Absolutely, Positively

clunky platform shoes and a number of small steel chains. There was a gold ring in her nose and another through her eyebrow.

    Molly wouldn't have cared if Tessa came to work stark naked. Tessa was a natural saleswoman. She could have made a fortune in commissions at Nordstrom if she had been willing to dress to suit the corporate image of the sophisticated fashion store. Fortunately for Molly, she refused even to consider the notion.

    Tourists, who comprised a large share of Molly's customers, found Tessa fascinating. They frequently asked to take her picture after they had made their purchases. They couldn't wait to show the photos to their friends back in Kansas. Pictures of Tessa constituted proof positive that things really were different out on the Coast.

    Seattleites, on the other hand, long accustomed to the colorful off-beatbarristas who operated the city's innumerable espresso machines, felt comfortable with Tessa. She reminded them of the counter assistants who sold them their daily lattes. The connection between the familiar world of the Seattle coffee culture and that of the more exotic realm of tea and spices was a subtle one, but it was effective. Molly and Tessa had deliberately exploited it.

    “How did the meeting with T-Rex go last night?” Tessa asked as she closed the glass container.

    “It got complicated,” Molly said.

    Tessa leaned her elbows on the counter. “So? Did you fire him like you promised?”

    “Not exactly.”

    Tessa looked surprised. “You mean he finally approved a grant proposal?”

    “Not exactly.”

    “What, exactly, did happen?”

    “Let's just say I changed my mind.”

    “No kidding?” Tessa arched black brows that appeared to have been drawn with a wide-nibbed marking pen. “When you left here yesterday afternoon you swore that T-Rex would get no more chances to savage one of your precious grant proposals. You said that turning down the Wharton Kendall proposal was the next-to-the-last straw. I distinctly heard you say that if Trevelyan nixed Duncan Brockway's grant, the man was definitely road kill.”

    “Things change.” Molly decided there was no point being secretive. “I've got a date with him tomorrow night.”

    Tessa's eyes widened in shock. “A date with T-Rex?”

    “Kind of a stunner, isn't it?” Molly paused beside a shelf to rearrange a collection of designer teapots. “You know, maybe it's time to stop calling him T-Rex.”

    “You told me he was cold-blooded and utterly ruthless. You said he shredded the work of innocent inventors as if it were so much raw meat. You said that hiring him to help you vet grant proposals had been the equivalent of hiring Tyrannosaurus Rex to baby-sit small, furry mammals.”

    Molly thought about Harry's mouth on hers. She could still feel the heat he had generated. It was more intense than any of the thirteen different varieties of chile peppers she stocked.

    “Let's just say I was definitely wrong about one thing,” Molly said. “He's not cold-blooded.”

    “I don't believe it.” Tessa shook her head. “The guy talked you into a date?”

    “Sort of.”

    “Aren't you worried that you'll die of boredom?”

    “I don't think boredom will be a problem,” Molly mused. “And that's another distinction that must be made between T-Rex and Harry Trevelyan. From all accounts, dinosaurs had tiny little two-watt brains. The same cannot be said of Dr. Harry Trevelyan. He's what they call a polymath these days.”

    “What's a polymath?”

    “The modern term for a Renaissance man. Well-versed in a wide variety of subjects.”

    “Oh.” Tessa looked dubious. “Brainpower does not necessarily make a man an interesting dinner companion.”

    “Harry is plenty interesting, believe me.” Molly inhaled the scents of fine teas and fragrant spices. She glanced around the shop with proprietary pride. Automatically, she checked to see that all was in readiness for the day.

    The ritual was a familiar one. She had been going through it faithfully since the first morning she had come to work. That had been when she was twenty years old, the year her mother had died. Molly had been forced to drop out of college to support herself, her sister, and her father.

    The Abberwick fortunes, never stable, had taken another serious downturn that year. Jasper had borrowed twenty thousand dollars to finance the development of a new invention, and the bank wanted its money back. The loan officer had been under