"Thank you." Brenda nodded and smiled at Jax, but he still wore the same grim expression that he had when they left the playroom. As she brushed past him to enter his office, Jax tried to tamp down the surge of heat that her delicate perfume sent through his body.

"No problem, Your Highness."

Brenda stopped short about halfway between the door and his desk. "What did you just say?"

Jax shook his head as he shut the door. "I’m sorry. You just seem so dignified sometimes – almost like you’re out of our league. Yet you’re the children’s new nanny….." He ruffled his hair with his fingers and smiled. "It was a lame attempt at biting sarcasm." He sighed as he held out a hand towards the empty chair in front of his desk. "I’m afraid that I’m so used to arguing with Lissie that I tend to use the same confrontational tactics with everyone."

"Oh – of course." Brenda thought she might need to call 911 to resuscitate her stopped heart. After Lissie had been so perceptive watching her unpack that morning, the last thing she needed was for Jax to see through her disguise before she had even been on the job for an entire day. "Silly me for not picking up on that right away."

Brenda sank into the chair whispering prayers of thanks as Jax strode behind his desk. Just as he took a seat in his swivel chair, the buzzer on his intercom sounded, drawing a groan and new grimace. He glared at the phone console and punched a button vehemently. "Addie! I thought I told you we weren’t to be disturbed!!"

"You did no such thing, Mr. Jacks." Addie’s sweet voice on the loud speaker had just the right amount of rebuke to bring a blush of guilt to Jax’s cheeks. "But even if you *had*, I’m afraid I would have asked you to handle this call, anyway. Mr. Singh from the New Delhi conglomerate is on line 3."

"New Delhi?" Jax paled slightly and fumbled for a file on his desk. "Didn’t Mr. DeLucca handle those filings before he left?"

"I thought he did, sir." There was a discreet pause. "But according to Mr. Singh, apparently we were both misled."

Jax swore beneath his breath and drummed his fingers on the desk. "Stall Mr. Singh. Tell him I’m tied up with something about my son – I’m on a father-son 48-hour float trip or something. I’ll check the files and see if Roy completed any of the necessary papers before he took off."

"Very good, sir." There was a soft click and Addie’s voice faded into an echo.

Brenda sat patiently, her hands folded in her lap, as Jax continued to frown and page through the contents of a very thick file. "My goodness…….I hope it’s nothing serious."

"Just a paperwork glitch that I thought my partner handled before he disappeared."

"I see." Brenda tried to keep from sounding too excited. The last thing she expected when Jax summoned her to his office was to get a lead on Roy DeLucca. "Sounds like he’s some partner."

Jax never looked up from the file. "Roy’s an excellent negotiator and an astute businessman." Then he closed it with a sigh. "Let’s just say that crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s aren’t his favorite parts of a business transaction." His posture and expression suddenly became grim again. "But we’re not here to discuss my partner this morning." He suddenly looked down into his lap, folding his hands there awkwardly. "I’m afraid I should apologize for my behavior in the playroom, Miss Barrett. I shouldn’t have spoken to you so harshly in front of Scott."

"Thank you." Brenda tried not to look too self-righteous. But her sense of victory was short-lived.

"I should have called you out of the room before letting you know that you were handling things all wrong."

She deliberately clenched her jaw to keep it from hitting the floor. "Mr. Jacks, if you’ll just hear me out, I think you’ll see that……."

"As I said before, Miss Barrett, you can spare me the psycho-babble. I’ve heard it all before." He sighed grimly. "The plain and simple truth is that Scott thinks he’s a dog."

"He’s *pretending* to be a dog." Brenda was firm but not bombastic.

"Scott insists on eating from a dog dish. He barely speaks, except for an occasional bark or yipping noise." Jax tipped his head to the side in concession. "He *does* sleep in a traditional bed, but his entire world revolves around acting like a canine."

"Precisely. He *acts* like a dog. He doesn’t really think he is one."

"Then why the bloody h*ll does he do it??!!" Jax unknowingly turned up the volume and pounded his fist on the desk in frustration.

Brenda held out her hands in an appeal, keeping her voice level. "Please – just hear me out." Jax nodded grudgingly and folded his hands again. "You said that there had been ten nannies in the last six months. And that Scott’s mother died when he was three years old, correct?"

"Correct."

Brenda took a long breath and sat forward in her chair. "All Scott’s known for as long as he can probably remember is that people keep leaving him – whether it’s the parade of nannies, or you, on business trips." Jax’s eyes flared. "Not that I’m criticizing you!" she added quickly. "Your career demands travel, and that’s something that he’ll just have to learn to cope with. A necessary evil, if you will." Jax nodded and gestured that she should go on.

Brenda slowly rose from her chair. "Scott’s had to deal with a lot of separation for one so young. First his mother, and then all of the nannies……"

"Actually, I was forced to hire the first nanny when Miranda got too sick to care for the children. She left shortly after my wife died." Jax thought for a moment and then dropped his gaze under Brenda’s scrutiny. "Something about not feeling competent to handle the children’s reactions to their mother’s death."

It was the first time Brenda actually heard something about Miranda Jacks’ death that she could consider a fact. Other than Addie labeling the rumors about Jax being a "murderer" as rubbish, she had failed to find out anything about the deceased Mrs. Jacks. Brenda had brought it up discreetly the afternoon before at the hotel with several of the staff, but they all just made vague references to the "Jacks money buying off the cops" or "rich people getting away with things." But now – an actual clue. Miranda Jacks had been sick.

"Go on, Miss Barrett." Jax’s voice drew Brenda out of her speculations.

"Every time Scott’s gotten close to someone, he’s gotten hurt." Brenda paced slowly back and forth in front of Jax’s death, ticking off the points on her fingers. "Every time he makes a human connection, it results in pain." She stopped dead center in front of Jax. "So maybe he’s decided somewhere deep inside that it’s just easier to be a dog – not to make that deep of a connection, because it’ll only bring him more pain. A dog can’t get hurt. He can’t feel things. Precisely because he’s a dog, not a human."

"And that’s why he felt more comfortable being a dog around you." Jax was hesitant, but sounded like he might actually believe her. "Because he can take a chance on you as Scottie, the dog. He won’t run the risk of getting his heart broken again."

"Exactly." Brenda pointed towards Jax with a smile and then sank into the chair again. "Now I think it’s important that I make some kind of connection with Scott right away, even if it is on his terms." She shrugged her shoulders. "So if that’s how he prefers to handle things, I’m OK with it. At least he let me hold him for a few minutes."

One golden eyebrow rose in shock. "He let you hold him?" Jax chewed on his lower lip and shook his head. "Well, I have to admit – that’s further than some of the other nannies got on their first day." Brenda sat back and gave herself an invisible-on-the-back. "So…….you must have been thinking about this a lot, Brenda."

She noticed the shift back to her first name but carefully avoided mentioning it. "I couldn’t fall asleep right away last night," she replied with a modest shrug.

"Well………" Jax took a deep breath and rose from his chair. "What you said makes sense, I suppose. I still don’t *like* the way Scott is behaving, but maybe if anyone can get him to feel comfortable being a human again, you can……"

"I appreciate the vote of confidence……..Jax." Brenda stood also and eased back into the familiar address since the storm appeared to have passed. She buried her hands in her jeans pockets and nodded towards his paperwork. "So…….I should probably let you get back to that paperwork, then……"

"Yes……my paperwork." Jax made a face at the clutter of files on his desk. "I don’t suppose *I* could just pretend to be a dog for a while and ignore all of this, huh?"

Brenda’s laughter sounded like music in Jax’s ears. It had been so long since there had been laughter in the house. "I don’t think so." She turned and had her hand on the doorknob when Jax called out to her.

"Miss Bar…….Brenda!" He strode rapidly around the desk and towards her. "You ……uh…….." Brenda caught her breath, not knowing what to expect, when he reached out towards her derriere. "You have …….well, there’s a tag…….."

Just as Jax’s fingers closed over the miniscule designer price tag on her jeans, Brenda jerked it from his grasp. "Silly me!!" She quickly shoved it deep inside her front pocket. "I guess I was so anxious to go meet the children this morning that I completely forgot to make sure I was put together properly!" She raised her gaze to meet his and was taken aback by how intensely blue his eyes were up close. "Thank you for catching that!"

Before Jax could reply, Brenda breezed out the door and shut it behind her. He turned back towards his desk but then stopped and rested his back against the door. She was deceptively brilliant, this new nanny/riddle. Her assessment of Scott’s psychological problems seemed to explain a lot. She was down-to-earth and sensible, yet refined and well-spoken. Her speech wasn’t peppered with "you know’s" and "like, well’s." She wasn’t shy about getting down on the floor and playing with his son, yet the price Jax had spied on the tag before Brenda ripped it off was more than she would make in an entire week of nanny-hood.

His head was still spinning from the smell of Brenda’s haunting perfume when Jax saw the multitude of blinking lights on his phone. {Let the woman handle the children, Jax. That’s why you hired her. To take one more worry off your shoulders and let you concentrate on business.} He resolved there and then not to think any more about live-in nannies in designer jeans with rounded derrieres that made his fingers itch. As Jax strode back to his desk, he tried to push petite brunette dynamos that smelled like heaven on earth out of his mind. But as he took a seat and flipped through a file, he sighed and chewed on the corner of his lower lip. It was going to be easier to find what the bloody h*ll Roy had done with the filings for New Delhi than it was to figure out one Miss Brenda Barrett.

#####

Brenda had barely escaped into the hallway when she leaned against the wall with a loud sigh. She had passed the first test. Jax had conceded that the way she wanted to handle Scott was probably correct, even though it went against his every gut instinct. He still hadn’t realized her true identity or the real reason why she was in his home. There was an initial scare, but then she had *almost* gotten away clean.

{If it just hadn’t been for that d*mn price tag!! How could you be so stupid, Brenda? You *know* that Julia is always finding little things that you didn’t notice – like a piece of spinach salad between your teeth right before a press photo, or a cowlick sticking straight up when the rest of your hair looks perfect. You *know* that daddy always says you need a full-time keeper! How could you ever think that you could go on this quest all by yourself to find your brother, much less actually be successful at it?}

Brenda grimaced and turned towards the playroom but then stopped short. {Wait a minute – that price tag was only about one inch square, at most. Jax was over 25 feet away from me when he spotted it. So that means – he was looking at my behind?}

A feline smile slowly lifted the corners of her mouth. She reached up to smooth some stray hairs back into her ponytail and then, whistling a happy tune, Brenda bounced back down the hallway towards an appointment with a very friendly dog.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Good morning!!"

Lissie Jacks narrowed one eye and glared at Brenda’s cheerful face. "What’s so *good* about it?" She had frozen in the kitchen doorway, her hands gripping the frame like she would fall down without the support. Lissie was making her usual fashion statement – black jeans that fit like a second skin, a black t-shirt with a large silver peace sign in the middle, black boots, and a black crocheted purse that was large enough to hold a Dalmation puppy. Brenda silently wondered if it would take an industrial-strength SOS pad to scrub off the thick black eyeliner, silver eyeshadow, and dark red lipstick that night before bed.

"Well – what’s *not* good about it?" Brenda strolled over to where Lissie stood, drying her hands on a kitchen towel as she walked. "The sun is shining, it’s beautiful and warm even though it’s mid-November……."

"I hafta go to school. Whoopee." Lissie snatched the towel from Brenda’s hands and swung it around her head with a sarcastic smile. "THAT’S what’s not good about it."

Brenda grabbed the towel back as Lissie skulked towards the breakfast table. "But there are only a few more days this week, and then by next week you’ll be on Thanksgiving break."

"Yeah – cause it’s Thanksgiving!!" Lissie plopped into her chair but then made a sour face at Brenda. "Oh, nooooo……don’t tell me you’re one of those types who make little place card turkeys out of pine cones and stay up all night baking pumpkin pies or something!"

"I take it Thanksgiving isn’t one of your favorite holidays?" Brenda watched for Lissie’s reaction over her shoulder as she went to the refrigerator for a pitcher of orange juice.

"Well, let’s see……." Lissie settled her elbows on the table and propped her chin on her entwined fingers. "An entire holiday dedicated to gluttony and the slaughter of poor, defenseless, mentally challenged, earthbound fowl ……."

"Mentally challenged?" Brenda stifled her giggle, but not very successfully.

Lissie grimaced. "Dear old dad says we shouldn’t say "stupid" around Scottie dog. It’s not polite."

"I see." Brenda tipped her head in concession. "Go on."

"AND, lest we forget," Lissie continued sarcastically, "there’s dinner at good old Grandma Jacks’s house. AND, did I mention that the old lady wrinkles up her nose the entire time like she smells dog poop under the table?" She shrugged her shoulders and smiled caustically at Brenda. "Geez…….what’s not to like?"

Brenda poured Lissie’s orange juice with a grim set to her face. "Remind me not to ask you what you think of Christmas."

"Hmmmm……an entire holiday dedicated to a big stack of new clothes with her name on it?" The sound of Jax’s voice coming from the doorway caused both Brenda and Lissie to look his way. "I think Christmas ranks WAY up there in Lissie’s favorite holidays." He ambled towards the breakfast table looking very dapper in a navy pin-stripe suit, white starched shirt, and dark burgundy tie. "Although Lord knows why I buy her new clothes every year….." He grimaced and shook his head in Lissie’s direction. "…….when she just seems to insist on wearing the same old things every day to school."

"Which, of course, YOU don’t, do you, dad?" Lissie eyed Jax up and down slowly. "Lord knows it takes a brand new designer suit to raid some poor unsuspecting corporation and plunk another jillion dollars in the old family checking account, doesn’t it?"

"OK – OK!! Time out!!" Brenda made a "T" of her two hands and placed herself between father and daughter. "Can we at least manage to say a pleasant good morning to each other before we ring the bell for round 2?" Jax and Lissie both scowled at Brenda before nodding grudgingly at each other. "That’s better. Now – what would you like for breakfast?"

"Wow – you can tell you’re new around here." Lissie’s drawl was still as caustic as before. "You haven’t LIVED until dad’s forced you to drink one of his gross health shakes for breakfast." She glared at Jax and then deliberately reached for a box of Honey Bunches of Oats and started to pour them into her cereal bowl. "Give me plain old sugar-coating with no nutritional content any day!"

"Go ahead – rot your teeth and starve your brain cells! See if I care!" Brenda thought steam might actually come out of Jax’s ears when Lissie dumped an extra spoonful of sugar over her already-sweetened cereal. "So…….Brenda…….." Jax put on a broad smile and went to the refrigerator where he began taking out all sorts of fresh fruit and juice. "Did you get all settled into your quarters?"

"Yes, I did." Brenda glanced over at Lissie once, but the teen had donned a set of earphones connected to a small tape recorder and was silently munching on her cereal. "I……uh…….well, I had thought we might see you last night for supper……"

"Yes – I’m sorry about that." Jax bumped the refrigerator door shut with his hip and deposited the fruit and juice on the counter next to the food processor. "I had to make a quick trip to Seattle to get some of the documentation to handle that New Delhi filing that Roy…..that my partner……."

"For something that Roy screwed up again." Lissie never looked up from her cereal – just as Jax never looked her way, but tossed several strawberries into the processor so forcefully that they caused the liquid inside to splash over the sides.

It had actually been almost 48 hours since Jax and Brenda’s "confrontation" over Scott. His absence at dinner the first night wasn’t really obvious since Lissie had ended up sleeping over with her friend Cassandra and Brenda had ended up watching animated dog movies with Scott until the little boy fell asleep next to her on the playroom couch. The following day, Addie had informed Brenda that Mr. Jacks was unavoidably called out of town and she had busied herself learning the layout of the house.

"By the way……." Jax flipped the switch on the food processor as Brenda poured some cereal for herself. "Where’s Scott this morning?"

His question had been directed at Brenda but Lissie piped up again. "I don’t know – I called the little runt when I passed his door on the way to breakfast and he barked at me, so I know he’s up."

Jax glanced down at his Rolex. "Well, he’d better hurry up or Karl’s going to have to take you to school and make a special trip back for him……"

The words were no sooner out of Jax’s mouth than Scott appeared in the kitchen doorway. He flashed Brenda a shy half-smile, his bright blue eyes rivaling the November sky for color. His blonde hair looked like it hadn’t been combed for days, and he had selected one of his favorite shirts to accompany his blue jeans that morning – one with a large applique of a dog on the front, of course.

"Good morning, Scott!" Brenda immediately went to the cabinet while the 6-year-old scampered towards a corner of the kitchen. She never saw Jax’s jaw drop when Scott pulled up short, but she stifled a knowing giggle when she heard Jax’s incredulous gulp. She turned back towards them, her face the picture of innocence. "Is something wrong?"

Scott was staring at a large red plastic dish that sat in the kitchen corner. The blue letters "Scott" across the front clearly identified it as his preferred serving venue. But this morning, instead of the usual fare, it was filled to the brim with crunchy, dry-as-the-proverbial-bone, red and brown nuggets. Dog food. Jax swallowed hard, pointed to the dish, and whispered to Brenda, "What the bloody h*ll is THAT?"

"Kibble." She raised her eyes to the ceiling in thought and then corrected herself. "Purina Puppy Chow, actually. Nothing but the best for Scott, I thought."

"Puppy chow??!!" Jax’s face was redder than his health shake. "Miss Barrett," he growled, "I know that we came to an understanding the other day about how you would handle Scott’s …… socialization techniques……but this is really FAR beyond acceptable!"

Brenda kept a wary eye on Scott. Just as she suspected, he was staring at the dog food in shock. Although he enjoyed pretending to be a dog, there was no way he actually wanted to BE one. "Well, you see, Mr. Jacks," Brenda replied loudly, "I just thought that Scott deserved a choice of breakfast food this morning – just like you and Lissie." Brenda never looked directly at the little boy, but she could tell she had his rapt attention. "You and Lissie can choose between health shakes or Bunches of Oats, and Scott can choose between Puppy Chow and……."

"COCOA KRISPIES!!!" Scott’s exuberant shout took everyone in the kitchen by surprise. Everyone – except Brenda. He raced towards her as she pulled a large box of the chocolate-flavored rice cereal from behind her back.

"Cocoa Krispies," Brenda repeated with a triumphant smile. "But of course – if Scott chooses the cereal, he’ll have to be a boy for this morning and eat it at the table with a spoon. Because only BOYS can hear the rice pop when they pour the milk on……"

"Snap, crackle, pop!!" Scott chortled and grabbed the box from Brenda’s hands before she could even finish her terms. He held the box close to his chest and jumped into a chair at the table where Lissie had already set up a bowl and spoon for him. When Brenda sneaked a peek at Jax as Scott poured the cereal, she almost thought she saw the glimmer of a tear in the corner of his eye.

Lissie smiled conspiratorially at Brenda as she liberally doused the cereal with milk for Scott. When he leaned down to hear his cereal talk to him, she glanced up at Brenda and gave her an enthusiastic thumb’s up. "Fan-freaking-tastic, Brenda!"

"You knew……..when……..how………" Jax just stammered and looked from his daughter/hellion to the nanny/miracle worker. "Where did that cereal come from?" he finally managed to choke. "Cook hasn’t been to the store since last week….."

Lissie drank the last of her orange juice and then cut loose with a satisfied, smug, moderately loud belch. "The pizza guy brought it last night."

"Wait a minute……." Jax ran his fingers through his immaculately groomed hair until it stood on end like Scott’s. "Since when do pizza delivery kids bring boxes of cereal to the house?"

"Since Brenda told ‘em there would be a twenty-dollar tip in it for the delivery guy if he managed to bring a box of Cocoa Krispies with the pizza," Lissie replied. "Ten if it was Frosted Flakes." She ruffled Scott’s hair affectionately. "Lucky for the runt here the kid was a chocoholic."

Jax continued to stared slack-jawed at his happy son – actually *sitting* in a chair, *eating* with silverware, and yes……. that was definitely *human* speech he had heard coming out of Scott’s mouth. After a few minutes of silent admiration, Jax went to stand behind Scott. He cupped the little blonde head in his hands and leaned down to place a kiss in the midst of the tousled golden curls.

Brenda felt the tears bubbling up in her chest but then the sound of a loud car horn broke the magical moment. "That’s Karl." Lissie patted Scott on the head. "We’ve gotta get going, runt. We’ll be late." She eyed Jax suspiciously as he looked towards her with warmth in his eyes, but then Lissie’s acid tone broke the spell. "Don’t get all gooey on us, pops. This family still ain’t turnin’ into no Leave it to Beaver re-run on Nick at Nite."

Jax snorted sarcastically. "How crass of me to think things might have changed."

Lissie pulled Scott by the collar towards the back door. "We’ll see you guys tonight." She waved at Jax. "Go be a good corporate shark and swallow up all the little fish, Jaws."

"Good-bye, EJ." Brenda’s salutation was pointed but said with a half-smile. As Scott turned back towards her, his eyes sparkled for just a moment and his hand came up ever so slightly from his side – a feeble attempt at a wave, but an attempt nonetheless. Brenda’s eyes misted over. "Good-bye, Scott."

There was silence in the kitchen until the door slammed after the two children and the sound of a car leaving echoed in their ears. When Brenda turned back towards Jax, he was holding a twenty-dollar bill out to her. "I believe I owe you this……."

"Ohhh, please….." Brenda shook her head firmly as she skirted around him and went to put the milk back in the refrigerator. "Don’t ruin a wonderful morning by trying to pay me back……"

Jax caught Brenda’s arm as she breezed past him. "You’re on foreign soil, working for me as a temporary nanny." He rose one eyebrow. "Now, unless you’re independently wealthy, Brenda……in which case, I can’t understand why you’re working as a nanny…….you can’t be handing out twenty-dollar tips indefinitely."

{Dummy!! If you keep making stupid mistakes like this, he’ll see through your disguise before you’ve even had a chance to look for Albert!} Brenda smiled self-consciously and took the money from Jax’s outstretched hand. "Well…..since you put it that way……."

She quickly turned back towards the dirty dishes on the kitchen table but she could feel Jax’s continued presence behind her. "And speaking of money," he began tentatively. Brenda looked up over her shoulder at him. "I don’t suppose there’s any way I could get you to agree to stay on through Christmas?"

"I’m afraid not." Brenda stacked up the cereal bowls and turned towards the sink with a shy smile.

"Not even if I offered you an obscene amount of money as a bonus?"

"I…….." She paused, placed the dishes in the sink, and then turned back to face him. "I appreciate the offer, and I do love working with the children, but I’m afraid I have other…….commitments."

"I see." {A boyfriend. She must have a boyfriend or something. Maybe some guy who buys her the expensive luggage and clothes but then treats her like dirt. They fight, so she goes off and leaves him for a while until he comes to his senses.} Jax smiled regretfully and then re-adjusted his tie. "Well……I suppose I should be going……"

Brenda nodded towards his suit. "It looks like you won’t be working out of your home office today."

"No. I have to meet with some of the bankers downtown on another project that’s hanging fire in Amsterdam."

"Busy man." Brenda nodded thoughtfully. "So can we expect to see you at dinner tonight?"

"Probably not." Jax sighed as he shrugged into his suit jacket. "The meetings won’t end till around 4, and then I imagine I’ll be expected to break bread with these cutthroats so that I can prove what good buddies we all are."

"Sounds all warm and fuzzy to me," Brenda quipped.

"I should be so lucky." Jax chewed on his lower lip and looked around as though he was searching for some reason to just cancel the entire meeting and stay home. "I really do wish that I could have dinner with you and the children tonight, though." His eyebrows lifted. "I’ll be curious to see if Scott’s little breakthrough this morning will have any repeats during the day."

Brenda dried her hands on a towel thoughtfully. "Well…….I suppose I *could* stop by your office tonight after you get home and give you the scoop on the children……"

"That would be wonderful!" Jax’s smile beamed. "In fact, we should make it a nightly thing….." He grimaced slightly. "I’m afraid that with my partner missing in action, I’ll be spending more time than usual at the office and away from the family, so I’ll need some updates on how things are going….." He pulled out his day-planner. "How about…..9 o’clock every night in my office? After Scott’s asleep and Lissie’s locked herself in her room with her CD’s and telephone?"

"Sounds like a plan to me."

"Great!"

"Great!" Both Jax and Brenda looked around awkwardly, both not really wanting to end the morning "high" yet. They were rescued when there was another honking noise out in the driveway. "That must be your driver," Brenda smiled. "You’d better be going or you’ll be late for those bankers."

"Right." Jax grabbed his briefcase and went to the back door but stopped after opening it. "I’ll see you tonight then. And Brenda?" {Would you think I was perverted if I told you I dreamed of kissing you, Brenda? Would you like anything more than pleasant conversation tonight? Do you ever think about kissing me, or ……..}

"Yes?" {Do you know just how sexy you are, Jax? Is it wrong for me to be thinking how much I want to show up in your office tonight wearing a big smile and nothing else? Do your lips taste as wonderful as they look?}

When the car horn sounded again, Jax jumped visibly. "I……uh……..Well, have a good day!" And with that – he was gone.

Brenda waited until she couldn’t hear the car’s engine anymore. Then her shoulders slumped and she turned and glared at the dishes in the sink. {"Have a good day." Why didn’t he just say, "You’re nice, but entirely too boring for my taste, Brenda." Talk about bursting your bubble.} She pushed up a drooping bra strap and filled the dishpan with hot water. {What are you so upset about? You’ll have the house to yourself for a while – you can go and snoop around in his office a little while the children are in school. And just what were you expecting – to seduce your boss after breakfast? For him to declare that he lusted in his heart for you? Out of the clear blue?}

As Brenda plunged her hands into a pan of soapy water, she made a mental list of things to do that day –

#1 – Find out if Jax keeps his office locked during the day;

#2 – Get some books on the teenage psyche and how to deal with it;

#3 – Find a place to buy a chartreuse velvet bra by 9 o’clock that night.

To be continued……..