LITMIR.BIZ

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reach Idaho Falls by seven and then some. Since the reservations are all made, we won’t have to worry where to park when we get there.”

      As she left the motor home, a couple of kids were coming out of the store. When they saw George perched near the front dashboard they asked Lacey if she minded if they watched him while she made her call.

      She knew how they felt. Apes had always been her favorite animal at the zoo. Maybe that was why she had been so willing to help out Lorraine. Lacey told the boys to enjoy themselves and returned to the business of getting a free long-distance line. After ten tries, she connected.

      “This is Radio Talk. Do you have a question for Dr. Ryder?”

      “Actually, I’d like to speak to Mr. Jarvis.”

      “What’s your name?”

      “Gloria.”

      “Hold on, Gloria. You’ll be up next.”

      “I’m holding.”

      Lacey waited another minute, then Max Jarvis’s voice was speaking. “Hello, Gloria. I hear you want to speak to me.”

      “That’s right.”

      “Where are you calling from?”

      “Garland.”

      “As in?”

      “Utah! And if you knew anything about this state, you wouldn’t have had to ask that question.”

      He chuckled. “I may not know a great deal about Utah, but I do know voices, and you’re not Gloria. You’re Lorraine! I’ve been hoping you’d call back, but it’s been a while and I’d almost lost hope. Go ahead and take all the time you need to vent your feelings about your unsatisfactory personal life.”

      Lacey blinked in stunned surprise. He was a lot more intelligent than she’d given him credit for.

      “My personal life is my own concern. But I do want to vent my feelings about the kinds of outrageous opinions you express, which not only show that you’re from out of state, but that you know nothing about men and women.”

      “So what you’re saying is that if a man isn’t from Utah, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about?” he asked in a mild tone, raising her blood pressure.

      “Let’s just say we were all just fine until you came along with your unique brand of ‘practicality’! What really alarms me is your willingness to let anyone who has written a book be a guest on your show. You allow them to pass off their work as the latest authority for the masses to heedlessly imbibe, then side with them when you know there are two sides to every issue! What about romance? What about love?”

      His chuckle got under her skin. “Me thinks the lady protesteth too much. Something tells me you’ve never lived with a man. Is that right?”

      “That’s right, because I believe in romantic solutions not practical ones!”

      “Be more specific.”

      “If a woman’s lucky, she’s only going to give herself to one man forever. If a man’s lucky, he’s only going to give himself to one woman forever. That’s the highest form of love, consecrated in marriage.

      “Yet your pseudo-doctor guest is advocating that we should be ruled by our heads not our hearts and you are condoning it. You’re both out of your minds.”

      “How would you like to put that remark to the test, Lorraine?”

      She frowned. “What do you mean?”

      “Have you written a book lately on the relationship between men and women?”

      “I wouldn’t presume to take on a subject that should be left alone.”

      “Good. Then you’re the perfect person to appear as a guest on my show next week and prove to my face that I’m out of my mind, as you said.”

      “That won’t be hard. I’ll look forward to it,” she averred before it dawned on her what she’d just said.

      “All you callers out there heard her. It ought to be an interesting show. Rob—take the information on Lorraine while we go to our next caller.”

      Lacey knew Max Jarvis’s tactics. He hadn’t expected her to take up his challenge. She kind of surprised herself by agreeing to appear as a guest on the show. What an irony that after phoning into Radio Talk all these years, she would be facing the one host who had the capacity to rile her.

      If she were being honest with herself, she would admit that she really wanted to find out if the man measured up to his voice.

      By now, a crowd had gathered around the motor home to watch George. She had to work her way through to climb on board. He hooted a welcome.

      “Good news, George. I’m going to be on Radio Talk next week. I’ve a few thousand things to say to that infuriating man. It’s time for his education to begin.”

      CHAPTER TWO

      “HI! You made it. I’m Rob Clark. Max Jarvis will be with you in a minute. I take it you’re Lorraine.”

      Lacey nodded and shook his hand. For the time being, she was stuck with Lorraine’s name. “Pleased to meet you, Rob.”

      She put her briefcase next to a Naugahyde couch. The radio station was a small bungalow situated on a lonely road in the southwest part of the city not far from the condo. There wasn’t anything about the place that resembled what she had pictured in her mind throughout her trip to Idaho and back.

      “Can I get you coffee, or a cold drink?” He stood there with his hands in his pockets, looking expectant.

      “Nothing for me, thank you.”

      “Is this your first time as a guest?” He watched with avid interest as she sat down on the couch and crossed her legs.

      “That’s right.” Because he was trying so hard, she gave him the benefit of a full-bodied smile. “Do you have any advice for me?”

      Her question caused him to blush, which made him appear even younger than she’d surmised. “Just remember this isn’t television. There’s no camera trained on you, so you shouldn’t be nervous. But even if there was a camera, you would have no worries, believe me.”

      “I agree,” The Voice concurred.

      Startled, Lacey looked around and found herself the focus of Max Jarvis’s unnerving scrutiny.

      She blinked. He reminded her of somebody’s brother. How many times in her life had she been told that one of her friends had this gorgeous brother Lacey just had to meet? The perfect male. Six feet two inches, dark blond hair, rugged features, blue eyes, lean, a white smile, intelligent, successful.

      She’d heard it all, but for once in her life there he was, standing three feet away. And like all things too good to be true, he was probably married with one or two little offshoots showing just as much promise.

      A glance at his tanned hands revealed a huge white opal set in antique gold. Not your typical wedding ring, but she knew from listening to his show that Max Jarvis was a man with discriminating tastes. He’d traveled and lived in many parts of the world.

      He’d probably picked up that stone in the Australian outback. His tan certainly didn’t come from lying around a swimming pool all day.

      She happened to know he had recently been on a trip to Alaska. But whether or not he’d gone with his family was anyone’s guess. Of all the radio hosts, he was the only one who didn’t discuss his personal life, which was an irony considering he loved to discuss everyone else’s.

      To Lacey’s way of thinking, it was a deliberate ploy to keep him mysterious and intrigue his listeners. The ploy worked. He had the biggest following of anyone on Radio Talk. At this point, not even Lacey was immune.

      A

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