Mind Over Matter

me, dear.” She kissed A.J.’s cheek. “It always puts me at ease. Good night, David.”
    “Good night, Clarissa. Alex.” He stood beside A.J. as they linked arms and strolled out of the studio. “A nice-looking couple.”
    Before the words were out of his mouth, A.J. turned on him. If it had been possible to grow fangs, she’d have grown them. “You jerk.” She was halfway to the studio doors before he stopped her.
    “And what’s eating you?”
    If he hadn’t said it with a smile on his face, she might have controlled herself. “I want to see that last fifteen minutes of tape, Brady, and if I don’t like what I see, it’s out.”
    “I don’t recall anything in the contract about you having editing rights, A.J.”
    “There’s nothing in the contract saying that Clarissa would read palms, either.”
    “Granted. Alex ad-libbed that, and it worked very well. What’s the problem?”
    “You were watching, damn it.” Needing to turn her temper on something, she rammed through the studio doors.
    “I was,” David agreed as he took her arm to slow her down. “But obviously I didn’t see what you did.”
    “She was covering.” A.J. raked a hand through her hair. “She felt something as soon as she took his hand. When you look at the tape you’ll see five, ten seconds where she just stares.”
    “So it adds to the mystique. It’s effective.”
    “Damn your ‘effective’!” She swung around so quickly she nearly knocked him into a wall. “I don’t like to see her hit that way. I happen to care about her as a person, not just a commodity.”
    “All right, hold it. Hold it!” He caught up to her again as she shoved through the outside door. “There didn’t seem to be a thing wrong with Clarissa when she left here.”
    “I don’t like it.” A.J. stormed down the steps toward the parking lot. “First the lousy cards. I’m sick of seeing her tested that way.”
    “A.J., the cards are a natural. She’s done that same test, in much greater intensity, for institutes all over the country.”
    “I know. And it makes me furious that she has to prove herself over and over. Then that palm business. Something upset her.” She began to pace on the patch of lawn bordering the sidewalk. “There was something there and I didn’t even have the chance to talk to her about it before that six-foot reporter with the golden voice muscled in.”
    “Alex?” Though he tried, for at least five seconds, to control himself, David roared with laughter. “God, you’re priceless.”
    Her eyes narrowed, her face paled with rage, she stopped pacing. “So you think it’s funny, do you? A trusting, amazingly innocent woman goes off with a virtual stranger and you laugh. If anything happens to her—”
    “Happens?” David rolled his eyes skyward. “Good God, A.J., Alex Marshall is hardly a maniac. He’s a highly respected member of the news media. And Clarissa is certainly old enough to make up her own mind—and make her own dates.”
    “It’s not a date.”
    “Looked that way to me.”
    She opened her mouth, shut it again, then whirled around toward the parking lot.
    “Now wait a minute. I said wait.” He took her by both arms and trapped her between himself and a parked car. “I’ll be damned if I’m going to chase you all over L.A.”
    “Just go back inside and take a look at that take. I want to see it tomorrow.”
    “I don’t take orders from paranoid agents or anyone else. We’re going to settle this right here. I don’t know what’sworking on you, A.J., but I can’t believe you’re this upset because a client’s going out to dinner.”
    “She’s not just a client,” A.J. hurled back at him. “She’s my mother.”
    Her furious announcement left them both momentarily speechless. He continued to hold her by the shoulders while she fought to even her breathing. Of course he should have seen it, David realized. The shape of the face, the eyes. Especially the eyes. “I’ll be damned.”
    “I can only second that,” she murmured, then let herself lean back against the car. “Look, that’s not for publication. Understand?”
    “Why?”
    “Because we both prefer it that way. Our relationship is private.”
    “All right.” He rarely argued with privacy. “Okay, that explains why you take such a personal interest, but I think you carry it a bit too far.”
    “I don’t care what you think.” Because her head was beginning to pound, she straightened. “Excuse