"Ahhhh!" Julia exclaimed. "Say no more! I have the perfect idea to get you out of the limelight," she added, her voice as smooth as a glass of bourbon and honey warmed between two hands. "I know Kate won't mind."

Long years of experience with this woman warned Kate that Julia was up to something. Every remnant of heat and wonder, excitement and triumph, fled. Her eyes narrowed. "What won't I mind, Julia?"

"Well, sugar, the perfect solution is for Jesse to stay in the guesthouse."

Katherine went still, staring at her best friend, her heart doing a very different sort of staccato dance.

"You don't have a guesthouse, Julia," she said carefully.

"I know that, sweetie. But you do. The cottage behind your house."

Kate told herself she had misunderstood. Jesse couldn't stay in the cottage-she didn't want him anywhere close to her. He had an amazingly unerring habit of disrupting her life. And just now the last

thing she needed was something else to jar her world out of its carefully managed orbit. "What are you talking about?"

"Jesse should stay with you."

Not the answer she wanted. "At my house?"

"In your guesthouse."

Jesse planted his hands on the fake countertop. "Listen, Jules-"

"Jesse, you're family," Julia interjected with a pointed scowl at Kate. "Isn't he, sugar?"

Kate glanced from Julia to Jesse, from her best friend's censorious violet-eyed glare to what she would

have sworn was Jesse's surprisingly vulnerable dark gaze- both of which made it impossible to do anything else but smile as best as she could.

Damn, damn, damn.

"Of course," she managed feebly. "You're welcome to stay in the cottage."

"Good. Then everything's settled." Julia took his arm. "Jesse stays with Kate."

To: Julia Boudreaux From: Chloe Sinclair Subject: Kate's scream What did you do to Kate to make her scream like that? Granted, it was behind her closed door, but you know my ears. I hear everything. Unfortunately I was right in the middle of my quarterly conference call with the auditors, trying to explain our low ratings. Otherwise I would have come running. And now everyone's gone. Regardless, I won't forgive you, Jules, if you have done something to Kate.

Chloe Chloe Sinclair Station Manager Award-winning KTEXTV To: Chloe Sinclair From: Julia Boudreaux Subject: Wrongly accused Why do you assume I did something? If you heard screaming, I'm sure it was a scream of joy. And don't worry about the auditors. I'll smooth over last quarter's numbers.

I'm working from home if you need me.

xo, j To: Chloe Sinclair From: Katherine Bloom Subject: Your friend

Just so you know, I am not speaking to Julia. She has meddled in my life one too many times.

K.

p.s. I just got home from a great interview with a possible Getting Real subject: a border patrol agent who works the night shift patrolling the river. He has to deal with drug runners, illegal aliens, people dropping dead. Fascinating stuff.

Katherine C. Bloom News Anchor, KTEX TV West Texas To: Katherine Bloom From: Chloe Sinclair Subject: What now?

Does your not speaking to Julia have something to do with your scream?

As to your border patrol guy, you know how J is with this new concept of hers. If the guy isn't interested in talking about something other than hard news, don't even bother. Though maybe if he's drop dead gorgeous, you could get him to talk about his trials and tribulations with his shirt off. That might make it past her.

Chloe To: Chloe Sinclair From: Katherine Bloom Subject: I never screamed

There was no screaming. Strangling, almost. But justifiably, since Julia told Jesse Chapman he could stay at my house. Jesse! At my house! I can't do this. You should see him. He looks great.

Adonis great. Seven Wonders of the World great. But I don't want him looking great in my backyard!

K, who has some integrity left and will not ask any man of the law to take off his shirt

To: Katherine Bloom From: Chloe Sinclair Subject: No!

Jesse is back in town?? Where is he? Why didn't anyone tell me?!

To: Chloe Sinclair From: Katherine Bloom Subject: Excuse me!

I repeat, I can't possibly have Jesse living in my backyard. Do I need to remind you that we are talking about the man who has accumulated female conquests like golf trophies? Meadowlark Drive is a quiet, respectable neighborhood. Do you want him to turn my house into the Playboy Mansion? Okay, maybe the Playboy mansionette, but still, I really can't have him here.

K.

To: Katherine Bloom Chloe Sinclair From: Julia Boudreaux Subject: The only solution Kate, Chloe has just filled me in. And I must say, where else could Jesse possibly stay? A hotel is out. He's family, for God's sake. His brother married your sister, though we all know that the real reason he can't stay with Suzanne and Derek is because they're in the middle of doing who knows what in their desperate attempt to get pregnant. (Did I tell you about the tiff I overheard them have regarding dirty magazines, closed doors, and Dixie cups?) As to my house, I have more than enough men in my life to juggle as it is. And while Chloe darling hasn't dated anyone recently (recently being kinder than me saying Not in RECENT history), we are working on that. Having Jesse underfoot might give some nice young man the wrong impression. Which leaves you, Kate dear. Even if you would finally give in and commit to the divinely wonderful Parker Hammond, he has known Jesse forever and will understand. So it's done. Jesse stays in the guest cottage. And you better be nice. Besides, you seem to have forgotten that Jesse isn't just a bad boy anymore. He's our very own hero.

xo.j p.s. That was fabulous TV this morning. Ratings went through the roof. Who knew that our little Kate had it in her to heat up the screen. Brava! Let's meet at Bobby's Place on Friday to celebrate!

Two.

Kate crossed her ankles as she sat on the high stool at the girls' favorite hangout, Bobby's Place. Two days of trying to pretend that she was unaffected by the reality of having Jesse firmly installed in the cottage behind her house had taken its toll.

How could it be so hard to not pay attention to someone?

Of course, truth to tell, she hadn't had to work all that hard to ignore him. He had been gone more than he'd been there, his black Jeep rarely parked in the drive, his lights seldom on, at least until he would come in late, when the rest of the normal, not-wild population was sound asleep. Though she was almost certain he hadn't brought a single woman home. Both nights he had returned, gotten something out of his car, then gone for a walk.

Not that she was keeping track. Really. The first night she'd been up drinking tea when he arrived. Then last night, she'd been preparing for her rodeo cowboy while indulging in a Fiddle Faddle fest and 99-cent-special video marathon. What better way to keep Jesse Chapman out of her head than by consuming massive amounts of caramel corn and watching an entire season of Sex and the City in twenty-four hours?

Her stomach roiled at the memory, and she had the altogether foreign desire to go shopping for shoes- preferably high heeled and strappy.

Tonight, after leaving work, she had headed for Bobby's Place to meet Julia and Chloe. She was the first one to arrive, and she sat at the bar. She could see the door in the hazy mirrors on the four-sided backsplash. The giant Tiffany chandelier overhead cast the room in a golden light, while the sweet sounds of George Strait filled the place, wrapping around the dancers who swished and swirled by in a smooth-as-silk Texas two-step.

"I can't stay long," Julia announced as soon as she got there, her charm bracelet jangling against the bar when she sat down. "I have a date."

Chloe came in right behind her, hopping up onto a stool, looking like a little girl in a soda shop with her shoulder-length dark hair, china doll bangs, big blue eyes circled by long lashes, and a sprinkling of freckles across the bridge of her nose. "Who are you going out with tonight?"

"Roberto." Julia rolled the r dramatically.

"Never heard you talk about any Robertos."

"He's new."

Julia ordered a glass of wine, Chloe a strawberry daiquiri. Kate asked for the Sex and the City drink of choice-a cosmo. Chloe and Julia looked at Kate in surprise.

"A cosmo?" Julia asked.

"Let's just call it research."

Suddenly all three had cosmos sitting in front of them.

"To research," they said, clinking their drinks.

They were silent for a second, each lost in her thoughts. Though there was no question all of them

were thinking about the same thing-or the same man.

Chloe said, "I can't believe Jesse's back. He looks great."

"Yeah, he looks great," Kate agreed.

"He always looks great." Julia stirred her drink. "I remember the first time I realized how good-looking

he was. It was that day with the horrible storm. You were up in the tree house that used to be in your

backyard. He went charging up there to get you down."

Kate groaned. "I don't want to talk about the tree house."

"You mean, you don't want to talk about the place where you declared your undying love," Julia teased.

"To Jesse," Chloe clarified.

"Just before he left for college," Julia added.

"Thanks for the reminder," Kate stated crisply.

"Sorry," Julia said with a smile, and she squeezed Kate's hand. "It's just too cute to remember you up in that tree demanding that Jesse wait for you to grow up."

"The fact that he didn't wait makes the memory a whole lot less cute in my book," Kate noted.

"Thank God, he didn't wait," Chloe added. "I mean, really. I adore Jesse as much as the next girl, but we all know he's trouble."

No sooner did Julia finish her drink than she glanced at her watch and said, "Look at the time. I've got