Kate was the brightest shade of red he had ever seen. Jesse smiled calmly, held up a ball, and said, "Found it."

The men glanced at his pant knees, which he noticed were marked with sprigs of grass and pine needles. Jesse quickly brushed them off with a laugh. "Amazing how you have to crawl around to find these tiny little things. Guess I should have called it a lost cause and moved on."

With their eyes focused straight ahead, Jesse and Kate leaped into the cart, then zipped over to the number nine tee box.

Kate teed off, then they didn't speak during the rest of the hole. They made good time since Jesse didn't

hit another shot. Though every few minutes they burst out laughing when they remembered the looks on the foursome's faces. But when they pulled up to the back nine turn-around to head back out for the second round of nine holes, things changed.

"Hey, Jesse!"

A guy who clearly didn't belong on the course came over to them.

"Jesse," the man said. "How's it going?"

He wore a short-sleeved business shirt that was a decade old if it was a day. Pens lined his pocket, from

which he pulled a small spiral notepad.

"Tommy," Jesse said, his voice clipped.

The man looked Kate up and down. "Hey, babe, I'm liking your new show."

"And you would be?"

"Tommy Davis."

"The El Paso Tribune sportswriter?"

"The one and only."

Tommy Davis was known to be caustic, not a man to honey coat his words. He also reported any

rumor he heard swirling. If it turned out to be untrue, he shrugged it off. "You win a few, you lose

a few," he had been quoted as saying.

Kate felt the tension that rose through Jesse. This was a different tension than what she had sensed coming from Jesse earlier.

Tapping a pencil on his pad, Tommy glanced at their golf cart. "I've been thinking about doing an article on you. El Paso's very own hero."

"I can't imagine there's anything very interesting in that," Jesse replied.

The reporter smiled, his lips thinning. "I suspect everyone 'round these parts would love a Jesse Chapman expose."

Then Jesse changed. He sat back in the cart and took on a casual, devil-may-care attitude. Tension fled and he turned into the Jesse Chapman she had read about a thousand times in People magazine.

"If you want a story, then call my publicist. Gwen Randolph."

He called out the woman's phone number by memory, and Kate hated the taste of jealousy.

"I'd rather deal with you," Tommy persisted. "In fact, maybe I could tag along for the back nine."

Jesse chuckled. "Sorry, my friend. But I'm giving Kate a lesson."

"Really?" The reporter considered Kate for a long second. "You gonna do some golf on Getting Real with Kate. It's not a bad idea."

She hated this man just as much as she hated this new Jesse. Cool and suddenly a star.

"But a lesson is even better," Tommy persisted. "It'd make for a great angle. A Hero Always Helping." The reporter got a strange, considering look on his face. "You are a hero, aren't you, Jesse?"

That tension flared, and a slow-burning, barely detectable panic surged in Jesse, like he was a hunted man.

She glanced back and forth between the two men, then, regardless of how Jesse was acting, she knew what she had to do. "I've had enough golf for one day," she interjected.

A palpable relief sparked in Jesse's eyes, she was certain, before he shrugged with nonchalance. "Got to do what the woman wants, Tommy boy. Call Gwen. She can get you whatever you need."

They drove away, neither saying a word, though Kate would have sworn that Jesse didn't relax an ounce until they returned the cart to the pro shop, gathered her clubs, then finally closed themselves inside his Jeep. She searched for something to say, but hardly understood the quietly contained rawness in him that she felt simmering against the rugged leather interior like heat coming off tarmac in waves.

He put the vehicle in gear, leaving the parking lot, driving with controlled precision until they arrived at her house.

"Hey," she said, touching his arm, "are you okay?"

The minute she touched him, she felt the battle of tension and ease rush through him like an electrical current. She saw a restlessness, a frustrated dissatisfaction in his eyes, before a smile filled with yearning pulled at his face.

"I'm fine. I've just been distracted lately, and I need to get some things done. I need to be playing and practicing, and whether I like it or not, with the PGA coming up, I'm going to have to start dealing with reporters."

He didn't wait for her to respond. He reached across her, his strong arm brushing against her. For half a second they were so close that he could kiss her. It was like he could do nothing else when he gently pressed his lips to hers. Then he smiled, this time genuinely. "I'll see you later." Then he reached even farther across and pushed open the passenger door. "I promise."

Not knowing what else to do, she got out of the Jeep. The minute she shut the door, he drove away, controlled patience spent, the car going too fast as if somehow Jesse was howling at a too bright sky, pushed to that precarious edge he had been flying toward for as long as she could remember.

To: Julia Boudreaux From: Chloe Sinclair Subject: Auditors Julia, the auditors are still unimpressed with our ratings. They are pressuring me to make scheduling changes. I'm afraid it's time we take a long hard look at our lineup.

Chloe Sinclair Station Manager Award-winning KTEXTV To: Chloe Sinclair From: Julia Boudreaux Subject: Like what Did they mention specifics?

Julia To: Julia Boudreaux From: Chloe Sinclair Subject: Specifics Yes, a few, including Getting Real with Kate. The truth is, the ratings for Getting Real are all over the place. One day they're up, the next they're down. While it's had some great ratings, the rest have been dismal and advertisers are wary of the show.

Chloe To: Chloe Sinclair From: Julia Boudreaux Subject: e-mail I've been reading through several viewer e-mails and reviews of the show. Apparently no one knows what to expect. One minute Kate is trying to be sexy, then the next she's ultraprofessional. I thought this was the perfect answer to Kate's image problem. I'm afraid I've only made it worse.

Julia To: Julia Boudreaux From: Chloe Sinclair Subject: Solution?

What do you propose we do?

Chloe To: Chloe Sinclair From: Julia Boudreaux Subject: Sigh Let me speak to her.

To: Katherine Bloom From: Julia Boudreaux Subject: Meeting Kate, sugar, could you come to my office?

Julia To: Julia Boudreaux From: Katherine Bloom Subject: re: Meeting

Julia, give me a second. I have a quick e-mail to send. Then I'll be there.

K.

To: Vern Leeper From: Katherine Bloom Subject: Golf tournament DearVern: As I recall, Jesse Chapman played in a tournament several weeks ago. The Westchester Open, I believe. Could you get me any video of Jesse at that event?

I'd greatly appreciate it. Best, Kate Katherine C. Bloom News Anchor, KTEX TV West Texas

EIGHTEEN.

"Kate, I'm really sorry about this."

Kate felt dizzy as she absorbed the words.

"But we have no choice but to cancel Getting Real with Kate."

Pride forced Kate not to clutch the arms of the chair while she sat through every long ticking minute

of explanation as to why her show was being canceled. "I know you are, Julia," she managed.

"The auditors were breathing down my neck-"

"Julia, really, you've explained. And I know you wouldn't do this if you didn't feel it absolutely necessary."

Her best friend sat across from her, looking worried and equally devastated by the turn of events.

Thankfully, the phone rang, and when the owner of KTEX TV answered it, Kate used it as an excuse

to leave.

She stood and walked with measured control out of the office, only hesitating when she saw Chloe.

The station manager looked at her with concern. Chloe had known. Kate saw it in her eyes.

Feeling a flash of betrayal that they had been talking about her behind her back, Kate headed for the

door, not stopping when Chloe called after her.

Deep down Kate understood that the owner and station manager would talk business, had to talk business. But not quite so deep down, at a shallow place, she felt like the odd man left out.

Wanting a distraction, needing a distraction, she whispered the names of the presidents.

"Washington, George. Adams, John." Concentrating on the names, she caught her not-so-sensible high heel in a crack in the parking lot, then fumbled with her key in the car lock. She got to "Monroe, James" before she fell into the sensible velour bucket seat of her sensible, no-nonsense vehicle-like falling back into the place she had been before Jesse came home.

It had finally happened. The cut swift and startling, though ultimately not surprising. She really had failed. The viewing audience hadn't liked her when she was serious. They liked her even less when she was wnserious. Which left her with the not so great thought that they didn't like her at all.

She refused to sink into self-pity, so she forced herself on to listing state capitals. She started with Alaska- both for its geographic location and its appealingly ordered first letter of A. She wouldn't go to a mall or smother her misery in a huge plate of barbecue and cole slaw. She would go home.

She needed to get her thoughts in order. Because she realized that Julia hadn't said anything about what would come next. Had the pity in Chloe's eyes been because it was more than just canceling Getting Real. Were they firing her?

Kate thought she might get sick right there in the parking lot. But she wouldn't go down without doing everything in her power to survive. There had to be something that could save her job. And the only way to do that was to come up with an alternate plan. Something that she could do and that would work on local television.

Her fingers curled around the steering wheel as she stared beyond the windshield, not seeing anything but the churn of thoughts in her mind. What would El Paso want to see? What did she know enough about to showcase convincingly? Who could she find that met both of these criteria?

It hit her then, bright and clear like a West Texas summer sky. She understood what she could do.