Free Dancing in the Dark by Linda Cajio Page A

she’d know it really was Jake. Her brain, unfortunately, told her this was no vision.
    “What are you doing here?” she asked, staring up at him. She felt violated somehow, as if he’d invaded her privacy, even though it was a public restaurant.
    “I decided to stay on and see some more people I know, then take a later flight back tonight.” He smiled innocently at her.
    She narrowed her eyes. “Funny, you didn’t say anything before this.”
    “Spur-of-the-moment. All for the good of the company, you know.”
    “Dear, aren’t you going to introduce us?” her mother asked in the sweetest of voices.
    “This is my boss, Jake Halford, who is supposed to be home in New Jersey,” she replied just as sweetly. “These are my parents, Jake, Robert and Emmaline Brown.”
    “Won’t you join us?” Emmaline said, a particular gleam in her eye that said “Nosy mother’s interest on red alert.”
    “Thank you.” Jake took the fourth seat at the table as Charity clamped her lips shut on any protest. Not that a protest would do any good. Her mother was as determined as Jake. One she couldn’t cure, but the other would find himself in “detox” as soon as they got out of there. Dangerous and different, exciting and sexy, popped into her mind again, but she pushed the notions aside.
    “You should be very proud of your daughter,” Jake said. “She’s putting together a deal that’s worth millions of dollars. It’s going to save our company.”
    “Really?” Both her parents turned to look at her as if she’d grown two extra heads.
    Charity smiled at them. “That’s why I came to Boston, to see some people about it. I told you when I called, remember?” The deal didn’t have any meaning for her parents, but they took notice that it clearly did for Jake. She could almost forgive him for showing up. Almost. But she could still taste his kiss.
    “That’s wonderful,” Emmaline said, then she frowned in puzzlement.
    Charity swallowed a laugh. Anything about computers could sink only so far with her mother before it hit bedrock. And her father was looking dubiously at Jake, thank goodness. The last thing she wanted was parental approval of Jake. Maybe she ought to tell her parents about his propensity for naked fire-dancing. She could just hear her mother asking how he kept from getting certain parts burned.
    She opened her mouth …
    “I understand that you teach early-American history, sir,” Jake said to her father before she could get her words out. “And you, ma’am, are at Olde Plimoth. I follow the more ancient philosophies also. I’m a student of Bly’s.”
    “
Iron John
?” Robert asked, perking up. “The men’s movement?”
    “What’s an Iron John?” Emmaline asked.
    “A bathroom with a very cold seat?” Charity suggested.
    Jake chuckled, while her father, with less humor, sputtered a protest at her. Jake said to her mother, “It’s a book written by a poet named Robert Bly, Mrs. Brown. Bly explains the men’s movement through a little-known Grimms fairy tale called ‘Iron John.’ ”
    “It’s Emmaline, please. And I know that tale. But how does he weave this men’s movement into the fairy tale?”
    Jake launched into an explanation of a wild man, Iron John, who lived in a wood and is captured, then set free by a king’s son. John teaches the prince how to be a man. Robert, who evidentlyknew the work, chimed in with asides regarding men having lost their way from their true selves. Emmaline debated specifics, but Jake had been right. The basic philosophy of men’s jobs differing from women’s appealed to her because of her own work in Olde Plimoth.
    Charity sat back with a sigh of resignation and finished her dinner. Her parents clearly liked Jake. A lot.
    She couldn’t think of anything worse than that.

Five
    “How mad are you?” Jake asked as they settled in their seats on the last shuttle returning to Philadelphia.
    “You were a big hit with my parents,” Charity