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the window display as charming and inviting as the woman herself. He stood outside several moments, his hands buried in his lambskin-lined jacket.
    Uncomfortable emotions came at him like poisoned darts, infecting him with all the might-have-beens in his life. He’d chosen this lifestyle, thrived on the challenge. No drug could produce the physical or emotional high of a successfully completed mission. No drug and no woman.
    Then why was he standing in the cold like a lovelorn teenager, hoping for a glimpse of a widow he’d met briefly one night at a Christmas party? Clearly there were a few screws loose. The military had a word for this: battle fatigue. What he needed was a few uninterrupted days by himself to put his life back in the proper perspective.
    Montana. Christmas was the perfect excuse to escape for a few days. It was long past time that he visited his ranch. He heard from the foreman he’d hired every now and again, but it had been well over a year since Cain had last visited the five-thousand-acre spread.
    His strides filled with purpose, he walked along the pier until he saw a sign for World Wide Travel. After stepping inside the agency, he moved to the counter and waited his turn. A smartly dressed professional greeted him with a smile and arranged for his airline ticket to Helena, Montana. The only seats available were in first class, but Cain could well afford the extravagance. It was a small price to pay to escape San Francisco and the beautiful widow who’d captured his mind.
    Experiencing a small sense of satisfaction, Cain tucked the airline ticket into the inside pocket of his jacket and continued on his way, moving down the waterfront and farther away from Linette. Farther away from temptation.
    He was just beginning to think he had this minor curiosity licked when out of the blue, he saw her. For a moment it felt as if someone had inadvertently hit him against the back of the head. He went stock-still.
    From the way her shoulders hunched forward he could see that she was tired. She stood in line at a fish and chips place, working to open the clasp of her shoulder bag. The wind whipped her hair about her face, and she lifted a finger to wrap a thick strand of dark hair around her ear.
    The smart thing to do was to turn around, without delay, and walk away as fast as his feet would carry him. He’d gotten what he wanted. One last look at her, without her knowing. His curiosity should be satisfied.
    Even as his mind formulated the thought, Cain knew just seeing Linette again wasn’t nearly enough. He wanted to talk to her and get to know her. He wanted to sit down across a table from her and discover what it was about her that made a man who’d built his life around pride and discipline risk making a world-class fool of himself.
     
    Linette was exhausted. She couldn’t remember a day when she’d done a more brisk business. Instead of celebrating over the highest gross income achieved in a single workday, she felt like falling into bed and sleeping for a week. She wanted to ignore Christmas, the hustle and bustle, the joy and goodwill.
    It was Nancy’s news, too, Linette realized. It wasn’t that she begrudged Rob and Nancy every happiness. She was thrilled for them. Yet it was all so painful. Sheached for the child she’d never have with Michael and all the dreams they’d once shared.
    Christmas, coupled with the anniversary of Michael’s death and the news of the baby, weighed down her heart as surely as if it had been tied with concrete blocks and carelessly flung into the Bay.
    As she advanced toward the take-out window, Linette realized she wasn’t hungry. What appetite she’d had vanished. Stepping out of line, she secured the clasp of her purse and turned to head up the wharf.
    It was then that she saw Cain. Linette’s heart gave a short, rapid-fire reaction. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, he’d been in her thoughts most of the day.
    His eyes locked with hers as if the