Snoops in the City (A Romantic Comedy) (23 page)

He found he didn't like the notion of Tori engaged. "What happened?"

"Nothing, really. That was the problem. Sumner — that's his name — is a nice guy. There just wasn’t any spark in our relationship. We started going out and drifted along on inertia. I didn't want to live the rest of my life in Sarasota with a guy I liked but didn't love."

She grew silent, then asked. "How about you? Has there been any special woman in your life?"

"Not really. The women I date always seem to want something from me." He hadn't meant to state his conviction so baldly, but something about Tori inspired confidences.

"Do you think I want something from you?" she asked, her eyes serious, her mouth a troubled line.

He decided to make a joke of it. "Considering I'm planning to take you back to my place later, I sure hope so."

As he'd intended, she laughed. They passed a median graced with colorful impatiens, rounded a corner and saw a line of patrons about twenty deep waiting to get inside a redbrick building that housed the Seahaven movie theater.

"It looks like something out of the past," she commented.

"It's supposed to. The theater closed in the 1950s. Two brothers reopened it earlier this year. They can't compete with first-run films so they show classic stuff."

"Each month has a theme, right?"

"Uh-huh. Last month was films directed by Hitchcock. This month, it's classic Westerns."

She made a face, not sure she liked the sound of that, and squinted so she could make out the movie title on the marquis.

"Stagecoach," she read. "Never heard of it."

"You never heard of the John Ford movie that launched John Wayne to stardom? Wayne is the Ringo Kid, one of the people on a stagecoach traveling in Indian territory. That's all I'm going to say, because I don't want to ruin it for you."

"Oh, my gosh," she said and stopped walking."You're a Westerns fan."

He shifted uncomfortably. "I wouldn't say that."

"You gave the director, star and plot line of a movie I never heard of. Admit it, you're a fan."

"Maybe a little," he said.

She clapped her hands. "I just figured out why Lorelei calls you Duke. It's because you like John Wayne."

"What's your point?"

"This is priceless," Tori said. "The point is that you are such a fraud, Grady Palmer. You're not nearly as cynical as you pretend to be. Nobody who likes Westerns is."

"How do you figure?"

"A Western is the ultimate morality play," she said. "The good guys always win. I took a film class in college and the professor theorized that's the secret to their popularity. They validate our sense of right and wrong."

"I don't know about that," he muttered without much conviction.

She smiled, thinking she had him figured out.

They took their place in line behind a handsome couple who appeared to be in their fifties. The man was tall, with dark hair graying at the temples and a face that looked familiar. Almost as tall as the man, the attractive, fair-haired woman was his perfect foil.

The man nodded at Grady without smiling. "Palmer."

"Richardson," Grady replied and introduced Tori. Although Grady didn’t supply a first name for the man, Tori knew who he was. She'd seen his face on campaign flyers.

"You're Forest Richardson," she said, more of a statement than a question.

"Why, yes, he is.” The woman was clearly pleased that Tori had recognized him. "I'm Betty Richardson, his wife and unofficial campaign manager, telling you to be sure to vote for him in November."

"You don't need to say that to everyone we meet, Betty," her husband told her in a slightly embarrassed voice.

"There's nothing wrong with broadcasting that my husband is the best choice for mayor," Betty Richardson said.

"I agree.” Tori found the woman's devotion to her husband touching. "If you don't believe it, nobody will."

"Not everybody does believe it," Forest Richardson said. It wasn't difficult to tell he referred to Grady.

"You do realize that Honoria Black will ruin our city with her pro-development stance?" Betty Richardson directed her question at Grady. "If she has her way, Seahaven will be like any other coastal city. Charmless. The little things we enjoy, like this movie theater, will be no more."

She made sense. Not for the first time, Tori wondered why Grady supported Honoria Black. Tori’s initial admiration for the mayor had given way to doubt that she was the right person to guide Seahaven

She couldn't imagine Mayor Black in downtown Seahaven, enjoying the simple charms of the city.

"Tell me something, Mr. Richardson, do you like Westerns?" Tori asked.

"Love 'em. It's the only place where the good guys always win," he said before it was his turn to pay for his tickets. After he did, he nodded at them. "Palmer. Nice meeting you, Ms. Whitley."

A few minutes later, Tori and Grady took their seats in the small theater a few rows behind the Richardsons. The screen was huge, easily half again as large as the ones in standard movie theaters.

"I take it you and Forest Richardson aren't friends," Tori remarked once they were settled in their seats.

"We're barely acquaintances. I run into him now and again," Grady said. "He knows I support Honoria."

"I like him," Tori said.

"Of course you do," Grady replied. "He's running for mayor. He puts on his best face in public."

"I don't believe it was an act," she said. "I think he seems like a genuinely good guy."

"There is no such thing."

"You're forgetting I'm on to you, Duke. You don't believe that any more than I do."

The previews flickered on, preventing further conversation. Tori had trouble concentrating on the screen. Why couldn't Grady see that Forest Richardson and not Honoria Black had the good of Seahaven at heart?

Could it be because the almighty buck was more vital to him than the good of the city? Was making a profit so important that he'd pay for the privilege? Is that what he'd been doing on that pier with Larry Schlichter?

Grady put his arm around her, drawing her close. She breathed in his now-familiar scent and snuggled against him. Again her doubts receded as she settled back to watch John Wayne do the right thing.

Later, after they'd gotten back to his apartment, she excused herself, went into his bathroom and shut the door. She sat on the closed toilet seat and took her disco ball key chain from her purse.

"Don't fail me now," she whispered to the ball. "I need to know if I should trust Grady."

She turned the ball over and read,
My sources say split
.

She frowned.

"Can I trust him?" she asked more directly.

It's a bad scene
, the ball replied.

Again, she shook the ball.

Whatever turns you on.

That was more like it
, she thought, slipping the key chain back in her purse. Grady turned her on.

She emerged from the bathroom and crossed the apartment until she stood only inches from him.

"Is everything all right?" he asked, concern for her showing in his blue eyes. "You were in there for a while."

"Everything's fine now," she said and kissed him.

He kissed her back, exactly the way she liked to be kissed. With wonder, passion and desire. The doubts fled from her another time, carried away on a tide of intense emotion.

Much later, she lay wide awake in bed, listening to the soft sounds he made while he slept.

Other than Grady's closet love for Westerns, she hadn't uncovered any evidence today that proved she should trust him. But she would. She did.

Because she wanted to.

Tori straightened from behind the counter, where she'd been stocking bottles of Lazenby foundation and moisturizer, and got a jolt.

Sky-blue eyes outlined by navy liner gazed at her from not more than a foot away. Their bottle-blond owner rested both her elbows on the glass countertop. Her dainty chin balanced on top of her hands.

"Hey, Tori," she said gaily, straightening to her full height, which was well shy of Tori's. "Remember me?"

"Of course," Tori said. "You're Grady's sister Lorelei. You're the one who keeps telling me I have the power."

"Right." She looked pleased that Tori had remembered not only their meeting but their telephone conversation when she'd left a message at the office for Grady. "I'm glad that power thing is working out for one of us."

"How do you know it is?"

"Because you were with Grady last night."

"He told you about it?"

Lorelei laughed. "No. On the way back from the clubs last night, I was going to stop and talk to him about something. I changed my mind when I saw you going into his place."

"So he didn't tell you that we, uh, you know?"

"Slept together? Nope. You're the one who told me that. Just now, in fact."

Tori felt her face color.

"Don't be embarrassed," Lorelei said, laughing. "I'm glad you and my brother are getting it on."

"Me, too," Tori admitted. "Did you come here to talk about him?"

"Hell, no. I came because Grady said you were good with makeup." Hers was slathered on thick, hiding her pretty face.

"Do you think you could make me look, oh, older? You know, so he can't dismiss me as some kid who doesn't know what she wants."

"So who can't dismiss you?"

Lorelei pressed her lips together, as though she'd said too much. Then she ran a hand through her seriously blond hair and answered, "Wade Morrison, that's who."

"The Tax Assessor?"

"I know he wants me, Tori, but every time we start to get busy, he brings up the age thing. As though he's old enough to be my father or something, which he definitely is not. I want him to take me seriously."

"And you think new makeup will make that happen?"

"It's worth a try."

Tori tilted her head this way and that, critically examining Lorelei's fair coloring and fine bone structure, absently noting that she and Grady didn't resemble each other much at all.

"You'd look even prettier with different makeup but I won't promise older." Tori tapped a finger against the side of her mouth. "Have you thought about coloring your hair?"

"I already do."

"I meant darker, not lighter," Lorelei said. "Society in general takes brunettes more seriously than blondes. When was the last time you heard a dumb brunette joke?"

"I can't say that I have," Lorelei said slowly.

"You'll want to wear your skirts a lot longer, too." Tori read panic in Lorelei's expression as she gazed down at her short, red micro-miniskirt. "When a woman's built like you, men tend to pay more attention to her body than her brain.

"Along those same lines," she continued before Lorelei could object, "have you thought about breast-reduction surgery?"

Both of Lorelei's hands flew protectively to her chest. "You can't be serious. . ." she began, then her eyes cleared and she dropped her hands. "You aren't serious. You're trying to make a point."

"Did I succeed?"

"Only if you wanted me to realize that changing my appearance wouldn't accomplish anything but making me miserable."

"That about sums it up," Tori said. "This is only my opinion, but a man who won't take you seriously solely because of the way you look isn't worth the trouble."

Lorelei nibbled on her lower lip and appeared thoughtful. "I might have given Wade other reasons not to take me seriously."

"Then you have to change the way you act," Tori said.

"You could be on to something.” Lorelei regarded her with a new gravity. "Now I understand why my brother's head over heels. Thank you."

"You're welcome." Tori expected Lorelei to be on her way. Instead the other woman gave Tori a sheepish look.

"Do you really think I'd look prettier with different makeup?"

Tori nodded. "I really do. You tend to wear warm shades while cool shades would suit your fair coloring better."

"I want you to understand first of all that I wholeheartedly agree with what you said about appearances not being everything,” Lorelei said.

"Okay."

"But do you think you could do my makeup?" she asked with a little grimace. "I'm fighting the good fight here, and, hey, prettier can't hurt."

Tori laughed. "I sure can."

Fifteen minutes later, Tori used the powder on a contour brush to blend the edges of the pink-based blush line on Lorelei's cheeks.

"Remember when I said I didn't come here to talk about Grady?" Lorelei asked. "I changed my mind."

Tori put down the contour brush and picked up a small jar of eye-shadow primer. "Oh," she said vaguely. She liked Lorelei. That didn’t mean she was ready to discuss the details of her relationship with Grady.