Kelly - 09 - Bloodlines by Jan Burke

Author:Jan Burke
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Suspense, Fiction
ISBN: 9780743444552
Published: 2005-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

33

I STOPPED BY MY DESK AND PICKED UP MY SHOULDER BAG, WHICH WEIGHED a ton, because it had the big hardcover library book in it. My intercom buzzed. Geoff, the security guard, told me that a gentleman by the name of Max Ducane was waiting for me.

That made something clear. Admonishing myself to call him Max and not Kyle, I made my way downstairs.

Max Ducane didn’t look as happy as I would have expected a new multimillionaire to be. If anything, he seemed troubled. We made small talk as we walked out of the building. His car was around the corner—a new BMW. “Your first purchase?” I asked.

He nodded. “I had my reasons—or thought I did—but are you embarrassed to ride in it? Is it too ostentatious?”

“For someone with your bucks?”

“Maybe I’ll sell it,” he said, glum again.

Once we were settled inside it, he said, “I made reservations at the Cliffside. Is that all right? If you’d prefer, we can just go to a restaurant near here.”

The suggestion gave me pause, but I thought about the fact that I was now living rent-free, had paid off my bills from the Bakersfield move, and had just put a paycheck in the bank.

“I’ve never eaten at the Cliffside,” I said, not adding that I had never thought of myself as someone who could afford to eat there, “but I’ve always heard that it’s a great place. And it’s a smarter choice for us than anywhere nearby, I think, unless you want half the staff of the Express trying to eavesdrop on us.”

“The Cliffside it is, then.”

We were seated in a private room at the restaurant, which is part of a luxury hotel with stunning ocean views. Our waiter had a manner that suggested he was on loan from a palace somewhere. He seated me, placed a fine linen napkin on my lap with a flourish, and handed me an open menu with a smile. Before I even looked at what was sure to be the cause of a painful chapter in my financial history, I made myself say, “Will there be any difficulty giving us separate checks?”

He said, “Not at all, miss, but—” just as Max tried to protest that this was his treat.

“It can’t be, Max. I’m supposed to be working, remember?”

He glanced nervously at the waiter, who was feigning just the right amount of indifference, and said, “All right. But another time, then.”

“Another time.”

I had decided that I would do my best not to appear shocked at the prices on the menu, but the real shock turned out to be that my menu didn’t have any prices on it at all.

“Excuse me,” I said to the waiter, holding the menu out for him to see. “I think I have a misprinted one.”

Max said, “The Cliffside is a bit old-fashioned, I’m afraid. Why don’t we switch menus?”

At that point, I finally figured out what was going on. “I can’t believe it,” I said. “Only men get menus with prices on them?”

He smiled.

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