Baily's Irish Dream: Baily's Irish Dream / Czech Mate. Stephanie Doyle

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СКАЧАТЬ the T-shirt she wore. That was impossible. Wasn’t it? She waited for him to ask again about what had happened on the bed. This time she was prepared with an answer.

      It was a natural reaction after all the tension they had been through that day. They were both looking for release after having fought for so long. Boy, are you looking for release, a little voice in her head gibed.

      Stop that, her conscience warned.

      That wasn’t part of the answer, Baily reasoned. They were two adults. Nothing happened. Nothing could happen since she was on her way to be with Harry and Daniel was eventually going to be returning to Seattle. Baily was not a one-night-stand kind of girl. Or a one-trip-stand kind of girl, for that matter. That was why when he asked where they were headed tomorrow, Baily naturally assumed he was on another topic.

      “Well, we are not headed to bed!” she stated indignantly.

      Daniel laughed until his sides hurt. Which in turn only served to make Baily’s skin flush from blushing pink to infuriated purple. “I’m sorry…I’m sorry,” he said between gasps. “It’s just that you looked so serious.”

      “I am serious.” She stomped her foot to prove it.

      “I think the lady is doth protesting too much.”

      “You’re lousy at quoting Shakespeare,” she informed him with a sneer. “If you didn’t mean what I thought you meant, then what did you mean?”

      Daniel had to think about that. She had this way of talking that twisted his mind into knots. He was beginning to think she did it on purpose. “I meant, where is our destination tomorrow? I’m going to call my vice president and have him wire me some money. I’ll have him wire it to our next stop so it will be there when we get there rather than wait around here all morning.”

      “Custer.”

      “Are we back on the dinner subject?”

      Baily closed her eyes. “Not custard. Custer. Custer is where we are headed. It’s in South Dakota not too far from Rapid City.”

      “Can’t we just go to Rapid City? It’s larger, and we’d be more likely to find a Western Union office.” It was a logical suggestion, but Red was shaking her head and looking at him as if he were insane. “Stop shaking your head. Why can’t we go to Rapid City?”

      “Because then we would miss Mount Rushmore, silly. You know, the presidents…Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and—”

      “Roosevelt,” Daniel finished as understanding dawned on him.

      “Meow.” Theodora, now snuggled on the pillow that had once been used as a weapon against her mistress, lifted her head for a moment to give her opinion.

      “Yes, Miss Roosevelt. I promised you we’d go to Mount Rushmore,” Baily said lovingly. To Daniel she said, “And you know I always keep my promises. But we’ll pass through Rapid City the next day so you can tell your vice president to send the money there.”

      “Too late. I don’t want to wait two days. We’ll just have to hang out here tomorrow morning. Sorry about all this.” Daniel picked up the phone and dialed nine to get an outside line.

      With another shake of her head, Baily dismissed his apology. “You were robbed. There was nothing you could have done.”

      Daniel smiled, thanking her for her acceptance. His conversation with Bruce was curt and to the point. The money would be there tomorrow. Daniel hung up the phone and turned to find Baily with her hand on her chin as if she were considering something. “What?” Daniel questioned.

      Baily shrugged her shoulders. “I was just thinking that maybe you could have realized that the shove you received was more than accidental.”

      “How was I supposed to tell that? It was a shove. I think there was a guy in a brown hat, and then I felt a bump. How could I have guessed I was robbed?”

      “I’m not saying that you should have. I’m merely pointing out that if you had checked your wallet after you were bumped, maybe you would have been able to catch the guy. You could have chased him down into an alley. Then maybe you could have kicked the knife out of his hand—”

      “What knife?” Daniel asked incredulously.

      “The knife in his back pocket. All professional crooks carry a knife. And we do agree that he was a professional?”

      “Damn straight.”

      “There you go. You would have kicked away his knife and punched him in the nose. Then you would have ripped your wallet out of his greedy little paws and said something macho like, ‘Nobody messes with Daniel Blake.’ Then you would have returned to me triumphant.” Baily sighed. “It would have made a wonderful story.”

      “What if I turned tail and ran after I saw the knife?”

      “You’re not the turn-tail-and-run type of guy,” Baily assured him.

      Amused by her conviction, Daniel thanked her for the compliment.

      “But since you didn’t do any of that, we’ll have to wait until noon before we can leave. I don’t mind, but what about your sister? Can we afford the delay?”

      Nobody messes with Daniel Blake. Would he have really said that? God, he hoped not. A shake of his head brought his focus back to the matter at hand. He’d been grappling with the problem of making the wedding in time all afternoon as he drove Red’s Bug. Her worn-down, pitiful little Bug couldn’t be pushed past sixty-five without making a fuss. The car wasn’t made for a high-speed trek across the country. Perhaps the best thing he could do would be to buy himself more time.

      “I have an idea.”

      “Uh-oh.”

      Daniel shot her his what-the-hell-does-that-mean look. Baily couldn’t decipher it, so he asked her, “What the hell does that mean?”

      “Nothing.”

      Satisfied, Daniel picked up the phone again.

      “I just meant that your last idea concerning your sister—offering her beau a bribe—bombed so miserably that maybe you ought to let me do the thinking from now on.”

      Wolflike growls originated from the back of this throat.

      Baily didn’t seem to notice. “For instance, I was thinking that maybe you could call Sarah and tell her you are running late. Is it a big-deal wedding? You know, church, reception, that kind of thing.”

      “No, she said Pierce didn’t want to wait. They’re being married at city hall.”

      “So ask if she could postpone the wedding for a few days. That way we’ll have a little extra time built into our schedule.”

      “That was my idea!” Daniel shouted irritably.

      “Okay, okay. No need to get huffy. Make your phone call. Then we’ll eat.”

      Punching the necessary numbers with a little more force than necessary, Daniel barked a hello. “Oh, it’s you, Larson. СКАЧАТЬ