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It wasn&039;t so hard, this being in love Abra thought it through as she swung her car into the parking lot at Thornway She didn&039;t have to act differently, live differently, be different She wasn&039;t required to change her life so ht it was possible for her to do even that, but Cody had proved her wrong For that, if only for that, she would always be grateful

If she could love hi who she was, didn&039;t that mean that when the tio on as she had before? She wanted to believe it She had to believe it

With her keys jingling in her hand and her step very light, she crossed the lot to the building The sun wasn&039;t really shining brighter this olden, more beautiful, than ever before

It was all a h the lobby, heading toward the elevators She knew all about perspective and planning and co up with a workable structure

A love affair could be engineered just like anything else They cared about each other, enjoyed each other, respected each other That was a solid foundation They shared a co Even if they cales, it was a base of sorts Fro the steel and the struts After the weekend they had shared, Abra felt confident that progress had been , they had discovered pleasures in and out of bed

She liked him That seemed almost too elementary, but to her it was a revelation It wasn&039;t only ain love She liked who he was, how he thought, how he listened Co she&039;d looked for from him, any more than she&039;d looked for passion In one weekend she&039;d discovered she could have both

Abra pushed the button for the elevator and smiled as she remembered the way they had sprawled on her couch and watched a Gary Grant festival on television Or the way they&039;d put together a ersnaps Or the way they&039;d tumbled into her ru jazz and the breakfast dishes neglected

He&039;d made her happy That in itself was more than she&039;d ever expected fro When it was time to walk away fro wonderful that had come into her life

When the elevator doors opened, she stepped through, then felt hands encircle her waist

"Going up?"

As the doors shut, Cody spun her around and captured her mouth with his She held on the way he&039;d hoped she would She answered the kiss the way he&039;d needed her to It was hardly o back to his hotel and change for the otten to hiainst the side of the car In all ways, in every way, she&039;d gotten to hi to plan how to deal with the results

"You taste good, Red" He lingered over her lips a h to look at her "And I like your face"

"Thanks" She lifted her hands to keep so here"

"I only had to change I could have done that at your place if you&039;d let s over"

She wasn&039;t ready for that If he lived there, really lived there over the next feeeks, the apartlanced up to check the progress of the car They were still at lobby level With a shake of her head she pushed the button both of theive up room service, and that neat little spa"

"Yeah" He knew she was evading him No matter how intimate they became, she still refused to take the next step and close the final gap He gave himself a moment to control his frustration, then pushed the button to stop the car between floors

"What are you doing?"

"I want to ask you soo back to work It&039;s personal" He trailed a finger from the base of her neck to her waist "As I re business with pleasure"

"That&039;s right"

"Have dinner with h, Abra reached out to start the elevator again Cody circled her wrist before she could press the button "Cody, you didn&039;t have to trap me in an elevator to ask me to have dinner"

"So you will?"

"Unless I&039;m stuck between the fourth and fifth floors"

"Ather wrist to his lips As always, it delighted him when her response caht"

The fact that he had asked rather than assumed made her smile "I&039;d like that What tihed as she pushed the button for Ti for soet to work"

Ti for thenored It took only h Tim was as jovial and expansive as ever She was forced to steht out and gone over yet again If she wasn&039;t on the site by ten, she would miss another inspection

When Tirammed the construction sequence and the estiave up She&039;d be lucky to be on the job by noon

"As you can see," Ti and the foundation were coan to fall behind was on the roofing"

"There&039;s no real problearette as he studied the chart "We ithin the usual grace period of twenty percent In fact, it looks like we&039;re noof the health club"

"No more than a day or two," Abra put in "We&039;ll be able to make it up with the cabanas At this pace the resort will be built and operational within our tiures and projections "It hasn&039;t even been three months into construction and we&039;re nearly ten percent behind" Tim held up a hand before Abra could speak "Added to that is the budget Unless we&039;re able to take soo over"

"The budget&039;s not my province" Cody topped off his coffee, then filled Tim&039;s cup He&039;d seen the builder down three in the last half hour Ulcers were ht mildly "And it&039;s not Abra&039;s But I can tell you that fro a look at the do list, you&039;re going to coet as it&039;s possible"

"Cody&039;s right We&039;ve had no major hitches on this job It&039;s run more smoothly than any I&039;ve been involved with The supplies have been delivered on tis, such as the pool roof and the parallel s in the , it&039;s been mini

"Excuse me" Tim picked up the receiver "Julie, I want you to hold my calls until - Oh Yes, of course" Tim pulled at the knot of his tie, then reached for his coffee "Yes, Marci Not yet I&039; breath as he listened "No, there hasn&039;t been tiulped more coffee "I will By this afternoon Yes, yes, I pro the back of his neck "Fine, that&039;s fine I&039;ll look at theet Bye"

He set down the phone Abra thought his smile was a bit forced when he turned back to the a little trip for next ave the chart an absent glance "You were saying?"

"I was going to point out that I think you can be very pleased with the way this job&039;s been going" Abra paused a

"I&039; breath, Tim beamed at both of thes I appreciate the input" He ca you both froer"

"Got any idea what that was all about?" Cody asked Abra as Tihtfully she walked toward the elevators "I guess he&039;s entitled to be nervous This is the first big job he&039;s taken on solo Everything else he&039;s done was already in the works when his father died"

"Thornway has a good reputation," Cody commented as they stepped inside and started down "What&039;s your opinion of Thornway junior?"

"I don&039;t like to say" Uneasy about the , Abra stared at the wall of the elevator "I was very close to his father I really loved hile, every corner and he was It was personal with him, if you knohat I mean"

"I do"

"Ti shoes to fill"

They crossed the lobby and started out to the parking lot together "How tight do you figure he bid this job?"

"Close Maybe too close" She narrowed her eyes against the sun as she thought the probleh "But I can&039;t believe he&039;d be reckless enough to risk taking a loss on so of this size The penalty clause is a whopper, that I do know" She fished out her keys, frowning "Enough to put the fear of God into anyone It&039;s offset by a bonus if the job co too heavily on the bonus" With a shrug, Cody leaned against Abra&039;s car "Seeave a quick, unladylike snort "That&039;s a nice way to talk about acollar she had on the other night would have set old Tim back five or six thousand"

"Thousand?" Her interest piqued, Abra stopped in the act of sliding into her car "Was it real?"

Pulled back frorinned "You&039;re awfully cute, Red"

She alot the best of her "Well, was it?"

"Wolass and paste"

"No, I suppose not," she murmured But five thousand - she just couldn&039;t conceive of it Thata new car, or a piece of equipment, or - she could think of a dozen uses for five thousand dollarsa wo?"

"That heit "But the man&039;s entitled to spend his money however he chooses"

"Maybe he considers it an investht back to the night of the party and Marci&039;s frank and unmistakable come-on "You could say some women need a lot of incentive to stay with one ht made her think uncomfortably - and perhaps unfairly - of Jessie, Abra brushed it aside "Well, it&039;s certainly his probleossiping about Ti" But he, too, brushed the subject aside "Listen, I&039;ve got to lanced at her watch "Yeah, but why - ?"

"There&039;s so I have to pick up I could use your help" He kissed her, then slid behind the wheel of his own car

Ten minutes later, Abra drove in behind hi here?"

"A new suit What do you think?" He pulled her out of the car and through the door The place was a sea of tires - blackwalls, alls, steel-belted ra-dials It srease Behind a scarred counter piled with thick catalogs was a bald , folks," he shouted over the hissing and blowing of pumps and lifts "What can I do for you?"

"See that?" Cody turned and pointed at Abra&039;s car through the plate-glass"Tires, all around, and a spare"

"But I - " Before Abra could finish, the clerk was thus He&039;d sulance

"We have soet products"

"I want the best," Cody told hileam behind his dusty lenses

"Cody, this is - "

"Well, well" Obviously seeing his coan to write out an invoice "I have solanced down at the invoice, noted the brand and nodded "Can you have it ready by five?"

The clerk looked at his watch and his daily list "Just"

"Good" Plucking the keys out of Abra&039;s hand, Cody tossed them "We&039;ll be back"

Before she could co pulled back outside "Just what do you think you&039;re doing?"

"Buying you a birthday present"

"My birthday&039;s in October"

"Then I&039; in her heels "Listen, Cody, you have absolutely no rightdecisions like this forsomebody into a tire warehouse, for God&039;s sake, and order tires"

"Better here than the super the soed so around on four tires that gave up the last of their rubber six ht about that?"

Because he&039;d taken the wind out of her sails, she only frowned "No But I would have taken care of it I&039;ve been planning to take care of it"

"When?"

She shifted her feet "So up, she leaned forward and kissed hi in a dead rush She&039;d ain, but the foundations for the first set of cabanas had passed without a hitch She&039;d been able to see the sliding roof in operation, and at long last the elevators were riding siven her so the foremen&039;s daily lists Her description of Tiuilty To combat that, she had decided to take a personal interest in every facet of the job The extra time had pushed the end of her workday to six, and then she&039;d eaten up nearly an hourup her car

"Never ready when they say they&039;ll be ready," sheWhen she reached her landing, she saw one more delay at her door

"Mo by"

"Oh, Abra" With a little laugh, Jessie dropped a piece of paper back in her purse "I was just going to leave you a note Running a bit late?"

"I feel like I&039;ve been running all day" She unlocked the door and pushed it open

"Have I co back out again in a few ave an auto room&039; &039;Were you held up at work?"

"First" Abra shot straight into the bedroo to have dinner with Cody in work boots and dusty jeans "Then I had to pick upup as she went, Jessie trailed behind her "Did it break down again?"

"No, I was getting tires Actually Co - a friend of ht you tires - for a present?"