“Look, the sunset is beautiful,” I said, pointing toward the russet sky in the west.

Before I could mention the cloud formation like some dummy, his arms were around me, pulling me closer and whispering, “I’m seeing beauty all right.” His lips landed on mine-not so softly, which was pure ER-while his arms tightened their hold.

All I could think of for a second was, my “perky problem” was going to be solved in this position, since I was now burning hot.

Dano kissed me for several seconds and then eased his tongue past my lips and into the warmth of my mouth. Ah. What a fantastic feeling!

I ran my hands up his back to reach his cheeks. When I stood on my tiptoes, I couldn’t resist brushing back his hair with both of my hands.

He moaned.

I joined him while we kissed for several more minutes.

Without a word, he led me toward the little sand dunes filled with bushes and wild grass of sorts-a perfect spot in which to hide from the world.

I thought of the cold sand for a second, since I’d left my jacket in the car, but before I knew it, Dano had his jean jacket off, laid it down, smoothed it out best he could and waved a hand over it.

I laughed, joining the squawking gulls and crashing waves in the musical ambiance of the shore.

Dano eased me down onto the hillside of sand and joined me. I found myself moving closer, snuggling, kissing and even wrapping my leg over his. It felt…so right. So damn right.

Ah…

Thirteen

My fantastic, larger-than-life make-out session with ER Dano had me all hot and bothered and not in the least in need of a jacket. With no words spoken, we shared an intimacy that I was barely able to stop.

“Hey, there’s a time and place for everything, Nightingale,” he said in all his realism, yet they were the most disappointing words I’d ever heard!

Dano leaned to the side, bent forward for a quick kiss on the lips and then took my hand into his. “You fit perfectly.”

Wow. Nice sentiment.

“Um,” I mumbled. Funny how when you click with a guy, your intelligence sometimes bottoms out.

He was correct about the time and place, although for a few fleeting, CSIC-less minutes, I might have gone a bit farther if he hadn’t stopped us.

Pauline Sokol: real naughty nurse!

For a change I’d thrown caution to the wind-and I loved it! Hey, I told myself, this was the twenty-first century and women were allowed to have sensual feelings. Even allowed to be the ones to start the romantic/ sensual actions.

But this really wasn’t the place, so I tucked my desires into the back of my mind in a new folder called “ER Dano…Yum” and sat silently looking at the sunset.

We left the beach, since it closed at sunset, and he drove me home. He said good night with a decent kiss and, most important, an “I’ll call you.”

Now, I was no fool. Having a guy say he’d call was akin to having someone say “I’ll see you” when you meet them on a vacation, they live on the other side of the world and you didn’t even exchange email addresses. I’d long ago learned not to trust those words when a guy said them, so I quickly added, “When?” and Dano and I soon had a date set up for Friday night.

I mentally patted myself on the back when I went inside my condo and marked our date down on the calendar.

A light at the end of the single Pauline Sokol tunnel.

My mother would be stuffing lacy table favors with candy-coated almonds in pastel colors right now, if I told her.

No one was home, so I hugged Spanky for a bit, set him outside and pressed the play button on the phone recorder.

“Pauline Sokol? This is your m-m-o-t-h-e-r-r-r-r.” The last word came out in a slow, deep voice, much like Darth Vader’s.

I shook my head but sat down and listened, knowing the tone was all in my mind.

“Your sister Mary is coming over for lunch tomorrow. I thought you might want to join us-”

“I’m gonna have to pass despite the tempting offer,” I mumbled.

“-Oh, and Uncle Walt has to have his wisdom tooth out. Who would touch an old man’s wisdom tooth? Can’t they just dope him up so he’s comfortable? Pauline?” Silence. “I thought I heard a click and maybe you came in and picked up the phone. Just to let you know, you are not home much lately. Well, ever since that job. You know that job…”

I laid my head down on the counter and shut my eyes. I wanted to keep smacking my head against the counter, but that might dent the counter, and Miles would be pissed. I wasn’t crazy…yet.

“-Okay, I guess you did not come home. From where? It is nearly eight o’clock on a Wednesday night. Where are you at this late hour?”

This time I was really tempted to slam my head into the counter-a few times. Instead I sat up and went to press the stop button. Too much Stella Sokol at this time of the night could cause wicked nightmares.

“-Well, you call me before I go to sleep so I don’t worry. It is still eight o’clock, well, four minutes after. Wait. Wait a minute. I’ve got five after on my watch.”

I could hear she had put her hand over the phone receiver to yell, “Michael, what time do you have?” Daddy was probably asleep, so she took her hand away and said, “I go to sleep at nine sharp, Pauline.”

As if I didn’t know that. Creature of habit Stella Sokol had gone to bed at nine sharp and woke up at six sharp my entire life. I only hoped that as a baby, I woke her up a few times during the night.

Mentally I chastised myself and stuck my finger on the stop button-

“Meet me at our spot at ten…”

Shoot! I stopped the message before it finished, but knew full well whose voice that was and where our spot was.

Ah…

As I’d stripped off my beach outfit to don dark clothes, I knew Jagger had called to work on the case. My case. Our case, as it so often became. I appropriately had stuck on “investigating” clothing, along with stuffing my pockets with work tools like gloves, my camera beeper and a tissue (okay, that was mother induced, like don’t leave home without going to the bathroom first or wearing clean undies).

Once dressed, out the door and into my car, I pulled into the Dunkin Donuts parking lot and into a space near the back. Soon Jagger’s SUV drove up beside me. Without a word I got out and hopped into his car, and we were off without any explanations needed.

Before long, we had come to the intersection where TLC Land and Air was located. My heart started to race in anticipation of finding something, some clue, no matter how tiny, that would jump-start this case.

Because right now we had nothing.

One murder, one attempted murder and medical insurance fraud being committed. The only guarantees so far.

I looked at Jagger. “Anything on Pansy?”

He parked on a nearby side street and said, “She’s in a coma.”

“Damn. I was afraid of that. Her body must be in shock after the blood loss and trauma of surgery.”

He looked at me, and I ignored how damn good he looked. “What are the chances she’ll pull out of it?”

“Geez, your guess is as good as mine.”

“I’m not guessing, Sherlock. I’m asking your medical opinion.”

My shoulders stiffened. “I know that, Jagger. What I meant was that no one can really say. I doubt even the surgeon would give you decent odds.” With that, I got out and stood on the sidewalk.

He followed me and took my arm to lead me toward our destination. “Someone’s a little testy tonight.”

I pulled my arm free. How I wanted to shout something about Airbrush Lady, but was too smart to say anything. “All’s fair in love and war” came to mind, and then I told myself we were not lovers, but coworkers. So I said, “Long day. Sorry.”

He nodded, took my arm again and before I knew it, we were at the back door of the building where Pansy lived. The Tudor house was built amongst the other buildings as if it had been there first and everything else sprung up around it.