Island Hearts (Jenny's Turn and Stray Lady) Read Online Free PDF Page A

at her. If she did, he’d have a question in his eyes. Yes? What did you want, Jennifer?
    She would have no answer, so she went back to the computer, opened the browser again and started asking for more information.
    A few minutes later, she looked over and saw him slipping out of his suit jacket, tossing it towards a nearby chair without looking to see if it had landed.
    He held his shoulders stiffly. She could see the muscles moving through his light shirt. If she were Monica, she’d walk over and massage his shoulders, soothe the stiffness away.
    What was wrong with her these last couple of days? All these years, she’d kept her crazy attraction to him under control. Now, suddenly, she kept looking, imagining, wanting. She couldn’t seem to stop herself.
    He didn’t notice when she picked up his jacket, hanging it on the coat rack near the door. He didn’t look up until she put on her own coat.
    “Going home?” He dropped the pen, leaning back as if he were giving up for the night, too.
    “Yes.” She slid her hands into the pockets, feeling for her keys. “I’ll be back in tomorrow.”
    “I won’t.” He kneaded the back of his neck with one hand, wincing as he did. “I’m going over to Victoria for the weekend.”
    She said tonelessly, “I know. Monica told me.”
    “Do you want me to drive you home?” He stood up, started looking around.
    “Your jacket’s here on the hook,” she told him. He spotted it then and nodded, moving towards her and the jacket. Self consciously, she stepped back. “I don’t need a ride. I’ve got my car. Don’t stop working.”
    “It’s all right.” He looked back at the easel, nodding to himself. “I’ve got it now. I had an idea – I had to get it on paper.”
    She shook off a fanciful idea that he was lonely, that he didn’t want her to go yet.
    He took his jacket off the hook, his eyes watching her with uncomfortable intensity. “Jennifer, you’re acting oddly these last couple of days. Is everything all right with you?”
    Surely there was no way that he could know how she really felt? She said firmly, “I’m fine. It was a surprise seeing George again.” The distraction worked. He frowned at George’s name and she buttoned her coat right up to the neck, shivering again. “Jake?”
    “What?” he asked absently.
    She hesitated, but she had to know. “Are you going to marry Monica?”
    Jake’s eyes were too darkly shuttered. Jenny hadn’t a chance of seeing his expression. She felt his sudden stillness, knew he was watching her with a look she couldn’t interpret. She looked down at the buttons of her coat, absently undoing the top one, then doing it back up again.
    “Am I going to marry Monica?” he repeated slowly, thoughtfully. “Yes, I probably will.”
    She didn’t answer. She had thought she was prepared, but she hadn’t really believed it was true. She felt her face grow stiff, knew that she mustn’t let him see. She bent over her buttons again, then turned her collar up and moved towards the door.
    “Jennifer—” She heard him move behind her. She grasped the door handle and turned it. She had to get away from him, quickly.
    “Goodnight, Jake.“

Chapter 3

    Jake slammed the door and erupted into the office, his camera and attaché case tangled with the overcoat slung over his arm. In the next room, Jenny stopped pretending to concentrate on the notes in front of her. She’d been waiting all morning for Jake to come in.
    Last night she’d tried to convince herself that she didn’t care who Jake married. In spite of Hans – in spite of her own relegation to the drudgery jobs this last year – she didn’t want to stop working for Jake.
    Sometime in the night, before the sun rose again, she’d finally admitted to herself that she couldn’t bear to watch Jake and Monica making their life together. She didn’t know exactly when it had happened, but she’d fallen in love with Jake.
    Now she had to get herself far away from