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Think there’s any truth to it?”
    The man was impossible! But Brie found a grudging smile inching across her lips. “I don’t mean to sound like I’m perfect, Mr. Tanner. I know I’ve got my share of faults, maybe not as obvious as some of yours.”
    Linc gave her a long, appraising look. “You look pretty perfect to me.” When he saw the color rise in her cheeks, something wrenched inside his heavily guarded heart. Didn’t men compliment her on her good looks? Not according to her reaction. “Bet you had to chase the boys away from your door when you were in college.”
    Brie managed a shy smile. “Being an honor student through four years in chemistry didn’t leave me much time for anything else.”
    Linc rubbed his jaw, his smile warmer. Brie had a nice trait of being unassuming, which was a plus in his book. “Ouch. I barely scraped through.”
    “I imagine because you had the girls knocking down your door to get to you.”
    His laughter was free and rolling. How good it felt to laugh again. “What are you? A mind reader?”
    Brie shook her head, her shoulders slowly relaxing. Maybe Tanner wasn’t so arrogant after all. More than anything, Brie wanted to believe that he was just tired and out of sorts from his long trip from Washington. “With your good looks, it’s pretty easy to figure out.”
    “Logic in a woman. A rare find,” he murmured.
    “A lot of women have logic, Mr. Tanner,” she said stiffly, some of her defenses moving into place.
    Careful, Linc. “Most of the women I’ve been around have little ability to add up one and one and make two. It’s not an insult. Just an observation.”
    Brie toyed with her glass, enjoying the beaded coolness on her fingertips. “In this business, we go by the numbers and by the rules,” she put in with an edge of warning. “I’m not going to automatically assume you have that capability, Mr. Tanner. Just because you’re a man and men are supposed to be logical won’t wash with me. You’ll have to prove that out in the field to me before I believe it.”
    Linc sat up, frowning heavily. “I’ll stack my logic up against yours anytime, Ms. Williams.”
    Brie gave him a tight grin. There was something within her that loved challenge and competition. And Linc Tanner had just triggered it. “Fair enough, Mr. Tanner. Just as I’ll be assessing your abilities day in and day out, you can do the same to me.” She leaned forward, all business. “With one major difference: the final decision rests with me, not you. Jeff Laughlin, the other rookie, will tell you that I openly encourage your input and observations, but in the end, the responsibility is mine.”
    He didn’t know whether to be angry with her oradmire her. Now she was talking like a hard-nosed businessman, and not a woman. “That’s damn democratic of you, boss.”
    She held his stormy gaze calmly. “I’ll give you the chance you deserve, Mr. Tanner. I only hope you’ll extend that same courtesy to me and try to overlook the fact I’m a woman.”
    “That’s going to be hard to do.”
    “You haven’t worked around many women, have you?”
    Linc was unsettled by her insight into him. “I never mix business with pleasure. Anything wrong with that?” he drawled.
    Brie colored beneath his digging inspection. “In this case, yes. I’m a woman dealing with you in a business function. Something that I’m sure has never happened to you before, since you were a fire fighter and there are few women in the ranks.”
    “Right again, Ms. Williams. But in your case, I see no reason we can’t mix a little business and pleasure.”
    “Am I supposed to be flattered, Mr. Tanner?”
    Linc gave her a disarming smile. “I would hope so.”
    Brie saw Chief Saxon returning, his face serious. She blotted her mouth with her napkin. “I would never have thought you were a dreamer, Mr. Tanner.”
    He shrugged his broad shoulders. “Who knows? I like to learn from every new situation. Maybe I’ll