Without A Clue by Pamela Wilder

us.”
     
    “Where are we eating?” Amelia asked, stumbling after her friend.
     
    “You’ll see.” Marnie led the way, and Amelia followed, trying to shake off her nap. She needed to get more sleep, darn it.
     
    When they ended up at Giacomo’s, Amelia sighed, remembering her first supper with Aden, how magical everything had seemed at the start. “Oh, hon, I don’t know.”
     
    “Don’t be silly. You love it here. Oh, shoot. You go in and get us a table. I need to take this call.” Marnie turned away, tugging her cell phone out of her purse.
     
    “Okay.” Suppressing her sudden irritation, Amelia walked inside, stopping at the front stand.
     
    “Miss Amelia! Your date is here.” Mona, the hostess she saw the most, grabbed a menu and waved her toward the back.
     
    “Oh, no. I was with—“ She turned, but Mandie was gone. What the heck?
    “He’s so handsome.” Mona nodded toward a table where Aden Bourne sat, staring at her with his deep, dark brown eyes as if willing her to come to him and sit down.
     
    “No. I’m not doing this.” And she was going to ream Mandie. The woman wrote literary fiction, not romances. What the heck had she thought she was doing, abandoning her to Aden’s machinations?
     
    Aden jumped to his feet. “Wait. Amelia, please. Let me buy you dinner and hear me out. Then if you want to go, I’ll pay for your cab.”
     
    She sighed, crossing her arms over her chest. “I don’t want to hurt anymore, Aden. I need off the merry go round.” Her belly ached, her nerves dancing under her skin. She wanted to hug him, to take the sadness out of his face with a kiss, but Amelia also needed to protect her heart.
     
    “I know. I promise, this is about you and me, not work, not being scared.” He reached out to her, his expression so earnest that she took his hand and let him pull her to the little table for two. Aden sat across from her and stared into her eyes. “I know you might very well be done with me, but I need to tell you what I know.”
     
    “And what’s that?” What did he know now that he hadn’t known a few short weeks ago? The longest weeks of her life.
     
    “Let’s order dinner first.” He raised a hand when she opened her mouth to berate him for avoiding the subject. Again. “That way you get a meal out of it even if you don’t believe me.”
     
    “Fair enough. How did you get Marnie in on your scheme? You barely know her.”
     
    “I had her name, and I knew she was a writer. I’m a PI, right? She wasn’t hard to find since she wasn’t hiding. She’s a closet romantic, did you know? She did threaten to beat me with a shovel if I hurt you.”
     
    “Good for her.” Amelia settled in her chair, waiting through ordering and wine and half an appetizer before she lost her patience.
     
    “Aden—“
     
    “I was wrong, Amelia. Wrong to play fast and loose with you.” He grimaced. “I told myself it was just work, that we were good together but it would never last. I was scared.”
     
    “Of me?” Amelia knew she was the least intimidating woman on the planet. “Why?”
     
    “Because I’ve known a lot of women. None of them made me feel what you do.” He picked up his wine glass, then stared into it a moment before putting it down. “We’re good together at work, yes, but we’re good together in other ways, too.”
     
    “I thought so, but you confused me. Hurt me.”
     
    Aden nodded, meeting her gaze head on. “And I’m sorry for that. I want another chance.”
     
    “I don’t know.” Hope began to build in Amelia’s chest, right around the vicinity of her heart. “I want to believe you.”
     
    “I want that, too.” He gave a self-deprecating chuckle. “I’m not too shabby in the brains department, usually. I mean, I was smart enough to see you were intelligent, beautiful, and an amazing detective. You’re also a generous lover and so easy to talk to. What I wasn’t smart about was knowing how important you are to