"Maybe. Roz, my mother was—is—a mess. I know, in my head, that a lot of the decisions I've made have been because I knew they were the exact opposite of what she'd have done. That's pathetic."
"I don't know that it is, not if those decisions were right for you."
"They were. They have been. But I don't want to step away from something that might be wonderful
just because I know my mother would leap forward without a second thought."
"Honey, I can look at you and remember what it was like, and the both of us can look at Hayley and wonder how she has the courage and fortitude to raise that baby on her own."
Stella let out a little laugh. "God, isn't that the truth?"
"And since it's turned out the three of us have connected as friends, we can give each other all kinds
of support and advice and shoulders to cry on. But the fact is, each one of us has to get through what
we get through. Me, I expect you'll figure this out soon enough. Figuring out how to make things come out right's what you do."
She set the thermos lid on the desk, gave Stella two light pats on the cheek. "Well, I'm going to scoot home and clean up a bit."
"Thanks, Roz. Really. If Hayley's doing all right once I get them home, I'll leave David in charge. I know we're shorthanded around here today."
"No, you stay home with her and Lily. Harper can handle things here. It's not every day you bring a
new baby home."
* * *
And that was something Roz considered as she hunted for parking near Mitchell Carnegie's downtown apartment. It had been a good many years since there had been an infant in Harper House. Just how would the Harper Bride deal with that?
How would they all deal with it?
How would she herself handle the idea of her firstborn falling for that sweet single mother and her tiny girl? She doubted that Harper knew he was sliding in that direction, and surely Hayley was clueless.
But a mother knew such things; a mother could read them on her son's face.
Something else to think about some other time, she decided, and cursed ripely at the lack of parking.
She had to hoof it nearly three blocks and cursed again because she'd felt obliged to wear heels. Now
her feet were going to hurt, and she'd have to waste more time changing into comfortable clothes once this meeting was done.
She was going to be late, which she deplored, and she was going to arrive hot and sweaty.
She would have loved to have passed the meeting on to Stella. But it wasn't the sort of thing she could ask a manager to do. It dealt with her home, her family. She'd taken this particular aspect of it for
granted for far too long.
She paused at the comer to wait for the light.
"Roz!"
The voice on the single syllable had her hackles rising. Her face was cold as hell frozen over as she
turned and stared at—stared through—the slim, handsome man striding quickly toward her in glossy Ferragamos.
"I thought that was you. Nobody else could look so lovely and cool on a hot afternoon."
He reached out, this man she'd once been foolish enough to marry, and gripped her hand in both of his. "Don't you look gorgeous!"
"You're going to want to let go of my hand, Bryce, or you're going to find yourself facedown and eating sidewalk. The only one who'll be embarrassed by that eventuality is yourself."
His face, with its smooth tan and clear features, hardened. "I'd hoped, after all this time, we could be friends."
"We're not friends, and never will be." Quite deliberately, she took a tissue out of her purse and wiped
the hand he'd touched. "I don't count lying, cheating sons of bitches among my friends."
"A man just can't make a mistake or find forgiveness with a woman like you."
"That's exactly right. I believe that's the first time you've been exactly right in your whole miserable life."
She started across the street, more resigned than surprised when he fell into step beside her. He wore a pale gray suit, Italian in cut. Canali, if she wasn't mistaken. At least that had been his designer of the moment when she'd been footing the bills.
"I don't see why you're still upset, Roz, honey. Unless there are still feelings inside you for me."
"Oh, there are, Bryce, there are. Disgust being paramount. Go away before I call a cop and have you arrested for being a personal annoyance."
"I'd just like another chance to—"
She stopped then. "That will never happen in this lifetime, or a thousand others. Be grateful you're able
to walk the streets in your expensive shoes, Bryce, and that you're wearing a tailored suit instead of a prison jumpsuit."
"There's no cause to talk to me that way. You got what you wanted, Roz. You cut me off without a dime."
"Would that include the fifteen thousand, six hundred and fifty-eight dollars and twenty-two cents you transferred out of my account the week before I kicked your sorry ass out of my house? Oh, I knew about that one, too," she said when his face went carefully blank. "But I let that one go, because I decided I deserved to pay something for my own stupidity. Now you go on, and you stay out of my way, you stay out of my sight, and you stay out of my hearing, or I promise you, you'll regret it."
She clipped down the sidewalk, and even the "Frigid bitch" he hurled at her back didn't break her stride.
But she was shaking. By the time she'd reached the right address her knees and hands were trembling. She hated that she'd allowed him to upset her. Hated that the sight of him brought any reaction at all, even if it was rage.
Because there was shame along with it.
She'd taken him into her heart and her home. She'd let herself be charmed and seduced—and lied to and deceived. He'd stolen more than her money, she knew. He'd stolen her pride. And it was a shock to the system to realize, after all this time, that she didn't quite have it back. Not all of it.
She blessed the cool inside the building and rode the elevator to the third floor.
She was too frazzled and annoyed to fuss with her hair or check her makeup before she knocked. Instead she stood impatiently tapping her foot until the door opened.
He was as good-looking as the picture on the back of his books—several of which she'd read or skimmed through before arranging this meeting. He was, perhaps, a bit more rumpled in rolled-up shirtsleeves and jeans. But what she saw was a very long, very lanky individual with a pair of horn-rims sliding down a straight and narrow nose. Behind the lenses, bottle-green eyes seemed distracted. His hair was plentiful, in a tangle of peat-moss brown around a strong, sharp-boned face that showed a black bruise along the jaw.
The fact that he wasn't wearing any shoes made her feel hot and overdressed.
"Dr. Carnegie?"
"That's right. Ms.... Harper. I'm sorry. I lost track of time. Come in, please. And don't look at anything." There was a quick, disarming smile. "Part of losing track means I didn't remember to pick up out here.
So we'll go straight back to my office, where I can excuse any disorder in the name of the creative process. Can I get you anything?"
His voice was coastal southern, she noted. That easy drawl that turned vowels into warm liquid.
"I'll take something cold, whatever you've got."
Of course, she looked as he scooted her through the living room. There were newspapers and books littering an enormous brown sofa, another pile of them along with a stubby white candle on a coffee
table that looked as if it might have been Georgian. There was a basketball and a pair of high-tops so disreputable she doubted even her sons would lay claim to them in the middle of a gorgeous Turkish
rug, and the biggest television screen she'd ever seen eating up an entire wall.
Though he was moving her quickly along, she caught sight of the kitchen. From the number of dishes
on the counter, she assumed he'd recently had a party.
"I'm in the middle of a book," he explained. "And when I come up for air, domestic chores aren't a priority. My last cleaning team quit. Just like their predecessors."
"I can't imagine why," she said with schooled civility as she stared at his office space.
There wasn't a clean surface to be seen, and the air reeked of cigar smoke. A dieffenbachia sat in a chipped pot on the windowsill, withering. Rising above the chaos of his desk was a flat-screen monitor and an ergonomic keyboard.
He cleaned off the chair, dumping everything unceremoniously on the floor. "Hang on one minute."
As he dashed out, she lifted her brows at the half-eaten sandwich and glass of—maybe it was tea—among the debris on his desk. She was somewhat disappointed when with a crane of her neck she peered around to his monitor. His screen saver was up. But that, she supposed, was interesting enough, as it showed several cartoon figures playing basketball.
"I hope tea's all right," he said as he came back.
"That's fine, thank you." She took the glass and hoped it had been washed sometime in the last decade. "Dr. Carnegie, you're killing that plant."
"What plant?"
"The dieffenbachia in the window."
"Oh? Oh. I didn't know I had a plant." He gave it a baffled look. "Wonder where that came from? It doesn't look very healthy, does it?"
He picked it up, and she saw, with horror, that he intended to dump it in the overflowing wastebasket beside his desk.
"For God's sake, don't just throw it out. Would you bury your cat alive?"
"I don't have a cat."
"Just give it to me." She rose, grabbed the pot out of his hand. "It's dying of thirst and heat, and it's rootbound. This soil's hard as a brick."
She set it beside her chair and sat again. "I'll take care of it," she said, and her legs were an angry slash
as she crossed them. "Dr. Carnegie—"
"Mitch. If you're going to take my plant, you ought to call me Mitch."
"As I explained when I contacted you, I'm interested in contracting for a thorough genealogy of my family, with an interest in gathering information on a specific person."
"Yes." All business, he decided, and sat at his desk. "And I told you I only do personal genealogies if something about the family history interests me. I'm—obviously—caught up in a book right now and wouldn't have much time to devote to a genealogical search and report."
"You didn't name your fee."
"Fifty dollars an hour, plus expenses."
She felt a quick clutch in the belly. "That's lawyer steep."
"An average genealogy doesn't take that long, if you know what you're doing and where to look. In most cases, it can be done in about forty hours, depending on how far back you want to go. If it's more complicated, we could arrange a flat fee—reevaluating after that time is used. But as I said—"
"I don't believe you'll have to go back more than a century."
"Chump change in this field. And if you're only dealing with a hundred years, you could probably do this yourself. I'd be happy to direct you down the avenues. No charge."
"I need an expert, which I'm assured you are. And I'm willing to negotiate terms. Since you took the time out of your busy schedule to speak to me, I'd think you'd hear me out before you nudge me out the door."
All business, he thought again, and prickly with it. "That wasn't my intention—the nudging. Of course
I'll hear you out. If you're not in any great rush for the search and report, I may be able to help you
out in a few weeks."
When she inclined her head, he began to rummage on, through, under the desk. "Just let me ... how the hell did that get there?"
He unearthed a yellow legal pad, then mined out a pen. "That's Rosalind, right? As You Like It?"
A smile whisked over her mouth. "As in Russell. My daddy was a fan."
He wrote her name on the top of the pad. "You said a hundred years back. I'd think a family like yours would have records, journals, documents—and considerable oral family history to cover a century."
"You would, wouldn't you? Actually, I have quite a bit, but certain things have led me to believe some
of the oral history is either incorrect or is missing details. I will, however, be glad to have you go through what I do have. We've already been through a lot of it."
"We?"
"Myself, and other members of my household."
"So, you're looking for information on a specific ancestor."
"I don't know as she was an ancestor, but I am certain she was a member of the household. I'm certain she died there."
"You have her death record?"
"No."
He shoved at his glasses as he scribbled. "Her grave?"
"No. Her ghost."
She smiled serenely when he blinked up at her. "Doesn't a man who digs into family histories believe
in ghosts?"
"I've never come across one."
"If you take on this job, you will. What might your fee be, Dr. Carnegie, to dig up the history and
identity of a family ghost?"
