“Well, perhaps he was not a Hell’s Angel,” Mooncrow amended. “But he did have a Harley Hog, and he did belong to a bike club. At any rate, when I did not approve of the young man, she told me what you had said; to show me how much better this man treated her, I think.” Mooncrow nodded thoughtfully for a moment. “He did treat her well,” he admitted, “but he was too interested in the ‘instant enlightenment’ and not in real achievement. He did not last long.”

“Oh,” David said, weakly. “Well … ah … I suppose I wasn’t much better. I have to admit, I even knew at the time that it was a stupid thing to say, but—”

“But you were strutting and flashing your antlers, and she was not sufficiently impressed, so you decided to turn the antlers on her.” Mooncrow nodded. “Well, you were young.”

“Young men do stupid things,” he agreed, and sighed.

Mooncrow grinned at him. “Even not-so-young men do stupid things, David,” he replied, and left him on the back steps to go and correct his young archers.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

JENNIE LOCKED THE door of her office, turned up the radio, and buried her face in her hands. A headache had just begun in one temple. The name of her headache was—her family.

Right now, she was beginning to envy a client of hers who was an orphan.

Just once, she would like it very much if no one cared about who she was seeing or not seeing. Certainly having a family, an intelligent and curious family to boot, brought with it liabilities.

Like having a yenta for a father, she thought sourly, head in hands. My father, the matchmaker. He could have sent a shoka in full regalia, and been less obvious. He could have trotted out the whole family with courting gifts. I feel like I’m in a damn sitcom.

David. They all liked David. They were all making it perfectly clear to her how much they liked David, and how happy they would be if she and David would just go back to being the happy couple they’d been in college. Never mind that they really hadn’t been all that happy a couple.

The worst part was, it would have been funny, if it had been happening to someone else. It would even be funny if she didn’t like David so much.