Love By Accident by Michelle Beattie Page B

tables.
    ***
    Nick was doing it on purpose, Matt was sure of it. He'd never seen anyone eat anything so slowly in his life. It was freaking painful to watch. Cinnamon wafted from the plate and danced saucily beneath Matt's nose, driving him nuts. He'd been craving one all morning. But he'd been called out early for an elk that had mistaken a car with a bunch of picture-taking tourists for a female. Everyone was alright, but the little Sunfire had antler scratches across its right side. The lady in the passenger seat, however, was thrilled she'd caught it all on her camcorder.
    Tourists.
    But the point was, his day had been crazy and he'd been unable to get here before now. And when he did, not only did he find Lauren with her boyfriend, but she'd also saved Nick the last of what Matt had been craving since six o'clock this morning. And the bastard was rubbing it in.
    "Damn, these are good. I mean, they should be illegal."
    Nick's green eyes were laughing at him and every cell in Matt's body thrummed with the idea of ramming the last of the icing up pretty boy's nose.
    "Well," Nick announced after it had taken him another two minutes to clean the cinnamon off his index finger. "Guess I should be going. Wouldn't want the boss to catch me taking too long for my break."
    Oh, he was having fun now, his slick smile was a mile wide. "Sorry about your dessert. But maybe there's still some rice pudding left." He threw down a twenty. "See ya later, Matt."
    Maybe it was male jockeying, maybe it was his innate need for competition. Either way, it didn't matter. Matt wasn't letting the smooth-talking jerk walk away one up.
    "I've taken Lauren's hazing stick. I know Ted and a lot of other rangers allowed her to play the part, but I won't." He paused and dropped his voice even lower, though the warning, he knew was crystal clear. "If I ever find out one of my guys allowed her to haze, or do anything else illegal while she's just a civilian, I will take any and all measures necessary to nail their ass to the wall."
    His gaze bore into Nick's for a few seconds. Satisfied he'd regained some ground, Matt smiled. "I'll expect to see your reports on my desk in the morning."
    Since his food arrived then, via a very intrigued looking Juliet, Matt concentrated on salting his eggs. He didn't need to see Nick's face to know the man was pissed off. He felt the heat of Nick's resentment burning the back of his neck. Grinning, Matt slipped a fork full of fluffy omelet into his mouth. His day had suddenly taken a turn for the better.
    ***
    The phone on Matt's desk shrieked at the exact moment one of his female staff members stepped into his doorway and knocked on the frame. He angled his head toward a chair, motioning for her to sit while he continued to plug in numbers. He was working on a spreadsheet and the damn thing had already frozen twice. After rebooting both times, he was nearly finished and he wasn't going to detour for anything. With a smack of the save key he was done.
    "Yes!" He pumped his arm like he'd scored the winning goal in the Stanley Cup finals. "I'll be right with you, Danika, just let me get this."
    "Mr. Neiderman," Matt acknowledged with an inward groan and a shake of his head after the caller identified himself. He'd been warned to expect a call at least twice a week from Mr. Neiderman with a complaint of some sort. Deer ate his strawberries. Elk trampled his roses. The smoke from the forest fires in BC was making it hard for him to breathe and were the rangers sure the flames weren't headed this way?
    "What can I do for you?"
    He listened half-heartedly and offered token sympathy for the loss of his newly planted pine tree which had been chewed down to a twig. Yes, it was a shame. Yes, he'd make a point of driving by on his rounds tomorrow. No, it wasn't a problem.
    "Sorry about that," Matt said once he'd hung up. "What's up?"
    Danika was fresh to the department this year, the ink on her diploma barely dry, but Ted had spoken