Blame It On Paris

'No. Really. You do searches on people, right?'

'You know I do. Primarily credit card identity theft.'

'So what do you charge for doing these people searches?'

Char emerged from the dressing room in a little black dress. Kelly shook her head. First, because her mom already had a zillion little black dresses, and she almost never wore them. And second, because it was dowdy. 'Do you mean, how much would it cost you? Or a normal person?' she asked Will.

'Hey, I'm normal.' His tone sounded wounded.

She chuckled. 'Well, the going rate is set by the hour. But it also includes expenses. Most of the time, there really aren't any. Most of what I do is on the computer. It's just occasionally I have to travel. Anyway, I can't really give you a flat rate because it honestly depends on the job.'

'Okay…' She heard background noise, then a door closing. 'Whatever your rate is, I'll pay it. I need you to look into a guy who works at Maguire's. Name of John Henry. I can give you his address, birth date and social security number. I know you have other irons in the fire and might not be able to do this right away-'

She frowned. Her mom emerged from the dressing room again, this time in a cream-and-coral-print skirt with a coral top. If the outfit didn't have Char's name on it. it should have. Kelly gave her an exuberant thumbs-up. but she was still frowning into the phone. 'Will, you know I'm not a private investigator, don't you? Because if this is about somebody's divorce or private life-'

'This is about someone working for my dad, where things just aren't adding up. I'd like to be sure his name is real. That he's who he says he is. That's all.'

She slumped farther against the wall. 'Are you inventing this mini-job just to keep your mitts on me?'

'Kelly, Kelly, Kelly. That is so unfair.' He paused. 'If I'd thought of that, actually, I'd probably do it. But as it happens, this is on the up-and-up.'

She chuckled again, then stopped. Her mom was back in the dressing room. A gaggle of women had just left, leaving the general hallway calm for that moment. She said quietly, 'I talked to her, Will. About my dad.'

He understood how long it had taken her to finally get this done. 'And?'

'And…I went into the conversation so, so mad. Mad that she'd lied to me. Mad that she'd invented a father who never existed and mad that I never had a chance to know my real one.'

'And now?'

She didn't think her mother could hear behind the closed door, but she still moved away from the dressing rooms, keeping an eye peeled in case Char came out. 'Now I realize the obvious. That my mom wouldn't have lied unless she felt she had to. At the time, she just didn't think she had a lot of choices. I think she lost her head and her heart in Paris. She believed he loved her. She thought they had something real. And all that crashed when she discovered he was married, but it was even more than that. She lost faith in herself, in her judgment.' Kelly would have said more, but she saw the dressing room doorknob turn. 'I have to go. Will. See you tomorrow night.'

Her mother saw her shut the cell phone, but she worked her over about the outfit first. 'I like it, I admit, but it costs too much. Particularly when you've got a tight budget right now.'

They did the same song, different lyrics but the same refrain, every birthday. 'Nonsense. The day I can't buy my mother a birthday present, I'm throwing in the towel.' Kelly grabbed the top and skirt before her mother could escalate the discussion.

'I heard you on the phone-were you talking to Jason?'

'No, Mom.'

'But have you? Talked with him?'

Kelly dug out her wallet before they reached the checkout line. 'Yup. He showed up at work. A very uncomfortable conversation, which I wouldn't be telling you about at all, except that I'm almost sure he'll show up at the block party on Saturday. He won't raise trouble on your birthday that I can imagine. But if you can't find me at some point, it's probably because I'm hiding in your closet behind your shoe boxes.'

'Hmm.'

'And what does that hmm mean?' The checkout girl took her time, way too much time, folding the outfit with exquisite care, so there was no escaping the store too quickly.

'Are you still seeing that other man? The one from Paris?'

'His name is Will, Mom.'

'Yes. Will Maguire. Of the Maguires.' Her mother's voice didn't drip disapproval. Just opinion. Char might have come to believe that Will wasn't totally responsible for her breaking up with Jason, but people with the Maguire kind of money weren't remotely on their Christmas card list.

'You didn't like him?'

'The question isn't whether I like him. Or you do. The question is whether you're in love with him. And whether you're ready to risk any more heartache or trauma in your life right now.'

'I don't know.' Kelly admitted. 'Nothing seems to come with a guarantee. I'm going with my heart, and maybe that's the most foolish thing I could be doing. But the only man who really threw a trauma into my life wasn't Will, Mom. It was my father.'

Her mom suddenly looked small. 'That was my fault.'

Guilt pinched her heart. 'The hell it was. You're a fabulous mother. And you've made an outstanding success of your life, totally on your own. That my dad didn't appreciate you is his loss. You didn't do a single thing wrong. All you did was fall in love.'

Her mom laughed, and they hugged, both of them carrying packages but still managing to walk hip to hip to the car.

It was later, brushing her teeth before bed, that Kelly rethought that exchange. Her mom really hadn't done anything wrong except innocently fall in love. Maybe Kelly wouldn't have lied, but she understood why her mother felt she'd had to.

What troubled her now. though, was the resounding echo of their lives. She couldn't deny it. She'd fallen fiercely in love. In Paris. At a time when her whole sense of self had been shaken up.

So howwas she supposed to know if what she felt for Will was real?

If it could last?

Or if loving him would cause repercussions through her whole life, the way loving the wrong man had affected her mother's?

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Will didn't usually shop at sex-toy stores before a date. In fact, he'd never shopped at a sex-toy store, ever, but after trying two drugstores and a department store for the item he needed-an item he'd have thought would be easy to find-he gave up and went to a source he knew would carry it.

Come to think of it, he'd never gone to this much trouble for any date, ever.

Not that he minded. Not for Kelly. But he was edgily aware that the stakes were damn high-and increasing by the day.

When he pulled into Kelly's driveway, he remembered how she'd described the confrontation with her mother. All this time, she'd been too upset to bring up the subject. All this time, she'd felt so wounded that her mother had lied to her about keeping her father's existence and identity a secret.

Thunder grumbled in the west. Clouds scudded overhead like tumbling balls, one falling over the other, each darker than the last. The first fat drop of rain splashed on his head, but he was prepared for that, too, and put up an umbrella before he climbed the steps to Kelly's door.

He rapped. Waited. He was still thinking about what she'd said about her mother, that her mom had lost her head in Paris, believing Rochard had loved her, then had become disillusioned.

Somewhere in her mother's story was the reason for Kelly's fears. Though he didn't totally understand it, he sensed the bottom line-that the only thing really keeping Kelly from taking off with him to Paris was this. She needed to feel sure of herself and what she felt for him. with him.

Sure that he wasn't a guy like Rochard. Sure that he wasn't feeding her a fantasy.

He was about to rap on the door again when it abruptly swung open.