Call It Destiny

habit of doing it?“
    Jake considered the question and then nodded his head once. „I’m afraid so. I’m not particularly good at handling people.“
    „You’re in a strange line of work for someone who isn’t good at dealing with people.“
    „Hotel work? It is a little off base, isn’t it? But it’s worked out very well for me. Your father always took the role of jovial host with the guests and mediated with the members of the staff when it was necessary. I dealt with the business side of things. The financial facts and figures.“
    „It seems to have been a highly workable arrangement,“ Heather said bracingly. „I assume the same arrangement will work between us.“
    „I’m sure it will,“ Jake retorted smoothly.
    „You have no objections to the prenuptial agreement?“ Heather experienced a sudden need to pin him down. There was an elusive quality to this relationship and, being fashioned of talented executive material, she wanted to define and control it. Instinct.
    „I think it’s unnecessary, but if you feel more comfortable having such a contract between us, then I’m perfectly willing to sign. Did you have a contract with your young punk?“
    Heather’s eyes chilled. „As it happens, Rick and I were never married. And if you don’t mind, Jake, I prefer not to discuss that situation. It’s in the past. If the actions of my youth offend you, I suggest you reconsider my offer of marriage.“
    „Your family would be crushed if I did that,“ he said with one of his quick unreadable smiles.
    „Yes,“ she agreed. „My family would be devastated. You’ve certainly made an impression on my parents and both my sisters, as well as all the other assorted relatives. In two years you’ve practically become a member of the family, haven’t you?“
    „Practically, but not quite.“ Jake helped himself to a slice of French bread, spreading it liberally with butter. His concentration was devoted to the small task and, as Heather was learning, when he gave his attention to something he tended to focus completely on the matter until it was finished.
    „Is that why you’re marrying me, Jake?“ Heather demanded in a spurt of perception. „To become a full member of the family?“
    He set down the buttered bread and lifted his intent gaze to meet hers. „I think it’s part of the reason, yes. Does that worry you?“
    It was Heather’s turn to consider a question. „I don’t see why it should. I know very well that I was never the son and heir my father longed to groom to take his place. It’s quite natural that he’s begun to see you as a substitute during the past couple of years. You’re devoted to Hacienda Strand and you’re very good at what you do. When you failed to panic at the idea of marrying me, he probably thought he was finally living in the best of all possible worlds. His wayward daughter had returned to assume her preordained role as president of Hacienda Strand, Inc. and his handpicked son was willing to become her consort and faithful assistant. A nice neat package.“
    „You don’t seem to have any objections to being part of that nice neat package,“ Jake observed mildly.
    „I’m no longer eighteen and determined to rebel against all authority.“
    „You’re twenty-nine and willing to submit to authority?“ Jake taunted lightly.
    Heather laughed. „Hardly. I’m twenty-nine and in charge of my own life. I know what I want and I have firmly established in everyone’s mind that I’m capable of getting what I want on my own without my father’s help. I’m back in Tucson to take over my father’s hotel, Jake, but I’m back on my own terms.“
    „From what I’ve heard you left on your own terms, too.“
    „The world looks different at twenty-nine than it did at eighteen,“ Heather told him firmly.
    „And it will no doubt look different again at thirty-eight.“
    „Is that how old you are?“
    „Yes. Why? Don’t I look my age?“ he asked dryly.
    Heather surveyed the liberal slivers of gray in the thick teak darkness of his conservatively trimmed hair. Jake Cavender looked his age, all right. In fact, he could probably have passed for forty. There was a hardness in him that implied experience; the kind of experience that made a man look as if he’d never been a child. For the first time Heather began to wonder about his past.
    „Fortunately for men, looking their age at thirty-eight is not a handicap,“ she temporized lightly.
    „Then you’re