Free Love Songs by Barbara Delinsky

that worries you?” When she hesitated he helped her. “The men? They’re still at it?”
    A sheepish smile crossed her face. “Unfortunately, yes. Brian had a good line this morning.” She imitated his drawl. “I tried to get you last night, Alanna.…”
    “And did you explain where you’d been?” Jake, who knew about the IAT study, asked.
    “Of course not!” she snapped. “I don’t have to explain myself to Brian or anyone else!”
    At her vehement defense her mentor grinned. “I agree with you. That’s precisely why you should accept this promotion to Executive V.P. without hesitation. You’ve earned it and you do the work. That’s all that matters.” He frowned. “By the way, how did it go last night? Any great insight as to the cause of the problem or a solution to it?”
    Alanna shook her head, leaning comfortably against the edge of Jake’s credenza. “No. It’s very interesting—everything that Ellen Henderson told me about insomnia. And I am hopeful. As for last night, however, I’m afraid I have to chalk it up to experience.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “It was an introductory night. I was—as they put it—‘wired up’ to establish my sleep pattern. The real work, if you can call it that, begins tonight.” Even as she talked her mind had shifted to another topic. “Jake,” she heard herself speak right out, “have you ever heard of Alex Knight?”
    “Of course I’ve heard of him. Only someone who is deaf, dumb and blind could not be aware of the Knight family!”
    “I guess I put that poorly.” She smiled self-consciously, thereby attracting Jake’s even more intense scrutiny. “ What do you know about the man?”
    “Why?”
    It was a typical Jake Wallace rejoinder, bringing a broader, more relaxed smile to Alanna’s face. “I can always count on you, Jake,” she shook her head in acknowledgement, “to get right to the point.”
    “That’s how I got where I am, my dear. You should know that by now.”
    “Oh, I know it very well! You seem to be able to sift out the important questions from the unimportant ones. How do you do that?”
    It wasn’t the first time she had asked him the question; as in other instances, he humored her. “Instinct, Alanna. You’ve got it, too. And, I’m still waiting—”
    “For what?” Her blond brows met just above her glasses.
    “For an answer to my question. Why do you want to know about Alexander Knight?”
    “He asked me to marry him.” She dropped the bomb without a blink.
    Jake did blink. Several times. “He what?”
    Alanna stifled her enjoyment of his surprise. Right about now it did sound like an uproarious joke. “Actually, he didn’t ask me. He told me. He told me that I was going to be his wife.”
    “Now just a minute. Is he on the up-and-up?” There was a paternalism about Jake that warmed Alanna to her core. If only her own father had been like this—concerned, excited, protective. But her own father had been in a world of his own—and her relationship with him was a world away.
    “He’s repeated it several times. He says that he plans to marry me.” She shrugged, as though it were the most normal thing in the world to receive a marriage proposition from a man of the apparent social standing of Alex Knight. “Now I need to know what you know about him.”
    “Rumor in corporate circles has it that the man’s a whiz. His daddy was one in his day; this one is supposedly new and better. Have you known him long? You never told me—”
    “I don’t know him! I just met him last night—at the hospital, if you can believe it! He’s terribly arrogant.”
    “And a very good catch!” Jake’s quip caught her off guard.
    “Jake, you know how I feel about that. Marriage isn’t my thing. I’m very happy with my life the way it is. Jake…” her tone was warning, “I don’t like the way you’re smiling.”
    Jake was, indeed, smiling broadly now. “Sorry, Alanna, but I really think the idea has potential.