Free Home for Love by Ellen James Page B

grudgingly, still feeling at a disadvantage. She watched as the dark green Jaguar purred out the drive and down McClary Hill.
    Gloria Nestor was an enigma. She had seemed genuinely pleased to talk to Kate and hadn't sounded patronizing even when she gave the advice about cultivating contacts. And yet something rang false; Gloria seemed to have an ulterior motive in coming here today. She probably hadn't even intended to see Steven at all. More than likely she'd come to check out the competition—Kate.
    Kate poked her fingers into her new pair of flowered gardening gloves. Competing with Gloria for Steven's affections seemed so foolish, so hazardous. Already she was too bound to Steven, wondering if she would ever be able to break completely free of him. Already she felt too much pain just knowing that Steven and Gloria would spend another evening together.
    Kate pulled off her gloves and tossed them down like gauntlets, in a challenge to herself. She wouldn't succumb to the hurt inside her, but would battle it with wholesome physical labor. She strode over to the new lawn mower she'd purchased, pushing it around to the back of the house where the lawn sloped down before her in a wild tangle of grass. She yanked on the starter and the machine leapt into life, traveling forward with a momentum all its own. Kate pulled on the handle, but it was already too late. The lawn mower had gained speed and was racing down the steep hill. All she could do was hang on and fly along after it.
    They both landed in a clump of quack grass, and the engine cut off abruptly. Kate struggled to her feet, brushing off her shorts and craning her neck to stare up at the house. The steepness of the lawn was more than she'd bargained for, but she wasn't defeated yet. She grasped the handle of the mower and started pulling it back up the hill. Every muscle straining against the force of gravity, she advanced a little—then a little more.
    "What's going on now?" Steven's voice demanded from above her. She stopped, the sweat trickling down her face. She didn't dare look up for fear of losing her grip.
    "Hello, Steven. I'm mowing, as you can see."
    "I can see, all right."
    "Well… so, if you don't mind, I'll just get on with it." She licked the corner of her mouth. Her hands were beginning to slip from perspiration and she bent back a little further against the weight of the machine.
    "You're supposed to be an interior decorator," Steven's voice shot down to her. "Not an exterior one!"
    "Well, you know what we were talking about the other day," she panted. "My overall scheme? If I'm going to look at the house—as a whole—I have to include the lawn—" The mower slipped out of her grasp and went crashing down the hill. She tried to look as if that was exactly what she'd intended. Taking out her bandanna—
his
bandanna—she patted her face.
    Steven climbed down beside her. He seemed ready for a good argument, but then he simply looked at her. His gaze felt like a caress.
    "Sunlight," he said musingly. "You have eyes full of sunlight. Did you know that?"
    Kate stared at the soft cotton of his shirt. She stood without moving, almost without breathing. She knew she should turn away from him before her defenses crumbled, yet everything in her ached to be near him.
    "Gloria came by," she blurted out, using the words as a barrier. "She wanted you to pick her up early tonight… before the opera."
    Steven looked puzzled. "What opera? Nobody told me about this."
    "Gloria didn't say anything else about it."
    Steven groaned. "My client keeps arranging these evenings of his without consulting me first. I hate opera."
    Kate rubbed a scrape on her elbow. She had assumed that Steven and Gloria would be sharing an intimate evening alone. But apparently it wasn't going to be like that at all! Kate felt a surge of relief and happiness. The intensity of her emotions startled her, but anything to do with Steven seemed to affect her this way—no half-measures allowed. He