Excerpt:

With a little thrill that rippled through her, Marti recognized Burke's deep voice instantly. She abandoned the grant application she had been typing into the computer to look for his messages. "Just Mr. Parmeter's flight number and arrival time for tomorrow," she told him.

"Good," Burke's voice came back to her.

"Go ahead.....Okay. I've got it."

"Did your office trailer arrive?"

"Yes, finally. What a mess. Marti, do you know of a barber who is open late in the evening?"

"No, but a shop two blocks west of your motel opens at seven-thirty on Saturday mornings for men who can't get in during the week. I think he's open until about two. He's pretty good, too. You won't look like you've just gotten out of boot camp."

Burke's laugh was deep and uninhibited, and she thought how good it was to hear someone laugh like that.

"And how do you know about barbers and things like that?" Burke asked.

"Well, it's come up before on this job."

"Huh! Really? How?"

"Someone was visiting one of our clients to go to a wedding and needed a quick trim," she explained. "I made a few calls to see who was open and got him right in. He called back to thank me and said he was real pleased."

"That was thoughtful of him."

"It made my day."

"What would we do without you, Marti? You have an answer to my every need."

"Would you be Irish, Mr. Hildebrand?" she asked. "That sounds suspiciously like Blarney."

His response was another deep, uninhibited laugh and she laughed with him. "Will you need a wake-up call tomorrow?"

"Yes, please. Five-thirty. Have a nice night, Marti."

"You, too, Mr. Hildebrand." Marti went back to her typing with barely a thought to the words that flowed onto the screen of her word processor. She wondered if Burke Hildebrand waited until he knew she would be on the desk before he called in. So far he had never called in when Carolyn was on the desk; she knew because she had checked the log. There was just something about Burke Hildebrand's voice and his laugh that made her think she would like him. She generally liked her clients, but there were some men who were very condescending. They never took the time to say anything that wasn't absolutely necessary. It was fine to be all business, she supposed, but it got terribly dull. When she finished the work at hand, she did a few of her flexibility exercises. Then she took out the list of employment agencies and reviewed the notes she had made the afternoon before. There seemed to be only one that showed any promise. She studied the bus schedule and decided that she could get there without bothering the driver of the group home's van. She needed to try this on her own, without any help from the home

Author BIO: Writer Jane Bierce graduated from college, married and raised three children, published five books and a novella before she knew she was blind. After surgery to correct multiple vision problems, Ms. Bierce got back to work on her writing and entered the field of electronic publishing. "The Hardest Step" was inspired by her life in Florida, where she learned about the construction business through her husband's job. She even got up on a bulldozer to research this project, and hopes that other books dealing with challenged characters will follow.

Jane has been previously published in pring by Harlequin, Silhouette and Zebra. Her book Black Tie Affair was the debut book of the Zebra Lucky-in-Love line in 1992. Her books have been translated into eight foreign languages, including Japanese and Russian.

In her spare time, Jane gardens, quilts and spoils her grandchildren. She now makes her home in Tennessee.