My Lady Lipstick by Karin Kallmaker

Author:Karin Kallmaker [Kallmaker, Karin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781594935688
Publisher: Bella Books
Published: 2018-02-13T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-One

Paris prayed that Diana came back soon. She was enjoying the conversation with Heather Reynard, much to her surprise, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t stressful to act naturally while watching every word. She had to be careful not to commit to anything that Diana wouldn’t then know as well. The caution, layered on top of the already tense setting of deception, was ratcheting up her internal alarm bells.

I’m the one who is going to screw up. This is not what I’m good at.

When Reynard’s expression brightened she was flooded with relief. Diana must be returning.

Heather’s gaze also slid to Diana, but her expression remained passively pleasant. What was she thinking? This was the sort of situation where Paris knew she had blind spots. There was one surprise she had sorted out, though: her gaydar was actually pinging for once.

Breakfast was delivered, which turned the topic back to food. Her nerves stopped jangling quite as hard.

“This shepherd’s bread is fantastic,” she offered into the conversation. The aromas of the potatoes and peppers underneath her baked eggs was making her faint, but the dish was still too hot from the oven to eat. “It reminds me of Irish oat cakes, but with yeast instead of soda.”

“It sounds as if you bake,” Heather said. “Or do you watch a lot of food TV?”

“Mostly the former. Brownies are my specialty, but I like most everything that has butter and sugar and goes in the oven.”

Heather gave Diana an amused look. “She bakes too? Lucky you.”

Paris lost what Diana said, but it made Reynard laugh as well. She finally got it—Heather thought she and “Anita” were possibly sleeping together. Or, she was trying to rule it out. Were they giving off that vibe? Diana wouldn’t ping anyone’s gaydar, Paris thought. But then again, Lisa at the bar wouldn’t either. It was that she talked openly of her wife and sometimes donned rainbow-decorated apparel that made it obvious.

“If we have any business to discuss it has to be before I eat all this food. My brain will go to mush,” Diana said. “It’s all delicious. And Ellis is right about the bread. Purely addictive. Thank you for selecting this restaurant for our meeting.”

“I’ve been thinking over what you said about public speaking,” Reynard said. “How are you with crowds, in general?”

Diana didn’t look at Paris. “I, uh, it depends how loud and how long. It can be exhausting, as you saw last night.”

“A cocktail party, in your honor. It could even be a fundraiser for your favorite cause.”

Paris saw Diana hesitate. “Do you mean—”

“At RonCon of course. We could perhaps announce a book/movie tie-in project.”

Heather asked her father to pass the bread and said, “I don’t mean to be a wet blanket, but aren’t the speakers all lined up at this point? Squeezing in another event won’t be easy.”

“For Anita I think it could be done,” Reynard answered smoothly.

“Frankly,” Diana said, “while I am happy to have a fundraiser, I am far more interested in learning the next steps to making that book-to-movie project happen.

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