CHAPTER ONE

      LONG BEFORE THE banquet was over, Kurt was feeling restless. Why couldn’t people just say thank you and leave it at that? If he hadn’t wanted to donate all that equipment he wouldn’t have done it. So why should he be required to sit at a head table and smile for what seemed hours while everyone from the university’s president on down expressed their appreciation?

      As if she’d read his mind, his grandmother leaned toward him and whispered, “Most people who donate things enjoy the public recognition. You look as if you have a toothache.” She gave an approving nod toward the podium and applauded politely.

      Kurt hadn’t noticed until then that yet another speaker had finally wound to his interminable conclusion. He rose, made the obligatory half-bow toward the speaker, gave the audience another self-deprecating smile, and hoped to high heaven that they were done.

      Apparently they were—or else the audience had finally had enough too, for most of them were on their feet. “At last,” he said under his breath.

      “It’s only been an hour,” his grandmother said. “You really must learn some patience.”

      Now that it was almost finished he could begin to see some humor in the situation. “I didn’t hear you saying anything about the need to be patient while I was getting myself established in business, Gran. In fact, I seem to remember you egging me on by saying you wanted me to hurry up and get rich enough to buy you a mink coat.”

      “What I said,” she reminded him crisply, “was that I wanted a mink coat and a great-grandchild before I died, and since I was perfectly able to buy my own mink coat you should concentrate on the great-grandchild.”

      He suppressed a grin at how easily she’d stepped into the trap. “Well, these people have been telling you all evening how great your grandchild is. So the way I see it, now that you know I’m perfect you have nothing left to complain about.”

      She smiled. “And here I thought you brought me tonight only because you couldn’t decide which of the young women on your list deserved the laurels.”

      She wasn’t far wrong about that, Kurt admitted. He could think of half a dozen women who would have been pleased to attend this event with him—unexciting as it had turned out to be. But that was part of the problem, of course. Invite a woman to a party and she understands it’s just a date. Invite her to a boring banquet in your honor and she starts thinking you must be serious.

      His grandmother was looking beyond him. “Don’t look now, but here comes another one.”

      And if you take your grandmother to the banquet instead, he thought, the hopefuls start coming out of the walls.

      From the corner of his eye, he spotted a woman coming toward them. This one was blond—but only the hair color seemed to change; they were all young, sleek, improbably curvy, with perfect pert noses. It was as if someone had put a Barbie doll on the copy machine and hit the enlarge button.

      There had been two of them before they’d even sat down to dinner—fluttering over to enthuse about how wonderful he was to make such a huge contribution, obviously thinking that the way to any man’s heart was through his ego. If Kurt had started the evening with any inclination to think himself special—which he hadn’t—that would have been enough to cure him.

      “Time to get out of here.” He offered his arm to his grandmother.

      Outside the banquet room, a few people were milling about, buttoning winter coats and wrapping scarves before leaving the warm student union for the wintry outdoors.

      “There’s a chair,” Kurt said. “And isn’t that your friend Marian? You can talk to her while I get your coat.”

      The cloakroom counter was busy, and only one attendant was on duty. When they’d arrived the crowd had been trickling in and there had been two people manning the cloakroom. Now that everyone wanted to leave at once there was