2

      THIS WAS TROUBLE.

      Minutes after walking into her parents’ house last night Ari had known visiting them had been a mistake…a big mistake.

      Things had been tense there since her father’s heart attack had forced him into an early retirement, but last night she realized just how bad it had gotten.

      Instead of feeling comforted by the visit, Ari felt torn. She sympathized with her father’s frustration. After years of running a company, he’d forgotten how not to control things.

      She sympathized with her mother’s annoyance. Having her father underfoot all day, every day, would drive her nuts. Just a short visit left her feeling drained and more than a little anxious.

      Her parents’ relationship had always seemed so solid. Suddenly it seemed shaky, precarious. Ari didn’t know what to do to help either of them.

      She had headed home, anxious for some peace and quiet.

      Instead she’d found more trouble.

      Bigger trouble.

      She didn’t doubt her parents would work things out. They loved each other too much not to adjust to their new circumstances.

      But this?

      Ari read the article over and over throughout the course of the long night, yet she still couldn’t believe the horrible headline and the article that followed.

      Even worse, she couldn’t believe her name was there in black and white for the world to see. She felt sick to her stomach.

      When she’d come home from her parents she’d found her answering machine jam-packed with messages. Rag Magazine, the Financial Journal, and some maniac named Simon Masterson were the three most persistent callers. Each had left multiple messages. There was a handful of other magazines and papers, all asking for interviews about her study.

      Her thesis, “The Effects of Telephone Answering Systems on Psychological and Physical Well-Being” had not only been accepted and passed by the thesis committee in practically record time, it had been published in Psychology Forum. She’d been so proud, so thrilled to see it in print.

      And now she wished she’d never made the phone call that led her to think of doing a study on answering systems.

      She’d run out to the all-night grocery store after listening to her messages and bought a copy of the Rag. She’d been instantly mortified when she read the headline.

      If The Wait Doesn’t Kill You…The Answering System Will.

      It was a horrible headline, and the rest of the article had been just as bad, distorting the results of her study to the point of ridiculous.

      Yes, she’d found that people’s stress levels rose when they were forced to work their way through answering systems that resembled phone mazes. Systems where it took more than five minutes to reach a human being.

      The subjects’ blood pressure climbed, their heart rate and respiration increased, but none to the extent it threatened their lives.

      She’d never claimed phone answering systems were deadly, just that they could induce stress and that was cause for concern. The twenty-first-century world was stress-filled. Look at what it did to Collin’s libido.

      Ari thought if she could prompt change in some of the smaller stressors, such as phone mazes, it would leave people more capable of dealing with the bigger ones.

      She’d hoped the study would prompt companies to look at their systems and find ways to improve them, making them more user friendly.

      She’d never expected anything like the story Rag Magazine had run.

      She had no idea how to handle something like this. They didn’t teach Public Relations Disaster Management in her psychology classes.

      She’d sat up all night worrying, a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach and a raging headache.

      She glanced at the clock. It was almost eight now. Her father would be up soon. She’d call him and see if he had any suggestions on what she should do for damage control.

      After all, he’d run Kelly’s Plastics for years. He must have some experience with media. Nothing like this, of course, but he had to know more than she did. She wondered if her calling would upset him. He’d retired to avoid stress and—

      The doorbell rang, interrupting her thoughts.

      Not just one polite ring.

      No, a continuous string of rings.

      Who could be at her door at such an ungodly hour on a Saturday morning?

      She didn’t need any more surprises. Last night was all she could handle. What she really needed was some peace and quiet to get things in order.

      The ringing continued.

      Not an exactly peaceful sound, and certainly not quiet.

      Sighing, she went to the door. She left the chain in place, and opened it to find a large man standing on her stoop.

      A large, rather annoyed-looking man.

      “Yes?”

      “Are you Adrienne Kelly?” he asked.

      His voice was low and gravelly. The sort of voice that probably had women swooning at his feet his entire life.

      Maybe she should do some research on auditory aphrodisiacs.

      No, forget that. She shuddered to think what the tabloids could do with a subject matter like that.

      She took a closer look at Mr. Sounds-Yummy.

      He looked good, too.

      Real good.

      Okay, so maybe the frown lines on his rather annoyed-looking face took a bit away from his tall,