “Well, a lot of the places I’ve worked in the past have pretty much run themselves. I think I’d like working here,” she answered, smiling. “It would be a nice change for me, as well as a challenge.”

  They talked for a few more minutes. This lady was making Julie’s head spin. She felt like she was being interviewed by Anne, rather than the other way around.

  Julie glanced down at the resume again. Anne had an MBA. No wonder she seemed so self-assured.

  It was strange, but Anne appeared to be looking Julie over an awful lot, and every so often she’d begin smiling for no reason at all.

  Well, even though it would sure be interesting to know what Anne was thinking when she smiled like that, Julie shook it off. She was so excited to finally find someone with the kind of experience someone like her dad would respect and hopefully listen to. Dad had done a pretty good job keeping up with the times when it came to updates, but Julie had always thought the place could do with a woman’s touch.

  “Well,” Julie said, standing up. “I think we’d love to have you here. You haven’t met my dad yet, but I’m sure he wasn’t even expecting to get someone as experienced in restaurant management as you are.”

  Anne smiled widely, rising from the chair. “It was really nice to meet you, Julie. When would you like for me to start?”

  “Let’s see. It’s Thursday. Would Monday be too soon? Dad’s pretty busy over the weekend, so he wouldn’t have time to sit down and talk with you about where he needs the most assistance and what he would like for you to do.”

  “That would be great,” Anne answered, pausing and turning toward Julie on her way through the doorway. “Maybe I’ll drop by here during the weekend and check things out?”

  “That wouldn’t be a bad idea. You can fill out the paperwork for payroll and everything else we need from you on Monday.”

  “Okay. I’ll be seeing you next week.”

  Julie smiled. “Sounds good. Bye.”

  CHAPTER

  THIRTEEN

  An hour later, Dylan was on the phone, talking with his mom. “So, she gave you the job?”

  “Did you ever have a doubt?” his mother answered.

  “Well. You haven’t told me what you think.” Dylan cleared his throat. “You’ve never hesitated to give me your opinion before.”

  “Opinion about what?” His mom began to laugh. “I like her, Dylan. A lot.”

  “Yeah, well, I like her a lot more than that,” he muttered.

  His mom was still laughing. “You know this is the first time I’ve ever seen you so absorbed in a woman?”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” he muttered. “I just couldn’t seem to help it.”

  “You’re thirty-one years old. It was bound to occur sooner or later,” his mom responded dryly, suddenly sounding serious. “It happened right away when your father and I met too.”

  Dylan sighed. He was thinking—what next? For some weird reason, he was slightly nervous about calling Julie. But she’d probably seen the paper this morning, and was wondering what was going on.

  Dylan shook his head dazedly, attempting to focus on what his mom was telling him on the phone. “Okay, well. You take care of yourself,” she was saying. “I gather you’ll be going back to work next week?”

  His mom had stopped by earlier this morning and studied Dylan’s gunshot wound while he’d been rewrapping it. Luckily, it was only a flesh wound, and once it’d been cleaned up, it didn’t look bad at all.

  “Yep on all fronts. I just heard from the county office, and they were hoping I would be willing to take over the office here as the primary warden. I’m ready to get back to work for Jake too as well as digging deeper into dad’s murder investigation.”

  “Make sure you get some rest first. You’ve been looking pretty ragged lately, Son.”

  “Gee thanks Mom,” he answered dryly.

  She laughed. “Talk to you later.”

  Dylan grunted, disconnecting the phone.

  For a moment he hesitated, looking at the kitchen clock. It was early afternoon, and Julie was more than likely working at the restaurant this afternoon too. He’d call her a little later today, and maybe invite her over for dinner.

  His mom had brought over a bunch of groceries this morning, since she’d gone shopping for her own. She was hiding out at Jake’s cabin, so she didn’t want to be seen eating at the Dragonfly Pointe Inn. The great thing about working at a place like the Crystal Rock Tap was that she could remain behind the scenes, and wouldn’t be questioned when she began snooping around town. Even though he and his mom were a lot alike—confident, opinionated and bossy—Dylan had taught her how to appear invisible.

  He’d remained rather laid back while he’d been living in Crystal Rock, occasionally going out with Kate but keeping away from many social events. Although it’d been kind of hard to remain totally unseen with all the single women who were apparently living in town, Dylan thought wryly. What had really been difficult for Dylan was appearing mild-mannered and meek when he’d been reporting to Jim, when all he’d really wanted to do was to punch the idiot in the nose.

  Now that the situation was resolved and Jim would be put behind bars where he belonged, Dylan could have the job of game warden in Crystal Rock if he wanted it. Masterson Construction was in big time trouble as well, and Jake had reported that the owner had been ar
rested this morning.

  Since his mom was in town, and she would be helping him narrow down the suspect pool for his father’s murder, Dylan would spend the rest of the week scrutinizing Jake’s files. Jake had compiled a huge database regarding the human trafficking ring going back over fifty years, but Dylan had only had time to go over the last ten. Since he was personally involved, his wife having been held hostage, Jake had decided to hand everything over to Dylan. Jake felt like he was just too close to the situation.

  That’s what Dylan would do for the rest of the afternoon—see if Jake had missed anything while gathering the information.

  Dylan stood up from the kitchen table and poured himself a cup of coffee before heading down the hallway and into his office.

  * * *

  A few hours later, Dylan was staring at his computer screen as he pecked out a list. His arm was throbbing a little but Jake had definitely forgotten to include a few things in his files.

  Curled in the chair in the corner, obviously realizing something was up, Buster lifted his head staring at Dylan.

  “What do you think, Buster?”

  “Meeoooww,” he answered, cocking his head.

  “Yep. I definitely agree,” Dylan answered.

  Picking up the phone, Dylan punched in a number.

  “Jake?”

  “Dylan? Everything okay?”

  “Yeah. I mean, I don’t know. I might be the one who’s too close to the situation now. I’m going further back through your files and I’ve also done an online check of newspaper archives around the state.” Dylan hesitated. “I mean, maybe it’s totally unrelated. But now that I’ve gone back about thirty years?”

  “Yeah?”

  “You do realize there’s a missing woman who has never been accounted for?” Dylan said grimly. “Even after the DNA was confirmed for the majority of victims you discovered buried in the tunnels?” Dylan had heard from Kate that Julie’s mother had left when she was young, but he hadn’t realized she’d just disappeared. He’d presumed she was only avoiding her responsibilities but had kept in touch, so the news had really shaken him.

  “You mean Jeff Thompkins wife? There was an investigation done back then by the police chief. Jeff was overseas, and several people in town saw Leanne alive. It was determined that she left on her own. Supposedly, she was kind of a flirt, and didn’t like being stuck at home with her in laws either. Apparently, she left her daughter with a friend in town and just took off.”

  “I’ve been doing a nationwide search, but I’ve been unable to come up with any kind of a match. Do you know if Julie or her dad has ever tried to contact Leanne Thompkins since she left?”

  “I’m pretty sure Jeff hired a private investigator before he filed for a divorce.” Jake continued, “Where are you discovering this information? There was never anything put together by my team about this. They can usually find anything. Everything I have about her going missing was from the police reports. I considered Leanne Thompkins disappearance unrelated after I glanced through the report.”

  “There’s some other historic resources I’ve been able to access. Mostly it’s newspaper and magazine articles that are microfilmed and entered into the system. These articles I found were from the Eau Claire paper,” Dylan answered. “Her disappearance is most likely unrelated, but it might be important to have anything unusual happening in the area at the time included in the files.

  “Yeah, I see your point. Sometimes the most unlikely circumstances...” Jake sighed deeply. “Email what you have for me. Will you?”

  “Sure. Get those old files over to me if you can so I can look them over. I’ll talk to you later if anything else comes up.”

  “Alright,” Jake said.

  The site was still presenting him with unlikely matches when Dylan distractedly hung up the phone.

  “Fuck this,” Dylan muttered. “It’ll take weeks to do a proper search.”

  Picking the phone back up, Dylan punched in a number.

  A gruff voice answered, “Stevenson Agency.”

  “Hey, Del?”

  “Dylan? How’s it going?”

  “Alright, Man. And you?”

  “Same. What can I do for you?”

  “I have some extra work for you, if you want it. I need for you to find a missing person.” Dylan hesitated. “And truthfully? I’m not really expecting you to find her at all…”

  * * *

  A couple of hours later Dylan was winding up his research for the day. Jake had ended up getting a hold of Sam Danielson, who’d dug out Leanne Thompson’s twenty-year-old disappearance report from one of the file cabinets in the police station’s basement. Many of the old case files were being entered into the new statewide database, but unsolved murder and rape cases had priority. One of Sam’s deputies had delivered copies of the files directly to Dylan a few minutes ago.

  Dylan skimmed through the file, but there was actually a lot of faded paperwork inside. It would take him a while to read through everything in the folder.

  “They seemed to have done a thorough job looking into it,” Dylan muttered aloud.

  As curious as he was to get reading, he decided to wait until the next day, so he left the report laying on the desk. First things first, he decided studying his arm. He’d better change the bandage. Standing up, he stretched, and looked outside through the window. The sun would be setting soon, so he’d better get moving.

  He’d been delaying getting a hold of Julie because for some stupid reason he was nervous.

  Leaving the office, he walked through the bedroom and into the bathroom. He’d just unwrapped the bandage from around his upper arm when he heard a knock at the back door.

  “Hmm. Wonder who that could be?” he mumbled. His mom would probably be back tomorrow, but he’d given her a key and the security password anyway in case he wasn’t home. But unless he was asleep, he didn’t mess with setting the alarm.

  Walking through the living room and into the kitchen, he approached the back door and opened it.

  Well who da thought? Cute, sexy and sweet, she was dressed in a short denim skirt and a see-through navy blouse, wearing a skimpy little tank underneath.

  Dylan grinned from ear to ear. “Julie. I knew you wouldn’t be able to stay away from me for long.”

  Instead of giving him that indignant look, with those beautiful big brown eyes of hers that he loved so much, she was staring at his upper arm like she was ready to cry.

  He grimaced. Damn—she’d been genuinely worried. “I should have called you right away,” he muttered dumbly. Especially since she didn’t know anything about his history, and the fact that injuries like this were almost routine with his job.

  “Yes, you should have,” she answered, her eyes shimmering with tears.

  “I’m sorry,” he groaned, reaching for her hand and yanking her inside. “I’m not used to having anyone to answer to.”

  Just then, Buster chose to make his entrance into the kitchen and began purring madly, bumping back and forth against Julie’s legs.

  “Who’s this?” Julie asked, looking startled.

  Dylan grinned. “Julie, meet Buster. I think he already likes you.” Reaching down, Dylan picked up Buster, cradling him into his arm.

  “Buster,” Dylan said, rubbing him affectionately on his head. “This is Julie.”

  Julie’s tears seemed to magically disappear as she looked almost with wonder at the cat. “Gosh, he’s huge.” Reaching out, she laid her hand rather timidly on Buster’s head. She laughed softly when Buster butted his head into the palm of her hand.

  “You’ve never had a cat?”

  “Nah,” Julie answered. “Not a dog either. Dad and I lived with my grandparents while I was growing up, and I guess my grandma was allergic.”

  “Here.” Dylan grinned, handing over Buster. “I need to put a fresh bandage on my arm.”

  He began to laugh when Julie held out the cat in front of her, obviously not sure what to do with him.

/>   Buster continued purring like crazy. He was just loving the attention, hanging limp while Julie held him in her hands with her arms stretched out.

  Dylan chuckled. “What are you afraid of? Bring him in a little closer.” He winked. “I might bite, but I promise that he won’t.”

  Julie blinked, seeming to remember where she was. She brought Buster in closer, cradling him like a baby.

  Hearing Buster’s loud frenetic purr all the way from the bathroom where he’d begun dabbling the antibiotic salve on his wound, Dylan grinned. Julie was here, and noticing the big dopey smile on his face in the mirror, he rolled his eyes, trying not to smile quite so widely.

  But, ugh, he was still wearing his glasses.

  He grimaced, tugging them off.

  CHAPTER

  FOURTEEN

  With Buster in her arms, Julie began walking around the cabin and studying the interior in amazement. She’d never seen anything like it. Not only was the combination living room, dining room and kitchen enormous, the place was beautiful, with its walls of wood and huge panoramic view through the window overlooking the lake. The beams soared overhead in the living room, and there was a gigantic fireplace shaped from river rock that rose through the ceiling. The lower level seemed to be finished, but there was a staircase leading to another level that appeared to be a work in progress and was still closed off.

  Julie sighed. The man didn’t have the right to be looking so sexy while he was wearing those horn-rimmed glasses. When Dylan had opened the back door, he’d seemed larger life, with his big broad chest and well-defined abs. A dusting of hair covered his chest, and Julie was thinking about just how much she was looking forward to running her hands across every inch of it, when she’d suddenly noticed the nasty wound ripped into his upper arm.

  What if it had been worse? What if Dylan had been killed? Julie had never felt like this about another man before, and life was just too short. As hard as it would be for her to admit how much she cared, she’d have to do it. It wasn’t only about the attraction she’d always felt. Somehow, they’d connected from the moment they’d met. It was strange, but she’d always known Dylan was the one. That’s why, after learning he was dating Kate, she’d been so confused about her judgement in men.