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her insides out. Attempting to keep the conversation light, she added, “Now what if it had been a supplier on the other end, demanding past due money? You certainly wouldn’t want me to hear that. I might pull my firm out of the job and leave you with your dirt piled up to the eaves.”
    Nick grinned. “If it were a creditor, I’d already be hiding in the bathroom with your cat.”
    “He wouldn’t let you in.”
    “I’d like to see him try to kick me out.”
    She looked away, staring at nothing.
    “What’s the matter, Jess?”
    Her appetite gone, she wrapped up the remains of her lunch and stood up.
    “Jess?”
    “I like you, Nick,” she said in a low voice.
    “I’m glad.”
    “Don’t be. You’ll hate me in the end.”

Seven
    “Jess! You made it!”
    “Of course, I made it,” Jess said. She kissed Marty Fitzgerald on the cheek. A din of voices and laughter flowed from the living room, and she glanced inside. “The party looks like it’s going strong.”
    “Naturally.” Marty chuckled, as he helped her out of her black velvet coat, and raised his eyebrows. She was wearing a black dress whose skirt ended several inches above her knee and whose lace top gave the illusion of sheerness. “I’d leer, but I’m a happily married man.”
    Jess grinned. “Marty, how can someone who looks so cherubic have the heart of a lecher?”
    “Ask my wife.” He linked her arm through his. “Come on. I can’t wait to see the eyes pop when our guests see you in that dress.”
    The living room was crammed with people, but she instantly spotted Sandy, who hurried over to her.
    “I hope to heaven you don’t have a band hiding anywhere,” Sandy said, hugging her. “This is one anniversary I’d like to be nice and quiet.”
    “
This
,” Jess asked, “is quiet?”
    “Compared to your ideas for an anniversary celebration, it’s very quiet,” Sandy said tartly. She gave Marty a loving look. “Thank goodness, this was my year for the joke.”
    “I noticed,” Jess muttered.
    Sandy and Marty left her to greet more arrivals. She drifted among the guests, until she was standing alone by the mantelpiece, looking over the room. Animated conversations flowed about her, yet she found none enticing enough to join. She felt oddly out of place tonight, but she wasn’t sure why. She knew a number of people in the room very well, and she always enjoyed parties.…
    Then she caught herself searching for a face among the guests.
    She was looking for Nick.
    Dammit, she thought, remembering her strange eagerness when dressing for the party. She’d taken extra pains with her appearance. Had she wanted to wear something spectacular in the subconscious hope he would be here?
    She had to stop this. Only this afternoon she’d been warning him off … and herself as well. But knowing something or someone was off limits only made the wanting stronger. It was a very human reaction, she thought. Lately, she had been having a lot of them.
    “If you wanted my attention, you certainly picked the dress for it,” a voice said.
    She knew who had spoken even before she turned to face him.
    Nick stared at the front of her dress with frank admiration. “How does it hide your … ah …”
    “Prayer,” she said, chuckling at his consternation. His gaze seemed to heat her skin.
    “Good thing I’m an agnostic.”
    In his three-piece suit, white silk shirt, and elegantly knotted striped tie, he looked like he’d just stepped out of
Gentleman’s Quarterly.
But then Nick’s workclothes always seemed custom-made too. She almost asked when he had arrived, then realized it would sound as if she’d been waiting for him.
    “Been here long?” he asked, taking her elbow. She tried to suppress her awareness of his touch as he steered her around through the crowd.
    “Not too long. Where are we going?”
    “To find a drink.”
    He was acting as if she’d never said anything out of the ordinary this afternoon, she thought. In fact, he