Who's The Boss?. Barbara Boswell
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from all over the state—and other states, too—and properly dispose of it in a way that is not only safe but beneficial to the environment.” Cade’s hazel eyes gleamed. “I expect all your liberal cohorts in the Public Defender’s office would deny such technology even exists. That crowd believes no waste is the only safe waste, a ridiculous, hopeless point of view. Even the fires of our cave ancestors released waste products into the air.”
“I know. I—haven’t mentioned my inheritance to anyone,” she confessed, a little sheepishly.
“Afraid of being dubbed the Princess of Toxic Waste by all your green friends?”
Kylie tilted her head and gazed at him from under her lashes, the feminine signals elemental and unconscious. “Why do you assume that my cohorts and friends are all wild-eyed liberals?”
“It’s a natural assumption. If there is such a thing as a conservative public defender, I’d bet my shares in BrenCo that he has a multiple personality disorder with each alter unaware .of what the others are doing. You can imagine the mayhem that will ensue when the conflicting personalities finally collide in the poor sap’s conscious mind.”
Kylie laughed. “You surprise me,” she admitted. “I wouldn’t have thought you were capable of appreciating the absurd.”
“I wouldn’t have lasted eight minutes, let alone eight years, in this town filled with Brennans if I didn’t have a healthy appreciation of the absurd.”
“Brennans. You talk about them as if they’re a separate species.”
“Now you’re catching on. Brennans fall somewhere between vampires and parasites, though precise classification has yet to be established.”
He was kidding, displaying an even greater, healthier appreciation of the absurd. Wasn’t he? “Gene excepted, of course,” she interjected his usual disclaimer.
“Gene excepted, of course. And according to Gene, your dad would have to be excepted, too. Gene admired your father, he was very proud of him. He often boasted about his brother Wayne, the navy captain who commanded a battleship and lived all over the world. He was a fan of your big brother, too. Gene always referred to him as ‘my-favorite-nephew-Devlin-the-doctor.’”
“Devlin is finishing his orthopedic surgical residency at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor,” Kylie lapsed naturally into her role of proud sister and daughter. “Dad is retired now. He and Mom are living in Florida and still aren’t sure how they’ll adjust to staying in the same place for more than a few years.”
“If they’re like my folks, who are retired army, they’ll end up buying an RV and trolling the interstates on endless trips. Occasionally, they swing by Port McClain to see me.”
“In March, no doubt. After all, it’s the perfect time to visit here. The lake-effect wind and all that snow are big draws.”
“Touché.” Cade raised his brows again in that particular way of his.
Kylie raised her eyebrows right back. “Maybe Bridget’s antiski lodge will be packing in crowds on their next visit.”
“You’re really on a roll here, aren’t you?” Cade’s voice was deceptively mild as he studied her.
She was flirting with him. Or was she? Given their volatile interaction since she’d set foot in his office, there was always the chance she was expressing her antipathy to him. What a blunder it would be to mistake aversion for flirtation!
But Cade was a risk-taker by nature. He took one now and moved closer to her. Close enough to cup her chin in one hand and tilt her head a little.
Kylie felt the world careen. He was going to kiss her; she could read the hot sensual intent in his eyes. And she was going to let him. She wanted him to kiss her, she wanted it very much.
The realization stunned her. This kind of behavior was completely unlike her. She’d never been driven by sexual urges. She was too cerebral, governed by her head, not her body’s impulses.
Yet here she was, melting against Cade Austin as he pulled her into his arms. Closing her eyes as his mouth lowered to hers. Parting her lips for the breathlessly anticipated impact of his...
Two
“Cade, I’m sorry to interrupt but Bobbie Brennan is on the phone,” Donna’s voice, loud and clear, sounded over the intercom.
Startled, Kylie and Cade jumped away from each other as if they’d been blasted apart by a bomb.
Kylie’s heartbeat thundered in her ears. She’d come so close to kissing Cade Austin that she had felt the warmth of his breath on her face. She’d been in his arms, his body pressing into hers, the formidable length of him, hard and strong, revealing the force of his own desire. The intimate recall made her shake. Heat scorched her from the top of her head to the tips of her toes.
From the corner of her eye, she saw Cade sink into his desk chair. She walked unsteadily to the window and touched her forehead to the cool glass.
“Bobbie says it’s an emergency and she must speak to you immediately,” Donna stated.
“An emergency?” Kylie snapped to attention. She turned around, her eyes widened with alarm.
“Don’t worry, it’s probably nothing serious. Everything is an emergency to Bobbie.” Cade heaved a groan. “The cornerstones of her personality are hysterics and vengeance, and one fuels the other.”
“I told Bobbie you were in an important conference and couldn’t be interrupted but needless to say, she refuses to take ‘no’ for an answer,” Donna continued. “She threatened to come down and break into your office with a hatchet if she had to. I decided we’d better not risk it.”
“We’ve learned the hard way that ignoring Bobbie is not the way to go,” Cade said tightly.
“Do you really think Aunt Bobbie would hatchet her way into your office?” Kylie was incredulous.
“There is already a long list of outrageous things Bobbie has done, when thwarted. Taking a hatchet to my office door would not be a stretch for her.”
“Get ready, Cade,” Donna warned. She sounded like a pilot announcing an emergency landing. “I’m putting her call through on speaker phone right now.”
“Cade!” Bobbie Brennan’s shriek filled the office.
Nails on a chalkboard sounded euphonious in comparison. Kylie. flinched.
“Brent is in jail!” Bobbie screamed. “They set bail at twenty-five thousand dollars! A fortune!”
“Remember that you pay a bail bondsman ten percent which is twenty-five hundred dollars, Bobbie,” Cade reminded her.
“I don’t have that kind of money for a bail bondsman. It may as well be twenty-five million! What are we going to do, Cade? Oh, this couldn’t have come at a worse time! I’m all out of patience with Brent, this time he’s gone too far!” Bobbie’s tone grew even more vitriolic. “It’s all Artie’s fault, damn him! He’s a terrible father, he’s the cause of all Brent’s problems.”
“Tell me why Brent is in jail, Bobbie. What are the charges against him?” Cade had to ask three times before she stopped yelling long enough to hear him
“I wrote down what the cop said, but I’m crying too hard to read my writing.” Bobbie sobbed noisily.
“Shall I call Artie and ask him?” Cade asked.
“No! That loser is the reason Brent is in jail.” Bobbie’s sobs instantly ceased. “Brent has been charged with second degree burglary. You see, Artie rented out the basement of his house to this nasty young couple—I told him not to do it!—and Brent put a video camera behind a two-way mirror with a hole in it so he could tape that couple in their bedroom.”
“Tape