Page 82 of Under Fire

“What’s the date?”

He blinked. Did that mean she had to put him on her calendar? He definitely didn’t like the thought of that. “Does the date matter?”

“Of course the date matters, Locke. I need to make sure I won’t be busy. No telling where my next assignment will take me.”

She had a point. He had totally forgotten she had a job. Why had he begun thinking of her as his personal private investigator? He honestly didn’t like the thought of her working as closely with another man as she had worked with him.

“Any reason you’re frowning, Locke?”

“Yes. I just realize that now that I’ve gotten the charges against Karl dismissed and brought the real criminals to justice, we won’t be working together anymore.”

“That’s the way it usually works for an attorney and an independent private investigator.”

“Then I need to change that.”

“And how do you plan to do that?” she asked.

“I’ll hire you permanently.”

“You told me your law firm already had a private investigative firm on retainer, and that the only reason you were considering hiring me was that they were tied up helping your other partners.”

“That was true, but I won’t have to worry about being placed in such a position again if you were mine.”

“Yours?”

“Yes.”

“As your own personal PI.”

“Not exactly.”

Then what is, exactly?” she asked.

“I want you to move to Portland with me.”

She lifted a brow. “You want me to move from Florida to Oregon?”

“Yes.”

“As nothing more than your employee.”

“Not as my employee, Hollis.”

“Then what?”

“As the woman I intend to marry one day.”

She stretched out her left hand and gazed down at the third finger. She then looked back at him. “Did I miss our engagement?”

He smiled. “I want to give you time to be sure of me. I figure we could live together for a while. What do you think of that?”

“Derek told me that if a man invites a woman to move in with him with the promise of marriage at a later date, to remember his ‘Big Brother’ advice and ask myself the question…why buy the cow when you could get the milk for free.”

He smiled. “Your brother was definitely full of sayings, wasn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“How about if I remind you that you’re not a cow and I’m not interested in milk? What I am interested in, Hollis Calloway, is you as my wife one day. The term “one day” could be whatever you want it to mean. Tomorrow works for me. Is that soon enough?”