Best Laid Plans

It wasn't so hard, this being in love. Abra thought it through as she swung her car into the parking lot at Thornway. She didn't have to act differently, live differently, be different. She wasn't required to change her life so much as open it up. Perhaps she hadn't thought it was possible for her to do even that, but Cody had proved her wrong. For that, if only for that, she would always be grateful.

If she could love him without changing who she was, didn't that mean that when the time came for him to leave she could pick up and go on as she had before? She wanted to believe it. She had to believe it.

With her keys jingling in her hand and her step very light, she crossed the lot to the building. The sun wasn't really shining brighter this morning. She knew that. But in her heart it glowed more golden, more beautiful, than ever before.

It was all a matter of perspective, she told herself as she passed through the lobby, heading toward the elevators. She knew all about perspective and planning and coming up with a workable structure.

A love affair could be engineered just like anything else. They cared about each other, enjoyed each other, respected each other. That was a solid foundation. They shared a common love of building. Even if they came at it from different angles, it was a base of sorts. From there it was a matter of adding the steel and the struts. After the weekend they had shared, Abra felt confident that progress had been made. Without the tension of work interfering, they had discovered pleasures in and out of bed.

She liked him. That seemed almost too elementary, but to her it was a revelation. It wasn't only a matter of need, attraction, falling in love. She liked who he was, how he thought, how he listened. Companionship wasn't something she'd looked for from him, any more than she'd looked for passion. In one weekend she'd discovered she could have both.

Abra pushed the button for the elevator and smiled as she remembered the way they had sprawled on her couch and watched a Gary Grant festival on television. Or the way they'd put together a meal of pizza and gingersnaps. Or the way they'd tumbled into her rumpled bed on Sunday afternoon with the radio playing jazz and the breakfast dishes neglected.

He'd made her happy. That in itself was more than she'd ever expected from a man. They were building a relationship, solid and strong. When it was time to walk away from it, she would be able to look back and remember something wonderful that had come into her life.

When the elevator doors opened, she stepped through, then felt hands encircle her waist.

"Going up?"

As the doors shut, Cody spun her around and captured her mouth with his. She held on the way he'd hoped she would. She answered the kiss the way he'd needed her to. It was hardly more than an hour since he'd left her to go back to his hotel and change for the meeting, but it seemed like days.

She'd gotten to him, he thought as he pressed her back against the side of the car. In all ways, in every way, she'd gotten to him. He was only just beginning to plan how to deal with the results.

"You taste good, Red." He lingered over her lips a moment, nibbling before he pulled back far enough to look at her. "And I like your face."

"Thanks." She lifted her hands to keep some sensible distance between them. "You were quick getting here."

"I only had to change. I could have done that at your place if you'd let me bring some things over."

She wasn't ready for that. If he lived there, really lived there over the next few weeks, the apartment would be much too empty when he left. She smiled and glanced up to check the progress of the car. They were still at lobby level. With a shake of her head she pushed the button both of them had forgotten.

"I'd hate for you to give up room service, and that neat little spa."

"Yeah." He knew she was evading him. No matter how intimate they became, she still refused to take the next step and close the final gap. He gave himself a moment to control his frustration, then pushed the button to stop the car between floors.

"What are you doing?"

"I want to ask you something before we go back to work. It's personal." He trailed a finger from the base of her neck to her waist. "As I remember, one of the rules is no mixing business with pleasure."

"That's right."

"Have dinner with me."

With a long sigh, Abra reached out to start the elevator again. Cody circled her wrist before she could press the button. "Cody, you didn't have to trap me in an elevator to ask me to have dinner."

"So you will?"

"Unless I'm stuck between the fourth and fifth floors."

"At my hotel," he added, bringing her wrist to his lips. As always, it delighted him when her response came out in a rush. "And stay with me tonight."

The fact that he had asked rather than assumed made her smile. "I'd like that. What time?"

"The sooner the better."

She laughed as she pushed the button for Tim's floor. But her pulse would be hammering for some time to come. "Then we'd better get to work."

Tim was waiting for them with a tray of coffee and Danish, which Abra ignored. It took only moments for her to recognize the signs of stress, though Tim was as jovial and expansive as ever. She was forced to stem her own impatience as details of the plans were brought out and gone over yet again. If she wasn't on the site by ten, she would miss another inspection.

When Tim set up a flow chart that diagrammed the construction sequence and the estimated dates of completion, she settled back and gave up. She'd be lucky to be on the job by noon.

"As you can see," Tim continued, "the blasting and the foundation were completed on schedule. Where we began to fall behind was on the roofing."

"There's no real problem there." Cody lit a cigarette as he studied the chart. "We were well within the usual grace period of twenty percent. In fact, it looks like we're no more off than five."

"We have another lag with the plumbing of the health club."

"No more than a day or two," Abra put in. "We'll be able to make it up with the cabanas. At this pace the resort will be built and operational within our time frame."

Tim was staring at the figures and projections. "It hasn't even been three months into construction and we're nearly ten percent behind." Tim held up a hand before Abra could speak. "Added to that is the budget. Unless we're able to take some cost-cutting methods, we're going to go over."

"The budget's not my province." Cody topped off his coffee, then filled Tim's cup. He'd seen the builder down three in the last half hour. Ulcers were made from less, he thought mildly. "And it's not Abra's. But I can tell you that from my own figures, and taking a look at the do list, you're going to come in as close to budget as it's possible."

"Cody's right. We've had no major hitches on this job. It's run more smoothly than any I've been involved with. The supplies have been delivered on time and in good order. If we've run over on a few things, such as the pool roof and the parallel windows in the main building, it's been minimal. I think that you - " She broke off when the phone rang.

"Excuse me." Tim picked up the receiver. "Julie, I want you to hold my calls until -  Oh. Yes, of course." Tim pulled at the knot of his tie, then reached for his coffee. "Yes, Marci. Not yet. I'm in a meeting." He drew a long breath as he listened. "No, there hasn't been time. I know that." He gulped more coffee. "I will. By this afternoon. Yes, yes, I promise. You..." He let his words trail off, rubbing the back of his neck. "Fine, that's fine. I'll look at them when I get home. By six. No, I won't forget. Bye."

He set down the phone. Abra thought his smile was a bit forced when he turned back to them.

"Sorry about the interruption. We're planning a little trip for next month and Marci's excited about it." He gave the chart an absent glance. "You were saying?"

"I was going to point out that I think you can be very pleased with the way this job's been going." Abra paused a moment, no longer sure Tim was listening.

"I'm sure you're right." After a long breath, Tim beamed at both of them. "I want to make sure I'm on top of things. I appreciate the input." He came around the desk. "I know I'm keeping you both from your work, so we won't drag this out any longer."

"Got any idea what that was all about?" Cody asked Abra as Tim closed the door behind them.

"I'm not sure." Thoughtfully she walked toward the elevators. "I guess he's entitled to be nervous. This is the first big job he's taken on solo. Everything else he's done was already in the works when his father died."

"Thornway has a good reputation," Cody commented as they stepped inside and started down. "What's your opinion of Thornway junior?"

"I don't like to say." Uneasy about the meeting, Abra stared at the wall of the elevator. "I was very close to his father. I really loved him. He knew the building trade inside out, every angle, every corner and he was... It was personal with him, if you know what I mean."

"I do."

"Tim's not the man his father was, but they're big shoes to fill."

They crossed the lobby and started out to the parking lot together. "How tight do you figure he bid this job?"

"Close. Maybe too close." She narrowed her eyes against the sun as she thought the problem through. "But I can't believe he'd be reckless enough to risk taking a loss on something of this size. The penalty clause is a whopper, that I do know." She fished out her keys, frowning. "Enough to put the fear of God into anyone. It's offset by a bonus if the job comes through ahead of schedule."

"So maybe he's counting too heavily on the bonus." With a shrug, Cody leaned against Abra's car. "Seems to me his wife is an expensive tax deduction."

She gave a quick, unladylike snort. "That's a nice way to talk about a man's wife."

"Just an observation. That little dog collar she had on the other night would have set old Tim back five or six thousand."

"Thousand?" Her interest piqued, Abra stopped in the act of sliding into her car. "Was it real?"

Pulled back from his speculations, he grinned. "You're awfully cute, Red."

She almost snapped at him, but curiosity got the best of her. "Well, was it?"

"Women like that don't wear glass and paste."

"No, I suppose not," she murmured. But five thousand - she just couldn't conceive of it. That much money would go a long way toward buying a new car, or a piece of equipment, or - she could think of a dozen uses for five thousand dollars more reasonable than wasting it on something a woman wore around her neck.

"What are you thinking?"

"That he must be crazy." Then she moved her shoulders, dismissing it. "But the man's entitled to spend his money however he chooses."

"Maybe he considers it an investment." At Abra's puzzled look, Cody thought back to the night of the party and Marci's frank and unmistakable come-on. "You could say some women need a lot of incentive to stay with one man."

Because that thought made her think uncomfortably - and perhaps unfairly - of Jessie, Abra brushed it aside. "Well, it's certainly his problem. In any case, we don't have time to stand here gossiping about Tim and his wife."

"Just speculating." But he, too, brushed the subject aside. "Listen, I've got to make a stop on the way to the job. Can you follow me?"

She glanced at her watch. "Yeah, but why - ?"

"There's something I have to pick up. I could use your help." He kissed her, then slid behind the wheel of his own car.

Ten minutes later, Abra drove in behind him at Jerry's Tire Warehouse. "What are you getting here?"

"A new suit. What do you think?" He pulled her out of the car and through the door. The place was a sea of tires - blackwalls, whitewalls, steel-belted ra-dials. It smelled of rubber and grease. Behind a scarred counter piled with thick catalogs was a bald man wearing half glasses.

"Morning, folks," he shouted over the hissing and blowing of pumps and lifts. "What can I do for you?"

"See that?" Cody turned and pointed at Abra's car through the plate-glass window. "Tires, all around, and a spare."

"But I - " Before Abra could finish, the clerk was thumbing through the catalogs. He'd summed up Abra's car with one glance.

"We have some very nice budget products."

"I want the best," Cody told him, making the clerk's eyes gleam behind his dusty lenses.

"Cody, this is - "

"Well, well." Obviously seeing his commission soar, the clerk began to write out an invoice. "I have something in stock that should do very nicely."

Cody glanced down at the invoice, noted the brand and nodded. "Can you have it ready by five?"

The clerk looked at his watch and his daily list. "Just."

"Good." Plucking the keys out of Abra's hand, Cody tossed them. "We'll be back."

Before she could complete a sentence, Abra found herself being pulled back outside. "Just what do you think you're doing?"

"Buying you a birthday present."

"My birthday's in October."

"Then I'm covered."

She managed - barely - to dig in her heels. "Listen, Cody, you have absolutely no right making decisions like this for me. You can't just - just drag somebody into a tire warehouse, for God's sake, and order tires."

"Better here than the supermarket." He put his hands on either side of her head, resting them on the roof of his car. "And I didn't drag somebody in there. I dragged somebody important to me, somebody that I won't see driving around on four tires that gave up the last of their rubber six months ago. You want to fight about that?"

Because he'd taken the wind out of her sails, she only frowned. "No. But I would have taken care of it. I've been planning to take care of it."

"When?"

She shifted her feet. "Sometime."

"Now it's done. Happy birthday."

Giving up, she leaned forward and kissed him. "Thanks."

Abra came home that evening in a dead rush. She'd missed the inspector again, but the foundations for the first set of cabanas had passed without a hitch. She'd been able to see the sliding roof in operation, and at long last the elevators were riding smoothly.

The meeting with Tim had given her some problems, enough that she had made a point of checking the foremen's daily lists. Her description of Tim to Cody had made her feel guilty. To combat that, she had decided to take a personal interest in every facet of the job. The extra time had pushed the end of her workday to six, and then she'd eaten up nearly an hour more picking up her car.

"Never ready when they say they'll be ready," she mumbled as she sprinted up the stairs of her building. When she reached her landing, she saw one more delay at her door.

"Mom. I didn't know you were coming by."

"Oh, Abra." With a little laugh, Jessie dropped a piece of paper back in her purse. "I was just going to leave you a note. Running a bit late?"

"I feel like I've been running all day." She unlocked the door and pushed it open.

"Have I come at a bad time?"

"No - Yes. That is, I'm heading back out again in a few minutes."

"I won't be long, then." Jessie gave an automatic sigh at the sight of Abra's living room.' 'Were you held up at work?"

"First." Abra shot straight into the bedroom. She wasn't going to have dinner with Cody in work boots and dusty jeans. "Then I had to pick up my car."

Straightening up as she went, Jessie trailed behind her. "Did it break down again?"

"No, I was getting tires. Actually Co - a friend of mine bought me tires."

"Someone bought you tires - for a present?"

"Uh-huh." She pulled out a nile-green jumpsuit. "What do you think of this?"

"For a date? Lovely. You've always had a good sense of color. Do you have any gaudy earrings?"

"Maybe." Abra pulled open a drawer and began to search.

"Why did someone buy you tires?"

"Because mine were shot," Abra said absently as she pawed through cotton underwear and sweat socks. "And he was worried that I'd have an accident."

"He?" Jessie's ears perked up. She stopped tidying Abra's clothes and smiled. "Why, that's the most romantic thing I've ever heard of."

With a snort, Abra lifted out one silver earring with copper beading. "Tires are romantic?"

"He was worried about you and didn't want you to be hurt. What's more romantic than that?"

Abra dropped the earring back in her drawer as her lips pursed. "I didn't think about it that way."

"That's because you don't look on the romantic side of things often enough." Anticipating the reply, Jessie held up a hand. "I know, I know. I look on that side too often. That's the way I am, sweetheart. You're much more like your father was - practical, sensible, straightforward. Maybe if he hadn't died so young..." With a shrug of her slender shoulders, Jessie plumped the pillows on the bed. "That's water over the dam now, and I can't help being the kind of woman who enjoys and appreciates having a man in her life."

"Did you love him?" The moment she asked, Abra shook her head and began to search for an overnight bag. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to ask you that."

"Why shouldn't you?" With a dreamy sigh, Jessie folded a discarded blouse. "I adored him. We were young and broke and totally in love. Sometimes I think I've never been happier, and I know it's a part of my life I'll never forget and will always be grateful for." Then the dreamy look was gone, and she set the blouse aside. "Your father spoiled me, Abra. He took care of me, cherished me in a way every woman needs to be cherished. I suppose I've looked for parts of him in every man I've ever been involved with. You were just a baby when he died, but I see him when I look at you."

Slowly Abra turned. "I never realized you felt that way about him."

"Because it's been so easy for me to form other relationships?" With competent movements, Jessie began to make the bed. "I don't like being alone. Being part of a couple is as necessary to me as your independence is to you. Flirting is like breathing to me. I'm still pretty." Smiling, she fluffed her hair as she bent to take a quick look in the mirror. "I like being pretty. I like knowing that men think I'm pretty. If your father had lived, things might have been different. The fact that I can be happy with someone else doesn't mean I didn't love him."

"It must have sounded as though I were criticizing. I'm sorry."

"No." Jessie smoothed the bedspread. "I know you don't understand me. The truth is, I don't always understand you. That doesn't mean I don't love you."

"I love you, too. I'd like you to be happy."

"Oh, I'm working on it." With a chuckle, Jessie moved around the bed to set Abra's sneakers in the closet. "I'm always working on it. That's one of the reasons I came by. I wanted you to know I was going out of town for a couple of days."

"Oh? Where?"

"Vegas. Willie's going to show me how to play blackjack."

"You're going away with Mr. Barlow?"

"Don't get that look," Jessie said mildly. "Willie is one of the sweetest men I've ever met. In fact, he's fun, considerate and a complete gentleman. He's arranged for separate suites."

"Well." Abra tried hard to accept the news. "Have a nice time."

"I will. You know, honey, if you put away all these things on your dresser you'd be able to find them when you -  Oh, my." Her eye fell unerringly on the necklace. "Where did you get this?"

"It was a present." Abra smiled as Jessie scooted in front of the mirror with the necklace held around her throat. "It's pretty, isn't it?"

"It's a great deal more than that."

"I really love it."

"I don't think you should leave it lying around."

"I've got the box around here somewhere." She rummaged. "I think I'll wear it tonight."

"If it were mine, I'd never take it off. You said a present." Jessie turned from the mirror. "From whom?"

"A friend."

"Come on, Abra."

Evading only made it into something that it wasn't, Abra reminded herself. She said lightly, "Cody picked it up for me when he went to San Diego."

"Well, well..." Jessie let the choker drip from one palm to the other like a stream of stars. "You know, sweetheart, this is the kind of gift a man gives his wife. Or his lover."

As her color rose, Abra made a production of brushing her hair. "It was a thoughtful token from a friend and associate."

"Associates don't give associates diamond chokers."

"Don't be silly. They're not real."

Jessie was silent for three heartbeats. "My only daughter, and she has such a huge gap in her education."

Amused, Abra glanced around. "Diamonds are white, these aren't. Anyway, it's ridiculous to think he'd bring me diamonds. It's a lovely necklace with beautiful colored stones."

"Abra, you're a very good engineer, but sometimes I worry about you." Picking up her bag, Jessie searched out her compact. "Glass," she said, holding up the mirror. "Diamonds." She scraped the stones across the mirror, then held it up.

"It's scratched," Abra said slowly.

"Of course it's scratched. Diamonds do that. And what you have here is about five carats. Not all diamonds are white, you know."

"Oh, my God."

"You're not supposed to look terrified." Abra stood stock-still, and Jessie hooked the choker around her neck. "You're supposed to look delighted. I know I am. Oh, my, they're stunning on you."

"They're real," she murmured. "I thought they were just pretty."

"Then I think you'd better finish getting ready so that you can go thank him properly." Jessie kissed her cheek. "Believe me, sweetheart, it's just as easy to accept the real thing as it is a fake. I should know."

He was getting edgy waiting for her. He wasn't a man who kept his eye on time, but he'd looked at his watch over and over during the last ten minutes. It was after eight. The way he figured it, she should have been able to get home, toss a few things in a bag and be on his doorstep by 7:45.

So where was she?

You're getting crazy, he told himself, dropping into a chair to light a cigarette. Maybe this was normal behavior for a man in love. He'd like to think so. It was better than wondering whether he was the first and only one to go off the deep end.

He was doing this exactly the way she'd asked. While they'd been on the job he'd been completely professional. The fact that they'd nearly fallen into a shouting match twice should have reassured him. At least he hadn't lost his artistic perspective. He still thought of her as a damn annoying engineer once her hard hat was in place.

But they were off the clock now, and he was only thinking of Abra.

She looked beautiful while she slept. Soft, vulner-able, serene. He'd watched her Sunday morning until he'd been driven to touch her. He was even charmed -  God help him - by the chaos of her apartment. He liked the way she walked, the way she sat, the way she got nose-to-nose with him when she started to shout.

All in all, Cody decided, he was sunk. So when she knocked he was up and at the door in three seconds flat.

"It was worth it." He relaxed the minute he saw her.

"What was?"

"The wait." Taking her arm, he drew her inside. Before he could lower his head for a kiss he saw the look in her eyes. "Something wrong?"

"I'm not sure." Feeling her way carefully, Abra stepped past him. There was a table set near the terrace doors, with candles waiting to be lit and wine chilled and ready to be opened. "This is nice."

"We can order whenever you like." He took her bag and set it aside. "What's the problem, Red?"

"I don't know that there is -  Well, yes, there is, but it's probably just for me. If I'd had any idea... but I don't know a lot about these things and didn't realize what it was at the time. Now that I do, I'm not sure how to deal with it."

"Uh-huh." He sat on the sofa and gestured for her to join him. "Why don't you run that through for me one more time, adding the details?"

She dropped down beside him, clasping her hands firmly in her lap. As beginnings went, that had been pitiful. "All right. It's this." She unlinked her hands long enough to touch the choker at her throat.

"The necklace?" With a frown, he reached out to trace it himself. "I thought you liked it."

"I did. I do." She was going to ramble again. To hold it off, she took a deep breath. "It's beautiful, but I thought it was glass or... I don't know, some of those man-made stones. My mother was by a little while ago. She's going to Las Vegas with Mr. Barlow."

Cody rubbed his temple, trying to keep up. "And that's the problem?"

"No, at least not this one. My mother said these were diamonds even though they aren't white."

"That jibes with what the jeweler said. So?"

"So?" She turned her head to stare at him. "Cody, you can't give me diamonds."

"Okay, give me a minute." He sat back, thinking it through. He remembered her reaction to the gift, her pleasure, her excitement. It made him smile, all the more now that he understood she had thought it only a glass trinket. "You're an interesting woman, Wilson. You were happy as a lark when you thought it was a dime-store special."

"I didn't think that, exactly. I just didn't think it was..." She let her words trail off, blowing out a long, frustrated breath. "I've never had diamonds," she told him, as if that explained it all.

"I like the idea that I gave you your first. Are you hungry?"

"Cody, you're not listening to me."

"I've done nothing but listen to you since you walked in. I'd rather nibble on your neck, but I've been restraining myself."

"I'm trying to tell you I don't know if it's right for me to keep this."

"Okay. I'll take it back." She sat there, frowning, while he reached around to the clasp.

"But I want it," she muttered. . "What?" It was hard to keep the smile from his voice, but he managed it. "Did you say something?"

"I said I want it." Disgusted, she sprang up and began to pace. "I'm supposed to give it back. I was going to. But I want to keep it." She paused long enough to frown at him. "It was a lousy thing for you to do, to put me in a position like this."

"You're right, Red." He rose, shaking his head. "Only a creep would go out and buy something like that and expect a woman to enjoy it."

"That's not what I meant and you know it." She paused again, this time to glare. "You're making me sound stupid."

"That's all right. It's no trouble."

She was nearly successful in stifling a giggle. "Don't be so smug. I've still got the necklace."

"Right you are. You win again."

Recognizing defeat, she turned and linked her hands around his neck. "It's beautiful."

"Sorry." He rested his hands on her hips. "Next time I'll try for cheap and tacky."

She tilted her head to study his face. He was amused, all right, she decided. It was hard not to admit he deserved to be. "I guess I should thank you for the tires, too."

He enjoyed the way her lips rubbed warm over his. "You probably should."

"My mother said they were a very romantic gift."

"I like your mother." He skimmed his hands up the length of her and down again as she traced the shape of his mouth with her tongue.

"Cody..."

"Hmm?" He lifted his hands to her face to frame it as he began to drift toward desire.

"Don't buy me any more presents, okay? They make me nervous."

"No problem. I'll let you buy dinner."

Her fingers were combing through his hair as she watched him through lowered lashes. "Are you really hungry?"

This time when she kissed him the punch of power all but brought him to his knees. "Depends," he managed.

"Let's eat later." She pressed closer.