Because She Can by Bridie Clark

Author:Bridie Clark [CLARK, BRIDIE]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC000000
ISBN: 9780446511940
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2008-02-27T05:00:00+00:00

Bea waved excitedly from the house, framed by the warm porch light. I’d honestly never been happier to see her. After weeks of minimal QT and my conversation with Lucille, I was dying for a full, detailed catch-up session with my best friend.

“Hey, guys!” she called, as we got out of the car.

Fortunately, our forty-minute ride to Montauk and the liter of water had brought me back to reasonable sobriety. I’d convinced Randall to let me roll down the windows just a crack—he hated the effect of any wind on his perfectly gelled hair but made an exception—and the cold, clean ocean air had cleared my head.

“Beatrice, you look lovely as always,” Randall said, giving her a kiss and clapping Harry on the back.

“Wow, the house is amazing!” I said when we stepped into the newly renovated kitchen. It had the coziest feeling to it—I loved the wainscoting, the huge antique farm table, the family portraits Bea had expertly arranged on one wall.

“Yeah, didn’t she do a great job?” Harry asked, showing us to the living room.

“It’s beautiful!” seconded Randall, looking around. “Say, Bea, would you be interested in decorating my new place in Nantucket? I think your aesthetic would be just right for the job.”

“Really?” asked Bea, lighting up. “I’d love that! Absolutely.”

“Great. I’ll have my secretary get the details to you next week. Oh, I forgot—here you go, sir.” Randall handed Harry a slightly dusty bottle of wine. “Petrus ’85, a great year.”

“Wow!” exclaimed Harry. “This is a phenomenal bottle! Thank you, Randall, it’s too generous of you.”

I felt a warm glow. It was a beautiful sight: my incredible boyfriend getting along so well with my best friends. One big happy family.

“So how’d it go with the parents?” Bea whispered when we’d settled into the couch next to each other and the guys were off dealing with the wine.

“Tell you later. Not a one-word answer.”

“Hey, Claire, I forgot to pass along a little gossip last week,” Harry said, coming into the living room with two wineglasses for us. “You’ll never guess who I saw canoodling at a discreet little hole-in-the-wall diner near my office.”

“Canoodling? You’ve been reading Page Six again, haven’t you.”

“Just guess.” Harry laughed.

“Okay, give me a hint—celebrity, politician, or blast-from-our-past?”

“Politician and … I don’t know, celebrity, sort of. I recognized her, at least. Holding hands and gazing into each other’s eyes like total lovebirds. Give up?” Harry was clearly bursting at the seams to dish this one, so I nodded. “Vivian Grant and the deputy mayor.”

“You saw—wait, who’s the deputy mayor again?”

“Stanley Prizbecki. I think you’d know him if you saw him. Big bruiser with a perpetual five o’clock shadow and bulging biceps … the mayor’s right-hand man?”

“That guy? You saw that guy and Vivian canoodling?” My understanding of the verb was fuzzy, but it sounded way too warm and cuddly for either of the involved parties. Wow, this was scoop.

The mayor—and Prizbecki, his deputy—had won the last election by a landslide with the unlikely slogan “New Yorkers need tough love.

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