Absolutely, Positively by Jayne Ann Krentz Page B

pink in her cheeks. He was occupied with a small, battery-powered motor he had removed from the box.

    Molly pressed a button. A second stainless-steel surface unsealed itself from the wall and unfolded next to the one Harry was using as a workbench. It locked itself into position.

    “Well? What do you think?” Molly set the pizza and salads down on the new table.

    Harry looked up at last. He blinked as though to clear his brain. Then he glanced at the pizza and salads.

    “What's that?”

    “Dinner,” Molly announced cheerfully. “I don't know about you, but I'm starving.”

    Acute alarm flickered in Harry's amber eyes. “Hell.” He scowled at his watch. “I've got reservations for seven-thirty.”

    “Youhad reservations for seven-thirty.” Molly handed him a napkin. “I'm sure they gave our table to someone else sometime after eight o'clock.”

    Harry groaned. “I don't believe this. Sorry.” He started to rise from the chair. “I'll give the restaurant a call and see if they can fit us in at eight-thirty.”

    “Forget it. The pizza's ready now and I'm hungry. Hope you like artichoke and sun-dried tomatoes. I felt like experimenting tonight.”

    Harry gazed at the pizza with masculine appreciation. “You made this?”

    “Sort of. I chose the ingredients.” Molly punched a button to produce the flatware from a drawer concealed beneath the table. “The Abberwick Food Storage and Preparation Machine did all the work. Except for sprinkling the blue cheese on the salads,” she added modestly. “I did that all by myself.”

    Harry studied the massive stainless-steel device that occupied one kitchen wall. “Amazing. One of your father's patents?”

    “Yes. He tried to sell it to every single one of the major appliance manufacturers. They all told him he was crazy. They explained to him that the whole idea was to sell the consumer lots and lots of different machines to do various kitchen tasks, not one single, efficient device that would do everything and last for years.”

    Harry sank back down into the chair. His mouth quirked ruefully. “That's the story of a lot of interesting inventions.” He picked up a wedge of pizza and took a large bite. He chewed in silence and then swallowed. “I tend to get preoccupied when I'm working on an interesting project,” he said apologetically.

    Molly grinned around her pizza. “I'm familiar with the syndrome.”

    “Because you come from a family of inventors?”

    Molly shrugged. “That and because I, myself, have been known to get a tad overinvolved with a project.”

    “That's true, isn't it?” The hard lines of Harry's face relaxed slightly. “I've seen you get consumed by some of those grant proposals.”

    “I get that way about my business, too, at times.”

    “That makes me feel a little better about tonight,” Harry said. “But I don't look forward to explaining to Josh what happened.”

    “Why? What's Josh got to do with our date?”

    “He gave me a pithy little talk on modern dating practices. He seemed to think I had been out of the loop so long, I wouldn't know how to handle myself. Judging by this little fiasco, he may have had a point.”

    Molly nearly choked on a bite of pizza. She managed to swallow as the laughter bubbled up inside her. “You, too?”

    One black brow rose in inquiry. “What's that mean?”

    “I got the same lecture from my sister and Tessa, my assistant.”

    “Irritating, isn't it?” Harry took another bite of pizza. “Personally, I think Josh enjoyed holding forth. I suspect it was repayment for all the cautionary little chats I had with him while he was in high school.”

    “He spent a lot of time with you when he was younger?”

    “He came to live with me after his father died. Josh was twelve. His mother had been killed in an accident during the setup of a carnival ride when he was a baby.”

    Molly put her pizza down slowly. “You raised Josh from the age of twelve?”

    “I'm not