"You really think you'll have some responses by then?"

Her friend's smile was just this side of wicked. "I've got twenty messages in my inbox right now."

"That must be some bio you came up with."

Honey B. laughed. "I may have tweaked it a bit too much."

Meg looked at the time and swore. "I've got to go, but I'll be back."

Honey B. pulled her in for a quick hug and was pushing Meg out the door. "Get going so you can hurry back."

"I'll keep you posted if I hear any scuttlebutt about Dan the man."

Meg was laughing when she got back into her truck. Recharged and lighter of heart, she was ready to tackle the rest of her day. "Maybe I'll let Dan stew a little first before I tell him I've decided to let him start over."

Chapter 7.

Dan wondered if he was going to make it through the day without losing his temper. He had to talk to Meg to make her understand, but he also needed to speak to Doyle and Hawkins to make sure that they hadn't gone out onto that bridge because of something that he had said. When they showed up early for his first period phys ed class, he did a double take. "What are you two doing here?"

They looked at one another and then at him. Doyle grinned. "Taking class?"

Hawkins started to laugh and Dan knew then that he must have lost his mind sometime during the night. If he had, he knew right where to place the blame-it was his own fault.

"Do you have a doctor's note?"

Doyle and Hawkins both shrugged. "We weren't sick."

He turned to Hawkins and rasped, "But you almost drowned."

"Heck, Coach," Hawkins said, "everybody knows that almost doesn't count except for in hand grenades and horseshoes."

Dan shook his head at the two of them and motioned for them to go over to the bleachers and have a seat. "I need to talk to you two."

"We wanted to say something to you too, Coach." Doyle's voice was quiet as he and Hawkins sat down.

"I need to ask: what were you doing on the bridge?" He'd hoped that he'd been making progress and getting the boys on the team in particular to open up and trust him. Thin beads of sweat trickled from his temples. "Well?"

They finally looked back at him and Doyle told him, "We've been walking on that bridge since we were kids. It's our thinking place."

"Why?"

They stared at him for the longest time before Hawkins suggested, "Because we can?"

"But it's dangerous!" Dan was incensed. How could he have given these two the benefit of the doubt that they were marginally intelligent and compared them to the football players who had pulled a stunt that was far less dangerous? He had to ask, "Couldn't you think of another way to amuse yourselves?"

"We didn't feel like cow tipping and the Smolinsky brothers had already pulled one prank at the school, so we wanted to think up something better."

Dan shook his head. At least he knew it wasn't because of him that they'd been on that bridge yesterday. "But why would you walk there if Hawkins can't swim?"

Doyle and Hawkins looked at each other again. "It's never been a problem before."

"Well, what the heck do you do when the train starts coming?"

Doyle grinned. "We usually slip underneath and wait until it's gone, then we climb back up."

Dan shook his head. "So it is my fault that you nearly drowned. I'm sorry."

"No problem, Coach. My mom's been telling me for years I've got to learn to swim. After yesterday, I understand why and I'm gonna take lessons."

"Is there a local pool?"

Doyle laughed. "I'm going to teach him down at the lake."

"There's a lake nearby?"

The boys looked at one another and then back at him. Doyle told him, "On the other side of town."

"Great bass and trout fishing," Hawkins told him. "Not too many weeds by the shore."

"Take another one of your friends with you."

"Why?" Doyle asked.

"One of you can be with Hawkins teaching him and the other can be ready to call for help. Swimming where it's weedy is dangerous. You can get tangled up fast." He rubbed at the ache in his forehead. "Isn't there a swimming pool nearby?"

"Not indoor," Hawkins told him.

"Then make sure you go with someone else-safety in numbers. Maybe you should wait until spring; it's too cold to go swimming."

The boys were still chuckling when the rest of the kids started to wander in to class. "Are you two busy Saturday morning?"

Doyle shook his head. "My mom always makes me do my homework before the weekend. I'm free."

"Me too," Hawkins said. "What do you have in mind?"

"My great-aunt needs help over at her garden center and I was wondering if anyone wants to help. She promised hot cinnamon rolls and coffee in exchange for an hour or so of our help."

"We'll be there," Doyle said. "What time?"

"Is eight o'clock too early?"

They looked as if they were about to say no when Weatherbee and McCormack walked over to join in their conversation. "Too early for what?"

"We're gonna help the coach over at Miss Trudi's Saturday morning," Doyle said.

"Wanna come too?" Hawkins asked.

"Sure."

"My aunt's promised cinnamon rolls and coffee-"

"I'm in! Your aunt makes awesome cinnamon rolls," Weatherbee said.

"Yeah," McCormack added. "She makes them for the church's rummage sale in the spring and then again in the fall."

At his first break, he called his aunt and told her the good news that four of his team members would be joining him Saturday morning. Somehow Dan made it through the rest of the day without trying to second-guess all that the boys had told him. He'd made a mistake, but in his defense, the sheriff had urged him to grab the boys and jump. He'd acted quickly, and in the end no one had been seriously injured. Life was funny that way-sometimes bad things had to happen to prevent something even worse from occurring.

If he was going to put this behind him, he had to talk to Sheriff Wallace too.

After practice, he drove to the Sheriff's office and walked into bedlam.

"What in the hell do you mean, she's put herself up on a dating site?"

The sheriff was a formidable man when he wasn't riled. Angry, the man resembled a bear, and even a suburbanite like Dan knew better than to poke a wild animal.

"I don't see what the problem is, Sheriff," his dispatcher said quietly, glancing behind the sheriff at Dan. "Besides, what's done is done and you've got someone waiting to see you."

"I don't care who the hell-"

Dan decided he'd better distract the man before he took his temper out on Cindy. "Thought I'd come back and fill you in on what Doyle and Hawkins had to say today."

The sheriff's anger evaporated. Dan admired the man's ironclad control. "So they showed up for school today?"

"I figured they'd be out for a couple of days," Dan said, "all things considered."

"Well, they weren't sick."

Dan bit back what he wanted to say. He was still the new guy in town and didn't want to give anyone the wrong impression of him... but then again, maybe it was better if he leveled with the sheriff from the start. "Did you know that the bridge is their thinking place?"

Mitch was watching Dan closely, which made him wonder if maybe he shouldn't have brought it up. Had he just told the man something he didn't need to know?

"Hell, I've known that for years. Those boys pretty much hang out there and climb like monkeys... you, on the other hand, were an unknown yesterday. I figured by telling you to jump that you'd pull them in with you. I couldn't count on the fact that you could clamber down under the trestle bridge and wait for the train to pass overhead."

"What if I didn't think to grab those boys and pull them into the water with me? What would have happened then?"

"I'm a pretty good judge of character. Besides, it's best not to think about the what-ifs in life." Mitch turned to listen to what Cindy was saying and bent down to place his huge hands on the front of her desk when he answered her. "You tell your sister that I'll be over there later to discuss her putting herself out there where all kinds of psychos, wackos, and weirdos are bound to prey on her."

Cindy nodded. "I agree, but you know Honey B. She's turning thirty in a few months and... well"-Cindy leaned close to confide-"her biological clock's ticking."

"Damn fool woman," the sheriff grumbled, straightening up and spinning on his boot heel. "Dating site, my ass." He stalked past Dan into his office and slammed the door.

"Well." Cindy dialed the phone and was smiling when she said, "That went far better than we'd hoped."

Dan picked up on the comment and wondered what she'd meant by it, but felt like an idiot asking her outright. Maybe he could find out later.

Walking outside to his car he realized where his train of thought was going and had to laugh at himself. "Not even two weeks in the sticks and you're getting involved in local gossip."

He wondered if he'd started any gossip by staying at Meg's so late last night. He pulled a U-turn and headed toward his aunt's garden center. She'd be his best source of information right now and might be able to help him decide what to do about Meg.

"Daniel," his aunt called out from where she stood at the front of her shop, holding her watering wand. "I'm just giving these mums some water."

He had to smile. His great-aunt was wearing her signature outfit again-including the rubber boots she referred to as her Wellies. He stared at her and the odd extra width of fabric at her hips. Who the heck wore pants like that? Well, aside from his great-aunt and equestrians.

"Everything looks great here."

She smiled at him and then her look turned thoughtful. "Something heavy weighing on your mind, Daniel?"

Was he that transparent or had the gossips been at work?

"I, uh... was just at the sheriff's office."

She nodded and moved to another row of planters. "Those boys were bound to get into trouble one of these days, sitting on that bridge instead of finding somewhere safer to spend their time."

"Does everyone in town know that Doyle and Hawkins spend their time out on that bridge?"

She looked over her shoulder at him and inadvertently sprayed the window of her garden center.

"You're watering your front window, Aunt Trudi."

She harrumphed at him but turned around to watch where she pointed her water wand. "To answer your question, I cannot speak for everyone in town, but their parents, the sheriff, Amelia Winter, and I know that they do. Why do you ask?"

"Shouldn't someone have warned them to stay away from that bridge? Don't they know how dangerous it could be?"

She turned off the water and hung the hose with its attachment on the hook by the big double doors to her shop. "Land sakes, Daniel. I don't know why you're all het up about this. The boys are fine. Besides, you have far more that you should be worried about than those boys."

A cold chill chased up his spine, leaving the hair on the back of his neck standing on end. "Do I?" He watched her closely for a clue as to what she meant, but if there was one thing he admired most about his great-aunt Trudi, it was her ability to hide her thoughts behind a truly blank expression.

"Why don't you help me bring those planters inside and I'll make us a nice cup of tea?"

Tea was the last thing he wanted right now. What he wanted was to drive over to Meg's apartment, storm up the stairs, take her in his arms, and- "Daniel?" His aunt was tugging on his arm.

"Hmmm?" Great, now he was daydreaming about the woman who'd turned him inside out and backward... the one he'd slammed the brakes on the possibility of a relationship with.

She slipped her arm through his and patted his hand. "Come on, dear," she said. "I've got a lovely blend of Darjeeling, so soothing."

"What about the stuff you want me to move?"

"You can move it later."

He let himself be led, not so eager to speak to her now that he knew there was something his aunt thought he needed to know. She puttered around in her kitchen. He offered to help, but she refused, motioning him into one of the chairs surrounding the round oak table by the picture window.