Brenda had seen the message light blinking on her answering machine as soon as she returned home from Lois’s house the day before. She knew who it was without listening to the tape -- her anxious publisher, Lucy Coe. Brenda hadn’t turned in the pages for her new book that were due a week ago, and Lucy was getting nervous. But she just hadn’t been inspired. Brenda had tried just that morning, sitting and staring at the blank screen and blinking cursor until she thought she would go blind. But not a word appeared.

So, since it was a beautiful day for December in California, Brenda decided that a good run might clear her mind and inspire her. As she left her front porch and began jogging down the street, bits and pieces of a plot began to form in her mind. Brenda always did her best plotting when she was jogging. First -- she needed the name for her latest hero. As she stepped off the curb and looked to cross the street, it came to her.

Trent Foxworthy. British physician extraordinaire.

As Brenda jogged further from her house and entered a nearby park, the elements of the plot began to really gel.

"HEY, LADY!! YOU BLIND OR SOMETHIN’? WATCH WHERE YOU’RE GOIN’!!" Brenda suddenly was snapped back to reality as she stood in the middle of a street just on the other side of the park. The driver of a trash truck was making an obscene gesture at her back as he drove past. Brenda was tempted to return the gesture, but instead jumped when a loud horn sounded behind her.

Brenda scurried to the opposite sidewalk as a black SUV pulled up alongside her. "I’m really sorry that I wasn’t paying attention to traffic," she said in embarrassment, not looking at the driver. "I promise that next time...."

".....you’ll break every bone in that cute little tush of yours!" a Australian voice answered. As Brenda looked up in amazement, Jax’s blue eyes caught hers in concern. "Are you alright?"

"Jax! What are *you* doing here?"

"You’re alright – you don’t feel faint or anything, do you?" {Could be that hypoglycemia kicking in again – I wonder if she ate anything yet today.}

"No, I’m fine," Brenda replied, still mystified. "I was just doing some plotting for my new book and wasn’t paying as much attention to traffic as I should." She walked to the door of the SUV and propped her folded arms on the open window. "But you still haven’t answered my question about what you’re doing here."

{Uh-oh, Jax. Now what?} "I – uh – I was talking to Ned today," {so far, no lies – good start}, "…and he mentioned this wonderful restaurant that he and Lois just discovered – the Malibu Coast Bistro, I think. I thought that maybe you might like to join me for dinner sometime and we could see if it’s any good."

Brenda’s eyebrows rose. "A restaurant? NED recommended a restaurant? Are you kidding?" She started laughing at the thought of super-chef Ned ever trusting his taste buds to anyone but himself. "That would be like hiring *me* to defend you against murder charges instead of F. Lee….."

Brenda caught herself just in time. {There you go again, stupid! Making a joke at his expense. The poor man has endured enough laughter in his lifetime.} Just as Jax’s face was beginning to fall, Brenda smiled benignly and placed her hand on his where it rested on the door jamb. "That would be nice, thanks. I would love to go to dinner with you sometime. Just let me know when and I’ll……"

"Tonight?!" Jax’s face lit up like a Christmas tree.

"Tonight?" Brenda couldn’t believe her ears. {He certainly is anxious. But…..you don’t want to deflate his ego. And restaurant food sure does beat beans and weenies again.} "I’d be delighted – if you don’t have to be on duty at the hospital or anything."

{This is going better than I ever hoped for! Not a surly word and we’ve been speaking for at least five minutes!} "Nope. My shift ends at five this afternoon and then I’ve actually got 24 hours to be free as a bird." He looked down where her hand rested on his on the window ledge. Smiling, he turned his hand over to grasp hers warmly. "I’ll pick you up around 7?"

Brenda couldn’t help feeling the tingles where his skin touched hers. "Sounds like a plan. I’ll see you then."

"Great. I’ll make the reservations." Jax looked around anxiously at the busy traffic. "Will you be alright getting back to your house? Would you like a ride?"

"I’ll be fine, dad," Brenda said with gentle sarcasm. "I promise to look both ways at all the corners and not think any more about my book until I get home and am sitting safely in front of my PC."

Brenda was going to pull her hand away from his, but to her surprise, Jax turned it over and kissed the back of it. "I’ll see you tonight," he said, and was roaring away before Brenda could answer. {Mission accomplished. She’ll eat a decent meal, at least tonight.}

Brenda stood for a moment, and then turned to begin the jog back to her house. {Mission accomplished. I made him feel "in charge" and masculine.} Brenda began to smile even more broadly as she grew closer to her house. The day hadn’t turned out as badly as she thought it would!!

"I made reservations – a table for two – the name is Jacks," Jax intoned seriously. The hostess’s face broadened into a large smile.

"Ah, yes, *Dr.* Jacks," she said, checking her book and emphasizing the title. "We have a lovely table for you near the windows as you requested." She took two menus from the station and smiled at him. "Won’t you follow me?"

Jax put his hand at the small of Brenda’s back as they wound their way through the crowded restaurant. With his hand so close to the object of his admiration, Jax had to remind himself that lust was not on the menu tonight. But the feel of Brenda’s body undulating beneath her shiny pale silver, satin slip dress was almost more than he could take.

As they reached the table, Jax moved quickly so that he could stand behind the chair and pull it out for Brenda. "Thanks," he nodded to the hostess, "but I’ll take over from here."

"Anytime, Dr. Jacks," the hostess replied. She leaned over towards Jax as he moved towards his own chair. "And please feel free to use the house phone if you’re paged during dinner." She smiled brightly at Brenda. "Enjoy!"

Brenda didn’t pick up her menu but gave Jax a worried look. "Didn’t you say you weren’t on call tonight?"

"I’m not," Jax replied with a puzzled look. "In fact, I didn’t even mention that I was a doctor when I made….." Suddenly, he smiled and started to chuckle.

"What’s the matter?"

"I just remembered – *I* didn’t make the reservations. I was running behind on a gall bladder removal so I asked one of the ER nurses to make them for me." Jax neglected to mention that V dropped a large stack of files when he asked her to make reservations for a romantic table for two. She had smiled and mentioned in a whisper that she had to work that night, and Jax had replied that it didn’t matter because he was having dinner with a new lady friend.

The entire ER was still buzzing about how V had stormed away from the desk, gone to the lounge for a short break, and then slammed out of the ER, announcing that she was taking a two-week vacation, commencing immediately. Jax watched her walk out, and then had turned to Nurse Jessie Moore and asked that she make the reservations for him.

"Apparently Jessie thought that we should get excellent service so she made me sound like I was the next Albert Schweitzer." As Jax settled into his chair, giving the hostess a charming smile, Brenda reached for a sip of water. The sight of him in his dark navy blazer, camel slacks, and pale ecru shirt with a taupe and sky-blue striped tie made her mouth dry. When she started noticing how the curls at the nape of his neck dusted the top of his shirt collar, Brenda had to try to control her breathing.

"Well," she said, trying to tamp down her hormonal urges, "I just want you to know that I don’t mind making this an early evening if you want to take advantage of your time off to catch up on your sleep." She picked up a menu but didn’t open it. "I think anyone who spends his entire day healing other people deserves a good eight hours’ sleep – or even more!" {There. See? I would never make fun out of you if you were too tired – for anything.}

Jax picked up the wine list as their waiter came to the table. "Well, since I’m off duty for tonight and I know how you like white wine…." He arched an eyebrow playfully and then opened the wine list. Brenda sat, dutifully impressed, as he ordered an expensive bottle of Chablis Blanc. When the waiter returned and poured a glass for Jax to try, he instead pointed to Brenda. "Let her take the first taste. She’s more of an expert at this vintage than I am." {And I’ll bet this is a lot better than the Riunite she normally drinks.}

Brenda sipped at the wine. "It’s excellent, thank you," she smiled at the waiter, who then discreetly disappeared so that they could study their menus. "Lois told me that the salads here are really something," Brenda said as Jax opened his menu. "Maybe since you went with this lovely bottle of white wine we should get a seafood salad and split it."

{Salad? How can you get your nutritional value for the day out of lettuce? Although if it’s a seafood salad, there *may* be a marginal amount of protein…..but I was hoping to get some steak into you.} Jax ran his eyes down the menu. "Ahh, but what about the crab rangoon? Or the lobster?" He suddenly looked up at her. "If you wanted something in the seafood line, that is."

Brenda wrinkled her nose. "Mmmm, I don’t think so. I’ve never been that fond of seafood. I just thought the shrimp salad sounded good." She looked down at her menu. "Oh, they’ve got a marinated chicken salad! And that would go with the white wine, too! We could just split that if you like."

Jax leaned forward with a frown. "Brenda, I can honestly afford to buy you a whole salad."

"I know, Jax," Brenda purred, "but from what Lois told me, the portions here are so large that we could easily split a salad and have some left over."

{BINGO! Why didn’t I think of this before?} Jax’s face lit up. "I’ve got it – why don’t you order the shrimp salad, I’ll order the chicken, and then we can share salads and get to taste both?!" {And you can take home large doggy bags of both!}

Brenda quickly agreed and Jax gave their orders to the waiter, who had quickly re-appeared as soon as they closed their menus. Jax sipped his wine and relaxed in his chair. "You know, if I hadn’t seen you eating chicken at Lois and Ned’s house, I might have suspected that you were a vegetarian or something."

Brenda shuddered. "Me? Swear off Quarter Pounders? Not in this lifetime," she laughed. "Although my mother would probably go into shock if she ever saw what I ate."

"Why?" Jax had to tell himself to keep breathing evenly. {Does her mother know she’s almost starving? What kind of mother is she?}

"Because she’s what I affectionately call the last of the red hot hippies," Brenda snickered. "She went to Woodstock and never got over it, I think. She still wears her love beads and bandanna everywhere she goes, much to my father’s embarrassment."

Jax folded his hands. "You never spoke about your family before. I take it your father isn’t a throwback to the ‘70’s like your mum?"

"Harlan Barrett? Hardly." Brenda took a sip of wine. "He’s chief financial officer with the family business, Barrett Industries. Every time he sees me, the first thing he asks me about is my retirement portfolio!" Brenda watched as Jax looked down into his lap and laughed. "So what about *your* parents? Do you get along with them?"

Jax shrugged. "We do all right, I suppose. Actually I don’t see them very often. They live back east, near Miranda and the kids." Jax’s eyes grew wistful. "Mum and dad probably get to see R.J. and Ellie more often than I do."

{Great, Brenda. Now you made the man sad because he misses his kids. Why can’t you seem to spend more than 15 minutes with him before you put your foot in your mouth?} "But didn’t you say that the kids were coming out here for Christmas? You’ll get to spend some time with them then," Brenda offered hopefully.

Jax’s face brightened considerably. "Yeah, that’s right!" During their conversation, the waiter had brought fresh bread, and Jax suddenly reached out and opened the napkin that covered it. "Say – would you like some bread and butter while we wait?"

"I think I’d rather wait for the salad, if that’s OK with you," Brenda replied. She looked to the side of the room and spotted a piano in the bar. "Gee, it’s a shame we’re so early. I wonder what kind of music they have later."

"Well, if your mum was here, I suppose we could always request "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida,"" Jax teased.

Brenda cringed. "Oh, ppplllleeeease, not that one again! Momma even learned to play that one on the piano!"

"I take it your taste in music doesn’t tend towards the Jefferson Airplane either?"

Brenda shook her head emphatically. "Not at all. Give me Dave Brubeck any old day."

The waiter brought their salads, which were huge, just as Brenda had predicted. As the evening wore on, Jax and Brenda fed each other forkfuls of their respective salads. They finished off the bottle of wine, and watched the sun set through the large wall of windows near their table.

Brenda made a quick trip to the ladies’ room while a waiter was clearing away the dishes. Jax was glad she did, because when she reappeared, the remains of their salads had been packed into several large take-home cartons, along with the leftover bread. "Wow, I’m not sure I’ve even got room for all of this in my refrigerator!" Brenda exclaimed as they rose to leave. "Would you want to share some with me?"

"NO!" Jax caught the attention of a few diners with his emphatic reply. "I mean – no, that’s OK. You just take them." Brenda frowned a little, but when she saw the healthy tip Jax left for the serving staff, she figured he could afford to buy his own groceries. Besides, it seemed so important to him that she have them, and she didn’t want to risk offending him. Again.

As he put his hand to the small of her back and helped her into the SUV, Brenda sighed in contentment. It actually had been a fairly pleasant evening. Jax got in and put the keys in the ignition. "So – you mentioned Dave Brubeck before, and I’m told there’s a great new jazz club downtown. Would you like to go dancing for a while, or maybe just to see what it’s like?"

"Tonight? Now?" Brenda saw Jax’s stricken look. "I mean – I just thought you might like to make it an early evening, beings you don’t get much time off in your profession." {And I would *never* object to you getting enough rest. You deserve your sleep.}

{Aha…..if we go dancing, the leftover salad would probably spoil in the car! It would be off refrigeration too long. Swift move, Jax.} Jax smiled and didn’t look disappointed, to Brenda’s relief. "You’re right. Maybe we should save the dancing for next time." He leaned over as they came to a stoplight. "Although, you needn’t worry that I’ll trample your feet. I’m actually a fairly competent dancer."

Brenda nodded meekly. She tried not to be nervous, but the evening was drawing to a close, and this was always the point where she and Jax had nearly come to blows. He drove to her house and after parking in the driveway, he hopped out without a word and came around to open her door. {Well, apparently he doesn’t believe in necking in cars.}

As they walked to Brenda’s front door, her insides were doing somersaults. {Give the man a chance, Brenda. Maybe it won’t be a disappointment after all. You owe him after the way you insulted him last time.} When they got to the door, Brenda unlocked it, turned around and took a deep breath. "This was fun," she smiled as Jax pushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear. "Maybe we can do this again sometime."

{YES! She’ll have enough leftovers from those salads to feed her for several days. You’re a smart man, Jasper.} Jax’s fingers lingered behind her ear and trailed down her neck, pulling her closer to him. "I’d like that, Brenda," he whispered as his lips came closer to hers. "I’d like that a lot."

Brenda closed her eyes as his lips feathered the softest of kisses over hers. She sighed with pleasure as his tongue lightly touched her upper lip, but then opened her eyes wide when he pulled back and tapped her on the nose with his finger. "Good night, Brenda."

Brenda stood there with her mouth open as he walked back to the car. She turned and went inside, but she wasn’t there for more than thirty seconds when her doorbell rang. {He’s back! This time I’ll invite him inside and I’ll be the aggressive one. I won’t hurt his feelings again.}

But to Brenda’s astonishment, Jax just stood there, holding the takeout containers. "You forgot these," he said, smiling and handing them to her through the screen door. "Sweet dreams," he added as he placed a chaste kiss on her forehead and then spun on his heel and went to his car.

Brenda barely managed to squeak out a "thanks" before she frowned broadly and closed the door behind him. As she walked to the kitchen to check her answering machine, she sighed, kicked her shoes off, and tossed the takeout containers into the wastecan.

"Brenda! Brenda – I’m *so* glad I finally managed to catch you at home!" Lucy Coe gushed.

"Well, actually Lucy," Brenda stalled, "I was just about to go out for a run. You know I do my best plotting when I run." Brenda struggled to keep her balance while tying her shoelaces and listening to her nonstop editor. Lucy had been leaving messages every day for the past week, reminding Brenda that the outline for her new book was severely overdue.

It had been over a week since Jax and Brenda’s dinner at the Malibu Bistro. He had invited her over to his house once and cooked dinner for her, and then he had joined her for poker night again, much to the delight of Reggie. Lucky and Nicholas seemed to be starting to like him, particularly since he often lost to them. But what totally frustrated Brenda was the fact that he hadn’t taken their "good-nights" any further than a single, tempting, much-too-quick, sizzling kiss.

"Yes, Lucy. I know it was due two weeks ago, Lucy," Brenda conceded. "No! You’re kidding!" Brenda stopped and put both feet down to stand up straight and hold the phone closer to her ear. "That’s impossible!"

She sank despairingly into a chair and began to twirl the phone cord. "Well, no wonder Lea has already turned in a first draft! That’s *only* her twelfth book in that time-travel series she’s doing." Brenda knew she was being defensive and juvenile, but she just hadn’t been able to concentrate much lately. "No!!" Brenda almost dropped the phone. "Kathleen, too?" Brenda began to massage her temples with her free hand. "Oh, yeah – that’s right. She told me she was starting that new series – something about the daughter having a baby and making the hero and heroine grandparents, isn’t it?" Brenda’s mouth formed a grim line and her voice took on a "catty" tone. "Well, of *course* Tyra just turned in the outline for the new series. You *know* how she keeps those index cards and notebooks." Brenda listened for a minute, and then her face began to flush a bright shade of red. "No, I do *not* want her to show me how to set up my own system!"

Brenda rose to her feet. "Look, Lucy – I was waiting to surprise you, but I actually did work on the new book a little last week and I’ve almost got two chapters done. I was just on my way out the door to jog, so I’ll finish the second chapter and messenger it over to you first thing tomorrow. How’s that?" She held the phone away from her ear. "Yeah, Lucy – you made my day, too. ‘Bye!"

Brenda shook her head as she hung up the phone. If Lucy wasn’t such a genuinely caring person, Brenda would seriously consider finding another publisher. She took a deep breath, and then went outside, locking the door behind her and pocketing her key in her warm-up jacket. She inhaled the fresh morning – well, late morning – air and smiled. This would help. After she jogged for a while, she was sure when she returned that the second chapter would just materialize on her PC monitor.

Brenda took her usual route through the park. As she ran through the tree-lined streets, more of the plot began to flood through her mind. She smiled. Lucy would definitely be pleased. Visions of an attic bedroom in a small, charming English farmhouse came to her as blonde, blue-eyed Dr. Trent Foxworthy opened the door carrying a lunch tray.

"LADY, LOOKOUT!!!! I CAN’T STOP THIS……"

Brenda never saw the mini-bike until it was two feet from her left shoulder. She took one look into the panicked eyes of the driver, screamed as it hit her, and then her world went black.

The next thing Brenda knew, she was laying on her back on the ground and a man in a pale blue uniform was bending over her. "Miss? Miss? Can you hear me?"

Brenda tried to open her eyes, but a sharp pain in her stomach almost caused her to sit up and double over. "….hurts……"

"Yes, miss, I know it hurts," the man replied in a kindly voice. "You were in an accident. You were hit by some kid on a mini-bike." The paramedic glanced over to where his partner was attempting to administer first aid to the obviously drunk driver. "But now don’t you worry, OK? We’re gonna patch you up and get you to the hospital."

"…..no hospital…." Brenda groaned as her head started to throb in time with her stomach. {You’re not Jennifer, and this isn’t a book. Get help, you idiot!} Finally, she grabbed the paramedic’s arm as he raised the gurney to roll it towards the ambulance. "….my doctor…..Dr. Walsh. Martin Walsh……California Medical Center……"

The paramedic pushed the gurney towards the ambulance and motioned to his partner. "OK, miss. We’ll have you there in no time." The two of them collapsed the wheels and loaded Brenda into the back of the ambulance efficiently as the police took custody of the mini-bike driver. After closing one of the doors, the man who had attended Brenda looked at his partner. "She says her doc is Marty Walsh at California Med Center."

The partner shook his head emphatically. "No dice. I heard on the radio right before we got here that they’re handling the casualties from that big traffic accident on the PCH. Their ER is closed to incoming trauma."

The first paramedic glanced inside at Brenda, who was still moaning occasionally. "I don’t like her blood pressure – it’s bouncing around a little."

The partner nodded and jogged slowly towards the driver’s door. "Gotcha. We’ll take her to Cedars instead. They’re handling any overflow while Cal Med is closed." He jumped into the driver’s seat as the other paramedic hopped in beside Brenda.

"Don’t worry, miss," the paramedic said in a soothing tone, reaching down to take Brenda’s pulse. "We’ll get you some help real fast."

To be continued……