For His Little Girl

'Yes-and Luke's,' Pippa replied.

At that moment Luke spotted them and came bounding out of the surf, Josie's hand clasped in his. He enveloped Claudia in an exuberant hug, unselfconsciously pulling her against his bare, glistening torso. Pippa braced herself for a similar greeting, but he only smiled at her and nodded. Which was fine, she told herself.

Josie spoke politely to Claudia, but then grabbed Pippa's hand, pleading, 'Mommy, come into the water.'

'All right, darling.' Laughing, she allowed herself to be dragged down the beach.

Luke would have followed, but Claudia laid a hand on his arm. 'Luke, she's a great kid, but are you sure she's yours?'

'You've been talking to Dominique,' he said, still looking out to sea where Pippa and Josie were splashing each other and laughing.

'Maybe I have,' Claudia persisted, 'but it's still a fair question.'

'Not to me. Dominique is suspicious because she's only just heard about Josie. But I've known from the start. Pippa called me when she knew she was pregnant, and we've stayed in touch all this time.'

'That still doesn't prove Josie is yours.'

'Okay, for one thing there's the timing. She was conceived while Pippa and I were living together, and Pippa sure as hell wasn't seeing anyone else, not the way we-' he coughed and reddened '-never mind. That's not the real reason.'

'So what is?'

'Pippa. The kind of person she is. There's nobody more honest. It made her special. She even made me honest for a while.'

'You?'

'Yeah, hilarious isn't it? But we had something that-well, anyway, if she says it's true, it's true.'

'And now she's turned up, after all these years?'

'She wanted me to meet Josie, and she was right. I left it too long.'

'Sure she hasn't come back for you?'

'Well if she has, she's going about it a damned funny way,' he growled. 'Last night I got warned off-at least, I think so. It was hard to tell, but it sure wasn't a come-on.'

'Darling, that's the oldest trick in the book. She'd have been very silly to throw herself straight into your arms.'

'No,' he growled. 'I told you she isn't like that. Hell!'

A large wave had swooped out of nowhere and knocked Josie and Pippa off their feet. As they floundered to pick themselves up, Luke was racing down the beach, plunging into the water, picking them up, asking urgent questions.

Josie made large gestures, delighted with the experience and trying to describe it to her father. Pippa was laughing as she wrung the water out of her hair. For a moment the dazzling sun threw the three of them into silhouette like figures on a frieze. Then another big wave came, causing Luke to move instinctively to shield the other two. Claudia watched for a while before walking thoughtfully into the water to join them.

They spent the rest of the morning together, and when they parted it was agreed that Claudia would join them that evening at Luke's Other Place.

'I've got to be there tonight,' Luke explained to Pippa, 'because they're doing the cooking for tomorrow's shows. So we'll check out the kitchens, and you can tell me what you think.'

'Until tonight, then,' Claudia said, blew a kiss in the general direction of them, and hurried out to her car. As soon as she settled behind the wheel she dialed a number on her car phone.

'Dominique? I've just left Luke-yes, I've met her, and the child, and I'm very glad you called me. Certainly something needs to be done, and the sooner the better. Be at Luke's Other Place this evening, at nine o'clock-no, just leave the details to me.'

Chapter Six

Luke's Other Place was halfway along Manhattan Avenue. His first restaurant was glamorous, upmarket and very expensive. This one was fun. The prices were reasonable, the range of food wide, with a strong emphasis on Latin American because Luke loved it. Also he'd recently engaged Ramon, a Mexican genius whom he overpaid while skillfully picking his brains.

The decor suggested beach life. One whole wall was given up to a painting of Manhattan Beach Pier done by a local artist. Anyone sitting at one of the tables might think he'd dropped in to a picnic.

Behind the carefully rustic scenes, the kitchens were state-of-the-art, with flashing lights and buzzers on the gleaming ovens. Luke showed them all over, carefully explaining to Josie that each dish he would need next day was being cooked three times over, to three different stages. Josie nodded and asked some intelligent questions, which pleased her father to bursting point. Then she began to prowl around, asking more questions of the staff, who loved her.

'You did it,' Pippa said to Luke. 'Just as you said.'

'I hoped you'd think so.'

'Mind you, it's not exactly the Ritz, is it?'

He laughed 'You should see the first restaurant.'

They dined on Creole pasta, followed by fillet of salmon, grilled with ginger, lime and sesame glaze, which sent Josie into seventh heaven. She was even more thrilled at what was to come. Luke's Other Place was famous for its vast array of ice creams and toppings.

Pippa was happy for her, but her own feelings were more complicated. As she'd said to Luke, he'd done it. It was she who was still stranded in culinary mediocrity. Then she pulled herself together. As though it could matter now!

She became aware that Luke was staring at something, dismay all over his face. Following his gaze, she saw Dominique standing statuesquely in the entrance, dressed to kill, looking around her. Claudia promptly got to her feet and went to meet her, hands extended, smile blazing.

'What brought her here?' Luke muttered. 'She never comes to this place, it's not grand enough for her.'

Claudia was bringing Dominique ruthlessly over. The model gritted her teeth at the sight of Luke in the center of a family party. He grinned and blew her a kiss.

'Hi, honey. Glad you could make it here at last. I told you you'd love it. You know everyone, don't you?'

'We met yesterday,' she said graciously.

'You're the lady without any clothes on,' Josie declared innocently. She looked around the dumbstruck group. 'Well, she was.'

'Not quite,' Luke said hastily. 'Dominique, what can I get you?'

'Something fat-free,' Dominque said faintly.

'You've come to the wrong place for that,' Josie confided. 'It's all crawling with calories and disgustingly delicious, isn't it, Daddy?'

'Hush brat, do you want to put me out of business?' he said with a grin.

'I'll have a salad and some mineral water,' Dominique said austerely.

Luke summoned a waiter and relayed the order.

'Daddy,' Josie said pathetically.

'I haven't forgotten you, honey.' To Dominique he confided, 'We were just about to study the ice cream question in great depth.'

'Can we go back to the kitchen?' Josie asked eagerly.

'No need, here it is.''

A huge circular trolley was being wheeled toward. It had five tiers, each adorned with tubs of ice cream and toppings.

'Yummy!' Josie and Claudia said with one voice.

Pippa, too, was fond of ice cream, and it developed into a three-way argument with Luke acting as referee. Dominique, dining on a puritanical salad and a virtuous mineral water, was left isolated and ridiculous-as perhaps