JESS HARKINS WAS TOO OLD for fix-ups. But he'd forgotten
that fact in a moment of insanity and now was stuck with
the woman sitting in the passenger seat of his Jag.
Suzanne Dougherty, friend of a friend, billed as lots of
fun and just your typeβ¦wasn't.
They'd struggled to make conversation over a very
expensive dinner at Anthony's and were currently en route
to the Flying V for dancing because it would be an insult
to take her home at nine on a Friday night. God. Why
hadn't he nipped this idea in the bud?
Gabe should have known better than to set him up with
somebody like Suzanne. The guy had been Jess's
construction foreman for five years. Plus they'd hung out
watching sports and had spent a bunch of Sunday afternoons
hiking their favorite mountain trails. Gabe should know by
now what kind of woman Jess would like.
Maybe Gabe wasn't a great judge of character. Or maybe his
girlfriend had pushed him into setting up the blind date.
In any case, it wasn't working.
Suzanne reached for the power button on his sound
system. "Let's listen to the radio."
"Good idea." Anything to fill the awkward silences. She
punched the button. The minute she did, he remembered
where he'd last set the dialβ¦and what came on after the
nine-o'clock news Monday through Friday nights.
"Hi, there! Crazy Katie for KRZE, "crazy' talk radio in
Tucson, home of that marvelous phallic symbol, the saguaro
cactus! It's Friday, October seventh, and we're Talking
About Sex!"
Suzanne's shrill laugh bounced around inside the
airconditioned Jag. "Hey, I totally forgot it was nine
o'clock."
"Maybe we should go with some music." Jess reached for the
channel switch.
"No, leave it." Suzanne caught his hand. "I like her show.
Haven't heard it in a while."
Jess used to like it, too. He'd made a habit of switching
it on weeknights wherever he happened to be β in his
foothills home or driving around town. Her sassy voice
took him down memory lane and her topic interested him
more than a little.
He'd even thought about stopping by the station to ask her
out for old time's sake. It certainly wasn't out of his
way now that he was building a high-rise right next to
KRZE's studio, located in a quaint little adobe dating
back to the forties.
He'd considered leaving her a note on his way home from
the job site. Wouldn't she be surprised to hear from him,
a blast from the past? She might be seeing someone, of
course, but it was worth a shot.
Then, as he'd been about to make his move with a clever
little note referencing days gone by, she'd started
lobbing grenades at his project. She'd been doing it for a
couple of weeks now, egging on the handful of Value Our
Roots picketers he continued to deal with. The project had
attracted dissenters from the start, with VOR being the
most vocal. But once the zoning board had ruled in favor
of the highrise, the protests had mostly died down. Except
for Katie's.
Okay, maybe construction caused a few traffic problems for
KRZE's employees. But soon that wouldn't matter because
the station would have to relocate anyway. Livingston
Development Corporation was negotiating with the station's
owners to buy the property.
KRZE was sitting on land that could be put to better use,
simple as that. The rest of the properties in that block
were already in escrow, and plans had been approved for a
shopping mall several stories high. Jess expected to get
that contract, too. This development was the most high-
profile project he'd ever landed. When it was finished,
Harkins Construction would be the big-deal company in
Tucson. Jess wanted that kind of job security.
Plus he was having fun. The new buildings would bring more
business downtown and add an interesting silhouette to the
skyline. They would not be the eyesore devoid of all
redemption that Katie had called them on Wednesday night
or a testimony to human greed and excess, which was the
phrase she'd used last night. They would look nice.
Impressive. Worthy of Harkins Construction.
He should have stopped listening after the first time
she'd dinged him, but he'd had some perverse need to know
what she was ranting about. Still, he didn't relish being
insulted in front of Suzanne. No help for it, though. If
he insisted on changing the station he'd look defensive.
"On this show, we're all sex, all the time," Katie said.
"And here's your nightly tip from the Kama Sutra. Tired of
the same ol', same ol' with the woman on top? Ladies, try
this β squat down, settle yourself on that bad boy of his,
close your legs and use a churning motion. Let me know if
it works for you, okay?"
Jess coughed to hide a groan of dismay. Suzanne had been
giving him sexual signals all night. This should throw her
into high gear.
"Interesting idea," Suzanne said. "Ever had a woman try
that?"
"Not exactly."
"I think it sounds like a lot of β"
"Work," Jess said. "It sounds like a lot of work."
"Wait a minute. I wasn't going to say that. I think β"
"Tonight we welcome Dr. Janice Astorbrooke." Katie's voice
drowned out whatever Suzanne might have said.
"Dr. Astorbrooke is the author of Thrusting Skyward:
Sexual Symbolism in Architecture."
Jess ground a millimeter off his back molars as he gunned
the Jag through an amber light. As if the Kama Sutra tip
hadn't caused enough trouble, now he had to listen to a
discussion of high-rise buildings as phallic symbols. He
could smell it coming. Katie must have combed the Internet
looking for this crackpot.
"Let's get right to it, Dr. Astorbrooke. Surely on your
way here you noticed what's happening next to our charming
little studio. A pit that large means a foundation for a
very tall building. Forty stories, to be exact."
Dr. Astorbrooke had the deep voice of a heavy
smoker. "Katie, as long as we allow men to design
buildings, we'll see structures climbing ever higher. At
forty stories, this one is modest."
"Well, we are in Tucson, not Manhattan," Katie said.
"I've noticed you have precious few tall buildings, but
you have some, and the motivation is definitely the same,
whatever the size."
Jess braced himself. He wasn't going to like this. "And
what would that motivation be, Dr. Astorbrooke?" Katie
sounded so sweet. So deadly.
"Compensation for sexual inadequacies."
"Watch out!" Suzanne yelled.
Jess slammed on his brakes and barely missed hitting the
car in front of him. "Sorry." The apology came
automatically as his brain continued to deal with what
he'd heard. Sexual inadequacies? Shitfire. He was making
damn good money building a viable office complex. He sure
as hell wasn't compensating for a goddamn thing.
"Absolutely fascinating," Katie said. "So it's a bit like
driving powerful cars?"
Katie couldn't know he had a Jag. But he winced all the
same.
"Like that, but even more revealing, Katie."
Suzanne laughed again, an eardrum-piercing sound. "I just
realized something. That's your building she's talking
about, isn't it?"
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