Double Jeopardy by Bobby Hutchinson Page A

good at it. He said he’d had a relationship until a couple months ago. He’s honest, which is all you can ask. And who the heck have you been talking to about him anyway?”
    What if it got back to Ben that somebody from the television crew was asking personal questions? She’d be humiliated. He’d naturally think it was her.
    “That local guy who’s working with Irby on lighting, Kenny what’s-his-name? Well, he has a sister who’s a radiologist at St. Joe’s.”
    “And she used to date Ben? She is dating Ben? She’s planning on dating Ben?” Sera tried to keep her voice steady. There was a peculiar tightness in her belly.
    “Nope. She’s fifty something and married. She just told Kenny what apparently is common knowledge at the hospital.”
    “Maisie. You asked Kenny to find out about Ben.” Sera shot her friend a reproachful look.
    “Well, better to have all the facts. Or fiction, depending on how accurate hospital gossip is.” Maisie reached across the table and took Sera’s hand, and her voice softened.
    “The word on the street is, Dr. Halsey’s a love- ’em-and-leave-’em guy, and I just don’t want you getting hurt, okay? Having sex with the Ben Halseys of this world is like playing with nitroglycerin. It’s spectacular if you’re prepared for the explosion, but I’m not sure you are.”
    Her beautiful eyes were kind and concerned. “I’ve known you, what? Two years now, two and a half? And in all that time you’ve never really fallen for anyone, never even shown a whole lot of interest in the entire male gene pool when it comes down to it. And some of the guys who were hot for you were totally studly. You do attract men, in case you didn’t know it. Probably because you’re such a challenge.” She cocked her head and studied Sera. “Maybe it’s that wild hair combined with the dose of cool attitude. That camera guy with the ponytail, for instance. Now he was a specimen.”
    “Jeff. Yeah, he was nice.” She’d dated him half a dozen times. It had been nice. Comfortable. No sense of drowning, no blood pooling in her abdomen, no urge to tear off her clothes and let herself slide down his body to the floor the way she’d felt the night Ben kissed her. Just remembering that kiss brought goose bumps out on her arms.
    “You don’t have to worry about me, Maisie. I’m twenty-eight. I’ve been around enough to be able to take care of myself. Besides, neither Ben nor I is interested in a scenario that includes a cozy house and a nanny.” Too late, she realized she’d revealed more than she’d intended to.
    Maisie gave a satisfied grin. ‘ ‘So you talked over the pros and cons, huh? Now we’re getting somewhere.”
    “I think we agreed we were alike in not forming lasting relationships, that’s all.” Was that what each of them had meant? Sera wasn’t certain now.
    Maisie shot her a knowing look.
    “It just happened to come up in conversation,” Sera said defensively.
    “Okay. So when are you seeing him again?”
    “I’m not sure. I thought maybe I’d get him to choose some paint samples tomorrow, if he has time. Or I do. It’ll depend on whether or not they finish shooting in the morning.”
    It was Friday night, and it’d been a long day. The director and the writers had suddenly decided to change the setting of an upcoming scene from Dinah’s living room to the apartment of one of her new friends, for which no set had been built.
    There was a set now. It was nine forty-five in the evening, and Maisie and Sera had started at seven that morning. The carpenters and painters had finished an hour ago, and there were still the props to put in place before the set was ready for tomorrow morning’s early shoot.
    “Guess we’d better get back at it, or there won’t be much point in going home tonight.” Maisie yawned as they paid the bill and walked out into the balmy summer night.
    People thronged the street. A busker sitting on the sidewalk strummed a guitar and