Chapter 3

"Come in."

Amanda looked up from her desk, expecting to see Billy Melrose come through the door. She wasn't expecting any other visitors.

"Oh, hello."

"Mrs. King. Am I interrupting anything?"

"Oh, no. Not at all, Agent Barker. I'm just finishing up some paperwork. What brings you up from the dungeons?" she asked brightly.

The tall, lanky man perched on the edge of her desk. She successfully resisted the urge to shove him off. "Anything interesting?"

Amanda had already shoved the papers she was working on back into their file folder. "Barker, you know I couldn't tell you if it was." She lowered her eyes, then looked back up at him. "Now could I?"

A warm smile slowly crept across his face. "No, no, I guess you couldn't. And that's not why I came all the way up here, to pry into your business." He dropped a computer printout on the desk before her. "I'd really like to get your input on this data that just came across the wire. I know there's something there, I just can't put my finger on it."

Amanda's face lit up. "And you want my opinion? I'm flattered, Agent Barker."

"I don't know why you seem surprised. Your reputation and instincts are pretty well-known. I mean, at first I thought that was because you were working with Sc--" his voice faltered. "I mean, you were partnered with a...." Blushing, he gave up. "So, think you see anything out of the ordinary in this data?"

Seeking to reassure the flustered man before her, Amanda flipped through the papers he'd handed her. "Agent Barker, you're right, I did initially do much of my work with Agent Stetson. But now, I work on my own, and I assure you I am quite capable of seeing the gap in the timing of these two measurements." Amanda circled some numbers with a red pen. "You're missing some of the data, might want to go back to your source and find out why."

The dark-haired man at her side smiled down at her. "Mrs. King, you are brilliant." He turned to the door, then looked back over his shoulder. "Funny, beauty and brains all in one, and yet you haven't even agreed to go to dinner with me yet."

Amanda smiled coyly, blinking up at the man in the doorway. "Maybe that's because you haven't asked me, Agent Barker."

"How about Saturday? And for goodness' sake, please call me Colin."

"Okay, Colin, it's a date."

Flashing her one more smile before closing the door behind him, Colin Barker mentally began making plans for Saturday.

Back in the Q-Bureau, Amanda's glance fell upon the empty desk on the other side of the room. It would have been much easier to blame Lee for all of this, but it wouldn't have been right. This had been a mutual decision.

She hadn't been looking forward to jumping back into the dating scene. Maybe now she wouldn't have to jump very far. Maybe this Colin would be the one, and she'd be able to get on with her life.