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house.”
    Doris knew all about Eliza’s real-estate quest. They had talked about it at length over the last few weeks as Eliza sat in the chair before each broadcast while Doris carefully painted, contoured and powdered the anchorwoman’s face.Like almost everyone at KEY News, Doris knew Eliza’s history: the death from cancer of her husband, John, a painful death that Eliza endured while she was pregnant with their first child. The battle with depression that followed the birth of her daughter and her struggle to come back to work. And just last month, the betrayal of the woman Eliza had entrusted with the care of her precious Janie. A betrayal that had ended with gunshots. Doris noticed that Eliza still winced sometimes if she turned the wrong way or too quickly in the chair, the wound in her side almost healed now, but still tender.
    After all Eliza had been through, Doris could well understand that the woman who had become her friend would want to make a fresh start somewhere. She hoped this house would be everything that Eliza wanted. She deserved it.
    And she could certainly afford it, now that she was the anchor of the
KEY Evening Headlines.
    â€œGood luck,” Doris called as she watched Eliza hurry from the studio. Eliza turned, grinned and gave the thumbs-up sign.

Chapter 4
    Since Eliza Blake had taken over as anchor of the
KEY Evening Headlines,
Jerry Walinski had scheduled his massages for the evenings, immediately after the broadcast aired. After watching Eliza Blake he was so worked up that he needed Lori’s hour-long therapy to calm down.
    Tonight he was especially relieved that Lori was here. In his well-appointed bedroom, Jerry lay on his stomach with his eyes closed on the massage table as the masseuse worked on his lower body. He didn’t feel the expert kneading his leg muscles. His mind was on what he had just seen on television.
    Eliza Blake was his dream woman. She was beautiful, intelligent and classy. That elegantly cut yellow suit she had worn tonight had set off her figure to perfection. She moved so gracefully across the studio, sat so erect in her anchor chair. Her face was enchanting and those piercing blue eyes saw into his soul. She understood him, Jerry was certain of it. When Eliza spoke, it was as if she were talking to him alone.
    He could stare at her forever and never grow tired of her. In fact, sometimes he did stare at her, for hours, gazing into the framed picture of her that stood in a silver frameon the table beside his bed. The autographed photograph had been easy to get. He had simply written to Eliza at KEY News and asked for it. Sure enough, a few weeks later it had arrived in the mail.
    Lori said it must be a stock picture KEY News sent out to anyone who requested one. He had been angry when she said that but he had tried not to show it. He knew Eliza had meant that picture to be special, for him alone, and he wasn’t going to let Lori ruin it for him. She was just jealous, anyway, because he had never made a pass at her.
    He felt Lori’s strong hands rubbing his back now, pushing the tenseness out of his upper body.
    â€œI can see you’ve been doing your exercises,” she observed. “Your muscles are getting more defined back here.”
    â€œMm-hmm.”
    Lori took the cue that her client didn’t want to talk and continued her work in silence. As she rubbed the warm oils between his shoulder blades, Jerry made up his mind. He was going to call Eliza and tell her how beautiful he thought she was and how much he admired her.
    He had been trying hard to control himself, but he couldn’t anymore. He had to let her know how he felt.

Chapter 5
    Motor running, the blue Lincoln Town Car was waiting at the curb in front of the building as Eliza pushed breathlessly through the revolving doors of the Broadcast Center into the steamy August early-evening air. Janie’s smiling, expectant face was pressed against the glass of