Island Hearts (Jenny's Turn and Stray Lady) by Vanessa Grant

to make her see reason.
    She bristled, pushed her hair back and said aggressively, “I’ll have you know, we’ve had some pretty heavy weather up there.”
    “That’s protected waters,” he scoffed. “Sure, the winds blow, but you never get the kind of seas they get in the Dixon Entrance – where are you going, Jennifer? The boat’s in Ketchikan?” She nodded and he pressed on, “What’s your first port of call after you leave? When are you leaving?”
    She looked across the table, away from him. He followed her gaze. She was looking out the window at the runway. Was she in that much of a hurry to get to her lover? She said, “Jake, our plans aren’t that definite. We’re stopping at the Queen Charlotte Islands – it’s the logical first stop, just across Dixon Entrance.”
    His overactive imagination supplied a graphic vision of the two of them, drifting in some secluded bay, in intimate loneliness. Monica, he reminded himself grimly, trying to drown out one fantasy with another. It didn’t work. It never did. He was cursed with wanting the one woman who wouldn’t let him near.
    “ Just! Jennifer, do you have any idea what that stretch of water can be like?”
    “Jake, I—”
    He leaned forward, pleaded, “Shouldn’t you think about this more? After all, this George is a pretty new event in your life. You’re throwing away everything for someone you hardly know.”
    She stared at him for a long, heavy minute. When she did answer, her voice was flat and angry.
    “You’re making a lot of assumptions, aren’t you, Jake? I haven’t told you anything, but you’re determined to jump to conclusions. First you’ve got me taking a job with your competition, then running off on a sudden— a sudden love affair. None of this is your business, but – just as a point of information – I’ve known George a lot longer than I’ve known you.”
    “I don’t believe it,” he insisted over a sick fear. Why the hell did it matter to him? She’d never been even slightly interested in him as a man. He wanted her back because he needed her in the studio. This sexual attraction would go away sooner or later. He found himself insisting, “I don’t believe in this love affair with George.”
    She’d always been so cool. He’d seen the ice in her eyes when she caught him watching her, when she’d sensed his attraction to her. He’d seen her with other men, and he would have sworn it was the same. She kept everyone at a distance.
    Was George the reason for it all? For George, was she a passionate lover, giving out the warmth, the passion he sometimes thought he sensed in her?
    “You don’t believe—” Jennifer started to say angrily, then her voice lost its heat, dropped. “But it doesn’t matter what you believe, does it?” She smiled without any humor. “Excuse me for a minute.”
    He should have realized what she was up to, but he actually thought she was going to the ladies’ room. He watched her, then jerked to his feet as she went through the doors to the main terminal and just kept walking.
    She’d left him tied up with a furious waitress who was just bringing a seafood salad and clam chowder to their table. The waitress was quickly reinforced by the restaurant manager, an aggressively dangerous woman dressed in a severe gray suit. Jake managed to free himself from the whole embarrassing incident with quick apologies and ready cash.
    Jennifer was nowhere in sight.
    “Damn!” he cursed, earning himself a severe reprimand from an elderly woman who rushed past with her purse clutched tightly to her breast.
    What had gotten into Jennifer, transforming her from her usual quiet, helpful, dependable stability into— into what? He’d always known she was hiding her feelings from him, but he hadn’t expected this strangely contrary woman who seemed to be determined to do the craziest, the most—
    He caught up with her just as she was passing through the security checkpoint.
    “Jennifer!”
    She