Strangers in the Night Read Online Free Page B

in all and most were clients that Barbara should have dealt with.
    â€œThanks, Sarah,” he said, trying to keep the annoyance out of his voice. “Tell Barb to call me the minute you hear from her. If I’m not here she needs to leave a message with the front desk.”
    â€œWill do.”
    He checked his watch and deducted two hours for the time-zone change. Barb might be out to lunch or with clients. He’d try again later.
    Jake made the necessary phone calls to their clients—nothing that couldn’t wait really, but he wanted to keep them happy.
    Frustrated, Jake went back down to the desk and snagged a copy of the Grand Forks Herald . And for the next hour, he sat in the lobby of the hotel, watching people and reading articles about President Kennedy’s arrival in France. Not surprisingly, politics took second to fashion as France fell in love with the first lady. He couldn’t blame them. Jackie Kennedy commanded attention everywhere she went. She was the perfect first lady: elegant, soft-spoken, wealthy, and a mother. Jack had made a good choice in a mate, or perhaps the choice had been made for him. After all, the Kennedy family was the closest thing the US had to royalty.
    Before heading out for his evening meal, Jake tried calling Barbara again—no answer at the office or at her home. Barbara normally would have called to check in, but in the real estate business, time was rarely one’s own. He doubted there was a problem but couldn’t help but worry.

C HAPTER 4
    That evening, when Abbie told Margie about Jake and her parents’ offer, her doubts returned with the driving force of a tornado. It didn’t help that she had picked up her mail from the post office and found nothing from her parents.
    â€œI wish I could have met him.” Margie pulled her knitting bag from beside the sofa and lifted out the maroon sweater she was making. “I trust your judgment and everything, but you wouldn’t be the first person to get sidetracked by a good-looking man.”
    â€œDid I say he was good-looking?” Abbie remembered no such thing.
    â€œYou didn’t have to.” Margie adjusted her needles and began working a purl stitch. “I could tell by the way you talked about him.”
    â€œHumph.” Had she really given Margie that impression of Jake or was Margie just guessing? “Just because he has blue eyes like Sinatra and a dreamy smile doesn’t mean I was swayed by his charms.”
    â€œWhen are you seeing him again? I want to be there.” Margie said it as if she were the better judge of character. Maybe she was. Abbie had to admit that she herself was being led more by her heart than her brain.
    â€œI’m supposed to hook up with him in the morning.” Abbie pressed a throw pillow against her chest, hoping to ease the discomfort that had lingered all afternoon.
    â€œI don’t like it, Annie.” Margie began to knit. “It’s too soon, too fast. Are you sure you can trust him?”
    â€œI don’t know. I tried calling Mom and Dad from a payphone downtown to verify what he said, but they didn’t answer.” She regretted her hasty response to Jake, but for those few minutes, desire to see her parents and Skye and to go back home overrode common sense. That and those trusty blue eyes.
    â€œThen wait until you can get hold of them.” She paused to look at her instructions. “Besides, how can you expect to be ready so soon?”
    â€œIt’s not like we have much to pack. But you’re right. Only…if he were with the police, he’d have arrested me, don’t you think?”
    â€œProbably.” She peered at Abbie over her glasses. “It’s not the police I’m worried about. It’s Leah. What if she hired this Jake guy to find you? He wins your trust by making up some wild story about your parents and Skye and this property to lure you into a trap. He