He sat scowling at his phone, willing it to ring. When it didn’t, he snatched it up and punched in Dana’s home number. Ken Miller answered on the first ring. He didn’t sound overjoyed to hear Jason on the other end of the line.
“Couldn’t you have just asked Dana for a referral?” he grumbled, then shouted something to a squalling child in the background.
“You’re just mad because you got stuck with babysitting,” Jason charged, amused despite himself at the image of this gentle, distracted man coping with the chaos of the children.
“And you don’t think I’m justified? You fly out here and try it for a few days,” Ken said wearily. “Running the Eighty-second Airborne would be less stressful.”
Jason chuckled. “Just think how much more you’ll appreciate your wife when she returns.”
“If she returns,” he said disconsolately. “Now that she has a taste of the hunt again, I’m afraid her retirement may be over. If it is, I will personally strangle you.”
“Now is that any kind of threat for a minister to make,” Jason chided.
“Would it be more suitable if I damned your soul to eternal hell?”
“Don’t go throwing your professional weight around, padre. Have you heard from your wife, by any chance?”
“Not since last night, when she gave me my orders for the day. Do you know how much carpooling is required for three children, even at this age?”
“You’ll get no sympathy from me,” Jason taunted. “You stole the best woman in the world right out of my grasp, remember?”
“I did, didn’t I?” Ken said, sounding vastly pleased with himself. “I suppose I can afford to be more generous toward you, then. Dana said if you called to give you her cell phone number. She said she’d forgotten to give it to you yesterday.”
He rattled off the numbers, then asked, “You haven’t got her involved in something dangerous, have you?”
Jason heard the genuine worry in his voice. “No, I promise,” he reassured him. “She’s just tracing a missing person for me.”
The answer was sketchy but true enough. The danger, if there was any, was in New York.
* * *
Callie was jumping at shadows. Given the fact that Terry was not more than a step or two away at any given instant, there were a lot of shadows. He was making a nuisance of himself, probably at Jason’s behest.
“Will you go away?” she pleaded eventually.
“No can do,” he said. “I promised.”
“I don’t think Jason meant for you to follow me into the ladies’ room,” she said, standing outside the door.
Terry looked up as if he hadn’t realized where she was heading. He shrugged at the sign on the door. “Sorry. I’ll wait right here.”
Callie shook her head. “Whatever,” she muttered as she went inside.
“Oh, Callie, I’m so glad I ran into you,” the ever-perky Jenny said when she spotted her. “I need to talk to you about another publicity event. These others have gone so well that everyone’s clamoring for more. Marty and Katrina said we should go for it.”
Callie resigned herself to hearing the entire pitch right in the middle of the restroom. “What now?”
“A charity softball game in Central Park,” Jenny said. “Isn’t that cool?”
“Cool,” Callie agreed without enthusiasm. “I don’t suppose it matters that I do not play softball.”
“You didn’t bowl, either, and look how well that went,” Jenny reminded her. “So I can go ahead and make the arrangements? You’ll put a team from the show together? It’s really short notice, actually. The game was already scheduled when I approached them with the idea of us having a team.”
“How short is short?”
“Two weeks from Saturday.”
Callie stared at her, uncomprehending. “I’m supposed to put together a team from Within Our Reach and I’m supposed to do it in two weeks?”
“I know it won’t be a problem. Everyone loves to do this stuff. Be sure to get Terry, though. The fans want to see the two of you together. You’re hot. I’m predicting a Soap Opera Digest award for hottest couple, I swear it.”
Apparently that was something Jenny and Jason agreed on. They both mentioned it often enough. “I can’t wait,” Callie retorted drily. She was also willing to bet that if the truth about Terry came out, that award nomination would vanish like a puff of smoke. She wondered what this mysterious “everyone” would think then.
“He will do it, won’t he?” Jenny persisted.
The girl was indefatigable when it came to selling the show and its stars. “Ask him yourself,” Callie suggested. “He’s right outside.”
“But you’re in charge of the team.”
“I think he’ll respond more favorably if the suggestion comes from you,” Callie told her. Hopefully the flattery would get the perky media flack out of the restroom before Callie’s bladder burst.
Sure enough, Jenny scurried out, intent on signing Terry up for the event.
When Callie finally emerged, Terry had a scowl on his face. “What did you tell that little whirlwind?”
“That you’d be susceptible to her charms,” Callie said blithely. “Did you agree to play?”
“I had to,” he said without enthusiasm. “To paraphrase a friend of yours, you and I are joined at the hip until this whole mess is straightened out.”
“Why did that sound a whole lot more promising when Jason said it?” she asked.
“Because you two are in mutual lust. Though, as I recall, at the time he said it, you didn’t take it so well. In fact, you got downright irritable.”
Callie linked her arm through his. “Never mind Jason. The public thinks you and I have the hots for each other. Let’s go get undressed.”
He grinned at her. “For a shy little girl from Iowa, you sure have adapted well to playing these seminude scenes of ours. Does your mama know she raised an exhibitionist?”
Callie shuddered. “God, I hope not. She keeps surprising me with her fairly liberated reactions, but my exhibitionism might be a little too much for
