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“I’ll get the information when I go back to my shop and email it to you, how’s that?” Mike asked, smiling.
“It would be a great help,” Jeff said. “Gary not with you today?”
“He’s still asleep,” Mike said heavily. “He sits up all night in chat rooms, talking to people he doesn’t know. If he’s not playing video games online,” he added. “I keep hoping he’ll take a bigger interest in the business. I’m not getting any younger. But Gary’s just not that into small-time antiques.”
“Shame,” Jeff said.
“It really is. I should have had more kids,” Mike said on a sigh. “Well, I’ll get lunch and then I’ll send you over the information. Good to see you both.”
They nodded.
“That might give us a break,” Jeff commented with a grin. “I’d love to be able to return that organ to Mr. Halstead. It belonged to his great-grandmother. He loved her dearly. It’s not so much the monetary value as it’s the sentimental value.”
“Isn’t it that way with most things?” she wondered aloud. “I have my mother’s sewing kit. It’s old and nothing fancy, but it’s priceless, because it belonged to her.”
“Why aren’t you two working?” Dal Blake asked sarcastically, holding Dana’s hand tight as he paused by their table. “Goofing off on county time, are you?”
Meadow bristled, but Jeff just laughed. “Get out of here. We’re on our lunch hour. Even law enforcement gets to eat.”
“Hi, Jeff,” Dana purred. “Are you coming to the Christmas dance?”
“Yes. I’m bringing Meadow.”
Dal’s eyebrow lifted. “For God’s sake, spare us all and don’t wear a red dress, will you?”
Meadow glared at him.
“What’s this about a red dress?” Dana probed.
“The first time she wore one, she ended up in the coal bin in her father’s house,” Dal drawled, enjoying himself. “The second time, she fell into the punch bowl and wore the contents home.”
Dana was laughing uproariously. “My, you are clumsy, aren’t you?” she asked Meadow.
Jeff glared at her. “Not everyone is perfect,” he said shortly.
Dana flushed. “I never insinuated . . .” she began.
Jeff threw down his napkin and stood up. “Ready to go?” he asked Meadow with a warm smile.
“Yes, I am,” she said, and smiled back.
Dal glared at both of them. Beside him, Dana was furious at the way Jeff snubbed her.
They walked out without another word to either of the couple still standing at their table.
“She’s insufferable,” Jeff said curtly, turning to Meadow at the squad car. “Don’t let her get under your skin. She loves to needle people.”
“I’m impervious,” she lied with a laugh.
“I try to be. She loves to rub Dal Blake in my face,” he added curtly. “She even told me that if I’d been a little richer, she’d never have thrown me over for him.”
“What a sweetheart,” she muttered.
“He wasn’t much kinder, with that remark about your dress. You ought to wear a red one just to spite him,” he added.
She grinned. “In fact, I bought a new red one,” she replied. “And I don’t plan to end up in the punch bowl this time.”
“I’ll make sure you don’t.” He glanced toward the other side of the parking lot, where Dal was putting Dana into his big Lincoln. “We’d better get back to work.”
