Justice for Mackenzie Read Online Free PDF Page B

six when I get there?”
    “I don’t think this is how it works.”
    “How what works?”
    “I don’t think you can just tell me you’re coming to get me and you’re taking me out to eat.”
    “Why not?”
    “Why not what?”
    “Why isn’t it how it works?
    “I don’t know you.”
    “I’m trying to change that.”
    Mackenzie tried to get the conversation back on track. “How do you know where I live?”
    “Mack, I’m a Ranger. I was in the car when TJ stopped you and ran your information. I know where you live.”
    “Are you really a Texas Ranger?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Are you gonna kidnap and kill me like that psycho has been doing to women around here?”
    “No.”
    “This is weird.”
    “It’s not weird,” Dax put every ounce of sincerity in his voice that he could. “I met you a few weeks ago and thought you were cute. Hell, I haven’t met anyone like you in a long, long time. I watched you walk away from me with regret. I didn’t know your name. I didn’t know anything about you, but I liked what I saw and what I heard, anyway. Then it was as if fate took hold, because there you were…again. What are the odds you’d be on the road you were, speeding, and I’d be on that same road? I’d like to take you out to dinner and get to know you more. Maybe we won’t get along. Maybe we’ll go out once and decide, mutually, that we should be friends, or not at all. Give me a chance, Mackenzie. I’ll be there tomorrow night at six. Will you be there?”
    “I’ll be here.”
    Every muscle in Dax’s body relaxed. He hadn’t realized how tightly he was holding himself until after Mackenzie had accepted his date. He hadn’t planned on asking her out, but there was no way he could sit there and listen to how incredibly adorable she was, rambling on about nail polish and how clumsy she was and not ask her out. TJ was going to give him a rash of shit, but Dax didn’t care. For the first time in a long time, he was looking forward to a date.
    Most of the time women hit on him , simply because of the uniform he wore. It was nice, for once, to be the pursuer instead of the pursued. Mack wasn’t going to know what hit her.
    “Good.” Dax lowered his voice. “I’m looking forward to it.”
    “But, seriously, don’t get your hopes up, Daxton. I don’t do one-night stands.”
    “I don’t recall asking you to sleep with me.”
    Mackenzie buried her head even farther into the couch cushion, embarrassed. “Shit. See? I’m totally awkward and shouldn’t really be out with actual people in public. I should be locked away so people can point and laugh at what an honest-to-God dork looks like. What I meant was that I’m not good at relationships. Seriously. You know how old I am, you know my height and weight…I told you what my own family thinks…I’m just…me.”
    “And I like ‘just’ you, Mackenzie. At least what I’ve seen and heard so far. We’ll go out and see what happens. I promise I won’t propose tomorrow if you won’t jump my bones in the parking lot. Deal?”
    Mackenzie laughed out loud. “I think I can agree to that.”
    “Great. Then I’ll see you tomorrow at six.”
    “Okay, Daxton. See you then.”
    “Bye.”
    “Bye.”
    Mackenzie clicked off her phone and sat up on her haunches in front of her couch for a moment before leaning over and stuffing her face into one of the cushions and screaming at the top of her lungs.
    She sat up with a smile on her face. A date. A real live date. Wow. She couldn’t wait to talk to Laine.

Chapter Five
     
     
     
    The next afternoon, Dax met TJ for lunch. They were sitting in a local diner that had amazingly good food for a place that looked like a broken-down building.
    “You did it? Shit, Dax. I thought you were just messing with me,” TJ said incredulously.
    “Well, I wasn’t. And yes, I did call her. I checked, she said she was fine, then I asked her out.”
    TJ shook his head and finally smiled at his friend, slyly, testing