Page 20 of The Mouse and the Maestro

She whistled. “I’m not comfortable with that kind of money. I’ll waive my fee and find contentment that I’ve helped other people like me not say, ‘You, too,’ when a waitress says, ‘Enjoy your meal.’”

“I’ll put in an Easter egg of you macing someone,” he said.

She covered her mouth and laughed. “My friend really liked your Easter egg in Threeple.”

Too late she realized her mistake. “You put my name in? You were talking about me to your friend?”

“Is that the landing gear or is the plane breaking up?” she asked, turning to look out the window.

“Nice evasion,” he said.

“I may have been talking about you a bit,” she admitted.

“What did you say?” he asked.

“That you’re highly professional in your capacity as my coworker,” she said.

He leaned slightly closer. “I feel that you’re lying, Dr. Dunbar.”

She leaned closer and rested her hand on his forearm. “Prove it.”

They were professionals on a crowded early morning business flight, but the temptation to kiss her was nearly irresistible. How had he gone from loathing to attraction in such a short span of time? Maybe the two emotions were closer together than they were farther apart.

“Pretzels?” the flight attendant asked and they both turned to look at her in confusion as if it were a foreign word, causing her to repeat it with slightly more irritation. “Pretzels.”

“No, thanks,” they each said, and she moved on.

“Until this moment, I never knew ‘pretzels’ could sound like a threat,” Jane said.

“I kind of want coffee, but I’m afraid of what she’ll do to it,” Blue admitted.

“Ew, airplane coffee is atrocious. I know a good place on the way to the museum.”

“How well do you know New York?” he asked.

“Like a second home. I did my undergrad there.”

“Really?” Blue said. Everything about her was surprising because he had no foreknowledge of anything she was going to say. Usually when he was with a woman his biggest challenge was pretending he didn’t already know what she was about to tell him. But with Jane he had no idea about anything.

“Yes. I moved there three weeks after my seventeenth birthday and lived there until I graduated. I love it.”

“I’ve only been on business, and I never have time to explore,” he said.

“Tonight, after we’re finished at the museum, I could show you some places, if you want,” she offered, suddenly finding something highly interesting on her cuticle.

“Yes,” he agreed. He had to go with her regardless of what he wanted. Ridge had been clear on that.You stick to her like double sided tape, no exceptions.But he found he wanted to go, more because he was curious about where she might take him than because of any tourist spots he wanted to see. “I want. What did you have in mind?”

“What are you up for?”

“Anything,” he said.

“Anything?” she asked.

“Anything,” he said, and she smiled.

“Excellent, but now the pressure’s on to find something good that will impress you.”

“I’m actually very easily impressed. You know when you go to a place that has a clear elevator and you can see the mechanism that makes it go up and down? That keeps me enthralled for hours.”

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