Ask Anyone

She bristled defiantly at his tone and the warning. “Have you made up your mind, then? Are you turning down my proposal?”

He hesitated.

“Well?” she prodded. “Can you look me in the eye and tell me it’s not exactly what you would have described, if I’d asked you how you saw the waterfront developing?”

“No,” he conceded with obvious reluctance. “But that doesn’t change anything. The two of us working together is a bad idea.”

“Why?”

“It just is.”

“Just what I like,” she said scathingly. “A businessman who has solid, rational reasons for his decisions.”

“It’s my decision to make,” he reminded her with exaggerated patience.

“Then don’t let it be a bad one,” she pleaded. “It’s too important. At least say you’ll think it over.”

“I don’t know,” he said, his expression troubled.

“Come on. What do you have to lose?”

“My sanity,” he muttered.

She chuckled at the plaintive note in his voice. “I swear, I will do my very best not to drive you crazy.”

“Too late.” He reached in his pocket and pulled out a rectangle of paper and slid it across the table.

Jenna looked at it but didn’t reach for it. “What’s that?”

“A check.”

Hope stirred inside her. Was this the down payment on the deal? They hadn’t talked money, but maybe he’d decided on a nominal retainer. She swallowed hard and met his gaze. “For?”

“The horse,” he said quietly. “It’s the amount you mentioned. It should cover the loss.”

Her stomach fell. “You’re paying me off to go away?”

He nodded. “That’s the idea.”

Jenna shoved the check back across the table, spilling her tea in the process. She paid no attention as it ran straight toward her lap. “Forget it,” she said fiercely.

She wasn’t about to let Bobby Spencer buy her off with a check to cover the cost of the carousel horse. She wanted a contract for the waterfront development and her blasted horse. Nothing less would do.

And if she had to pack up Darcy and take up residence right here in Trinity Harbor until she got what she wanted, well, that was what she’d do.

“I’m not going anywhere, Bobby. Get used to it.”

He seemed completely nonplussed by her vehemence. “But your daughter—”

“Is out of school for the summer,” she retorted. “I can have her down here with me by tomorrow.”

“Your job—”

She made a quick decision and met his gaze evenly. “ This is my job. Getting this contract is my chance to make something happen in my career. I’m not walking away from it without a fight.”

The fact that her announcement made Bobby look as if he’d been punched right in the gut was just so much icing on the cake.

“Where’s Jenna?” Maggie asked, when Bobby returned to his office after lunch.

“Gone, I hope.”

Maggie seemed surprised and a little disappointed. “For good? I thought she was made of tougher stuff than that.”

“I should be so lucky,” Bobby said with a resigned sigh. “No, I imagine she’ll be back.”

His secretary grinned. “Good. I liked her.”

“That doesn’t surprise me. You’re cut from the same cloth.” He regarded her pointedly and added, “Neither one of you knows when to let well enough alone.”

“Okay, I get it,” Maggie said agreeably. “By the way, Richard called from the paper. He’s on his way over. He heard about the theft.”

“Why didn’t you tell him to talk to Tucker?”

“How do you think he heard about it?” Maggie retorted.

“Well, hell,” Bobby muttered. What good was it being the sheriff’s brother, if the man was going to blab your business all over town?

“Think of it this way,” Maggie advised. “It could be worse. It could be your father on his way over.”

“You have a point,” Bobby agreed, but his momentary cheer faded quickly.

Why had King been so silent? Usually he liked to make his opinions known. His silence did not bode well. Either he was sick or he was up to something. Since King was healthy as a horse, it was more likely the latter. Bobby started to reach for the phone, then stopped himself.

“Be grateful,” he muttered.

Maggie eyed him curiously. “What?”

“Nothing. When Richard comes, send him over to the kitchen. I’m going to experiment with a new crab recipe.” Maybe he could find a spice that would cover the taste of arsenic. The list of people he’d like to serve it to was getting longer and longer.

5

H iding out in Trinity Harbor for a few weeks began to seem more and more sensible as Jenna drove back to Baltimore. Not only would it give her time to land the development contract, but it would lessen the odds that her father would find out about that missing horse and the money she’d squandered on the carousel. Hopefully she’d recover the stolen horse in the meantime, as well.

And a nice long vacation with Darcy could only be a good thing, too. They needed to spend some quality time together. Maybe Jenna could actually manage to reestablish the fact that she was the mother and Darcy was the kid. Her daughter seemed to be a little mixed up on that point.

The more Jenna considered her plan, the more she warmed to it. By the time she turned into the tree-lined drive at her father’s house, she was convinced it was the second-smartest idea she’d ever had. The brightest was going after that development contract in the first place. It was exactly the kind of dramatic gesture that could change the rest of her life. If she made a success of this, her father would have to acknowledge her. He would have to give her more to do than answering phones and typing letters.

After just two days in Trinity Harbor, walking into her father’s house reminded her of just how pretentious her lifestyle had been up to now. There was too much of everything. Too many ornate antiques cluttered the rooms. Heavy draperies shrouded the windows. Vases filled with fresh flowers filled all the rooms with an overpowering sweet scent. Her father—or more precisely, his decorators—had access to more money than taste.