“Have you spent a good summer thus far?” he asked.
“Spiffing.” She was confused as to why Dylan Fall was singling her out for garden-party talk before they even got to the garden. Perversely, she didn’t want to play along.
He gave her a dark glance. “Do you always have to be sarcastic?”
“I wasn’t being sarcastic,” she lied.
His gaze scored her. He wasn’t going to be sidetracked. She sighed and began ticking off her boring, very unsophisticated activities this summer. “I signed on with a temporary maid service to help pay the bills now that my student loans are due. Maggie was on sabbatical in Mexico, so I babysat her Irish setter, Doby. He had a bad case of fleas and threw a huge fit when I dragged him to the vet. He nearly broke my wrist, he freaked out so bad in the waiting room.”
She gave him a “well, are you satisfied?” glance, but he was impervious.
“You and Maggie are close, then?”
“Yeah. I live in an apartment over her garage,” Alice replied stiffly, suddenly thinking of an issue that had been niggling at her. “I asked Maggie why she told you about me growing up in Little Paradise. She swore she never did.”
He had the decency to look vaguely embarrassed.
“Why did you say that? And how did you know where I’d grown up?” she demanded.
He frowned as he stared out at the Great Lake. He looked hard and intimidating, and for a second, she couldn’t believe her cockiness in berating him.
“We did a basic security screening on some of the more desirable candidates for Camp Durand,” he said after a pause. He glanced at her and saw her offended expression. “It helps us to narrow down the contestant pool. You can’t really blame us, can you? You’ll be working with children, after all.”
Her defiance flickered out. “I guess not,” she said. “Still, no one likes having someone pry into their private life without permission. Would you?”
“You gave permission in the original paperwork you signed when you applied for the position.” He scowled slightly. “And no. I didn’t like it when it happened to me, either. One of the consequences of the job, I suppose.”
A smile curved her mouth at a thought. “Did you have anything to hide?”
“Plenty.”
She glanced at him in surprise. She hadn’t expected him to say that. Movement and color caught her eye out on the terrace. A Durand manager’s peach-colored skirt billowed in a gust of wind.
“Aren’t you worried you should be out there?” she asked.
“Not particularly,” he said, his gravelly voice causing the skin of her cheek and ear to tingle in awareness. “I just received an unpublished quarterly report for Durand. I got caught up in looking at it just now. That’s why I was running behind and wasn’t there to greet you all,” he said.
She raised her eyebrows expectantly when he paused.
“I was wondering if you would consider taking a look at it as well, along with our last quarterly and a few annuals. To see if you spot any significant trends. I admire that knack for numbers you have. There’s no hurry, though. I know you need to get settled in, and your kids are coming tomorrow. You aren’t obligated,” he added when she didn’t respond immediately.
“Sure. I’d be happy to,” she said once she’d gotten over her surprise at his request. The idea of losing herself in numbers—of escaping all this strangeness and surrounding herself with the familiar—sounded very reassuring at that moment. She perked up a little, as if she was finally rising out of the strange oppression that had come upon her since she first entered this house.
He nodded, seeming satisfied by her response. “Thanks. I guess we better go make a showing at the party,” he said, not seeming very excited about that fact. “Shall we?”
Much to her dismay and bewilderment, he fell into step beside her, as if he planned to escort her. Alice couldn’t think of anything to say to stop him. She couldn’t tell him what to do in his home and at his dinner party. They walked through the quiet house together, and down a flight of stairs. When they reached a large, high-tech family/media room at the back of the house, she hesitated.
“This way,” he said, touching her bare upper arm again, obviously misunderstanding her uncertainty.
He unlatched one of many French doors and guided her through the opening. His fingertips lightly touched her bare back, stealing her focus. Suddenly, the entire Durand party was right there in front of her, several of them turning at the sound of the door opening, their attention snagged when they noticed Fall’s tall, singular form emerge from the house. Alice’s cheeks flamed in embarrass
ment as their host walked down the steps to greet them, his hand only falling away from her back when they reached the bottom step.
ALICE endured the group’s curious, puzzled glances at her entrance with Fall, but inside, she was boiling over in mortification. Damn him. Alice longed to stay under the radar. Dylan Fall had thrust her into the limelight, just by standing next to her in all his powerful male glory. As soon as Fall approached Sebastian Kehoe and shook his hand in greeting, Alice faded back from his side and hurried toward Kuvi, ducking her head in an attempt to avoid attention.
“How did you end up with Mr. Top Hot?” Kuvi asked her a moment later as they stood at the fringes of the crowd, her hushed voice vibrating with amusement.
“I wasn’t with him. I … I had to use the bathroom, and when I came out, he was there, so he showed me the way,” she said, flustered. In Little Paradise, Alice had become an accomplished, stone-faced liar. Why was she losing the skill now?