Jamie chuckled at that and moved everyone back up on-stage, leaving Quinn to stare at her and catch his breath. "Did he hurt you?"

"Hurt me?" Audie moved from Griffin 's side to stand in front of Quinn. The pipes started up again, without their star player, and Quinn had to shout at her so she could hear him.

"Did he touch you?"

"What are you talking about, Quinn? Do you mean to tell me you did all that just because he touched me?"

"We'll talk about this after the set."

She shook her head and gestured toward the city skyline. "I don't think so. I'm leaving." She started through the crowd, quickly saying good-bye to his family, Griffin jogging behind her. Quinn yelled after her and turned on his heels, weaving through the press of bodies until he caught up with her.

"Audie." He touched her shoulder and she spun to face him.

"I'll get you an Italian ice!" Griffin shouted in her ear, nodding toward Quinn as he turned away.

"What the hell were you doing?" She knocked her fists against his chest, hitting him in his brass nameplate. "Somebody could have been hurt! The kids saw everything!"

Quinn looked stricken and rubbed a hand across his chin and down the perspiration on his throat. "All I could think was he was going to hurt you."

She started to laugh but abruptly stopped as she understood his words. She stared at him in disbelief. "The letters? You thought Tim Burke was going to murder me right here in front of thousands of people?"

"I'm not sure what I thought, Audie. All I know is I saw his hands on you and I wanted to kill the man."

"God! I can't believe this!" She turned to go, but he reached for her wrist and gripped her tight.

"Please hear me out."

She jerked back from his touch. "No! You're an unstable, gun-toting neat freak! Your little show just now scared me much more than any letters ever have!" Before she knew it, the tears started to well in her eyes. She turned to run.

The pipes were reaching a crescendo and Quinn took a huge breath to shout as loud as he was able, "I love you, Audie!"-and the words exploded from his lungs just as the song ended and before the applause began, perfectly timed for the full appreciation of the CityFest crowd.

"Go for it!" Michael's booming voice rang out behind Quinn, and he cringed. Quinn hung his head as the band cheered him on from the stage.

Audie's arms fell uselessly to her sides and she turned slowly, her head spinning, feeling the eyes of hundreds of beer-swilling, egg-roll-eating Chicagoans now fixed on her and the guy in the kilt.

Quinn looked up from his cower, his eyes pleading. "I couldn't let him hurt you."

"Oh, this is just great, Quinn." Audie shook her head, aware that her knees were feeling weak and she was a hair's breadth away from sobbing. "You love me? This is getting completely out of control."

"That happened a few days ago, really," Quinn offered.

She stared, nodded, and felt relief that at least the band had started playing again. It was some kind of happy jig that had people clapping and dancing instead of staring at her and Quinn.

She looked at him for a long moment but couldn't bear what she saw-too much honesty and too much love. She stared down at her sandals until Quinn's spats appeared in her line of vision.

"Look at me, Audie," he said.

She would only hurt him. She knew she would only hurt him.

She raised her eyes. His gaze locked with hers. And though she knew this was the biggest mistake she'd ever make in her life, she reached out and touched his chest, right where she'd so recently pummeled him. His skin felt hot beneath the white uniform shirt. His heart was beating fast.

"Quinn, I-"

A voice boomed down from the heavens. "Hey, Fabio-get your arse up here so we can finish our set!" Jamie's words echoed through the speakers, and the laughter rolled and rocked through the Grant Park crowd.

"Meet me by the stage?"

Quinn's little-boy uncertainty was showing again, and all Audie could do was smile and nod. He started to go, but she grabbed his shirt and popped up on her toes to whisper in his ear.

"What's under your get-up, Detective?" In case he missed the point, she bit his earlobe.

He pulled back, grinning wickedly. "Boxers, Homey. For now, anyway."

He winked at her and she watched him swagger through the crowd, the plaid kilt swaying against his firm butt and muscular thighs with every step.

"He loves me," she muttered to herself, staring after him. Then she smacked herself in the forehead. "Oh, crap! Hell! What a disaster!"

Griffin suddenly reappeared with a half-melted lemon ice.

"I've got a big favor to ask you, Audie." He handed over the leaking waxed paper funnel. "Do you think you'd be all right hanging with the Quinns for the duration?"

He wagged his eyebrows to the left and gave his dread-locks a little shake, and Audie followed. Griffin 's big favor was standing a few feet away, looking beautiful and shy in a white gauze sundress and gleaming dark skin. Audie turned to find Pat, Michael, Sheila, and the kids all smiling at her.

"I think I'll be fine," she said.

When she pushed through the crowd to reach the Quinns, Sheila put her arm around Audie's shoulders and squeezed.

"You OK?" she shouted.

"Fine. Are you and the kids OK?"

"Fine." Sheila looked at Audie and sighed. "Testosterone poisoning," she said. "At least it keeps things interesting."

Quinn opened the back door and Audie pushed past him into the kitchen. She disappeared down the hallway, kicking off her shoes as she ran. He heard her feet move fast on the stairs.

"Where are you going?"

"To the bedroom!"

"I thought you wanted me to tell you about my pipes and kilt!"

"I do! Bring 'em up!"

A few moments later, Quinn found Audie lying on her stomach on his bed, her chin resting on her fists and her bare ankles crossed above her in the air. The little blue sundress was pulled tight across her round bottom, and she was smiling at him, apparently ready to be enlightened.

"Let's get to my lesson, Quinn." She cocked her head and he watched the dark waves of her hair brush against her bare shoulder.

"It will be a pleasure to properly introduce you to the second most beautiful lady in the world."

"Lady?"

"Her name is Philomena." Quinn clicked open the carrying case and pulled out the gangly apparatus. "Here she is. A Great Highland bagpipe made in Scotland in 1897. She was my grandfather Quinn's."

"Wait. It has a name?"

"Yes. My grandfather named her. In Greek, it's supposed to mean 'one who loves songs.'"

"Philomena." Audie mused over that while she watched him cradle the pipes in his arms like a child.

"You obviously take very good care of it, them-her."

"Sure I do." Quinn grinned at Audie, then bent down and kissed her softly. "I figure if I'm lucky enough to be in the company of someone this beautiful, it's my duty to take real good care of her."

Audie hummed in agreement, not missing the compliment. "So. What's an Irishman doing playing Scottish pipes?"

Quinn laughed. "That's a good question, Homey." He settled the pipes into the crook of his arm and began to give his lesson. "The lush version are called Uilleann pipes, and they have a softer, more melodic tone. These babies produce the great big roar a man needs for things like parading down State Street and going to war against the English. Some people call them Irish war pipes, but that's not really accurate."

Audie stared, realizing there was apparently a third subject that could turn Quiet Quinn into Chatty Cathy-bagpipes. So it was family, sex, and bagpipes.

"So tell me all about Philomena. I promise I'll try not to get jealous."