Medium in Paradise: A Humorous Paradise Romance by Tabby Moray Page A

conversation? A later conversation won out. Despite his apparent acceptance of otherworldly presences, she didn’t want to overload his brain with too much information in one sitting.
    “A woman who’s trying to find her way to the light,” she said vaguely. Telling a partial truth couldn’t hurt.
    “You know her name?”
    “Sara,” she said after a moment’s hesitation.
    “Sara…and she just appeared one day?” he asked, sitting down opposite her after retrieving his medium mocha from the barista. Dina eyed it disapprovingly and he guiltily said, “What? I used to get the extra-large twice a day. Now I just get this in the morning.”
    “You shouldn’t be getting it at all.”
    “Baby steps. Rome wasn’t built in a day.” He took a small sip of the hot liquid, savoring it, eyes closed. His short, oddly straight lashes shot back up and they were staring into each other’s eyes. “I guess you got your coffee date after all,” he said, lightly.
    “Oh, yeah, I guess,” she said, flustered. Then, some of her composure returned and she flashed him an irritated glance. “Why’d you say no? It’s only coffee after all.”
    “It didn’t feel like a genuine request,” he said, leaning back lazily. “It felt like you were a suspect being forced to answer a question against her will.”
    “Why would you think that?” This guy was very perceptive. She’d have to watch herself around him because she felt certain very little passed his notice.
    “Just a feeling I had, that’s all. When you’re a cop, sometimes all you have is a hunch. I learned to trust them a long time ago. So far, they haven’t lead me astray.”
    “Well, your hunch was dead wrong.”
    “I’m pretty certain it wasn’t.”
    “I’m telling you, it was,” she said, determined to prove him wrong.
    “Why’d you ask me out to coffee?” he asked, abruptly.
    “Because I wanted to.”
    “But why?”
    “Why not? You must have a very low opinion of yourself to question a woman that asks you out to a simple cup of coffee, Detective Barney. It’s not like I asked for your hand in marriage.”
    He regarded her coolly, his suspiciousness back in play. “Your offer seemed to come out of the blue. You’d only seen me once before and on the second occasion you were asking me out. It’s never happened to me in the past--,”
    “There’s a first time for everything detective and now that we’ve had coffee, I agree with you. There’s nothing here of much interest. Have a nice day.”
    Gathering her things, she quickly gulped down the rest of her lukewarm expresso, picked up her things and left, Detective Barney Nichols watching her every move.

CHAPTER TWELVE
     
    “Eh, Boss lady, I’m havin’ a barbeque at my house tomorrow and I wanted to invite you.” It was early Friday evening just after her last session of the day. Everyone but the misplaced Bostonian with the whiney disposition and Detective Barney had cleared out for the night.
    “Is that right?” Dina wasn’t sure how she felt about him calling her boss lady, but Nick was turning out to be a pretty nice guy and one of her favorite students so she figured she’d just have to let it slide.
    Nick was standing just to Dina’s side. His shirt and body was drenched in sweat, the hair creeping like thick moss across his shoulders and the backs of his hands, spikey with perspiration. To his credit, the whininess had halted, but that’s still the nickname Dina had penned to the big guy. “Not to toot my own horn, but I’m’a grill master.”
    “He is.” Detective Barney was standing just behind him, the usual indecipherable look slapped across his handsome face. Perhaps it was her imagination, but it seemed that Detective Barney Nichols was becoming more handsome by the day, evidence of his hard work already showing in his hardened pecs and biceps after only a week’s work. Clearly he’d had some regular form of exercise he used to adhere to because his muscle memory