Knock Three Times

Muriel Jensen

HARLEQUIN⁰

TORONTO • NEW YORK • LONDON AMSTERDAM • PARIS • SYDNEY • HAMBURG STOCKHOLM • ATHENS • TOKYO • MILAN • MADRID PRAGUE • WARSAW • BUDAPEST • AUCKLAND

Chapter One

"The Gift Hunter. This is Lindy, how can I help you?"

Jade Barclay looked up from a red box frothing with white tissue as her young assistant answered the phone. It wasn't just that she felt she had to monitor Lindy's job performance. It was that she knew disaster would result if she didn't.

There'd been the woolly white goat The Gift Hunter had delivered to a startled little white-haired woman in a second-floor apartment. A telephone call made on the spot revealed that the woman's husband had asked that the shopping service buy her a woolly white coat.

Lindy had apologized for her error in taking the message, then several days later transposed the last two numbers of an address and delivered a basket with erotic massage gel and edible panties to the minister at Angels Episcopal Church, rather than to the young newlywed wife whose husband had planned an amorous evening.

After a scathing phone call from the minister's wife who suggested that Jade's immortal soul was in danger--Jade issued a new office rule. Lindy was to let the answering service get the phone when Jade wasn't there.

"I think we can do that, Mr. O'Brian," Lindy said. "Let me check. Hold on, please." Lindy covered the receiver with her hand and looked across the room at Jade. "This man needs four gifts by tomorrow," she said, her blue eyes wide with concern. They matched her blue hair, which stood up in spikes like a crown of spears all around her head. "He wants to know if that's even possible with Valentine's Day just four days away."

Of course it wasn't. Jade looked around the living room of her waterfront condo. It also served as The Gift Hunter's office and was littered from end to end with flowers, candy, negligees, sexy undies for men and women and a myriad other gifts that clients had ordered and asked her to wrap and deliver.

She had enough work to keep three people busy until Valentine's Day. And then someone would have to redo everything Lindy did.

But if that was Jack O'Brian, none of that mattered.

Jade replaced the lid on the gift box and walked across the room toward the phone.

O'Brian had used her service only once before, several months ago. He was leaving for a working weekend at a client's vacation retreat the following day, he'd said, and needed casual clothes for the trip. His voice had been deep, resonant and sort of liquid. She'd felt it move thickly over her like warm honey or molten gold.

Then she heard someone else claim his attention, and he told her quickly that he'd like the clothes delivered to his office before six. It hadn't occurred to her until he'd hung up that he hadn't been very specific about what he'd wanted.

So she'd put her instincts to work and gone with the image his voice created in her mind. Tall. Elegant. Even his casual clothes would be dressy.

She'd bought everything in black with a Calvin Klein label—slacks, T-shirt, sports coat.

His voice had lived in her memory since then, and sometimes, in the dark of night, she imagined it whispering her name.

Jade took the phone from Lindy. "Mr. O'Brian." She used her competent, professional voice. "Can you tell me what you had in mind?"

"Miss Barclay?" he asked.

It was him. And he remembered her! That

velvet-shadows voice made a warm little puddle of her heart.

"Yes, Mr. O'Brian." Her competent voice again, but slightly cracked.

"I apologize for being so last-minute," he said. She heard papers shuffling. "But I've just wrapped up a case that had all my attention."

She knew he was an attorney. She'd delivered the clothes to a law office on High Street and left them with an attractive, middle-aged secretary.

"That's all right," she assured him. "It's the pressures of last-minute shopping that keep me in business. But successfully rounding up what you want that quickly will depend on what it is."

"A chenille robe for my mother," he said,

launch

ing efficiently into a list. "A weekend stay at Seafoam Lodge for my sister Diane, and dinner reservations at Brighton's for my sister Donna."

"Reservations for two?" Jade leaned over the desk, the phone cradled between chin and shoulder as she took notes.

"Yes," he replied. "I'm providing a friend of mine as her escort. I've been trying to get them together for a long time."

A matchmaker. She liked that. "All right. Reservations for two. And the fourth gift?"

He cleared his throat. "Something in black

lace."

Her heart gave an erratic little lurch then settled down into quiet disappointment. He had someone.

"A negligee?" she asked. "Well...no." He cleared his throat again. "One of those one-piece things that's sort of like...bra and panties together." "A teddy."

"I guess." His voice grew firmer. "I'll have my secretary give you the addresses. Can you take care of all that and deliver everything tomorrow? Except the teddy. I'd like that brought to my office."

Jade couldn't help but wonder if he had a liaison with a co-worker, or if he was going straight from the office to a dinner date. Or if they would even bother with dinner.

"I'll take care of it," she promised firmly. "Thank you, Miss Barclay. I appreciate it." "My pleasure, Mr. O'Brian." Actually, Jade thought, pressing the off button on the phone and replacing it on its base,

Jack O'Brian was probably in for a lot more pleasure than she was.

"He sounded like a babe," Lindy said, looping thin gold cord into the holes punched in the white gift tags Jade had cut out of French drawing paper. She sighed as she made a slip knot in the cord. "I wish Brad Pitt would call and ask us to shop for Gwyneth. She'd take him back--I know it."

Jade studied the notes she'd taken. She'd go to Yvette's for the teddy, to Nightwear, Inc. for the robe. "There probably isn't anything he'd want," she said absently, "that he can't get on Rodeo Drive."

Lindy raised an eyebrow. It was pierced with a tiny silver ring. "I don't think he's the horsey type."

Jade bit back a groan. "Rodeo Drive is an upscale shopping area in Beverly Hills," she said, feeling old. There was a certain innocence lost in the realization that many things in life were unattainable--such as a credit card for a shop on Rodeo Drive. Or a man like Jack O'Brian. "It doesn't have anything to do with horses."

"Oops." Lindy hunched her shoulders in embarrassment.

"You can't know that if you've never been there." Jade tucked Jack O'Brian's list in the front pocket of her purse where all the orders for the next morning's shopping were filed. Then she grinned at Lindy. "And didn't you see Legends of the Fall? He rides like a champ."

Lindy rested her chin in her hand and her eyes looked dreamy. "I wonder if I'll ever find anybody like him."

"Sure, you will." Jade offered the reassurance as though she believed it. It could very well be true for Lindy. It just wasn't true for Jade. Not that she wanted Brad Pitt, anyway. "You might not find a movie star, but I'm sure you'll meet someone wonderful."

Lindy turned moodily toward Jade. "How come you never found anybody?" she asked with brutal honesty. "You're kind of pretty."

Jade smiled at her young associate, inured to her remarkable ability to put her foot in her mouth and bite down on it without even noticing it was there. It was all part of the Lindy mystique. It was Jade's theory that the girl was from another planet, but Betsy, Lindy's mother and Jade's neighbor across the hall, insisted that Lindy's father had played football for Oregon State. He'd just never scored. Or graduated.

"It's an old story, Lin," Jade said, digging through a stack of plastic drawers in which she kept bows. She withdrew a pearlescent white one. "I just move too fast to get to know anyone. I shop all morning, wrap and take orders all afternoon, go to class a couple of nights a week."

Lindy threaded gold cord through another card. "What do you want a degree in business for anyway? If The Gift Hunter keeps you too busy to meet men, why would you want the business to get bigger?"

"It's what you do in life," Jade replied patiently. "You keep trying to improve yourself. Learn more. Do more."

"But...don't you want to love more, too?"

Before Jade was forced to admit that was a very profound question, there was a quick rap on her front door followed by the entry into the room of a small, plump brunette in a gray wool suit. She'd apparently left her shoes in her condo across the hall.

"Hi, girls," Betsy Bowers said, going around the desk to kiss her daughter's cheek. She looked around at the flowers and lingerie. "This place looks like a bordello. Where are the men?"

Jade stuck the bow on a corner of the red box, then looked up at her friend with a rueful smile. "As your daughter just pointed out to me, I don't have any."

Betsy shook her head at Lindy. "That wasn't nice." Then she turned a grin on Jade. "Seems I've pointed that out to you a few times, too. When are you going to do something about it?"

Jade attached a tag to the bow. "When The Gift Hunter makes it to the New York Stock Exchange."

Lindy stood, pulled her short leather jacket off the back of her chair and shrugged into it. "What does that mean?" she asked Betsy.

"It means never," Betsy replied. She went to the sofa to finger a red silk nightshirt and heaved a gusty sigh. "I'd love to have one of these. But when you have to sew two together so they'll fit, it sort of loses its sex appeal."

Jade swatted Betsy's shoulder and held the nightshirt up to her. "Just buy a Large and you'll look ravishing."

Betsy shook her head. "I don't even think an Extralarge would fit. I'm getting fat and ugly."

"You're not ugly," Lindy denied staunchly, completely surprised when Jade put a hand over her eyes. "What?"

"Go on home." Betsy turned her daughter gently toward the door she'd left open. "I brought home kung pao chicken and put it in the oven to keep it warm. Help yourself. I'll be right there."

As Lindy waved at Jade and disappeared across the hall, Betsy took the nightshirt from Jade and replaced it on the sofa. "We may as well just face it," she said gloomily. "I'll never be thin again, and you'll never make time for a man."

"It's not that I don't want one....." Jade

denied.

Betsy nodded. "I know. Wonderful men are few and far between. And if you're going to rearrange your life for him, he should be special. At least I date once a year and try to find one."

"How're you doing?" Jade teased, though she knew the answer.

"About as well as you."

"That's pathetic."

"I noticed that. So I'm going to drown my sorrows in Szechuan. Want to come? There's lots."

"Thanks." Jade waved a hand around the room. "But I have to wrap all this tonight."

Betsy put an arm around Jade's shoulders and squeezed. "Lindy isn't being much help, is she? You can tell me the truth."

"She tries hard." Jade did her best to put a positive spin on Lindy's contribution to the business. "She's only sixteen, so of course there's a lot she isn't going to know."

Betsy studied her worriedly. "But it's been four months and she's really not catching on, is she?"

"She will," Jade fibbed. "One day it'll all come together for her and she'll be great. Meanwhile, she's fun to have around." Another fib. "Stop worrying. I'm not." Colossal lie.

But Betsy's relieved smile was worth it. She hugged Jade. "Thanks. After she was fired three times, her self-esteem was demolished, but I thought if someone had the time and patience to lead her through, she'd be a good employee. She's a good kid at heart."

"I know that."

"And she thinks you're wonderful."

Jade rolled her eyes, pushing Betsy toward the door. "She does not. She thinks I'm a shrunken old maid."

Betsy laughed. "You're not shrunken," she

said.

Jade closed the door on her friend and turned to face her room filled with dozens of other people's tokens of love. For a moment she felt a physical pain.

It hurt to know that there was no one in Heaven's Harbor, Oregon--or even in the whole wide world--

whom she could claim as family. Her parents, who'd died in the crash of a light plane when she'd had been seventeen, had been only children of parents who'd been gone for years. And Jade had been their only child.

She'd vowed then to find the perfect man as soon as possible and have six children so that when they had children, her life would be filled with family.

But that was taking longer than she'd planned.

She had scores of friends, many dear acquaintances and hosts of clients who thought kindly of her. But that wasn't the same as knowing that someone out there was planning a Valentine's surprise for her because she was family--or because she was the light in his heart.

She'd long ago accepted that she was alone in the world, but had found that the only way to function with that knowledge was to refuse to think about it, to become a sort of liaison between her clients and those they loved by finding them the right gift.

But every once in a while--like at Christmas and Valentine's Day--it became a kind of in-your-face reality. And she was forced to stare it down.

Well, she wasn't going to be the one to

blink.

"Oh, quit sniveling," she told herself firmly, "and figure out how you're going to wrap that quilting frame."

Chapter Two

Jack heard his children arrive even before they opened his office door and shoved each other through. They wore the blue-and-white uniforms of the Columbia Academy. And they seemed to be in the middle of a quarrel that had begun the moment Ashley, now eight, could talk, and it was still in progress.

Ashley was small and spindly with a serious Napoleonic complex. She turned and swung her backpack at her brother's midsection.

Andy, ten, fell to the pearl gray carpet with a cry of pain a stranger might have thought meant death. But Jack knew his son had been born with the De Niro-Pacino gene.

Ashley tossed her backpack at the client's chair and came around the desk to fall into Jack's lap. "You don't have sex with Natalie, do you, Daddy?" she asked, looping her arms around his neck.

It always amazed him that a fragile-looking little girl could cut to the heart of a matter with the surgical ruthlessness of a district attorney.

"Do you even know what sex is?" he asked, stalling for time as he pulled grass out of her hair.

"I do!" Andy leapt to his feet, apparently reborn, and came to sit on the edge of Jack's desk, facing him. "It's when men and women sleep together."

He was several inches taller than Ashley but just as wiry. In the depths of his eyes, though, was a charm and intelligence that already crackled with power.

Ashley would fight her way to the top in whatever she did, but Andy would have a strategy.

"But you can't do things when you're sleeping," Ashley argued.

"Well, that's the thing." Andy propped his feet on Jack's knees. "You don't really sleep. They just call it sleeping."

Ashley looked into Jack's eyes. Hers were dark blue and serious. "Do you sleep with Natalie?"

"No," he replied honestly. But he didn't add that he was hoping to change all that tomorrow night.

"Are you ever gonna?" Ashley chewed on the end of her long blond braid and waited for an answer.

Andy leaned forward. His hair was a shade darker than Ashley's and he liked it buzz cut so he didn't have to deal with it.

"'Cause if you are," he said, "Ashley thinks you should know that you can't marry her."

Jack had been seeing Natalie since that weekend at her father's place in the Cascades, but marriage hadn't crossed his mind. "I wasn't considering it," he said. "But why not? I thought you both got along with Natalie."

"She's nice," Ashley said, swinging her leg and bumping her oxford rhythmically against the side of his knee. "But she's not the kind of mom I want."

Andy rolled his eyes at Jack. "I tried to tell her that you have to like her for a wife not just for a mother for us."

"I'd never marry someone you guys didn't like." Jack took Ashley's braid out of her mouth and tossed it over her shoulder. "But what's wrong with Natalie?"

Ashley sighed, thinking. "It's the way she holds my hand. I don't remember Mom's face very well, but I remember her holding my hand. When we got to the street, she used to hold it so tight, I couldn't get away from her." She sighed and rested her head on his shoulder. "I used to like that. But Natalie doesn't do that. I can get away from her anytime I want to."

Andy grinned at Jack as though his little sister's thoughts were cause for their mutual male tolerance. "So I think we have to find a mom who pumps iron. Or do you think you could get a date with Sandra Bullock? She played a lawyer once so you'd have things to talk about."

"And she can drive a bus, so I wouldn't have to worry about getting you to school on time." Jack laughed with Andy, then kissed Ashley's cheek and tuned in to her serious observation. "It could be that Natalie doesn't feel she has the right to hold you too tightly yet," he said. "You've only seen each other a couple of times."

"She hugs you a lot." Ashley played with his tie. "But she doesn't hug us."

"She might think it's too early for that,

too."

Ashley dropped the argument, but Jack knew that didn't mean he'd won it.

Natalie Livingston was the very beautiful daughter of a long-standing client. She was CEO of her own cosmetics firm and not at all the kind of woman he'd ever expected to attract--or to be attracted to.

His wife had been small and dark-haired, an inveterate homebody who ran a successful desktop publishing company from their den, and who stopped everything the moment the children came home.

If he indulged himself, he could still feel her in his arms. And he could still feel his rage over her death two years ago. She'd been only thirty and on her way to deliver a job when a log truck jackknifed on a narrow road.

But he'd learned that anger was futile and exhausting, and that he had to function at top performance to stay ahead of his children.

So he'd learned to cope. And when Natalie had come on to him that weekend he'd spent at her father's place, he'd known it was time to think about getting on with his personal life.

He guessed he could thank Miss Barclay of The Gift Hunter for that. Though he'd hated the black outfit she'd bought for him, he'd been forced to take it with him because he had nothing between an Armani suit and a pair of sweats.

But Natalie had sought him out on the deck one quiet evening, brushed deliberately against him as she went to perch on the railing, and told him she'd always had a Black Knight in her dreams and now he was finally here.

Since then, they'd been to the opera, a Sonics game, met for lunch a few times and taken the children to a production of The Nutcracker during the Christmas holidays.

She'd made it more than obvious that she was ready to take their relationship to a new level. And he was ready, too. Sort of.

Well...he felt ready, as long as he didn't think about it too deeply. Then he knew clearly that something was holding him back. The trouble was that he couldn't identify what it was. He suspected it was the fear of being unfaithful to Rita's memory, something he knew he had to get over. Or it was the fear of facing his own future, something he'd never been afraid of before.

So he'd held back, unsure whether it was the relationship or him lacking the passion that banished doubts.

He was growing impatient with his own indecision. He'd determined to resolve the issue the following night. He and Natalie were celebrating Valentine's Day several days early because she was hosting the gala opening of one of her exclusive cosmetics boutiques in San Francisco on the fourteenth.

"Can we have a cat?" Ashley asked into the silence.

Jack groaned. She'd asked the same question three times a day since she'd been given the video of The Three Lives of Thomasina as a birthday gift.

"Honey, we're not home enough," he replied, as he'd also done three times a day since that fateful birthday party. "It wouldn't be fair."

"But Isabel says cats fend for themselves. That it wouldn't be any trouble. And she wouldn't mind feeding it."

Isabel was their housekeeper.

"Then it would be Isabel's cat and not yours," he said reasonably.

Ashley sat up in his lap, folded her arms and frowned at him with great displeasure. "So we can't get the right kind of mom and I can't have a cat?"

He knew better than to try to placate her. "That seems to be the way it stands at the moment."

She pushed against his windpipe and his knee and leapt to the floor. "I'll be in the front office when you're ready to go home." She grabbed her backpack and left his office with royal disdain.

Andy shook his head sympathetically. "At least she doesn't hit you. Can we have a dog?"

* * *

The Gift Hunter's phone rang off the hook the following afternoon. Jade put Heaven's Harbor Chocolates on hold while she dispatched Lindy with Jack O'Brian's deliveries.

"I thought you wanted to make the deliveries yourself," Lindy said as Jade handed her a large shopping bag that contained all the gifts.

"I did," Jade replied, "but I can't leave the phones, so I'm depending on you, Lindy."

Lindy looked worried. "What if I screw

up?"

"Each package is labeled," Jade told her calmly, "so you shouldn't have any trouble. You're perfectly capable of doing this, Lindy. Just take each gift to the address on each box."

"Okay," Lindy said uncertainly. "And pick up the flowers from Castlebaum's on your way back, okay?" "Okay." "Great."

"I'M SUPPOSED TO MEET her at the restaurant?" Ross Mitchell sat in Jack's client's chair, looking concerned. "Why didn't you arrange for me to pick Diane up at home?"

"It's Donna," Jack corrected, leaning over his desk toward his good friend and stockbroker. "Not Diane, Donna. Believe me, you don't want to have dinner with Diane because she has three-year-old twin boys and a jealous husband who works construction. Donna is an artist and lives in Cannon Beach."

"And what is it you're thinking a stockbroker and an artist will have in common?"

Jack smiled at him. "You're both very strange. You may as well be strange together."

"Don't look now," Ross said, "but you've just bought into mining shares in Colorado."

Jack laughed. "Actually, I like her and I like you and I thought you might like each other. She's always stuck away in her studio, trying to make ends meet, and you're a workaholic, always trying to make ends meet for everybody else. You seem like a natural combination to me."

Ross nodded, then stood and reached across the desk to shake Jack's hand as he stood, too. "All right. Thanks. I'll let you know tomorrow how it went."

Jack walked Ross to the elevator. As the doors parted for Ross to get on, a tall, slender teenager with blue hair got off.

Jack and Ross exchanged an amused look, then Ross waved as the doors closed on him.

Jack returned to his office to find the girl with the blue hair standing before his secretary's desk, apparently waiting for her to finish a telephone conversation.

"Can I help you?" he asked.

As she turned to him, pretty blue eyes wide with surprise, he noted the ring pierced into the arch of her eyebrow and was proud that he withheld a wince. He would never understand why pretty girls did that to themselves.

"Mr. O'Brian?" she asked.

"Yes."

She smiled nervously and handed him a package wrapped in red-and-white paper. A sprig of white flowers was attached to a big red bow. "This is for you," she said. "Well, I mean, it's not for you, it's from you to somebody else."

"You're from The Gift Hunter."

"Yeah." She smiled, fidgeted, frowned a little worriedly, then offered him a clipboard and a pen. "Would you sign this, please?"

He put the box on the corner of Elizabeth's desk, signed the sheet and handed the clipboard back.

She gave the box one last look, smiled, then frowned again and left.

Jack carried the box into his office. It contained Natalie's teddy--and quite probably the next bend in the road of his life.

Chapter Three

"I'VE MISSED YOU so much." Natalie's face was less than an inch from Jack's.

They sat at a small table in the Siren Song Restaurant on the top floor of a beachfront hotel. She leaned seductively toward him, flowing red hair streaming over the shoulder of his suit coat and her own bare arm.

Her eyes wandered lustfully over his face. "Did you miss me, Jack?"

He knew stopping to think would be the wrong response, so he filled the silence quickly with, "I thought about you, Nat-- "

"All the time?" She interrupted him, looking pleased, every movement of her body a signal that she was his tonight if he would just make the move.

He'd intended to. He'd planned to.

She leaned even closer, the low round neckline of her red silk dress revealing the tops of full alabaster breasts.

He reached for the box he'd placed at the foot of his chair and handed it to her.

"Oh!" She flexed her fingers greedily, moved the wineglasses and water glasses aside-all that was left of their meal--and put the box on the now-bare expanse of tablecloth.

She removed the sprig of flowers and tucked them in her hair, ripped off the paper and opened the box.

Watching her expression over the sheets of tissue, Jack was surprised when her wide smile of anticipation turned to a frown of confusion.

Then she reached into the box and pulled up a length of thick, fuzzy, bright red fabric. It was alternately patterned with large white hearts, and little white houses with chimneys puffing smoke. The windows were yellow, cozily representing lights within.

He stared at it, thinking it was the ugliest thing he'd ever seen, and wondering where in the hell it had come from.

She held it up, then dropped it back into the box and stood.

He stood with her, trying to catch her arm as she reached for her purse. "Nat, I..."

She shook him off, tears standing in her eyes. "I've tried hard with this relationship, Jack!" she whispered tightly as everyone else nearby turned to look at them. "But this is something you'd give your mother for Valentine's Day, not the woman with whom you intend to...to pursue a future! Good night!"

As Natalie stormed out of the restaurant, Jack sat down again and took a fistful of the ugly chenille robe. Of course, he thought, temper coming to life. The Gift Hunter was responsible for this.

* * *

Jack read the card in his hand and followed the third-floor corridor of the Coast Condominiums to suite 321. Then he rapped loudly on the door. It was after 10:00 p.m., but he didn't care.

He wasn't sure why he was so angry. Perhaps because it was the second time Miss Barclay had made a mistake with his order. But, then, his job was to defend people who made mistakes, so he should be more understanding.

He'd been telling himself that all the way over here, but he still wasn't convinced. All he was aware of was that he'd intended tonight to be something special and it had ended with Natalie storming out on him in tears.

He shifted the big white box to the other hand and knocked again.

The door was opened suddenly by a tall young woman wearing pearl gray silk. The gown was caftan-

style and voluminous, but its silky fabric clung to perky, tip-tilted breasts.

For an instant, his anger fled--and so did every word in his vocabulary. He raised his eyes up an expanse of creamy throat to a softly rounded chin, pale pink lips and a straight, elegant nose.

Wary dark eyes fringed by thick lashes waited for him to explain his presence at that hour. Her face was framed by clouds of glossy dark brown hair that fell to her shoulders.

He thought absently that he'd imagined Miss Barclay as a silly blonde with a ponytail on the side of her head and lots of makeup. What other kind of woman would make her living shopping?

This must be her sister or her friend.

He pulled himself together by remembering that someone at this address had ruined his evening--and possibly his foray into the future with Natalie Livingston.

Just the thought of the red robe in the box under his arm reignited his temper. "I'd like to speak to Miss Barclay, please." His authoritative voice reflected his mood.

The woman opened her mouth to speak, caught sight of the box under his arm, the belt of the red robe hanging out of it, and said simply, "Uh-oh."

He recognized her voice. Miss Barclay. So his mental image of her had been wrong.

Her eyes held his for a moment as though she recognized him, which was impossible. Unless she recognized his voice as he'd recognized hers. She seemed about to smile, then changed her mind. Instead, she frowned apologetically.

"Mr. O'Brian," she said, stepping back to let him in and closing the door behind him. "I'm Jade Barclay. Your mother didn't like the robe?"

He thrust the box at her, working hard to ward off the appeal of her soft brown eyes and the movement of the silk gown on her curves and around her ankles.

"My mother didn't get the robe, Miss Barclay," he explained stiffly. "My girlfriend did, and was very unhappy that I thought of her in terms of chenille at a time dedicated to lovers."

She opened her mouth, presumably to apologize, but he was working up a good head of steam. "And to compound the problem, I presume this means my mother is now staring at a tiny scrap of black lace and wondering what on earth has happened to the sanity of her only son."

She closed her eyes and shook her head, clutching the box to her. "Mr. O'Brian, I am so sorry." She spoke with sincerity but he was in no mood to be understanding.

"I'd say, Miss Barclay-- " he reached behind him to yank the door open "--that The Gift Hunter has a serious problem with quality control. Good night." He left her apartment, pulling the door firmly closed behind him.

Jade dropped the box on the closest chair, pulled out the red chenille robe and held it up. How could anyone not love this robe, she wondered, with its cheerful little houses with the light in the windows and the hearts so perfect for Valentine's Day?

Of course, it had been intended for Jack O'Brian's mother, but how could his girlfriend have missed its homey appeal?

Well. That wasn't her business. Her business was to get the right gift to the right person.

She sank onto the sofa with the robe and tried to reconstruct the time that afternoon when she'd put his order together. She'd wrapped the dinner reservations for one sister, and the faxed confirmation of the weekend stay for the other sister, in scarf boxes, then the teddy and the robe in garment boxes. She'd wrapped them all with red-and-white paper, attached red bows and sprigs of baby's breath, then attached the tags and addresses. What could have gone wrong?

Silly question. She'd had Lindy deliver them, that was what had gone wrong.

She fell back against the sofa cushions with a groan. And Jack O'Brian had been just as gorgeous as she'd imagined. Not very

understanding, but definitely gorgeous.

* * *

"Well..." Lindy sat in the middle of Jade's sofa in a long red-and-black overshirt, black tights and black high-tops. "I'm not sure what happened yesterday." She wound her fingers together and tears puddled in her eyes. "I was carrying the bag to the car and this kid on a skateboard bumped into me and everything went flying. There was nothing to get broken, but you'd put all the tags on the bows and all the bows came off and all those little notes you put on them with the addresses."

Jade wanted to scream. "All the tags came

off?"

Lindy nodded. "I know it's weird, but the bag went flying....."

"Why didn't you call me?"

"Because you wanted me to do it right."

"But you ended up doing it wrong and the client is really angry with me."

A tear spilled onto Lindy's cheek. "I'm sorry. I guess I'm just not good at anything. I thought I remembered what went to who, but... I guess I was wrong."

Jade got to her feet and went for her coat. "Okay. Well, at least I know what happened. Can you wrap those scarves while I'm gone?"

Lindy took a tissue off the coffee table. "Okay. Do you want me to answer the phone?"

Jade nodded. She really didn't her want to, but kicking the kid when she was down didn't seem like a fair option. "Take good messages and be sure to get phone numbers."

"I'm really sorry."

"I know. And I can fix it, but it's always better to double-check when you're not sure rather than to risk doing it wrong." Jade pulled on her red wool coat and reached for her black drawstring bag. "Did you have lunch at school? In the freezer I have those burritos you like."

Lindy got boxes and tissue from the shelf. "Thanks, I'm fine."

"All right. I'm going to Jack O'Brian's office. I'm not sure how long I'll be, but I'll check

in with you on my way back."

* * *

Jade half expected him to refuse to see her. But when his secretary buzzed him and announced her, there was an instant's silence, then he pulled his office door open himself.

He was in shirtsleeves, but no less gorgeous than he'd been the night before.

"Miss Barclay," he said politely, though not warmly. "Come in."

She preceded him into a book-lined office with mahogany furniture, an Oriental carpet and a white brocade sofa placed against a window that looked down onto the water.

She stopped in the middle of the office and turned to him, getting right to the point.

"The Gift Hunter would like to make amends for last night," she said, her hands in her pockets because she had his full attention and that made her fidgety. "I'll return everything, replace everything, whatever you'd like me to do. And I'll rewrap and redeliver free of charge." She drew a breath. "I'll even call the lady and explain that it was all my fault."

He went around his desk, gestured her to sit in the client's chair, then sat himself.

"Thank you," he said. "When she finally took my call this morning, I made it clear that it was all your fault, so that's already taken care of."

"Good. Were you able to get the teddy back from your mother?"

He shook his head. "I haven't been able to reach my mother. But in Natalie's case, I think jewelry might put her in a forgiving mind, so I would like to take advantage of your other offer."

Jade's eyes widened. "You mean you have to buy this Natalie jewelry so that she'll forgive you for my mistake?" She knew even as the words were coming out of her mouth how unprofessional they were, but it was too late.

His frown noted that also. "She's just come back from a business trip," he said. "Her sense of humor was a little strained."

"Obviously," Jade said, then bit the inside of her upper lip, wondering what was wrong with her. She never spoke to a client without measuring her words.

He studied her narrowly for a moment, then apparently chose to ignore her careless remarks. "I'd like you to pick out a bracelet for her at Blumenthal's and charge it to me. I'll call and tell them-- "

His office door burst open before he could finish his instructions and a young woman in jeans and a colorful fleece jacket flew into the room. Jack barely had time to stand before she leapt into his arms and hugged him fiercely.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" she

cried.

Jade presumed this was not the dour girlfriend.

"You're welcome, Di, but--"

"I have never, never been so thrilled!" She held him at arm's length and grinned broadly up at him. "It was so exciting to me to know that someone saw me as young and sexy enough to wear a black lace teddy. And you know what?"

So that's where the black teddy had landed--on one of his sisters.

Jack looked confused. "What?" he asked.

"I got the boys to bed early and was wearing it when Todd came home." She giggled.

"We had the hottest night we've had since the twins were born. I had to push him out the door to work this morning. So thank you, thank you! Gotta go. The boys are outside with Elizabeth."

Jack's sister turned to leave, spotted Jade in the chair and put a hand to her mouth. "Oh, Jack! I didn't know you had a client."

"This is Jade Barclay from The Gift Hunter," Jack said. "Miss Barclay, this is my sister, Diane Draper."

Jade stood to shake her hand.

Diane gasped and caught Jade's arms. "Was giving me the teddy your idea?" she asked.

"It was...sort of a collaborative effort." Jade cast Jack a glance that shared the joke.

To her surprise, he gave her a small smile.

"Come on." Jack put an arm around his sister's shoulders. "I'll walk you out so I can say hi to my nephews."

"Nice to meet you!" Diane called over her shoulder.

Jade maintained an innocent expression when Jack returned.

He resumed his chair and shook his head, apparently still recovering from Diane's visit. "So we were somehow twenty-five percent successful," he said. "I was going to send Diane and Todd to the resort because I knew things were a little strained between them, but I thought-- "

This time he was interrupted by the phone. And apparently it was his private line because his secretary didn't announce the call.

"Donna," he said. "Hi, babe. Where are you? I've tried to-- " He stopped, turned to Jade and said, clearly for her benefit, "Seafoam Lodge?"

Jade put a hand over her eyes. That was the trip he'd intended for Diane.

"Well...good," he went on after a moment. "I'm glad you're having such a good time." He listened a few more moments, his expression changing from perplexity to concern and back again. "Donna, I'm sure a gallery owner seems like a gift from heaven, but you've only-- "

Jack closed his eyes, smiling fondly. "He seems like a gift from me, does he? Well, you're welcome. Have a great time but, you know, be careful."

He replaced the receiver, looking stunned. "All right. Fifty percent successful. But who in the hell did Ross Mitchell meet for dinner last night?"

That question was answered not two seconds later when a beautiful middle-aged woman erupted into the office on the arm of a handsome fair-haired man about Jack's age.

Uh-oh. Jade saw it coming. The reservations for dinner at Brighton's. The date Jack had set up for his sister.

Jack stood slowly. "Mom," he said in a choked voice. "Ross?"

Chapter Four

Jack's mother wore a chic spruce green pantsuit and a sunny smile. Arms extended, she walked into her son's embrace.

"Mom, I didn't..." Jack began to explain about the mix-up, but his mother drew back and slapped his chest with a grin.

"Darling," she said softly. "I had no idea you had such insightful, creative tendencies."

Jack raised an eyebrow.

His mother reached a hand out to the young man standing a small distance away in a gray pin-striped suit. He took it and moved closer. He met Jack's eyes with a mystified but satisfied expression.

"What ever made you know that Ross and I would enjoy each other's company so much?" Jack's mother asked. "He volunteers at the Portland Art Museum, too. Did you know, that?"

"I... "

She waved away his attempt to answer. "The point is, we had a wonderful dinner. Then he took me dancing, then to listen to reggae music at the Islander, then he hired a boat and we watched the sun rise from offshore." She heaved a girlish sigh and leaned into Ross's shoulder. "I just hate to think of all the other mothers out there with so much life left in them getting fuzzy robes or slippers from their children for Valentine's Day."

Jade looked up at Jack as he glanced her way, seemingly speechless with astonishment.

His mother followed his glance and noticed Jade. She covered the few steps between them and offered her hand. "I'm sorry," she said. Jade noticed that her smile was backlit by a genuine inner warmth. Her escort was fifteen or twenty years younger, but seemed very comfortable with her. "I'm always barging into Jack's office with a question or the latest gossip. I tend to forget that I'm not everyone's top priority. I'm Selina O'Brian. And this is Ross Mitchell."

"Jade Barclay." Jade stood to greet them. "I'm not a client, Ms. O'Brian. I run a shopping service."

Selina's expressive eyebrows dipped in a frown. "Who would hire someone to take over such a charming chore?"

"Me," Jack replied. "Mom...?"

But she'd tuned him out and was concentrating on Jade. "Really? Well, maybe you could shop for a woman who could put a little romance into Jack's life. Is that possible?"

Before Jade could answer, Jack did. "Mom, you've met Natalie."

She blew air between her lips in a scornful gesture completely at odds with her elegant appearance. Jade fell in love with her.

"Natalie is about sex, darling," she said. "I'm talking about romance."

Jack ran a hand down his face. Ross seemed to be concentrating on the light above Jack's desk.

Selina narrowed her focus on Jade. "What are you doing on Valentine's Day?"

"Ah...working. I've been getting ready for it day and night for the past two weeks."

Selina signed regretfully. "Don't you young people think of anything but work?" Then she excused herself to freshen up.

The moment the office door closed behind her, Jack turned on Ross. "You were supposed to take my sister to dinner!"

Ross shrugged a shoulder, denying responsibility for the turn of events. "You told me you'd made the reservation at Brighton's in my name and that I was to wait for her to meet me there. Your mother showed up, not your sister. If you're going to play Cupid, be careful where you aim your arrow."

Jack looked with disbelief into his friend's pleased grin. "But she's--"

"The most delightful woman I've ever met. Relax, big guy. You know I'm not after notches on my bedpost or you wouldn't have asked me to meet Diane."

"Donna."

"Whatever. You messed up, but the hand of Providence must have been in it because I haven't enjoyed myself so much in years. And Selina says she hasn't, either."

Jack folded his arms, apparently deciding to be merciless. "She'll be fifty-seven next birthday."

Ross's smile didn't slip. "And I'll be forty-one. Doesn't matter. She'll have the heart of a girl until she's ninety. And I've always been the protective type. Lighten up. We like each other. You screwed up, but you did good."

Selina was back in a moment, then she and Ross left, making plans to go skiing at Mount Hood.

Jack fell into his chair, his stunned expression gradually fading to acceptance. Jade sat again and waited, doing her best not to look smug. The Gift Hunter had made a mistake, after all--four of them, in fact. But it would have been a bigger mistake to point out to him that her errors had been more deeply appreciated than his gift selections would have been.

He turned to her finally, his dark eyes revealing self-deprecation. "So you're up to seventy-five percent."

She sat up primly. "It's the other twenty-five I'm concerned about."

His eyes pinned her. "Is it?"

"Of course." She stood and shouldered her purse, the focus of his dark eyes making a licorice whip of her spine. She squared her shoulders. "A woman without a sense of humor should never be given a chenille robe. But it wouldn't have been the right thing for your mother, either." That truth shared, she got back to business. "Am I shopping for gold for Natalie? Diamonds? Something with a heart-shaped charm?"

He stood puzzling over the answer. "What would you like if someone was shopping for you?" he asked finally.

She smiled thinly. "The chenille robe. I'll--"

His office door burst open again, this time admitting two towheaded young children, a boy and a girl. They wore blue blazers--apparently school uniforms--and carried books.

They stopped abruptly in front of Jade. "Hi," the little girl said. Jade guessed her to be seven or eight. She was bright-eyed and apple-cheeked.

The boy, taller but with the same eyes and coloring, simply stared at her.

Jack appeared suddenly beside Jade. "Miss Barclay," he said. "I'd like you to meet my children, Andy and Ashley."

Jade put a hand to each child's cheek. Their beauty was breathtaking, and their bright eyes filled with wit and confidence. She guessed they were very loved and indulged.

"Miss Barclay's going shopping for Natalie," Jack told the children.

"You know her, too?" Andy asked.

"No," Jack corrected. "She has a shopping service and buys things for people who are too busy to do it for themselves."

"Wow!" Ashley's eyes grew enormous. "Buying presents is your job?"

Jade laughed. "Cool, huh?" She turned to Jack. "The store will know the price range?"

He shook his head. "There isn't one. Go for it. She was very angry."

As Jade left, Jack pointed to the long table in the corner of his office where the children often did their homework while waiting for him. "Settle in, guys, because it'll be about an hour and a half before we can get you something to eat. And I have work to do that I'll have to concentrate on, so keep it down, okay?"

Andy went to the table, but Ashley followed him to his desk and as though he hadn't even spoken, climbed into his lap. She leaned back against him and crossed her oxfords on his knee. "I didn't know you could get money for shopping."

"Amazing, huh?" He resisted the urge to reach for the brief he was working on. Ashley seemed to have something on her mind.

"Jane's pretty."

"It's Jade." He enunciated the d.

"That's a funny name."

"Actually, its the name of a pretty green

stone."

"A rock, you mean?"

"No, a stone. Like in jewelry."

"Oh." Ashley put a small hand to her cheek. "She touches like a mom."

"Really?" He guessed where she was going with this and tried to divert her. "Well, I don't think she has any kids. And I'll probably never see her again."

Ashley sat up, her elbow in his throat. He bit her arm playfully, making wolf noises. She laughed hysterically, but she wouldn't be sidetracked.

"How come you're not going to see her

again?"

He explained that when she went to buy things for him, she bought things he didn't like, or got the order messed up.

"But you always give me and Andy more chances," she said.

He nodded. "She's had two already. She's just going shopping now to try to make up for the mistake. So I'm not going to see her again--unless, of course, she messes up this time, too. Then I'll have to see her again just so I can yell at her."

"You're very good at that." From the table Andy flashed him a grin.

Jack sent him a warning glance that he laughed off, then set Ashley on her feet. "Now I have to get some work done, or I won't have time to take you guys to dinner before I pick up Natalie."

Ashley, eye to eye with him as he sat, proposed conversationally, "You could get all your work done, then take us to dinner and forget about Natalie."

"I like Natalie," he insisted.

Ashley looked into his eyes with one of those riveting, adult expressions that always filled him with trepidation. Then she said, "Okay," turned away and skipped across the room to the table.

He congratulated himself on averting a

trauma.

But he was a little too premature.

Chapter Five

Natalie detected the gift box in the breast pocket of his suit coat when they stepped into the elevator to ride up to the Siren Song.

She leaned against him, apologizing with

heavy-

lidded eyes for her flare of temper the night before. She ran her hands under the lapels of his jacket and across his chest and her right hand collided with the small square.

She smiled seductively. "What's that?"

"Dessert," he replied.

She looked into his eyes and leaned suggestively against him. "But I had other plans for dessert."

She claimed repentance all through dinner and forgave him generously with languid looks and tender strokes.

Then the waiter cleared away their dinner dishes and Natalie waited. "Time for dessert," she prodded.

He observed to himself that the dessert he had planned apparently held more interest for her than the dessert she claimed to have planned. But he'd resolved to stop analyzing everything and simply get on with his life.

He handed her the box.

Jade had delivered it to his office with a note for him that said, "It's a tennis bracelet that should buy you her forgiveness for twenty years into the future. Good luck. The Gift Hunter."

He'd tucked the note into his desk blotter, the box into his pocket and taken the clamoring children immediately out for pizza.

Now he found himself almost as anxious as Natalie to see what was inside the box.

Natalie pulled off the gold net ribbon that had been tied in a simple bow, and lifted the lid. And stared.

She looked up at him, her eyes saucer-size, and he smiled indulgently, prepared to accept her praise, her kisses and, eventually, her version of dessert.

Then the box came at him like a vicious missile. It struck the bridge of his nose and fell to the table as Natalie stood, her cheeks crimson with fury.

She snatched something off the table and dangled it in front of his eyes. It was a bracelet all right, but it wasn't gold and it held no diamonds.

It was obviously painted steel, or whatever costume jewelry was made from, and several charms hung from it. They were too close to his eyes for him to focus on what they were.

"First you think of me as an old crone and give me a chenille robe!" Natalie shouted at him. Even the waiters stopped to look. "And now you give me a two-dollar child's bracelet? What's the message here, Jack?"

Before he could try to explain, she dropped the bracelet in his wineglass. "Never mind! I don't want to know! Find a woman who'll be amused by your pranks. I'm not. Goodbye, Jack."

And she stormed away.

To quote the famous Yogi Berra, he thought, "It was déjà vu all over again."

Jack drove to Jade's, as furious with her as Natalie had been with him. He hammered on the door of her apartment until she opened it.

She wore the same caftan, but he was ready for it this time. He kept his eyes on her face.

"If I have anything to say about it," he threatened darkly, stepping over the threshold as she took a step backward, "you will never shop for me, for my family, for anyone I know or for anyone I communicate with in this country or across the globe!"

Halfway to the sofa, she stopped backing away from him and stood her ground.

"If she didn't like that bracelet," Jade said firmly, "you have to face the fact that there's something wrong with her and not with my service."

He held up his index finger, the child's bracelet dangling from it. "I asked you to pick out what you'd like. And this is it?"

Her mouth fell open and she snatched the bracelet from his finger. "No! No!" she said, holding it in the palm of her hand. "This can't have happened. I handled every step myself. I selected a beautiful tennis bracelet, stood over Mr. Blumenthal while he wrapped it and delivered it to Elizabeth myself!"

"Then how do you explain this?" he demanded. "You ruined another evening for me, Miss Barclay."

Her expression changed from horror to confusion. "I don't know. It can't be. Have you talked to Elizabeth? Maybe she can expl-- "

"Elizabeth's been with me since I opened the practice eight years ago. She's as honest and loyal to me as my mother."

"I didn't mean she took it. I meant she might be able to expl-- "

He caught her right arm and pushed back the sleeve of her caftan. Her wrist was bare. When he reached for the other arm, she kicked him in the shin.

He bit back an oath, deciding in some calm corner of his brain that she was probably within her rights.

"You think I stole it?" she asked, her voice shrill. "I'm bonded! And I'm honest! You may check my condo, but don't you dare touch me."

"I'll leave that to the police," he said.

"Fine." She walked around him to the still-open door. He turned to follow her and could see a woman and a teenage girl in pajamas and robes standing in the hallway, watching. He recognized the blue hair of the young girl who'd made the delivery to his office the day before.

"And on your way to the police station, you might stop off and have your head examined," Jade went on. "Because any man who'd love a woman whose forgiveness has to be bought for something that wasn't even his fault, should have his brain checked for mildew!"

He should have just let it go at that. He wanted to, but he couldn't. He'd planned the night for romance. And strangely, while he'd been with Natalie, he'd felt surprisingly little passion.

But right now, he sizzled with it.

"You owe me, Gift Hunter," he said. "You completely botched my order, and so far you've repaired only seventy-five percent of your mistake. And that was through no skill on your part."

Her eyes bored into his. "You want a sample of my skill, Mr. O'Brian?" she asked, her voice deceptively quiet. "All right. Here it is."

She took hold of his tie and pulled. He could have resisted, but the situation was just too promising. He let her draw his head down, and she wrapped her arms around his neck.

Her lips met his angrily at first, then softened and began to move artfully on him. He responded without taking control and the tension seemed to slip out of the arms around him.

He put his hands at her waist, and she moved closer. He opened his mouth and felt her hesitation. He moved his hand to the middle of her back and splayed his fingers to hold her to him and lift her off the carpet.

She sighed against his mouth and offered no resistance. She parted her lips to explore him and he opened eagerly for her, returning the study, losing all sense of time and place as she kissed him senseless.

He let her slip down his body until her feet touched the floor, finding the experience an exquisite composite of heaven and hell.

She took a step back from him, apparently as astonished by the kiss as he was.

"And let that be a lesson to you," she said in a raspy voice.

"Oh, it has been." He tried to appear unaffected by a raging libido. He inclined his head politely to the ladies in the hall and left while he still could.

He was almost home and fortunately on a deserted side street when he braked the Audi to a sudden, screeching stop. He'd been trying to recreate the events of that afternoon in his mind and a seemingly innocent string of facts was coming together into an incriminating noose.

First: The box had been on his desk when he got back to his office after a discussion in the meeting room with a junior partner. He'd been away fifteen or twenty minutes. And the bow on the box had been so perfect, he hadn't wanted to risk disturbing it to look inside.

Second: Andy and Ashley had been alone in his office.

Third: Earlier that afternoon, Ashley had been very interested in Jade and he'd explained that he wouldn't be seeing Jade again unless she made a mistake on his order, in which case he'd have to yell at her. Something Andy had claimed he was good at.

And fourth: Jack had seen the charms on the bracelet when he handed it to Jade, and though it hadn't registered at the time, he realized now that they were characters from Pocahontas. The Indian maiden, Captain John Smith, the raccoon and the hummingbird. Ashley loved the story and had been deluged with licensed products on her birthday.

Suddenly everything made horrifying

sense.

He put the car in gear and headed home.

The housekeeper met him with a polite smile and took his jacket. "The children went to bed an hour ago," she said, "but they're still awake. I imagine they want to know how your evening went."

He studied her suspiciously. "Do you know all about it?"

She blinked. "All about what? I never ask questions of your children. It's safer that way."

He patted her shoulder. Of course she didn't know anything. His children never needed adult support for their plans. They were perfectly capable of terrorism on their own.

He walked upstairs.

Andy's and Ashley's bedrooms were empty but that didn't surprise him. They always waited for party reports in his room.

He found them sitting cross-legged in the middle of his bed, playing Crazy Eights. They turned to him with eager smiles. Anyone unfamiliar with their criminal profile might have been deluded by their apparent innocence.

He sat in the chair beside the bed, propping his crossed feet on the edge of the blue-and-beige coverlet.

"Which one of you switched Natalie's bracelet?" he asked. He'd found that direct confrontation brought quick results.

Their smiles faded and they looked at each other, then at him.

"I did," Andy said, dropping his cards.

Ashley added hers to the pile. "But we switched it with my bracelet."

Jack's only comfort in all this was that his children did generally tell the truth, and though they often made sport of getting each other into

trouble, when it came to the crunch, one never

hung the other out to

dry.

He noticed that on his daughter's tiny wrist was a several-thousand-dollar bracelet containing a long string of small, round diamonds, each in a simple heart-shaped loop of fourteen-karat gold.

"Why?" he asked.

Andy looked him in the eye. "Because we don't like Natalie."

"Well," Jack said, keeping his voice down, "you weren't dating her, were you?"

"You didn't like her, either." Andy made that declaration bravely, but when Jack raised an eyebrow, quickly busied himself stacking the cards and replacing them in their box.

"I seem to remember telling you that I

did."

"But you really didn't." Ashley moved to sit right against his feet. She wore footed Pocahontas pajamas.

"Why do you say that?" he asked, struggling with strained patience.

"Because you never brought her home." Andy tossed the box of cards onto the nightstand and scooted across the mattress until he sat on the other side of Jack's feet. "We all went out together sometimes, but she never came home with us. I don't think she really wanted to. And you knew she'd never be a mom."

"And you said," Ashley reminded him, "that you were never going to see Jade again, only if she messed up your order. And we think she'd make a neat mom, so we wanted you to see her again."

Their insights often amazed him, but tonight they annoyed him because he found it alarming to know that they understood him sometimes better than he understood himself.

He pulled his feet down and leaned forward to look at one child, then the other.

"Well, I'm glad you had this so well thought out, but I wonder if Jade appreciates what you've done for her?"

"What do you mean?" Andy asked.

Jack pointed to the bracelet on Ashley's wrist. "I sent her to buy that for Natalie, and when Natalie opened the box and there was just a little girl's bracelet in it, I thought Jade had messed up just like you knew I would. But what you didn't realize is that the diamond bracelet cost a whole lot of money and I thought someone had stolen it and put the Pocahontas one in its place. And nobody had touched the box but Jade."

Ashley put a hand over her mouth.

Andy looked pained. "You thought Jade stole it?"

"Yes, I did," he replied. He hadn't really, but he was going for effect.

When he'd grabbed her wrist, it had been more because he'd wanted to touch her than because he'd thought her guilty of theft. And she'd gotten her revenge on his shin--and his lips.

"I called the police."

Ashley began to cry. Andy stood up.

"So what do we do now?" Jack asked

them.

"You have to tell her you're sorry!" Ashley said anxiously.

"But I didn't do anything."

"Well..." She backpedaled. "You have to tell her we're sorry!"

"Close," he said sternly. "You'll have to tell her you're sorry."

"Did she cry?" Andy asked in a whisper.

"She was very upset," Jack replied. Actually, she'd spit fire at him, then kissed him. All in all, a rather delicious few minutes. But, again, he was after effect.

Andy took the cordless phone off Jack's beside table and handed it to him. "Can we call her now?"

Jack glanced at his bedside clock. It was almost eleven-thirty, but she'd been angry enough when he left her that she was probably still awake.

"This is an apology we have to make in person," Jack said. "But we'll call her and make an appointment to see her in the morning."

The children huddled together on the edge of the bed while he dialed.

"Hello?" Jade answered. Her voice sounded weary and anxious.

"Miss Barclay, this is Jack O'Brian," he

said.

"Did you find it?" she demanded before he could add any more.

"Yes," he replied.

"Thank God!"

"Hold on, please. My children would like to speak to you." He handed the phone to his son.

Andy stammered an apology, then said, "We're supposed to make an appointment for tomorrow morning to apologize in person." Andy listened, then looked up at Jack. "She wants to know what time we have to be at school."

"Tell her I can get you there at eight o'clock, if it isn't too early."

Andy relayed the information, then looked up again. "She wants to know if the food court in the mall is okay 'cause she has to start shopping early."

Jack nodded.

"Dad says that's fine. I--"

Ashley grabbed the phone from Andy. "Jade? Um...this is Ashley. I'm sorry, too. But we didn't like Natalie. We like you. We think you-- "

Jack read her mind and shook his head at her urgently. "Tell her we'll talk to her in the morning," he prompted.

Ashley looked distressed but did as he asked. "Dad says I have to go now. We'll see you in the morning. Okay, bye."

Ashley climbed into Jack's lap and opened his hand. She held her wrist down and the bracelet fell off into his palm. "She's mad at us," she said worriedly.

"What did she say?"

"Not much," Ashley answered. "But she was real quiet. Like you get when you're too mad to yell."

"Well, I'm sure when you explain, she'll understand." He wanted them to realize the potential harm in what they'd done, but decided it was finally time to cut them some slack.

And they had accomplished something interesting in the process of their lawless activities.

He was going to see Jade Barclay again.

His fingertips went to his lips at the thought.

Chapter Six

Jade wasn't in the food court. Jack wondered in concern if her agreement to meet them there had simply been payback for his behavior the night before. Had she lured him there and failed to show just to prove that she could be as mean as he'd been?

Then Andy shouted, "There she is!" and pointed to a tall, slender column of red standing in front of the pet shop window several shops off the court. All the stores were still closed, but morning walkers and others simply planning their purchases wandered up and down the wide mall.

The children ran to her. Jack followed slowly, giving them time to make their apologies and allowing her a little space in which to scold.

But that didn't seem to be what she was doing. She leaned down to them and listened patiently while both spoke at once, then she hugged them to her.

Andy and Ashley were wreathed in smiles as she turned them toward the pet shop window and pointed to something inside.

As Jack came up behind them, he saw that the subject under discussion was a pair of gray Persian kittens. They had flat little faces with brick red noses, and bright green eyes. He noted that the color of their coats was the same shade as the caftan Jade lounged in in the evenings.

His heart thumped at the memory.

Ashley caught his hand and pulled him so close to the window, his nose was in danger of reconstruction.

"Jade's gonna buy those kitties for her client!" She was beside herself with excitement.

"They're for an old lady," Andy said, his hands pressed against the window. "She's all alone in a little house and her daughter wants her to have company."

Ashley sighed. "I wish someone wanted us to have company."

Jack patted her shoulder. "Think how happy they'll make the lady."

He turned to Jade and found her watching him, her expression unreadable until she caught his eye. Then it grew cool and condemning, and he knew he wouldn't be forgiven as easily as the children. Her lustrous hair was caught back in a simple knot this morning, but it gave her an air of hauteur.

"Can we buy you a croissant and a cappuccino?" he asked.

She cast him a glance that was distinctly royal. "If the offer extends to a mocha," she bargained coolly, "you may."

He swept a hand toward the food court.

She caught each child by a hand and led the way.

Ashley glanced at him over her shoulder as he followed. He read the message in her smile. Jade held her hand like a mom.

And like a mom, she gave her full attention to the children. For most of an hour they told her their deepest secrets and their wildest dreams.

"I want to find new civilizations," Andy said grandly, his upper lip lined with hot chocolate. "I want to go everywhere and see everything."

Jade leaned across the table to dab at his lip with a napkin. "Thank you," he said with a lovestruck smile.

Jack bit back a grin. Had he done that, Andy would have been indignant and embarrassed.

"I'd like to travel." Jade took her last bite of croissant and shared it with Ashley. "But I'm not sure there are new civilizations left to discover."

"There are in space!" Andy insisted eagerly. "I'm gonna have my own ship and crew."

Ashley put a hand on Jade's arm and tugged until she was forced to turn to her. "I'm gonna be a ballerina!"

"That's nice. You like to dance?" Jade

asked.

Ashley answered honestly. "I don't know. But I like the shoes and the frilly dresses."

Jade laughed. "Well, that's a good reason. I used to take ballet lessons."

Ashley looked reverent. "You did?"

"Uh-huh. For a couple of years. Until I got a job in high school and there wasn't enough time for everything." Then she glanced at her watch and looked at each child regretfully. "And speaking of time, I have to get busy." She pointed down the mall where shops were opening and moving displays out in front to attract attention. She pushed her chair back. "So, thank you both for your apologies. I understand that you meant well." She turned her smile on Jack but it lost a little of its wattage. "Thank you for breakfast."

She put a hand to the table to push herself to her feet, but Jack placed a hand over it. The gesture stopped her as effectively as if he'd placed an anvil in her lap.

He felt the sudden tension in her.

"Andy--" he turned to his son "--would you take Ashley to look in the pet shop window for a few minutes so I can talk to Jade?"

A wide grin split the boy's face. "Sure. Take all the time you want. I don't want to go to school, anyway."

"Stay right in front of the shop where I can see you."

"Okay." The children ran off and Jack turned to Jade. She was wearing her imperial face, but he stared it down.

"I'm sorry about last night. I knew you hadn't taken the bracelet, but I was angry and frustrated and...I couldn't imagine what else had happened. And you'd made mistakes twice before."

Her expression had softened to mildly conciliatory, until he'd added the last part. Then she angled her chin and asked frostily, "Twice? We did confuse the gifts for your family, but where does the second one come in?"

He knew he was in trouble. "It doesn't matter. I-- "

"Where?" Her tone rose a decibel.

He resigned himself to worsening her opinion of him. "The clothes you bought me for that working weekend," he said, leaning back in his flimsy chair.

She looked puzzled. "They didn't fit?"

"They fit perfectly," he admitted. "They just made me look like a Calvin Klein ad."

Her eyes went carefully over him, then met his gaze. "An Armani ad on weekdays, and a Calvin Klein ad on weekends. What's wrong with that?"

He was trying to make contact with her on a personal level, and she kept giving him her Snow Queen responses. He deliberately tried to force a livelier reaction out of her. The way she'd kissed him the night before, he knew there was fire inside.

"Actually," he said, "your fashion sense is what attracted Natalie to me. She was at her father's that weekend and came on to me bigtime."

That did it.

Jade got to her feet and looped the strap of her purse over her shoulder. "I apologize if you were unhappy. My instincts are usually pretty good for clothes, but in your case all I had to go on was a voice. And judging by it, I imagined you to be..." She paused, looked into his eyes as he stood beside her. Then she looked away as though embarrassed.

He found that interesting and waited for her to go on.

She drew a breath, seeming to need fresh oxygen for fortification. "I thought you were single," she said, rushing the words, "and therefore childless, and that you were a sort of... a playboy."

He raised an eyebrow. "You got all that from an order over the phone?"

She hunched a shoulder. "Your voice

was... "

Again he waited. And noticed that her knuckles were white on the strap of her purse.

She turned and started toward the pet shop. "Well, I can't see that it matters now what I thought about your voice."

He caught her arm and pulled her to a stop, glancing over her head to see that Andy and Ashley were still fully occupied with watching the kittens. He returned his attention to Jade, determined to let her know that this was not ending here.

"It matters," he said, retaining his hold on her arm. "The kiss last night mattered. You don't think I'm going to just let you walk away from me now."

She pulled against him. But he thought he detected a halfhearted effort.

"I think you have no choice in the matter," she said. "Only twelve hours ago you thought I was a thief!"

"I was stupid. Now I know I would be again if I let you go. Have dinner with me tonight."

She looked at him a moment in complete surprise, then her lips parted, as though she might agree. But she shook her head instead. "Tomorrow is Valentine's Day and I have a million things to do."

This time he let her go, but instead of running away from him as he'd expected, she simply stayed a pace ahead of him, headed for the pet store.

"You haven't answered my question," he

said.

She kept walking, her low heels clicking on the tiled mall floor. "I told you I was too busy."

"The other question," he said, lengthening one stride to come abreast of her. "About what you heard in my voice."

She stopped abruptly and turned to face him. Her cheeks were pink, her eyes bright, her cool demeanor clearly rattled. "I thought you sounded sexy," she said briskly. "All right? You can add that to my growing list of mistakes."

She strode off and he stopped her again. "Come to dinner with me and let me prove that you weren't mistaken."

"I'm busy."

"You can't shop after five-thirty, no matter how many orders you have to fill."

"Evening is when I wrap everything. I'm

busy."

All right. A change of approach was called for. "Okay," he said. "But I think we're missing something pretty big here, because you're not what I thought you sounded like, either."

He turned toward the pet shop where one of the kittens now stood on its hind legs, having a conversation with Ashley through the window. But before he could move in that direction, Jade caught his arm.

"What did you think I sounded like?" she asked casually, apparently trying to create the impression that she didn't care.

"If you're determined not to see me again," he said guilelessly, "what does it matter?"

Her eyes registered knowledge of his little game with a delicate roll to the ceiling. "You insisted that I tell you," she pointed out.

He pretended to consider before relenting. "Okay. I thought you sounded like a silly little blonde with a ponytail over your ear who'd found a way to make money out of your favorite pastime."

She frowned. "I'm not silly."

"If you won't go to dinner with me so that you can prove me wrong about you, and I can prove you right about me," he corrected, "you are silly."

He headed for the children and she kept up with him. He thought she might be vacillating.

"I really don't have time for dinner," she said, her tone satisfyingly unconvincing.

"I'll bring the kids," he offered deliberately when he was within earshot of them. They were on him like a hat.

"Bring us where? Where you going?" Andy came and insinuated himself between Jack and Jade.

"I'm trying to talk Jade into coming to dinner with us," Jack announced in all apparent innocence.

Ashley, his nuclear arsenal, caught Jade's hands and jumped up and down, pleading, until Jade had no recourse but to agree.

But she gave him a condemning look over the children's heads.

"That was..." She searched for the right word, apparently unwilling to be too denigrating in front of his children. She finally settled on "Ruthless."

He refused to apologize. "Stakes were high. Ruthless and sexy, that's me. Deal?" He offered his hand.

She studied it a moment, then reached out to shake it. As the cuff on the sleeve of her coat drew back, he noticed that she was wearing the Pocahontas bracelet.

Chapter Seven

"What do you mean, sick?" Jack asked the housekeeper as she took his briefcase from him. "Both of them? They were fine this morning."

Isabel nodded, her manner indulgent and amused. "I believe their illness is of a romantic nature." When he looked confused, she added quickly, "Your romance."

He closed his eyes, shook his head and started up the stairs. "They're trying to help you, Mr. O'Brian," she said from the other side of the railing. "I'll be happy to watch them tonight. I have nothing planned."

He waved to let her know he appreciated the offer as he loped up the stairs.

Ashley, lying listlessly on her back, a favorite teddy bear clutched in her arm, looked like a victim of something fatal. Her face was chalky white.

Jack sat on the edge of her bed and thought he detected a powdery white residue on her cheeks, and the strong scent of baby powder in the air.

"Hi, Daddy," she said weakly.

He took her hand. It was warm and dry and also smelled of baby powder. "Hi, pumpkin," he said, pretending concern. "Isabel tells me you have the flu."

"Yeah." Her voice was a dramatic squeak. "Everybody at school has it. I don't think I can go with you tonight."

Aha. A plot.

"Are you sure?" he asked. "I was going to take Jade to Michelle's where they have those chocolate sundaes you like so much."

There was a moment's hesitation while she apparently weighed the loss of her favorite treat against the scheme she and her brother had concocted. But she decided on self-sacrifice. "Maybe you could take me next time."

He did his best to maintain a straight face and leaned down to kiss her cheek. "I think I'd better call Jade and tell her you're sick and that I can't-- "

"No!" she said urgently. Then she added more quietly, "No. That would be rude. You should go and have a good time."

"Well, if you're sure..."

"I'm sure."

Andy was sprawled on his stomach in the middle of his bed, an arm hanging lifelessly over the side.

Jack sat beside him and rubbed gently between his shoulder blades. "How're you doing, son?" he asked.

Andy had a different approach. His cheeks had been reddened by something with a cosmetic fragrance, and his fingertips had obviously been colored with something purple.

"I think...I have...a fever," the boy said, pausing now and then to gasp for air. He held up purple fingertips. "And I seem to have...poor circulation. But...I'll be fine. You go ahead...without me."

"Andy, I think you need a doctor," Jack said gravely.

"Ah...Isabel said the phones are dead."

"Really."

"Yeah. Um, she tried to call you to tell you we were sick, but...she couldn't get through. Sun spots, I think. They give NASA fits, you know."

Jack put a hand to his mouth to hide the smile. If his law firm ever failed, he intended to head for Hollywood with his own personal version of the Barrymores.

"But Jade was counting on seeing you and Ashley. Ashley has the flu, you know."

"Yeah...I heard." Andy launched into a coughing spasm. "Maybe you could...bring Jade here after dinner to...see us."

"I'm not sure I should go."

Andy rolled over laboriously and put a grasping hand to Jack's arm. "I want you to go, Dad. You need a little romance in your life. Please. It would make me happy. I won't die before you get home, I promise."

"Well-- " he patted Andy's hand "--if you promise."

* * *

Jade opened her door and had to tell herself not to stare. Jack wore the black shirt, slacks and jacket she'd bought him for that working weekend, and though he'd insisted that they weren't his style, she congratulated herself on her intuitive choice. Every item was perfect for him.

And whatever he wore, his handsome dark features made him look like an ad for it anyway, so she didn't see the problem.

Despite her objections that morning, she'd anticipated dinner with him all day long. In fact, her preoccupation with it had made Lindy seem like the competent one in the office.

He reached out to the touch the kittens she held in each hand. "You did buy them," he observed.

"They're just what my customer ordered." She nuzzled each one, then put them in a lined basket she'd placed near a heating vent. They meowed in high, tiny voices and looked at her condemningly over the rim of the basket. "The question is whether or not I'll be able to part with them tomorrow. You boys be good."

She turned back to Jack and noticed that something was missing. "Are the children in the car?" she asked.

He shook his head, leaning a shoulder in her doorway as she reached to the sofa for her coat and purse. "I'm afraid Ashley's come down with a sudden and violent case of the flu, and Andy's suffering from fever and poor circulation."

She frowned at him as he took her coat from her and helped her into it. "They were in cahoots with my housekeeper, who lent Andy rouge for his fever, eyeshadow for his purple fingertips and who dusted Ashley with enough baby powder to clog my plumbing."

She laughed as they stepped out in the hall and he pulled her door closed. "But I thought they'd want to come."

He walked beside her to the elevator. "You mean you don't see the motive behind it?"

Jade reached out to push the down button, then turned to him in perplexity.

"They've selected you," he explained, looking up at the lights above the car that indicated the elevator's

direction. The down light lit, the bell rang and the doors parted. "Resistance would be futile."

He took her arm and drew her with him into the car. She couldn't feel his fingers through the sleeve of her coat, but his presence seemed to envelop her. He stood close beside her, his hand still on her arm as the elevator started down with the smallest jolt. Her shoulder bumped his chest and awareness of him made her feel suddenly as though she'd stuck her finger in an electrical socket.

She struggled to think straight, to remain in charge of her behavior. "Selected me...for what?"

"To be their mother." He replied with an easy calm she found surprising under the circumstances. She waited for him to laugh, to do something to make it clear that he was joking.

But his demeanor never changed from the sexy charm and confidence he'd exuded when she'd opened the door.

The elevator doors parted in the lobby of her building. He put an arm around her, resting his hand lightly on her shoulder, and led her out to his car.

"I trust you explained to them that you think of me as a thief and a screw-up?" she asked as he opened her door.

She found herself blocked into a very narrow space as Jack placed one hand on the top of the door and the other on the roof of the car. Her breath caught in her throat.

"But I don't," he corrected, a warm intimacy in his voice and in his eyes. "Lindy called my office and explained about getting the tags and packages mixed up when the skateboarder hit her. I think you were noble and a first-class employer to have taken the rap for your company."

Jade had that warm honey feeling again. "She means well."

"So do I," he said. "And I usually do my best to see that my children get what they want when I think it would be good for them."

She was speechless for a moment. He couldn't possibly mean what that seemed to suggest. Then she asked, her voice breathy, "I...thought that was...Natalie?"

His smile was self-deprecating. "No," he said. "Natalie was pretty potent stuff, but as you pointed out, she has little sense of humor. And when you're raising children, there are times when that's all that keeps you afloat."

She swallowed, feeling as though her heart were thumping its way out of her chest. "Have you missed the fact that if you let them choose their mother, you have to be a husband to their choice?"

"I'm a good lawyer," he said. "No fact ever escapes me. If you'll get in, we can be on our way."

"How do you know I have the requisite sense of humor?"

He grinned. "You bought the red chenille robe, didn't you?"

He drove down the coast several miles to a supper club called The Cove high on a bluff overlooking the ocean. Jade had often made reservations there for her clients, but she'd never been there herself.

It was decorated in a sort of 1930s, Art Deco style with many small tables with tulip lamps that provided enough light to read a menu while still protecting the table's shadowy intimacy.

It was a place for couples, not families, and a band across the room played moody, romantic music. In the darkness beyond the windows, one tiny, single glow from a lighthouse on wrecker Rock blinked on and off at intervals.

Jade felt the spell of the place entwine itself with her determination to maintain control and do its best to strangle it.

Her dinner of sauteed shrimp, rice and sweet potato sticks was a culinary masterpiece, but she had difficulty concentrating on it.

Jack was charming, witty, and wielded the

double-

edged threat to her sanity of being both interesting and interested. Often a man who enjoyed entertaining a woman did so for the center-stage attention it gave him. But while Jack shared funny courtroom stories with her, he also asked about her work and gave her the impression that he'd be happy to listen to her talk indefinitely.

Then he reached across the table and caught her hand. His was warm and strong as he studied the Pocahontas bracelet on her wrist. His eyes looked up into hers, filled with amusement. "You're still wearing that."

"It was a gift," she said. "I tried to give it back to Ashley this morning, but she told me to keep it."

He tightened his grip on her fingers. The band began a bluesy arrangement of "Isn't It Romantic?" without a word, Jack stood and drew her with him to the dance floor.

She was prepared to be taken into his arms. She alerted every nerve ending in her body to be calm, to avoid registering the impact it was sure to bring about.

what she wasn't prepared for was the sudden ignition in his eyes when he turned to her, the underlying darkness in their depths that suggested he'd been truly affected by something. By...her?

That sense of being plugged in ran under her skin again like vibrating voltage.

And when he lowered his head to claim her mouth, she lifted hers to him, power seeking its source.

Unlike when she'd kissed him, he took charge of this exchange, his hand cupping the back of her head, tipping it as he leaned over her. His mouth was tender but passionate and seeking, wanting to know every little detail of her emotions at that moment, claiming a response.

She gave over every secret--yes, I'm a little bit in love, too; yes, I want to know more; yes, I'm afraid, but I'm even more curious than fearful.

Then she also gave him the response he wanted. She wrapped her arms around his neck and returned the kiss with all the hot emotion he'd brought to it.

And at that moment she felt the loneliness that had shaded her life ripped off it like an umbrella in the wind.

Jack enjoyed her response with all the awe he'd have felt if an arm had reached out of heaven and handed him a gift.

He didn't bother to wonder how it had happened. He knew that life could take things away as effortlessly as it bestowed them, so he'd decided some time ago never to waste time asking why. Fate expected that you accept or enjoy, whatever the situation called for.

It wasn't until Jade's head fell against his shoulder with a sigh and he was forced to raise his own that he remembered where they were. Not that anyone had noticed them. Other couples on the dance floor were gazing into each other's eyes, exchanging wordless messages of love and promise.

"we have to remember that it's only been two days." Jade whispered, looking up into his face. "And during one of those, you thought I was a criminal."

"I did not," Jack denied, forcing himself to concentrate on moving to the music. "I was angry because I knew the whole thing with Natalie was a fiasco and that your mistake saved me from making a much bigger one. And I hated to admit that. So I yelled at you."

She laughed softly. "You don't think the fact that something worth two thousand dollars had been misplaced had something to do with it?"

He kissed her cheek to assure himself that she was real. "Maybe a little."

"Well, don't worry. My service promises the immediate return of any purchase that isn't satisfactory, so I'll take the bracelet back for you tomorrow and see that they credit your account."

"No need," he said, marveling at how perfectly she fit against him, her breasts embossed into his chest, her small waist nestled in his arm, the softness of the rest of her pressed near and around his frustration. He had to think to form words. "I have to...visit a client tomorrow, so I'll take care of it while I'm out. Should I exchange it for something you'd like?"

Her forehead rested against his chin, and without raising it she moved her left hand until there was a jingling in his ear. "Thanks, but I already have a bracelet."

Chapter Eight

"I don't understand," Jade whispered as she and Jack sneaked hand in hand around the house to the back door. "If they were clever enough to try to trick you into seeing me alone, won't they now be pretending to be in bed asleep?"

Jack shook his head over her innocence as he slowly turned the knob on the back door. "Once they get what they want, all pretense stops. Besides, all the Star Wars movies were being shown back to back tonight. Andy has his own boxed set of videos, but he still never misses it. And there's no school tomorrow."

"Ah."

Jack had been right. Both children, bright-eyed and exuding good health, sat on opposite sides of the housekeeper. Each held a bowl of popcorn and a can of pop.

Jade followed Jack into the living room. The moment the housekeeper noticed them, she clicked off the set.

Ashley ran to Jade, unabashed at being caught with no apparent sign of illness.

"Did you have fun?" the child demanded.

Jade perched on the edge of the sofa. "Well, it was hard to have fun when we were both very worried about you and Andy. Did you get over the flu?"

"Ah...yeah." She spread both arms expansively as an expression of her complete cure.

Jade turned to Jack, seated beside her as he inspected Andy's hands.

"And your circulation's fine again?" she asked, noting no purple on his fingers. She put a hand to his cool cheek. "Your fever seems to be gone."

Andy looked from Jade to his father. "I guess when your body cools down, your blood flows better." He waited for their reactions, apparently finding his own story a little thin.

Jack nodded. "Fevers usually run their course over a few days. How do you explain your sudden recovery?"

Andy looked worried for a moment, then suggested hopefully, "It's a miracle?"

Jade's eyes met the amusement in Jack's. "Well, that explains it," she said.

She helped him tuck the children in. While Jack went back downstairs to retrieve the bear Ashley had left on the sofa, the child sat up in bed, her eyes wide in the light of a bedside lamp with a clown base. "Did you fall in love?" she demanded in a loud whisper.

The aggressive question almost shocked Jade into admitting that she had. But she caught herself in time. "You don't usually fall in love in one evening," she said, urging Ashley back to her pillows and drawing her blankets up. "It takes time to get to know someone."

"My dad and my mom fell in love at first sight," she argued. "That means right away. The first time you see somebody."

Jade could imagine a woman falling instantly in love with Jack O'Brian. "And they must have been very happy to have made two such beautiful children. But I do things more slowly."

"Why?"

"Because I like to think about what I'm

doing."

Ashley considered that. "Daddy says you should always think before you act."

"That's very good advice." Jade reached behind Ashley's head to straighten her pillowcase, and the child reached up to flick a finger at one of the charms on her bracelet.

"You're wearing it!"

"Of course. A very special little girl gave it

to me."

Ashley seemed pleased. "So you love me, even if you're too careful to love him yet."

Jack walked into the room with the bear, tucked it into Ashley's arm and leaned over to kiss her goodnight.

Jade was sure Jack had heard his daughter's remark, but he said nothing as they crossed the hall to Andy's room.

The walls were covered in posters of spaceships of every description, real and science-fiction. And over his bed was a poster of Harrison Ford as Han Solo, captain of the Millenium Falcon in the Star Wars series.

Jade pointed to it and laughed. "I had that same poster as a teenager."

Andy propped up on an elbow. "You like the Falcon?" he asked in amazement.

She leaned down to kiss his cheek, casting Jack a laughing glance. "No. I liked Harrison Ford. But this is a great way to prepare for what you want in life. Surround yourself with pictures of it and someday you'll have it."

"You think someday I'll explore the galaxy?"

"Absolutely. And I'll expect you to bring me orders for earth goods they can't get out there, then freight them back for me."

"You'll be my first contract," he said excitedly. He held his hand out to her and she shook it.

"I'll draw it up," Jack said.

Andy high-fived him. "It'll be a total family operation." He apparently missed the detail that Jade wasn't family. "We'll have to find something for Ashley to do."

"Can't she be in your crew?" Jade suggested.

He made a face. "No. I can't stand her. She'll have to work on your end of things. Or with Dad."

"She wants to dance," Jack suggested. "We can book her a tour on your route, Andy, and you can keep an eye out for her."

"Well, where are you gonna be?"

"Here. With Jade."

He seemed to like that idea, but not when it left him with Ashley. "Maybe by the time we get this company off the ground, we'll find her a husband."

Jack kissed him good-night and led Jade back downstairs.

"Coffee?" Jack asked.

Jade wanted to stay, but the pull of his home and children was too strong for safety, and as she'd explained to Ashley, she was cautious by nature.

"Thanks," she replied, "but I should get home. Tomorrow is the day and I still have a dozen things to wrap. And I'm sure I'll be dealing with many lastminute calls in the morning."

She expected an argument and wasn't sure whether to be pleased or disappointed when he offered none. He drove her home and went up with her in the elevator to her door.

When she inserted her key in the lock, he prevented her from turning it by placing his hand over hers.

She looked up at him in surprise and found him leaning over her. She parted her lips in surprise and he kissed her slowly, lengthily. Then he raised his head and smiled.

"You lied to my daughter," he accused

gently.

She gasped in protest. "When?"

"When you told her you don't love me."

She slapped his chest for alarming her. "I'm not sure what I feel. And you can't possibly be sure, either."

He denied that with a self-assured nod. "Oh, yes I can."

"No, you can't," she insisted, her back pressed against her door by his nearness. On the other side of it, she heard the kittens meowing. "I know you fell in love with your wife at first sight...." When he looked surprised, she explained briefly, "Ashley told me." Then she went on. "But I'm not her. I'm careful and deliberate about everything."

"Well, I'm not," he said, his eyes going over her face, feature by feature, with disturbing intensity. "Being a litigator forces you to think quickly, to be decisive. I fell in love with you at first sight, too. It's the way I operate."

She made a face at him. "Then why did you send me shopping for another woman?"

"Because what you made me feel was bigger than I wanted to deal with," he admitted frankly. His eyes were now focused on her mouth. "And I thought I could ignore it until I was ready." He laughed lightly, apparently at himself. "But love is power in motion with a life of its own. I saw your face when I closed my eyes. And when I didn't."

He claimed her mouth again and she opened for him, surrendering to the arms that pulled her so close that she felt two heartbeats.

It wasn't until needlelike little claws pierced her stockinged ankles that she came back to reality with a yelp.

Her condo door had pushed open and the kittens had raced out to explore. Jack gave chase, then swept one up in each hand. She took them gratefully. "Make no mistake, Jade," he said. "I love

you."

* * *

Jade spent most of the night wrapping gifts because she couldn't sleep anyway. And the phone started ringing at seven with last-minute pleas for help, mostly from husbands and boyfriends who'd somehow missed the blanket advertising that filled the air

waves and every store window for weeks.

But she handled every order, delighted to be busy. She didn't want to think about Jack and the children. She didn't want to remember his touch and his lips, the gentle, indulgent way he dealt with Andy and Ashley, and the way they responded to him, confident in his love.

She didn't want to remember Ashley telling her that she knew she loved her, or Andy considering her part of the family.

They were precisely what she'd always wanted, what she'd dreamed every lonely night of having. But now faced with the possibility, she was confused to find herself terrified. How did she know she could give back all they offered?

Jack called at noon. That voice that had started it all made her think of him standing in her doorway in the black slacks and jacket she'd bought him. Every resolution she'd made throughout the busy day to put some distance between herself and him turned to dust.

"What time are you finished today?" he

asked.

Lindy and several friends she'd recruited to help her were wrapping the last of the orders and preparing to deliver them. Lindy had been the epitome of efficiency today. Jade guessed that calling Jack and taking responsibility for the mistaken deliveries had given Lindy a new pride in herself.

"Pretty soon," Jade told Jack. "Another hour or so."

"Great," he said. "Can I ask a big favor?"

"What?" she asked warily.

"Isabel's son is down the coast on business and wants her to join him for the rest of the weekend. The kids are at a neighbor's this morning, but only until two. I can take care of tomorrow, but right now I'm tied up at the office for another couple of hours, and I can't reach my mother. If I messenger you my house key, can you go to my place so somebody's there when the kids come home?"

"Ah... " She tried to resurrect her resolution to keep her distance.

"I'll pay you," he offered.

She made an impatient sound. "Jack, if you were here, I'd slap you for suggesting that."

"Oooh," he said. "Want me to come over?"

"Just send your key."

"Thanks. I love you."

"No, you don't."

"Yes, I do."

"Well argue about it later."

"Count on it."

The children were delighted to see her when they got home.

"How come you're here?" Ashley asked, taking her hand and toying with the charms on the bracelet.

Andy's eyes widened. "And you gonna stay overnight?"

"No," Jade assured him. She explained about their father's call. "I'm just here because Isabel had to leave and your dad had to stay at the office for a while longer."

"That's great!" Andy stopped in the act of removing his jacket. "Can you take us downtown so we can buy Dad a birthday present?"

"Of course." Jade went to the guest closet where she'd hung her coat. "When's his birthday?"

"Today!"

Jade stared at him. "Today? He didn't say anything about it."

Andy caught her hand and pulled her toward the door. "He doesn't like anybody to make a big deal about it. Grandma wanted to have everybody over and bake a cake and all that stuff, but he told her he was too busy and it was too much work for her."

"Maybe we could have a little party," Ashley suggested.

Jade's mind began racing with possibilities. Shopping for birthdays, after all, was a major part of her business.

She opened the door and shooed the children out to her car.

Ashley bought her father chocolates because, as she confided to Jade without embarrassment, he was certain to share them with her.

Andy found a pair of boxer shorts decorated with hearts and arrows that glowed in the dark. He insisted they all crowd into a supply closet while the clerk turned off the light and held up the shorts so that Andy could measure the effectiveness of his purchase. He laughed uproariously when the outline of the hearts and the arrows that pierced them shone bright yellow.

Jade bought a cake at the bakery. The children chose one decorated with a hunter with ducks flying overhead and a Labrador at his feet. Green trees made of pipe cleaners trying to resemble a forest decorated one edge.

Jade stopped at her condo to pick up a set of birthday paper plates and napkins and gift bags with tissue so that the children could wrap their purchases.

Ashley found a kitten toy on the floor. "Did you take the kitties to the lady?" she asked. "Did she like them?"

"Her daughter picked them up on her lunch hour," Jade replied, ushering the children toward the door, "and she was going to take them to her mom tonight."

"I hope her mom likes them."

"Yes. So do I."

By the time they arrived back at Jack's house, there were three cars in the driveway. None of them was his.

"That's Grandma!" Ashley shouted, pointing to a small crowd of people standing on the porch. "And Aunt Donna and Aunt Di!"

The children were out of the car before Jade turned the motor off. She peered into the twilight to see Selina and Ross and Diane, whom she'd met the other day, and another woman and two men she didn't recognize. Almost everyone held a casserole dish. Two toddlers were running in and out of the crowd.

"Jade! Hi!" Selina called to her and met her halfway up the stairs. "Oh, I'm so glad you're here, too. It's Jack's birthday today!"

"So the children told me. Jack asked me to watch them for a couple of hours because Isabel went to visit her son."

"Well, this couldn't be more perfect. I have Jack's key at home, but I didn't think to bring it because I thought she'd be here. Can you let us in?"

"Yes," Jade answered, then realized how that sounded. "Well, he messengered it to me so I could be here when the children got home."

Selina looked surprised that she insisted on explaining. "Yes, dear. Well. We've brought dinner and you seem to have a cake there." She patted the top of the wide, pink bakery box Jade carried, then laughed wickedly. "If Jack thought his birthday was going to pass uncelebrated, he really doesn't know his mother after all these years."

Chapter Nine

Jack patted the bottle of Moet & Chandon on the seat beside him as he rounded the corner half a block from his home. He had Jade right where he wanted her. She was in his home, which was where he intended to keep her for a lifetime. By now, after several hours, his children had either charmed her into submission or worn her to a nervous nub. Either way, she would be his to charm and seduce.

He was sure if he could only make her feel what he felt, she would be his. That wary look would vanish from her eyes when he held her and she would turn her back on the fear love always brought, and surrender to the joy.

Then he spotted the cars lined up in his driveway and felt a primal scream rising in his throat.

"No. Oh, no," he said aloud as he pulled into a spot on the street behind Jade's car. "Not tonight."

He adored his family, but they had an uncanny knack for bursting into his life like a class-five hurricane precisely when he needed quiet.

He sat alone in the car for a moment, trying to brace himself. The house would sound like patio pizza on tournament night, and he wouldn't get a moment alone with Jade, much less an opportunity to seduce her.

Before he could even begin to enjoy his self-pity, the front door of his home opened, lighting the night, and Donna ran down the porch steps in something white and silky. She was followed by a tall man he didn't recognize, who was throwing his suit coat over her shoulders.

Donna intercepted Jack halfway across the front lawn and wrapped her arms around him. "Jack! Happy Birthday! This is Henry powell. Henry, my brother Jack. He's the reason we found each other!"

In the darkness only partially illuminated by the coach light on his lawn, Jack took the hand Henry offered and recognized a kindred spirit. The handshake was firm, the smile wry. Henry would rather have Donna to himself tonight, Jack concluded, than be at a family party.

"Glad to meet you," Jack said. "But I'm sorry you were dragged here. I imagine you had other plans for tonight."

Henry's grin suggested he was right, but he denied it graciously. "Donna assures me I'm in for an exciting evening. I give you fair warning that your mother's brought Trivial Pursuit."

"Oh, God." Jack noticed the crowned head of a Macanudo cigar protruding from the pocket of his shirt. "Let's stay out on the porch. You can smoke and I'll inhale the aroma."

Henry's grin widened as he patted the breast pocket of the jacket over Donna's shoulders. "I have a couple. Meet you out here later."

Donna got between them, took each man by an arm and led them toward the house. "He didn't come to smoke with you," she said to Jack. "He came to fawn over me."

Henry patted her hand. "I can do both."

From the moment he entered the house, Jack caught only occasional glimpses of Jade in the crowd. He was toasted with the champagne he'd bought for quite another purpose, he was forced to sit at the head of his table while an endless parade of wonderful dishes came past-some old family favorites and a hot Thai concoction his mother and Ross had put together, then he had to hold court near the fireplace while everyone tried to find answers to questions so obscure, God Himself probably didn't know them.

Then he was sung to and made to open presents.

"And not one of us hired a shopping service," Diane said nobly, winking at Jade who stood beside her on the fringe of the group collected on the carpet. "We all did it ourselves."

"We hired Jade," Andy admitted, then added by way of explanation, "well, we really didn't hire her, 'cause we didn't pay her. But she helped us buy Dad's presents."

"Yeah," Ashley added. "And she bought 'em, too, 'cause we didn't have enough money."

"Get out while you still can." Diane's husband, Todd, with a squirming toddler in each arm, shouted advice from the other end of the group. He wore jeans and a sweater and a cynical smile. "Or before you know it, you'll be shopping for free for all of them. There are birthdays in every month, they celebrate everything, even Groundhog Day."

"That's because it sometimes falls on my birthday," Diane said, giving him a playful glower. "And there are only eight of us--actually, our twins make nine, but that's only eight birthdays--so there can't be a birthday every month. There are no birthdays in January, April, September and October."

Ross, sitting in a corner of the sofa, with Selina in the curve of his arm, raised his hand. "Sorry, but I'm an April birthday. And I do like presents. I can provide you with sizes and color preferences."

Everyone groaned. They'd made it clear that they liked him.

"I hate to add to your woes," Henry said. He and Donna sat on the floor back to back. "But I'm January twenty-third."

The groan grew louder.

Diane turned to Jade. "And I suppose you were born in September?"

Jade shook her head. "No."

There was a communal sigh of relief.

"October seventh," she said, laughing.

As everyone groaned again and teased her, Jack wondered if anyone else noticed the wide-eyed edginess under her laughter.

He passed around the chocolates from Ashley, and everyone thought it hysterically funny when the box was returned to him empty.

Andy flipped off the overhead light so everyone could enjoy the unique mastery of the glow-in-the-dark boxers.

Jack caught Jade's eye and noticed that her expression had changed subtly to one of softly smiling sadness.

Trying not to panic, he continued to open gifts and unfolded a dark blue sweater from his mother and Ross, a boxed set of John Grisham films from Diane and Todd and the boys, and a box of the coveted Macanudo cigars from Donna and Henry.

His mother carried in an enormous cake, and despite his pleas and protests, his family sang to him.

"Who picked out the cake?" Diane wanted to know.

"We did," Andy and Ashley said in

unison.

Diane smiled and indicated the hunting design on it. "But your dad doesn't hunt."

Andy shrugged, as though that had no bearing on it. "I know, but we liked the dog. Can I have a corner piece?"

* * *

Jack's family left just before eleven, everyone crowding around the cars, exchanging hugs and kisses and last-minute gossip. They hugged again before getting in the cars and driving away.

Jade helped Jack put the exhausted children to bed, then went to the guest closet.

"Whoa," he said, reaching beyond her to push the closet door closed before she could retrieve her coat. He pinned her between himself and the door, a hand to it on either side of her head. "Where do you think you're going? We haven't had a chance to say a word to each other all evening."

There was panic and sadness in her eyes. He forced himself to remain calm about that, but reacted to it in what he knew to be a purely male fashion.

He drew her into his arms with one hand to the back of her head and the other to the small of her back, and held her tightly against him to obliterate the distance between them the evening had brought about. He kissed her with all the longing built up in him since the night before.

He was relieved when she responded. She wrapped her arms around his waist, leaned into him trustingly and kissed him back. Her hands moved across his shoulders over his cotton shirt, down the middle of his back to his waist and lingered there.

He ran a hand over her hip, holding her tightly to him with it, wanting her hand to wander over him.

But she heaved a ragged sigh and drew a step away from him. And he noted worriedly that while her body had responded to him, her eyes remained troubled.

He entwined his fingers behind her waist, unwilling to let her go.

"I know my family's scary," he admitted, hoping to make her smile. She did, but thinly. "But they're not really dangerous. They just think they have a right to know everything, and then tell you how to handle everything. But it comes from a genuine interest in your welfare."

"I thought they were wonderful," she said, her voice strained and quiet. "I even really liked our mistakes--Ross and Henry."

"They were your mistakes, Jade."

"All right. I accept the blame."

"No." He shook her lightly. "I want you to accept the credit. My mother's always happy, but now she's downright ecstatic. And Donna's been lonely for a long time. Henry seems so right for her."

Jade's thin smile became rueful. "And you'll be able to bum his cigars."

"Compatibility is essential in in-laws." All right, he accepted. The kiss hadn't restored her to him because, he guessed, whatever the problem was wasn't physical. He had to look deeper. "I'm sure you didn't fail to notice how much they all like you."

"I didn't," she said quietly.

"Then, what's wrong?"

"I don't think you'll understand."

"Then you underestimate me." He kissed the top of her head, then drew her into his shoulder and led her to the fireplace. He pointed her to a comfortable, upholstered chair, added a log to the fire, then turned to see that she'd ignored the chair and folded gracefully to a sitting position on the carpet. Her legs were tucked under her and she leaned sideways, braced on a hand as she smiled up at him.

He stretched out beside her, propped up on an elbow and waited for her to explain.

"I had wonderful parents," she said abruptly. The firelight flickered in her hair and across her pale cheeks. He noticed that with a pang of foreboding but forced himself to concentrate on her words. "I missed them so much after the accident and quickly decided that the only way to deal with the loneliness was to find a wonderful man as soon as possible and fill a house with children. Loneliness isn't just being alone, you know?" She turned to him, the lingering pain clear on her face. "It's the emptiness you feel when there's no place to put your love. But, then, I guess you know that. I'm complaining, but you lost your soul mate."

"I did." He and Rita had met in college and they'd been friends from the beginning. When she'd died, he'd felt as though everything of consequence inside him had been ripped away.

"But I had my children and my family," he said sympathetically. "You were alone."

"Oh, I adjusted. I got a good job, then I started the business." She gave him a teasingly aggressive glance. "At which I usually do very well. You are one of very few dissatisfied customers."

"I'm not dissatisfied at all," he corrected. "Except that we're talking instead of making love."

He'd thought that remark might make her smile, but it had the opposite effect.

"Yeah, well, see...I'm thinking that maybe the whole thing isn't quite as easy as I thought."

When he said nothing, panicked by her words but afraid to press her, she turned to him. "You know what I mean?"

"No," he said frankly.

She shifted to sit cross-legged, arranging the full skirt of her dress over her knees so that she looked a little like a flower-faced ornament on a red wool base.

He pushed himself to a cross-legged position and sat facing her.

She spread her hands helplessly. "It's just so much harder than I thought," she admitted, her voice taking on a higher note, the words coming out with a kind of desperate speed. "I mean, I've always been loving and caring, but with friends and their children and with customers, not necessarily with...men. And now that I've met the right one, I realize how...how..."

Jack experienced instant relief. She'd admitted he was "the right one." He'd find a way to deal with everything else.

"How silly you are to be questioning it?" he suggested helpfully.

She made a face at him. "No."

"How ungrateful you must seem to the Fates who brought us together?"

She tried to silence him with a look. "I'm trying to tell you what I feel. Do you want to listen or not?"

"It depends," he replied. "Are you going to keep talking nonsense?"

She sat up stiffly, hands on her knees like some very elegant swami. "You consider my feelings nonsense?"

"I consider you questioning your ability to love me nonsense. You do. Just admit it."

"I'm not questioning that I love you," she explained in exasperation. "I'm questioning my ability to return the love you and the children are offering me."

"That's ridiculous." He wasn't about to give her an inch on this. "You're doing it."

"But your family are like gold medalists in loving!"

"You said your parents were, too."

"But when I returned their love, I did it as a child. Now I'm an adult. It's a completely different thing. I have to be everything you need. I have to anticipate the children's needs. I have to-- "

He silenced her with a kiss. She pushed against him for an instant then succumbed, all her inherent instincts leaning into him as he'd known she would.

"Every time I touch you," he said, "you open up and invite me closer. Every time the children reach for you, you envelop them. That's all love is."

"I have to go." She pulled out of his grasp and scrambled to her feet. She caught her coat and purse and hurried out the door to her car.

He followed, knowing he couldn't make her stay. Well, he could, but he shouldn't.

"You're acting like a crazy woman," he accused without anger as she climbed in behind the wheel.

She rolled down her window. "I'm trying to protect you."

"I don't want protection," he said, deciding on the spur of the moment that if they were going to battle this out, they may as well go for it. "I want you to marry me."

She stared at him. "You're insane!" she said finally.

"Then we're made for each other. What do you say?"

She backed out of his driveway with a squeal of tires.

Chapter Ten

Jade was halfway home before she realized she still had Jack's house key. He probably had another, but what if he didn't?

Cursing herself for having forgotten that detail, she turned around in the nearest driveway and reversed direction.

But she wasn't going into his house. She wasn't even going up to the door. She would leave the key in his mailbox and call him to tell him where it was.

Being near him was just too hard. wonderful, but hard. She'd been shopping for a man like him her whole life, and here he was. The deal of the century with two children added in the bargain.

only, she was finding she couldn't make the deal. They were all perfect specimens now. what if she married Jack to make herself happy--as she wanted so much to do--then discovered that she'd ruined life for him and the children?

She was a great shopper, but she never kept anything. She delivered it to the person who'd ordered it, or to the one they'd ordered it for. She didn't care for things, they simply passed through her hands.

But Jack didn't understand that. Love was easy for him. He'd been born into it, nurtured by it, shared it with a special woman and their children.

Jade had been born into it, but lost it too soon and had never seen it again until now, when she no longer knew what to do with it.

Her plan might have worked if Jack hadn't been standing on the porch, lighting a cigar.

But he saw her turn into the driveway. She tried to stop the car and run out to the mailbox and back in the time it took him to put out the cigar. But before she'd even opened the box, he was kissing her, his hands moving over her, lifting her off her feet.

She tried to tell him about the key but he was reshaping her lips with his own, preventing her from forming words.

He probably thought she'd come back because she'd changed her mind and couldn't bear being away from him. An uncluttered little corner of her mind accepted that she had.

He carried her into the house and up the stairs into his cool, dark room. He set her on her feet and unzipped her dress.

"Jack!" she whispered urgently.

He framed her face in his hands and kissed her gently, reverently. "what?" he asked.

She wanted to tell him that she'd come to return his key, that she was still afraid to be a wife and mother, that under the circumstances, making love might not be the wisest course of action.

But he was kissing her again and holding her with such unutterable tenderness that the only words she could speak were, "I love you. I love you."

when Jack heard her say the words, his emotions went nuclear. They were more than he could express, more than he could contain.

And they were in his fingertips as he drew slip, bra and panties from her and caressed the glistening moonbeam beauty of her breasts and hips as he tossed the blankets back and put her in the middle of his bed.

He tried to straighten to remove his own shirt and pants, but she had a hold of him and wouldn't let go.

He was surprised but delighted by her boldness when she pulled him down beside her, knelt astride him and kissed him senseless. when he could draw breath again, he found that she'd unbuttoned his shirt. He sat up to help her pull it and his T-shirt off.

Then she strung a line of kisses from his left shoulder to his right, and when he thought he might lose control over the tenderness of the gesture, he felt her hand at the zipper of his pants and knew that his sanity was in danger, as well.

He kicked his slacks and briefs off, pulled her down beside him and leaned over her to plant a kiss on her navel. She gasped with pleasure and he spent long moments bringing the sound out in her again. He stroked every line of her, explored every curve and hollow.

He'd intended to move over every inch of her with his lips, as well, but she stole his plan and started with the underside of his chin and down the length of his throat.

He kissed her forehead, intending to simply follow her, trailing his lips over her ear to her shoulder as she placed kisses down the center of his body.

He remained coherent until she approached his waist, then, knowing she wouldn't stop, he battled her gently for control.

She fought back mercilessly with tender kisses and a wandering hand.

He caught her fingers and held them away from him, placing his own over her femininity.

She made that gasping sound of pleasure again, complaining raspily, "That isn't fair!"

"It is. If you'd have touched me first, I'd have lost all reason."

"I didn't think lovemaking was about reason."

"It's also not about conversation." He covered her lips with his, felt her arch against his hand, and when he was about to congratulate himself on taking control, her hand closed over him and his mind went blank in an instant. As he went over the edge into madness, he wondered if she would ever know what was good for her.

Jade had been unaware that her body held such secrets. Pleasure came from so deep inside her, flowed over and over her until she wondered if she could bear any more; then it placed her in a kind of silken shadow where she was herself again, but the rest of the world didn't seem to exist.

The moment was all about her. Every sense was sharp, every muscle poised, every thought hopeful. She couldn't remember a more wonderful point of time in her entire life.

Then the world came into focus again and she realized that she was sprawled in Jack's arms as he pulled the covers over them.

The thought intruded that this had been too easy, that emotional love would be a lot harder than this, but the world was simply too perfect at that moment to allow her to analyze that thought

and decide what it meant to her future.

* * *

Jack knew the instant she fell asleep. The tension in her ebbed and the breath that had been all gasps and cries only moments before was now even and steady. She had an arm wrapped around him, and a leg hitched over him, and he accepted unconditionally that he was her prisoner for the rest of his life.

He closed his eyes, thinking that he couldn't imagine a more worthy fate.

But his last thought as he drifted off was that he'd have a lot to answer for in the morning. when she'd pulled into the driveway tonight and he'd run to her, he'd seen the key ring looped on her finger. He'd known that she'd come back to return it.

He'd also known that there'd been another, deeper reason behind the key, and she'd proven him right.

He just didn't think she understood that.

* * *

Jade opened her eyes to see rays of sunlight on the opposite wall of the bedroom.

She knew instantly that it was not her bedroom. In fact, as the memories of last night danced through her mind, she had every suspicion that this was not even her life. It couldn't be. She was lonely Jade Barclay. She didn't know how to be this happy.

Jack's side of the bed was empty.

She noted that in relief and scrambled into her clothes, looking at the sunshine again and wondering what on earth had happened. The sun never shone in February on the Oregon coast.

Last night had even changed the weather.

She was zipping her dress and stepping into her shoes, escape uppermost in her mind, when the bedroom door opened and Jack stood there looking fresh and wonderful in slim-legged jeans and the sweater his mother had given him for his birthday. The blue seemed to burnish his skin and dramatize his dark features.

"Hi," he said, his eyes growing instantly wary as he watched her dress. "Ashley's making breakfast," he said absently. "Cocoa Puffs or toast with peanut butter?"

She pulled a comb out of her purse and turned to the mirror to avoid his eyes.

"I've got to go, Jack," she said.

He came to stand behind her and caught her gaze in the mirror. She kept her eyes on her hair.

"It's Sunday," he said. "The Valentine's Day rush is over."

She straightened the part in her hair and drew the comb through the tousled mess. "But my place is a wreck and I have paperwork to-- "

Jack turned her around, took the comb from her and tossed it at the bed near her purse. His eyes were turbulent.

"I thought we settled that "you-don't-know-if-you-

can-love-me' thing last night," he said.

She wasn't going to be bullied into dismissing her fears. "My concern wasn't for loving you physically," she told him, folding her arms.

He tipped his head back impatiently and rested his hands on his hips. "Jade, last night was every kind of love there is. Physical, emotional, even spiritual. We were heart to heart, not just body to body."

"That was one night, Jack. Now we're faced with the rest of our lives."

"Yes, we are. But I'm the one who's done this before, remember. I know every moment isn't going to be like last night. But it has the potential to be wonderful in big and little, and loud and quiet ways, because we're wonderful together. Don't you see that?"

"I think we should just wait," she suggested, thinking that she sounded eminently reasonable, "and see how things go. And in a couple of months-- "

"You," he interrupted, "are a lily-livered coward."

She gasped again, only this time it wasn't with pleasure. "Jack, I'm just trying-- "

"Don't give me that, Jade," he interrupted again. "Don't tell me you're protecting me, when you're really protecting you. And if you think I'm going to date you a couple of times a week for months while you take something big and wonderful and try to cut it down to size so you can deal with it, you're mistaken. And, incidentally, who told me in the throes of passion last night that lovemaking wasn't supposed to be about maintaining control?"

"Making love and making life are not the same thing!"

"I beg to differ. They are. You go into both wholeheartedly, you give them everything you've got, you maintain a willingness to be generous and a sense of humor and you have one hell of a great time."

She didn't get it. She looked at him as though he were some picture the Hubble Telescope had sent back from space.

He wanted to shake her, or make love to her again until she saw reason. But knowing neither alternative would work, he did the only other thing he could think of.

He handed her her purse.

She ran.

Chapter Eleven

Jack's children weren't speaking to him.

when he'd told Ashley that he didn't know if Jade was coming back, she'd burst into tears, stomped up to her room and slammed the door.

Andy asked questions. "what did you do to her?"

"Nothing," Jack replied. "But we disagree on a few important things."

"You always say people have to compromise."

Right. Remember the lessons I try to teach only when they can be used against me.

"There are a few things you can't compromise on. Especially if you expect to live the rest of your lives together."

"Like what?"

"Like how to love each other."

Andy frowned. "But you love us all the

time."

Jack felt pathetically grateful for that one positive stroke for his side. "Yes, but she's the one who doesn't think she'd be good at it because she's never had a husband and kids before."

Andy looked stricken. "You mean she'd love you if you didn't have us?"

"No," Jack reassured him quickly. "I think she loves you and she'd do something about it if you didn't have me."

Andy grinned. "Then we'll send you to Grandma."

Jack folded the Sunday sports section and bopped him on the head with it.

Ashley came downstairs wearing tights and a tutu. She'd gotten the outfit secondhand from a friend, and the left thigh had a three-inch run in the pink mesh. She was also wearing her paper crown from Burger King.

She came to lean her elbow on the kitchen table next to where Jack and Andy sat.

"I'm mad at you," she told Jack.

"No kidding," he said. "I didn't know that."

She studied him suspiciously. She was very bright, but subtlety was often lost on her. "You're being funny, aren't you?"

He rubbed an ache between his eyebrows. "Actually, I don't feel very funny at all. Do you want some lunch?"

"No. I want Jade."

"So do I," he said. "But I'm afraid that's beyond my control."

"I know why she's mad at us." Ashley climbed onto his knee.

"She's not mad at you and Andy," he corrected. "She's mad at me." Then, desperate to find a way through to Jade, he asked, "Why do you think she's mad?"

"'cause we didn't give her anything for Valentine's Day."

Andy sat up. "Yeah!" he said eagerly. "what could we get her that would prove that we really love her, and that we like the way she loves us?"

Jack stared at his children as an idea began to take shape in his head and quickly developed into a plot. His children, he thought with great pride, were brilliant.

His family insisted they got that from their mother, but right now it didn't matter where the

inspiration came from, only that he had it.

* * *

Jade was dusting the lids on the rack of spice jars. The chore was desperate and ridiculous for a Sunday afternoon but she'd reorganized the office that morning, having filled out the form to reorder tissue and ribbon, cut out more tags and caught up on her paperwork. And when she stopped moving and doing, she saw Jack and his children in her mind.

when she'd left Jack's house that morning, she'd kissed each child quickly, and without stopping had explained that she had work to do at home, then had escaped to her car.

And ever since then her brain replayed images of

their surprised and disappointed faces, and the insightful expressions in their eyes that told her they knew something was wrong, that the happy world they'd imagined with their father and her wasn't going to happen after all.

She told herself repeatedly that she was trying to protect them, but that brought Jack's image to mind, jaw firmed implacably, eyes angry and unforgiving when he'd told her he didn't want protection.

She was about to remove the lamp shades and dust the tops of lightbulbs when the doorbell rang. A small gray-haired woman dressed in a black coat, a crushed velvet hat with a brim and a pair of black Nike sneakers stood in the hallway with the two gray kittens in the basket.

Standing beside her was the woman's daughter who'd hired Jade to make the purchase.

The older woman thrust the basket at Jade. The kittens meowed. Jade held the basket in one arm and reached in to pet one tiny head, then the other. They accepted the attention eagerly.

"Kittens were a ridiculous idea!" the woman said. "As if at my age I'd want to have to feed them and chase them around. I was hoping for a new purse, or a gift certificate to Denny's." She gave her daughter a look of disgust. "But I get kittens." She turned to Jade, her thin-lipped little mouth set in a firm line. "Well, they'll have to go back. I don't have the time or the patience for them. I'd like a purse instead."

She held up the one she carried. It was a simple, three-compartment square of black leather open at the top. One of two handles was pulling away from the body of the bag.

"Like this," she said. "Maybe a little bigger. when I have lunch out, I like to have room in it to bring half home for dinner. Thank you. Come on, Susan."

The woman headed for the elevator with a stride that belied the claim that she couldn't chase kittens.

Susan smiled at Jade apologetically and rolled her eyes. "I'm about to give up. She lives alone in a pretty little cottage near the water but there is absolutely nothing in her life to give her pleasure. She won't let me put in flowers around her place because then she'd have to water them or hire someone to do it. And she won't have a dog because they bark. I thought kittens would be good because they fend for themselves so well."

She heaved a sigh and glanced over her shoulder. Her mother had reached the elevator and was pressing the button.

"I should have known better," she said, turning back to Jade and reaching a hand into the basket to pet the kittens. "Emotional investments have always been too much trouble for her."

Jade sympathized with Susan, who'd been so excited about her inspiration to give her mother kittens. "I'm sorry. I'll find a great purse for her." Then she smiled. "Do you want the change, or shall I put a gift certificate to Denny's in the purse?"

Susan laughed. "Yes, please."

"Susan!" the older woman called. "Elevator's here. Let's go!"

Susan drew a breath and squared her shoulders. "But you know what?"

"What?"

"I'm not giving up. Easter and Mother's Day are coming. Help me think of something that'll reach her."

Jade couldn't help but wonder if that was possible. But her job was to find the right thing for her clients. "I'll work on it," she said.

"Good. Thanks." With a parting pat for the kittens, Susan was gone.

Jade sat in the middle of her office floor with the kittens and a spool of ribbon and felt the first little spark of cheer in her life since she'd left Jack and the children.

She watched the lively little kittens race around, chasing each other and the ribbon, jumping in and out of their basket and hiding from each other behind it, and failed to see how anyone could resist falling in love with them.

"How could anyone be unwilling to love something so-- " The thought stopped abruptly as her brain processed it as illogical in view of what she'd done that morning.

She'd been unwilling to love. She'd looked ahead into a future that would undoubtedly demand all her physical and emotional resources and decided she was unprepared to meet it. She'd been afraid that having been alone so long, she would offer a love that was imperfect or incomplete--and so she'd chosen to offer nothing.

She got to her feet as the cold realization broke over her that in a couple of years she could find herself alone in a pretty cottage with no flowers and no kittens. And she wouldn't even have a daughter determined to reach her.

She could have sworn she heard the crash of thunder over her head as her spirit absorbed that new wisdom.

Then it crashed again as she remembered how Jack had looked when she'd walked out on him--hurt, angry, disappointed in her.

She knew a paralyzing sense of hopelessness. She might have experienced an epiphany, but it could very well be too late to save her relationship with Jack and his children.

She dialed Jack's number. The phone rang eight times before she finally hung up. So he and the children had gone out and forgotten to turn on the answering machine. Or chosen not to, so he didn't have to deal with a message from her.

She tried several more times, and the longer the phone rang without being picked up, the more desperate she became to hear Jack's voice, to see him. She felt more stranded and alone than she'd ever felt before she'd met him.

And she became more and more convinced that he was staying deliberately out of touch.

Well, she thought fatalistically. That answered that question.

At least with the kittens around, she

wouldn't have to resort to dusting lightbulbs.

* * *

The doorbell rang at four-thirty in the afternoon. The kittens scampered along as she ran to the door and unlocked it. Then she picked up a kitten in each hand and shouted, "The door's open! Jack?"

"No, ma'am. Ralphie." A tall young man in the blue-and-red uniform of a delivery service held a small padded envelope out to her. Then, seeing her handfuls of kittens, tucked his clipboard under his arm and took them from her. "Will you sign the sheet, please?" he asked, turning to the side so she could take the clipboard.

Surprised and confused--and disappointed that he wasn't Jack--Jade dropped the package on a nearby chair and signed the sheet. They juggled the exchange of kittens and clipboard, then he pulled the door closed after him with a polite thank-you.

Jade put the kittens down. They scampered off to attack the spool of ribbon as she sat in a corner of the sofa with the package.

Was it from another unhappy client who'd wasted no time returning an unfortunate choice of gift? she wondered.

The envelope had been stapled closed and she ripped it open, pulling a flat square box out of it. The white box with the B in gold script for Blumenthal's was instantly familiar.

Her heartbeat began to accelerate. She pulled the lid slowly off the box and screamed. The kittens stopped midfrolic to stare at her like two little statues, green eyes wide, backs arched.

On a bed of glittered cotton lay a simple gold key ring. On it was a key Jade recognized as Jack's. And the bauble on the key ring was a simple gold band with a heart-shaped diamond on it the size of a garbanzo.

Hands shaking, Jade looked inside the envelope again and found a note card embossed with the scripted B. With shaking hands she opened it. "Dear Jade. This is the key to our home, our hearts, our lives. Please let yourself in. Love, Jack, Andy and Ashley."

Jade screamed again. The kittens ran into the kitchen.

* * *

Night had fallen and Jack still hadn't heard from Jade. He paced nervously the length of the living room, a child on either side of him, trying to keep up.

"What do we do if she doesn't come?" Ashley asked at a full trot.

"Simple," Andy replied for him. "We go get her. Right, Dad?"

Jack was beginning to believe that was the only way this was going to turn out in his favor. He wasn't usually one to resort to Neanderthal tactics, but he was rapidly losing patience--and hope.

"Right, Andy." He turned resolutely toward the guest closet. "Get your jackets. We're-" He stopped abruptly at the sound of a car in the driveway.

Andy ran to the window, Ashley pushing herself between her brother and the chair to peer through the drapes.

"It's her!" Andy shouted. "Dad, she came!"

Ashley ran to the door, but Jack stopped her from opening it with a shout.

"But, Daddy--"

"We're not sure why she came yet," he said reasonably. "She might just want to give me back the ring. We have to wait and let her do what she's come to do."

"She's coming up the walk," Andy reported from the window. "And she's got something in her arms."

"What?"

"Looks like a basket."

Great, Jack thought. He was waiting for a declaration of love and she was bringing cookies.

Ashley pushed between Andy and the window.

"She's ready to knock, Daddy!"

There was a small commotion on the other side of the door, but no knock.

"What's happening?" Jack demanded of

Andy.

"We can't see!" Andy said. "The post is in the way!"

Jack suppressed an impulse to run to the door and yank it open. He folded his arms to stop himself from fidgeting and stood his ground, several yards from[fj the door.

Then, like a miracle, he heard the sound he'd longed to hear since the moment he met her. It was

the sound of a key in the lock. His key. Her key.

It turned and she stumbled into the front hall, clutching a basket in her arms. It seemed to have a life of its own, spinning out of her grip, climbing her, then tumbling out of her arms, spilling two balls of gray fur.

"The kittens!" Ashley screamed in delight and ran off in pursuit as they dashed for the sofa.

Jade looked as though she'd been to war. Her coat was off one shoulder, her hair was atumble and her purse had fallen to the floor with the basket, the contents scattered across the hallway tile.

But Jack's heart lurched against his ribs as he noted that her smile was bright and filled with love--and focused right on him.

"Hi, honey," she said with a little laugh. "I'm home."