Man With A Mission. Muriel Jensen

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СКАЧАТЬ reminded her. “Certainly you can forgive each other for behaving like children.”

      Jackie closed her eyes tightly against the image her brain tried to form of that time. She didn’t want to see it. There’d certainly been grave and very adult consequences for the actions Addy considered childish.

      “Just wanted to welcome you to the building,” Jackie said, stepping out into the hall and turning to force a smile for Addy. “If there are any problems with the space, please call,”

      Addy sighed dispiritedly. “I will, Jackie. Thank you.”

      Jackie headed back the way she’d come, eager now to get upstairs. With Hank Whitcomb occupying office space in the basement, this would no longer be the place to hide from her councilmen.

      In the dark corridor before she made the turn, she collided with something large and hard in the shadows. She knew what it was even before firm hands grabbed her to steady her.

      Could this day get any worse? She drew a breath and cloaked herself in mayoral dignity. “Hello, Hank,” she said.

      CHAPTER TWO

      HANK KNEW HE’D COLLIDED with Jackie even before he heard the sound of her voice. Her scent was different, but she was using the same shampoo she’d used seventeen years ago. The collision brought her cap of red-blond hair right under his nose, and the peach and coconut fragrance filled his senses with memories he’d kept a lid on for most of his adult life.

      He saw her slender and naked in his arms, her gray eyes looking into his as though he controlled the universe. He saw her laughing, her eyes alight. Then he saw her crying, her eyes drowning in a misery to which he’d hardened his heart.

      Why had he done that? he wondered now, as though he’d never considered it before. Then he remembered. Because she’d taken all their dreams and thrown them away.

      He felt a curious whisper of movement against his hipbone and suddenly all memories of her as a girl vanished as he realized that her rounded body was pressed against him. For an instant he entertained the thought that if things had gone according to plan all those years ago, this would be his baby.

      But the intervening years had taught him not to look back.

      Aware that he held her arms, he pushed her a step back from him, waited a moment to make sure she was steady, then lowered his hands.

      She hadn’t had this imperious manner then, he thought, looking down into her haughty expression.

      “Jackie,” he said with a quick smile. If she could behave like cool royalty to show him she didn’t care about their past, he would be friendly, to prove that he held nothing against her, because it had never really mattered anyway. “How are you? I wanted to talk that day we met at the dentist, but you were in such a hurry.”

      She looked as though she didn’t know what to do for a moment. He liked seeing her confusion. The day he’d left Maple Hill, she’d made him think he was wrong, and that had confused him for a long time. Pay-back was satisfying.

      She folded her arms over her stomach, then apparently deciding that looked too domestic, dropped her arms and assumed a duchess-to-peasant stiffness.

      “I’m well, thank you,” she replied. “I just came to welcome you to City Hall.”

      “I appreciate that.” He smiled again, taking her arm and trying to lead her back toward the office. “Mom’s in…”

      She yanked her arm away, her duchess demeanor abandoned in a spark of temper. She caught herself and drew another breath. “We’ve already talked,” she said politely. “I told her if you have any problems, to let us know.”

      “Shall I call you?” he asked, all effusive good nature.

      Her eyes reflected distress at the thought, though she didn’t bat an eyelash. “No, Will Dancer will be taking care of tenants. Extension 202.”

      He nodded. “We’ve been in touch a couple of times about updating the building’s wiring with circuit breakers.”

      “We can’t afford to do that,” she said.

      He shrugged a shoulder. “It’ll reduce your insurance on the building. Dancer thinks it’s a good idea. And I’m pretty reasonable.”

      He realized the opening he’d given her the moment the words were out of his mouth.

      “Really,” she said, old pain furrowing her brow. “That’s not the way I remember it.”

      He didn’t understand it. It had been all her fault. So why did the pain on her face hurt him?

      She turned and started to walk away.

      He followed, determined to maintain the I-don’t-care-it-doesn’t-matter pose. “I meant,” he said calmly, “that I provide a good service at a reasonable price.”

      “Well, that’s what the city would be looking for,” she said, steaming around the corner, past the other offices and toward the stairs, “if we could afford to do such a thing. But Will Dancer notwithstanding, we can’t.”

      She turned at the bottom of the stairs to look him in the eye. “I hope you didn’t move your office here in the hope of securing City Hall business.”

      He liked this part. “I have City Hall business,” he said, letting himself gloat just a little. “Dancer hired me to replace all the old swag lamps with lighted ceiling fans. He also invited me to submit a bid for rewiring.”

      She’d always hated to be thwarted. Curiously, he remembered that with more amusement than annoyance.

      “Just stay out of my way,” she said, all pretense dropped and her finger pointed at his face.

      He thought that a curious threat coming from a rather small pregnant woman. It suggested black eyes and broken kneecaps.

      He rested a foot on the bottom step, his own temper stirred despite his pose of nonchalance. “I know it’s probably difficult to grasp this,” he said, “when you’ve been prom queen, Miss Maple Lake Festival and all-around darling of the community, but you don’t control everything. I am free to move about, and if that happens to put me in your way, I’m sorry, but you’ll have to deal with it.”

      Angry color filled her cheeks. “I do run this city hall.” Her voice was breathless in her apparent attempt to keep the volume down. “And if you get in my way, I can get your bid ignored so fast you won’t know what happened. And I can also see that no other city business comes your way ever!”

      It was almost comfortable to fight with her again. This was familiar ground. “You’re sounding just like the mayor you and my sister helped replace. The one who got too full of his own importance and eventually stole hundreds of thousands from the city and held the two of you at gunpoint? You remember? The one who’s still doing time.”

      She sighed and rolled her eyes. “You don’t see me holding anyone at gunpoint, do you? And I don’t need anyone else’s money.”

      “You just threatened to arbitrarily deprive me of my livelihood. I’m sure Haley, as the city’s watchdog, СКАЧАТЬ