That Dating Thing Read Online Free Page A

face.
    “Sil wanted me to invite you to dinner tomorrow night. Will you come?”
    A soft knock on the open office door drew Coop’s attention. He opened his eyes and straightened, waving in the familiar blond giant. Tim Watson crossed the room to the seat across from Coop’s desk.
    “Why not,” he said into the phone. “What time?”
    “Six.”
    “Okay.”
    “Thank you, son,” Elliott said quietly.
    “I’ll see you then.” Coop disconnected the call, unconvinced of his father’s sincerity, but intrigued all the same.
    “Welcome back.” Tim’s forbidding face, complete with a bulbous nose bearing the signs of a youth spent on the mean streets of Detroit, wore an easy smile. A lawyer by degree, Tim’s true gift was his uncanny talent for sniffing out details others often missed. More than two decades with the D.A.’s office and he’d yet to argue a case, a circumstance the entire office found more than acceptable. As head of the investigative department, his fingerprints were on most of the files in the building, contributing to the impressive conviction rate the office enjoyed.
    The older man’s sleuthing abilities were instrumental in the prosecution of Coop’s first case, when the incumbent D.A. took a chance on a decorated marine’s son whose bar results were still sticky with wet ink. Coop won the case, and in return, Tim earned Coop’s gratitude and respect. Eight years later, Tim and his wife, Lilly, were Coop’s closest friends.
    “How’d it go?”
    A moment passed before Coop realized Tim referred to his Chicago trip to secure extradition of the man responsible for a string of fires resulting in at least two fatalities, and not the bizarre conversation he’d just shared with his father. He picked up a file, leaning forward to hand it across the desk.
    “They’re willing to extradite unless the victim of his latest fire dies, but the prognosis looks good.”
    “That’s what we wanted to hear.” Tim opened the file to skim the top page.
    “Yeah.”
    Tim locked onto Coop’s face. “It’s good news. So why do you look like you just caught your girlfriend in bed with another man?”
    Coop scrubbed a hand over his jaw, bristly with the beginnings of a five-o’clock shadow. “My father was hit by a truck three days ago.”
    “Damn.” Tim straightened in the chair. “Sorry, Coop. Is he okay?”
    “Bumps and bruises, concussion and a broken foot. He’ll be sore for a while, but it looks like he’ll be fine.”
    “And?” Tim prompted, handing back the file.
    Coop set it aside and absently clicked a pen on and off with his thumb. “And he got married.”
    “The colonel got married?” Surprise made Tim’s thick blond brows slam together to form one bushy slash.
    “He claims he’s in love with her.”
    Tim shook his head. “Your dad has blown through a lot of women over the years, but he didn’t marry any of them. Maybe he is.”
    Coop grunted, hearing his father’s sentiment echoed in his friend’s reasoning.
    “Who is she? Have you met her?”
    “About an hour ago. Her name is Silvia Burke. She runs a dog training service.”
    “A dog trainer? How did he meet her?”
    “Her niece owns his building and lives downstairs. She and Silvia run the dog thing together.”
    “A dog trainer who owns a building in Long Island City?”
    Coop nodded. “That was my exact reaction. Apparently the building was part of an inheritance.”
    “You want me to check her out? Silvia, I mean, not the niece. Off the books, of course, on my own time.”
    Conscious of the legal considerations inherent in his position, Coop never broke the rules. In the process of doing his job, Tim often balanced precariously on the blade of justice, but Coop never had reason to doubt his ethics. He wasn’t surprised by the private offer.
    “I hadn’t thought that far.” He had thought far enough to know he would be checking out the niece through a closer, much more personal inspection. The renewed