Man With A Mission. Muriel Jensen

wish,” Jackie replied, then realized that she didn’t really. Foot rubs would be nice, but hardly worth the anguish a husband could inflict otherwise.

      “Me, too. So, you’re having this baby alone?”

      Jackie concluded that Parker had to be new in town. “I was widowed right after I got pregnant. But this is my third, so I kind of know what I’m doing.”

      “That’s nice,” Parker said wistfully. “I know all about pregnancies—what to eat, how to exercise, how to massage to relieve strain and pressure. But I’ve never had the experience. Two husbands but no baby.”

      “I’m sorry.” Men weren’t always worth the time devoted to a marriage, but children were. “I’ll bring mine by to meet you,” Jackie said with a grin. “Then you might think you’ve had a lucky escape.”

      Parker walked her to the door of her office.

      “My purse is in my…” Jackie began, pointing upstairs.

      “That was free of charge,” Parker insisted. “Just tell your friends I’m here. I’m taking out an ad in the Mirror, but it won’t come out until next Thursday.”

      “I will. And good luck. If you have trouble with heat or plumbing or anything, let us know.”

      Parker promised that she would, then waved as she went back to the side door, apparently to retrieve more boxes.

      Jackie rotated her shoulders as she passed the two dark and empty spaces. She’d have to find a way to work a massage into her daily schedule.

      She turned a corner and walked down a small hallway that led to the last office. The hallway was dark, she noted. She would have to see that a light was installed overhead.

      She peered into the only office on this side of the building and was stunned to see a figure she knew well standing in the middle of the room and looking around with satisfaction at what appeared to be a well-organized office.

      “Adeline!” Jackie exclaimed, walking into the office, her arms open. “What are you doing here?” Adeline Whitcomb was her best friend’s mother and the girls’ Sunday School teacher.

      “Jackie!” The gray-haired woman with a short, stylish cut and bright blue eyes went right into Jackie’s arms. “I didn’t have a chance to tell you I was moving into City Hall.”

      Jackie looked around as they drew away from each other. There were file cabinets against the wall, a map of the city tacked up on one side, a large one of the county on the other. A small portable bar sat under the city map, with a coffeepot on it and a box from the bakery. A low table held a cordless phone atop a phone book. A quilt rack took up considerable space in one corner of the room.

      “Are you going into business, Adeline?” Jackie asked, knowing that Addy’s skills as a quilter were legendary. She’d made one for each of Jackie’s girls when they were born. “Have you found a way to make quilting profitable?”

      Adeline looked amused by that suggestion. “As if,” she said, then lowered her eyes and looked away for a moment, as though uncomfortable holding Jackie’s gaze.

      Jackie had a horrible premonition. “This is Hank’s office,” she guessed.

      Adeline smiled and sighed, as though she’d suddenly made up her mind about something. “It is. I’m tidying things up while he moves things in. And the quilt rack is here because I’ll be his office staff and help organize all the men.”

      Jackie’s horror was derailed for a moment. “All the men? Does he have partners?”

      “No. I thought you knew he started Whitcomb’s Wonders.” Adeline went on to explain about the on-call service of tradesmen and craftsmen Hank had started. If anyone had told her, she hadn’t listened. She automatically tuned out when his name was mentioned.

      “You know, he’s been back in Maple Hill for six months, Jackie,” Addy went on. “It’s time you two stopped pretending the other doesn’t exist.”

      Great. The ten pounds Parker’s massage had alleviated were now back with a vengeance and, against all anatomical good sense, sitting right in the middle of her shoulders. She started to back toward the door. She would never deliberately hurt Adeline, but she would avoid crossing paths with Hank at all costs.

      “It’s great that you’ll be here,” she said diplomatically. “Maybe you and I can have coffee or lunch.”

      “It’s childish and nonproductive,” Adeline said, ignoring Jackie’s invitation. Exasperation was visible in her eyes. “You’re going to be in the same building. You have to come to terms with this.”

      “We’ve come to terms with each other, Addy.” Jackie put both hands to her back, the pressure there tightening at the very mention of Hank’s name. “We like pretending the other doesn’t exist. Then we don’t have to remember the past or deal with each other in the present.”

      “You were children when all this happened,” Adeline reminded her. “Certainly you can forgive each other for behaving like children.”

      Jackie closed her eyes tightly against the image her brain tried to form of that time. She didn’t want to see it. There’d certainly been grave and very adult consequences for the actions Addy considered childish.

      “Just wanted to welcome you to the building,” Jackie said, stepping out into the hall and turning to force a smile for Addy. “If there are any problems with the space, please call,”

      Addy sighed dispiritedly. “I will, Jackie. Thank you.”

      Jackie headed back the way she’d come, eager now to get upstairs. With Hank Whitcomb occupying office space in the basement, this would no longer be the place to hide from her councilmen.

      In the dark corridor before she made the turn, she collided with something large and hard in the shadows. She knew what it was even before firm hands grabbed her to steady her.

      Could this day get any worse? She drew a breath and cloaked herself in mayoral dignity. “Hello, Hank,” she said.

      CHAPTER TWO

      HANK KNEW HE’D COLLIDED with Jackie even before he heard the sound of her voice. Her scent was different, but she was using the same shampoo she’d used seventeen years ago. The collision brought her cap of red-blond hair right under his nose, and the peach and coconut fragrance filled his senses with memories he’d kept a lid on for most of his adult life.

      He saw her slender and naked in his arms, her gray eyes looking into his as though he controlled the universe. He saw her laughing, her eyes alight. Then he saw her crying, her eyes drowning in a misery to which he’d hardened his heart.

      Why had he done that? he wondered now, as though he’d never considered it before. Then he remembered. Because she’d taken all their dreams and thrown them away.

      He felt a curious whisper of movement against his hipbone and suddenly all memories of her as a girl vanished as he realized that her rounded body was pressed against him. For an instant he entertained the thought that if things had gone according to plan all those years ago, this would be his baby.

      But the intervening years had taught him not to look back.

      Aware that he held her arms, he pushed her a step back from him, waited a moment to make sure she was steady, then lowered his hands.

      She hadn’t had this imperious manner then, he thought, looking down into her haughty expression.

      “Jackie,” he said with a quick smile. If she could behave like cool royalty to show him she didn’t care about their past, he would be friendly, to prove that he held nothing against her, because it had never really mattered anyway. “How are you? I wanted to talk that day we met at the dentist, but you were in such a hurry.”

      She looked as though she didn’t know what to do for a moment. He liked seeing her