The next morning, however, managed to completely undo any sense of well-being before 9 AM, because Jane walked into her office before she'd even finished booting up her computer.

"How was your date last night?" he asked her, sitting down on her couch and looking at her expectantly.

Lisbon raised her eyebrows. "You mean the date you tricked me into going on?"

"I tricked you into dressing up and waiting downstairs," Jane corrected her. "It was up to Mashburn from there, but I see he successfully charmed you into leaving with him, at least, so bravo, Walter."

Lisbon shrugged. "Like he said, it seemed a bit of a waste to get dressed up and not go anywhere."

"And you had a good time," Jane pressed.

"The food was really good."

Jane's face fell. "You didn't sleep with him?"

She glared at him. "That's none of your business."

"You should have slept with him," Jane said. "A little fling, some empty glamour, what's the harm?"

"Excuse me? Are you trying to tell me who I should and should not sleep with now? Because you've managed to get through life without actually getting your nose broken so far, but if you keep going on like this, let me tell you, Jane, I won't have a problem breaking it on the first try."

Jane ignored this. "Are you going to go out with him again, at least?"

"Out," Lisbon growled. "Now."

"Mm." Jane frowned. "I can't tell if that's a yes or a no." After another glance at her expression, he hastily added, "But I can see this isn't the best time to ask you about it. We'll just pick this up again later, shall we?"

He made a strategic retreat.

xxx

Mashburn called her several times, but Lisbon couldn't see the point of trying to pretend they were remotely compatible. He was attractive, yes, but they had nothing in common. Also, she didn't want Jane to get the idea that his schemes to meddle in her personal life had borne fruit and were therefore something to be encouraged.

Though he had, in fact, been quite persistent, eventually Mashburn accepted the fact that she wasn't interested. She would have thought no more about it, but several weeks later, Jane came into her office.

"I asked Kristina Frye on a date," he announced.

Lisbon swallowed back the tide of white hot jealousy that immediately rose in her throat at these words. She kept her voice carefully neutral. "Oh?"

He had spent a lot of time with Kristina this last case, but Lisbon had thought he'd found her more aggravating than attractive. Apparently she'd been wrong about that.

"I'm not sure it's going to work, though," he said, frowning. "It's possible I've miscalculated."

Lisbon frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, what if I convince him I have feelings for Kristina, but then he turns his sights from you to her?" Jane shook his head. "It really would have been better if you got a boyfriend instead." He looked at her intently. "Are you sure you won't reconsider going out with Mashburn again? I have his number. I'm sure he'd be very happy to hear from you."

Lisbon stared at him. "Are you telling me you asked Kristina Frye on a date because you're still paranoid about Red John coming after me?"

Jane shrugged. "She's an attractive woman. Very good at what she does. Maybe I just want to get to know her better."

"Let me get this straight," Lisbon said. "You're convinced that any woman you show an interest in will be in danger of being stalked and killed by Red John."

"More or less," Jane muttered.

"And your brilliant idea was to divert his attention from me, a trained law enforcement professional, to an unsuspecting civilian?"

He winced. "I admit it doesn't sound great when you put it like that."

"What the hell is wrong with you?" she yelled.

A beat. "I panicked."

Lisbon shook her head. "I don't understand. You and I haven't been together for months. Why did you suddenly get so spooked that Red John would think you're interested in me enough to warrant you coming up with this convoluted plan to turn his attention away from me?"

"Hightower," Jane said gloomily.

"Hightower?" Lisbon repeated. "What does she have to do with any of this?"

Jane sighed. "She saw me watching you and Kristina talking. And she said, 'She likes you.'"

Lisbon's stomach lurched. Her boss thought she had a crush on Jane?

"I asked her which of you she meant," Jane continued.

"Why the hell did you ask her that?" Lisbon asked, panicked.

"I don't know, it was stupid," Jane said. "She said she meant Kristina, but then she gave me this look, you know?"

"No, I don't know," Lisbon said, still in panic mode. "What kind of look?"

"Like…she was seeing things I didn't want her to see," Jane said grudgingly.

"Okay." Lisbon blew out a breath. "Is that all?"

"She asked me if I ever thought about dating again," Jane said. "But then you mercifully interrupted with some cop talk."

"And you ran away like a rabbit," Lisbon said, remembering the scene.

Jane glared at her. "There was nothing rabbit-like about my tactical withdrawal. It was cunning, like Wellington."

"Uh-huh," Lisbon said, unimpressed. "But Jane, that was just idle chitchat. You're freaking out over nothing."

"If Hightower could see it, Red John could see it, too," Jane said stubbornly.

"See what?" Lisbon said. "You just said she was asking you about Kristina, not me."

Jane ignored this. "You know, I think I'd better go through with it," he said, tapping his finger against his lip. "Just as a feint. It's only one date. He won't think I'm overly attached after one date." He looked back at Lisbon. "Thank you, Lisbon. This has been very helpful."

He left, leaving her gaping after him in outraged disbelief.

xxx

Several hours later, in the same black dress she'd worn on her date with Mashburn, Lisbon walked up to the entrance of a fancy Italian restaurant and wondered if she was making a huge mistake.

She gave Jane's name to the maître d' and followed him out to the patio, where golden lanterns flickered all around them.

She sat down across from Jane at a table laid for two, complete with two glasses of expensive looking wine. "Hi."

He stared at her. "What are you doing here?"

She picked up her menu and made a show of studying it. "Going on a date. With you."

"You can't—" Jane spluttered. "Kristina will be here any minute!"

Lisbon didn't look up from her menu. "No, she won't."

"You sabotaged my date?" Jane said, incredulous.

"I called her and told her I needed you to work tonight," Lisbon said. The scallop risotto looked really good.

"Is this you being jealous?" Jane sounded more puzzled than gratified.

"Yep, that's me," Lisbon said lightly. "Raging with jealousy. That's exactly right."

Jane's expression smoothed out. "Ah, I see. You're not being jealous. You're being protective. Of Kristina."

She snapped her menu closed and met his gaze. "If you think for one second I'm going to let you endanger an innocent civilian as part of this sick game you're playing with Red John, you don't know me at all."

"Nice," Jane said sarcastically. "I must say, I'm impressed, Lisbon. You've boxed me into this corner very neatly. I can't storm off, or it will look like a lover's tiff and attract attention. I can't force you to leave for the same reason. I suppose I'm stuck."

Lisbon raised her wine glass to him. "I learned from the best." She didn't wait for him to raise his glass in turn, but tossed back a healthy swallow. The wine was excellent.

"One question, though." Jane leaned forward. "Earlier, you called me paranoid. But you must think there's something to my theory about Red John's interest in any women in my life, or you wouldn't have come. If you had just been jealous, you wouldn't have let that influence your behavior and decide to crash my date."

Lisbon shrugged. "I was on the fence. I almost didn't come. But then I decided even if you were wrong about Red John, Kristina didn't deserve to be jerked around for the sake of your delusions, so I might as well come in any case."

"If I was wrong," Jane stressed. "You acknowledge I might not be."

"You do have an irritating habit of being right more often than not. I'm not going to risk an innocent woman's life out of annoyance that your paranoid delusions aren't complete delusions after all." Lisbon flagged down the waiter and ordered the scallops. "He'll have spaghetti," she told the waiter. "And could you please bring us a bottle of this wine?"

When the waiter left, Jane leaned back in his chair. "What's to stop me from calling Kristina tomorrow and rescheduling our date?"

Lisbon raised her eyebrows at him. "You think I can't sabotage you for real? I will move into that flea-bitten motel room of yours if I have to."

"Very well," Jane sighed. "You win." He glanced after the retreating waiter. "I wanted the lamb, by the way."

"You think I care what you want?" Lisbon retorted. "You should be glad I didn't lace the parmesan with strychnine and have done with it."

Jane looked at her for a long moment. "You look lovely in that dress," he said finally. "I've always liked it on you."

Lisbon flushed, taken off guard by the unexpected compliment. She took another sip of wine. "Thank you."

"This isn't a date, by the way," Jane said. He cocked his head to right. "We're officially investigating that couple over there sharing the tiramisu."

Lisbon glanced over. "A surveillance job. Got it."

They spent the rest of the meal discreetly, but not too discreetly, observing the middle-aged couple celebrating their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary.