Christmastime Courtship. Marie Ferrarella

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СКАЧАТЬ that got her attention. At least she wasn’t one of those foolhardy birdbrains who thought they could outrace his motorcycle, Colin observed, as the car began to decrease its speed.

      Watching the vehicle slow down and then come to a stop, Colin braced himself for what he knew was about to come. Either the driver was going to turn on the waterworks, attempting to cry her way out of a ticket by appealing to what she hoped was his chivalrous nature, or she was going to be belligerent, demanding to know if he had nothing better to do than to harass otherwise law-abiding citizens by issuing speeding tickets for offenses that were hardly noteworthy, instead of pursuing real criminals.

      After parking his motorcycle behind her vehicle, he got off, then took his time walking up to the offending driver. Because the street was a busy one, with three lanes going in each direction, Colin made his way to the passenger side, to avoid getting hit by any passing motorist.

      As he approached, he motioned for the driver to roll down her window.

      She looked nervous. Well, the woman should have thought about this before she’d started speeding.

      “Do you know why I pulled you over?” he asked gruffly.

      Miranda took a breath before answering. “Because I was speeding.”

      A little surprised at the simplicity of her reply, Colin waited for more.

      It didn’t come.

      The woman wasn’t trying to talk her way out of the ticket she obviously knew was coming. He found that rather unusual. In his experience, people he pulled over in Bedford weren’t normally this calm, or this seemingly polite.

      Colin remained on his guard, anticipating a sudden turn on the driver’s part.

      “Right,” he said, picking up on her answer. “You were speeding. Any particular reason why?”

      He was aware that he was giving her the perfect opportunity to attempt to play on his sympathies, with some sort of a sob story. Such as she’d just gotten a call from the hospital saying her mother or father or some other important person in her life had just had a heart attack, and she was rushing to their side before they died.

      He’d heard it all before. The excuses got pretty creative sometimes.

      He had to admit that, for some reason, he was mildly curious to hear what this driver had to offer as her excuse.

      “There’s this little girl at the homeless shelter. It’s her birthday today and I’m bringing the cake. The party starts in ten minutes and I got off my shift at the hospital later than I anticipated. I work at Children’s Hospital and we had an emergency,” she explained, inserting a sidebar.

      “Where at Children’s Hospital?” Colin asked, wondering just how far the woman was going to take this tale she was spinning.

      “The oncology ward,” she answered.

      He should have seen that one coming. “Really?” he challenged.

      Was he asking her for proof? That was simple enough, she thought. Because she’d been in such a rush, she was still wearing her uniform, and she had her hospital badge around her neck.

      Holding up her ID, she showed it to him. “Yes, really, Officer,” she answered politely. “Now if you’ll please write out the ticket and give it to me so I can be on my way, I can still make the party on time. I don’t want Lily to think I forgot about her, today of all days.”

      About to begin doing so, Colin looked up sharply. “Lily?” he questioned.

      “That’s her name,” Miranda answered. “Lily.”

      Colin stared at the woman, a stoic expression on his face as he tried to make up his mind if she was actually serious, or trying to con him.

      She couldn’t possibly know about his aunt, he decided.

      “My aunt’s name is Lily,” he told her, watching her face for some telltale sign that she was making all this up.

      “It’s a nice name,” Miranda responded, waiting for him to begin writing.

      Colin paused for a long moment, weighing the situation.

      And then he did something he didn’t ordinarily do. Actually, it was something he’d never done before. He closed his ticket book.

      “All right, I’m letting you off with a warning,” he told her. Then added an ominous “Watch yourself,” before he turned on his heel and walked back to his motorcycle.

       Chapter Two

      Miranda’s first impulse was to take off before the officer decided to change his mind about writing her that ticket. But as she thought about the fact that she had just dodged a bullet, an idea came to her. Rather than start her car and drive away under the police officer’s watchful eye, Miranda opened her door and got out of her beloved vehicle.

      “Officer?” she called, raising her voice.

      Colin had already gotten on his motorcycle. Surprised, he looked in her direction. After a beat, he sighed and then slowly dismounted.

      Now what? he silently demanded.

      “Something on your mind, miss?” he asked, his voice low and far from friendly.

      The officer sounded as if she was annoying him. But Miranda hadn’t gotten where she was by giving in to the nervous quiver that occasionally popped up in her stomach—as it did now.

      Raising her head so that her eyes met his—or where she assumed his eyes were, because he’d lowered the visor on his helmet, she stated, “I wanted to say thank you.”

      Colin grunted in response, because in his opinion, this wasn’t the sort of situation where “you’re welcome” suited the occasion. As far as he was concerned, she wasn’t welcome. He’d just given in to an impulse that had come out of nowhere, and if he thought about it now, he was rather bewildered by his own actions.

      “Do you have a card?” she asked him.

      “A card?” Colin repeated, clearly perplexed by her question.

      Miranda didn’t think she was asking for anything out of the ordinary. “Yes, like a business card. The police department issues those to you, right?”

      Instead of answering her question, or giving her one of the cards he carried in his pocket, Colin asked, “Why do you want it? You don’t have anything to report me for,” he pointed out gruffly.

      It took Miranda a second to absorb what he was saying. Talk about being defensive. But then, maybe he had a reason. Some people were belligerent when dealing with the police.

      “I don’t want to report you,” she assured him with feeling. “I just want to be able to call you.”

      So that was it, Colin thought. The woman was a groupie. He knew that there were people—mostly women—who were attracted to the uniform, some to the СКАЧАТЬ