The Private Eye

one.”
    Maggie went still. Then she slowly lifted her head to stare at him. “A real one?”
    He smiled slightly and caught her chin in his hand. His thumb slid over her lower lip. “Why not? It seems to me we've got a lot going for us. We're attracted to each other. Why don't we try? I think we could make it work.”
    She drew back slowly, struggling to comprehend what he was saying. “My God. You're playing hero again, aren't you?”
    He frowned. “What the hell does this have to do with playing hero?”
    “You are.” Maggie scrambled back to her side of the car. “You're playing hero. You're offering to make the engagement a real one because you're beginning to realize how much the fake one is upsetting me. You feel responsible. Well, I won't have it. Josh.” Maggie straightened her shoulders and rebuckled her seat belt. “Absolutely not. I've got my pride, you know.” She finished drying her eyes and dropped the crumpled tissue into her purse. “I don't need rescuing that badly. I am not some weak, innocent, helpless victim, you know. I can take care of myself. I've been doing it just fine, so far.”
    Josh leaned back into his comer and studied her from beneath half-lowered lashes. “You think I'm made of such sturdy sniff that I'd actually commit myself to marriage just to play hero? Better think again, Maggie. I've told you before, my days of playing hero were over long ago.”
    She heard the cold anger in his voice and shuddered. Warily, she glanced at him and saw that he was not in a good mood. In fact, he looked extremely dangerous. “Then why did you suggest we make the engagement something more than a cover story for this case?”
    “I told you why. I think we've got enough going for us to make a marriage work. Hell, I'm nearly forty. It's time I settled down. You're almost thirty, and so far, you haven't encountered any real-life hero who's going to sweep you off your feet and put a ring on your finger.”
    “I do have some possibilities,” she flared. “I'm not a lost cause. There's Clay, for example.”
    “Come on, Maggie. You can't be serious. You were already getting bored with O'Connor when I arrived on the scene.”
    “How do you know that?” she demanded, furious.
    “It was pretty damn obvious when you came back from that date with him,” Josh retorted. “You were grateful to me for getting rid of him.”
    “I never said that.”
    “You didn't have to say it. I'm a private investigator, “remember? I pick up clues real good when they're right in front of my eyes.”
    “Is that so? Welt, here's a clue for you, Mr. Private Investigator. When I finally decide to get engaged for real, it will be because I'm in love and because the man involved loves me. It will not be because the romance happens to be a useful cover story. Nor will it be because the guy has an overdeveloped sense of responsibility or because he thinks he should settle down and he's not going to do any better. Do you hear me?”
    “I hear you.” Josh tapped one finger against the steering wheel.
    A long, heavy silence fell inside the vehicle. The rain had reached the shore now and was drumming relentlessly on the roof of the Toyota.
    Maggie began to fidget nervously. She wished she hadn't gotten so emotional about the whole thing. She wished she were a more devil-may-care sort of person. She wished she could simply enjoy the romance and passion and adventure that had so unexpectedly come her way. She wished last night had not seemed so monumentally significant. She wished for a lot of things; but most of all Maggie wished she hadn't fallen in love with Josh January.
    “So,” Josh went on after several minutes of apparent contemplation of the problem, “do you think you might be able to fall in love with me one of these days?”
    Maggie considered the two alternative responses to that question. She could either scream and sob hysterically at the injustice of a universe that had created such an insensitive species as the human male, or she could compose herself and react in a mature, sophisticated manner. With a great effort of will, she chose the latter.
    “Who knows? I've got so many other things on my mind at the moment, I haven't had time to consider it.”
    Maggie managed a bright little saccharine smile and glanced at her watch. “Don't you think we'd better be on our way? It really is getting rather late.”
    Josh regarded her in acute silence for another long moment and then, without a word, he