a fashionable sense of style and a similar desire for order in a disorderly world. However, no matter how much he admired Katherine's leggy good looks and sensible attitude, she stirred no interest other than the exchange of gossip that was the main basis of their relationship.
Networking, people called it, but in the good old days of his neighborhood bar, it was plain gossip. Axell crossed his hands behind his head and leaned back in his chair as she threw several more message slips on his desk. "You're early," he commented without inflection. His talent for hiring perfect hostesses was half the reason his restaurant was such a success. He certainly didn't possess the necessary bonhomie to greet his clientele.
In a red mini-dress and high heels that would have the eyes of his male bar patrons popping out and rolling on the floor, Katherine prowled his office, straightening a picture here, dusting invisible specks there, drawing his attention to the spartan furnishings. She'd helped him find the sleek modern furniture, and hired the decorator who'd added the black and white engravings to match the ebony lacquered desk and white leather chairs. The splash of red stalking back and forth over the black-and-white interior amused him, and for the first time, Axell wondered if she'd planned it that way.
Remembering the rainbow clutter of the little shop he'd visited yesterday, he wondered if there was some pattern between a woman's choice of color and her personality that might aid in his understanding of her behavior. He almost jotted a note to himself to study the matter when Katherine finally spoke.
"The mayor just offered me a position in his office."
On your back? was the first thought that leaped to mind, but Axell had learned long ago to suppress his often irreverent humor. "And you replied?"
She swung around and glared at him from beneath her stack of blond tresses. "You'd let me go without a protest, wouldn't you? My God, Axell, just exactly what are you made of? We've been together from the start."
The start of what? was his next question, again suppressed. Keeping his mouth shut was a habit he'd acquired from his father, but in Katherine's case, one of necessity. She had an unfortunate tendency toward dramatics, and he disliked scenes. Lowering his arms, Axell steepled his fingers across his chest. "Katherine, I value our relationship as much as you do, but if you think the mayor can open doors for you that I can't, then in the interest of friendship, I can't stand in your way."
Her angry expression turned to exasperation. "What doors can the mayor of a two-bit town open? Can't you look beyond the obvious? The two of you are at constant odds. What have you done now that he's attempting to buy my favors?"
Axell raised his eyebrows, but she raised a healthy question. He rocked his chair back and forth, then shrugged. "I objected to his decision to have the state run a highway through the Pfieffer property, but then, I objected to the shopping center development as well. The list could probably go on for months. I don't know where you fit into any of it."
"The Pfeiffer property!" Her eyes lit with recognition. "The old man is second cousin to my uncle or some such. The whole family thinks he's cracked to hang on to that crumbling old mansion."
"He partially restored it while his wife was still alive," Axell reminded her. "And the land itself has been in the family since the beginning of time. I wouldn't be surprised if you found a couple of Cherokees on the family tree and discovered burial mounds or whatever on the grounds. Not many people can hold onto land that long. I don't blame the man for trying to preserve his heritage."
She shrugged the shoulders of her bolero jacket and paced the carpet at a more leisurely rate. "The city is expanding in this direction too rapidly for property like that to go undivided. The price of land is skyrocketing. Those may have been rural roads ten years ago, but the Pfieffer property stands directly between two major traffic arteries now. A connector road through there is inevitable."
"I live out there," he reminded her dryly. "I'm well aware of what's happening. I just don't agree that we must allow wall-to-wall housing from the city outward. I thought the whole point of the town zoning laws was to prevent Wadeville from becoming just another suburb of Charlotte. We're a rural town