If The Shoe Fits (33 page)

The driver glanced in his rear-view mirror.
“Ma’am, I am doing the speed limit as per my contract. I can’t risk
getting a ticket. Don’t worry, though. I’ll have you both at the
party just in time.”

Madeleine huffed and slid to the back of the
car she’d rented to transport her and Mr. Fiorello to the auction.
She must keep up appearances after all, but if that twit in the
driver’s seat didn’t hurry it up, she and Mr. Fiorello wouldn’t
arrive before the Board members. She wanted to be on hand to
welcome them personally.

The driver glanced back again, his green eyes
twinkling behind his spectacles, a black beret pulled low. He
shifted on the phone books he’d piled to make himself taller. There
hadn’t been enough time to arrange for a different, “special” car,
so he’d had to make do.

Improvisation was his best trait, anyway. And
once he’d gotten wind of what Luke and Staci were up to, he’d
scrapped part of his old plan and was hastily trying to put
together a new one. Keeping Bella’s stepmother from arriving too
early was part of it.

It was all Jonathan Griff could do not to
laugh aloud at what the rest of the evening held for
Madeleine.

Including the flat tire that happened just as
planned.

“
A flat tire?” Madeleine shrieked
at him when he lowered the partition separating the driver’s
quarters from the rest of the limousine to give her the bad news.
“What kind of incompetent fool are you? Do you understand how
important it is that I’m not late? I told you I
must
be on
time.”

Such an unbecoming and unnecessary reaction,
but then, Jonathan had expected no less from the woman. Giovanni
Fiorello really had his hands full with this one.

Madeleine threw her head against the headrest
and exhaled. Loudly. “It’s as if the gods are against
me.”

“
Oh, no, ma’am. He wouldn’t do
something like this.” No, only desperate Guardians in training
would. His poor Boss, though; always getting blamed for things He
hadn’t done.

“
Did you say something?” Madeleine
arched her eyebrow and glared at him out the corner of her eye, an
effective move if executed properly.

Madeleine had perfected it.

“
I said I’ll change the tire as
fast as I can, ma’am.” Jonathan slid from his stack of phonebooks
and walked around to the trunk. A raised lid, a few thumps and
bumps, a clang or two, and Jonathan walked over to the tire in
question. He took a quick survey of the street before bending down
to examine the “flat.” He wiggled his finger and the back end of
the car hovered a good six inches off the ground. The shriek from
inside assured him the lift had been noticed.

Jonathan sat on the curb, whistling. Every so
often he’d twiddle his fingers and the sound of a lug wrench
hitting the pavement would emanate from beneath the car. There were
perks to this Guardian business. Faking a flat tire and its
tiresome fix were one of them.

“
Can you hurry it up?” Madeleine
raged through the lowered window. Heaven forbid she actually
deigned to look out at him—but that served his purpose well. He
didn’t need her to see what he was—or, rather,
wasn’t—
doing.
“What’s taking so long? Don’t you have a cell phone? Why don’t you
call your company and have them get another car here? I don’t have
all night for this nonsense.”

Jonathan lowered the car a little more
forcefully than necessary. Praise be, it shut the woman
up.

Thank God—and Jonathan did, often-—that
Madeleine wasn’t his Charge. Poor Giovanni deserved some divine
sympathy.

“
It’s about time,” the woman
snarled when he opened the driver’s door after “depositing” his
supposed tools back in the trunk. “You better hurry. We’ve already
lost too much time as it is.”

A
thank you
went a long way with
people, but Madeleine, apparently, had never learned that
lesson.

Jonathan tipped his hat to the woman, feeling
sorrier for Giovanni by the minute. The woman needed a good lesson
in manners. “We’ll be off now, ma’am. No time flat, just like I
said. No pun intended, though.”

Madeleine didn’t even crack a smile. She
huffed and threw herself back into her seat, her arms crossing into
a pretzel across her chest. “Just get going. I have half a mind to
call another driver.”

Jonathan bit back the comment about half her
mind. It wouldn’t be very angelic of him.

“
You’re certainly welcome to,
ma’am, but with this big shindig at the hospital, I’m pretty sure
all the car agencies and taxicab companies have their hands full. I
doubt you’ll be able to find another car at this late hour.” He
really had to struggle to keep his grin from slipping
out.

Madeleine sucked her cheeks in so hard they
almost popped out the other side. She looked at the ceiling. “Can
anything else possibly go wrong?”

If she only knew.

Chapter
Thirty-Five

“
Staci. You’re here.” Bella heard
the disbelief in her voice but couldn’t help it. She truly hadn’t
expected to see Staci at all during set-up.

“
Of course I am. I told you I
would be.”

Staci looked indignant. Not that Bella could
blame her. Her stepsister had been rather amazing recently—as
compared to her earlier lazy, selfish, gluttonous, blob-like
self.

“
Your outfit is very
nice.”

“
You like it?” Staci smoothed the
coral skirt over her hips. The cream blouse was demure enough to be
respectable, but sassy enough to be fashionable. “Luke said it was
the perfect choice for tonight.”

“
Luke?” Bella stopped construction
on the cheese tower to really look at Staci. “I thought it was over
between the two of you.”

“
Just like you weren’t going to
work this event.”

Bella acknowledged that direct hit.

“
Besides, I really do like him. We
have a lot in common.”

No, Bella wasn’t going to mention Luke’s bank
account balance. It seemed as if Staci really had changed more than
her appearance.

“
I wish you the best of
luck.”

“
Thanks.” Staci held up a tray.
“So, should the antipasto go on the bar or the food
station?”

“
Leave it by the cheese. It’ll be
too big for the bar.”

“
Okay.” Staci did a little
hop-skip back to their food cart and grabbed another cheese tray.
“I’ve got this covered, Bella, if you want to see how Giac and Gus
are doing on the boat.” Staci dismissed her with a flutter of
acrylic fingernails.

“
Staci, what’s going
on?”

“
I don’t know what you mean.”
Staci’s look of wide-eyed innocence was as fake as her
fingernails.

“
Come on. Even for you, this
overacting is a bit much. You’re up to something, I can tell. And I
want to know what it is. I’ve got too much invested in this evening
for you to ruin it.”

“
Bella, really. I’m just trying to
help out. I have no ulterior motives. I promise.”

Then why did her hand slip behind her back?
Were her fingers crossed?

Bella tugged Staci’s hand out. No crossed
fingers. But that didn’t mean they hadn’t been.

“
Seriously, Bella, I wish you’d
trust me on this. I have your best interests at heart.” Staci
smiled and set the cheese down. “Now, go. You know Bruno’s in there
with Gus so there’s sure to be some disagreement going on. I’ll be
fine.”

Torn between a possible future disaster and
the imminent one between Gus and Bruno, Bella headed aboard
The
Midnight Maiden
. “Call me if you need any help.”

“
I’ll be fine.” Staci picked up a
few pieces of cheese and balanced them on the top of the pyramid
Bella had made, pretending to be busy until Bella disappeared
inside the ship. Then she tossed the cheese back onto the tray and
whistled.

Luke ran from the car with something cradled
in a football hold against his chest.

“
This is a lot heavier than a
pigskin,” he huffed, pulling it from beneath a towel. “Where do you
want it?”

Staci motioned to a table draped in layers of
pastel chiffon. “Under here. We don’t want Bella to see it and
start asking questions.”

“
Right.” Luke put it down and
stood, brushing his hands. He smiled at Staci and caressed her
arms. “Have I ever told you how cute you are when you’re planning a
coup?”

Chapter
Thirty-Six

Bella stood on the deck of
The Midnight
Maiden
, awestruck. The drayage company Reese had hired had
really outdone itself. Twinkling lights outlined the bow, vined
along the mast lines, and wended through the topiaries the florist
had supplied, turning the deck of
The Midnight Maiden
into a
fairy land. Silver candelabra and utensils gleamed in the reflected
light, and glass dishes rimmed in silver prismed rainbows of color
onto the shimmering silver satin tablecloths while soft waves
lapped against the dock, the motion setting the candle flames
dancing in their protective glass surrounds.

“
Beautiful,” she whispered,
trailing her fingertips over the back of the fabric-draped
chair.

“
Yes.” The word was soft and deep
from behind her.

Bella spun around.

Reese. Looking breathtakingly handsome in a
coal black tuxedo and crisp white shirt, the lights flickering
along the strong line of his jaw and the sensuous curve of his
lips.

She really didn’t need to be thinking about
his lips right now. Not when it was all she could do to keep from
replaying the feel of them on hers.

“
Hi.” She fiddled with a strand of
hair that had fallen from the knot at her neck and tucked it behind
her ear as she looked around. “They really did a great job. This is
gorgeous. Everyone’s going to be so impressed.”

Reese didn’t say anything.

“
Is something wrong?” She swished
the gown, imagining all sorts of awful things that could go wrong
tonight. She’d thought about warning him about Madeleine, but was
counting on her stepmother’s social aspirations as a deterrent to
bad behavior.

Later on tonight when they got home, however…
She’d deal with that when the time came. She was not going to let
her personal business interfere with Reese’s professional
one.

“
Wrong?” Reese coughed. “No.
Nothing. You look stunning, Bella. That dress…” He cleared his
throat again. “Whoever made that thing is a genius.”

“
It was Gus.”

“
Then his talents are wasted in
the kitchen, but I’ll gladly avail myself of them
tonight.”

“
I’ll be sure to tell him. He and
Bruno are getting the food set up in the galley. They wouldn’t let
me in there until everything was settled. Said they didn’t want me
to get anything on the dress.”

“
Good idea.”

Oh she had plenty of good ideas and one in
particular was all about getting the
out
of the
dress.

Okay, so maybe that wasn’t such a good
idea.

“
Reese, listen, about tonight.
About the reason I quit on you last week.”

“
It’s not important. You’re here
now and tonight will be perfect.”

“
But—”

“
Reese, I’ve got to talk to you.”
Luke ran up the stairs. “Hey, Bella. Staci said everything’s ready
for you in the galley.”

“
Oh. Okay.” She took one last look
at Reese. “I guess we’ll talk later.”

“
Sounds good.”

***

“
A migraine? You’re kidding,
right? My mother’s never had a migraine in her life.” Reese swiped
a hand over his face.

With their reestablished friendship, Luke
didn’t relish lying, or the bleak look on Reese’s face, but it was
in the guy’s best interests. He just hoped Reese would see it that
way when it all played out.

Luke shrugged. “That’s what she said. Your
father helped her back to their car and she asked me to tell you.
She seemed pretty worried about you.” That, at least, wasn’t a lie.
But Carolyn had seen the bigger plan and was in full
agreement.

“
Great. Now what do I do? I’ve got
an open slot on the auction block.”

“
Well...” And here was where it
all began. “Actually, that’s not true.” Reese looked over at him
and Luke had to work hard to keep the look of innocence he’d
struggled to put on his face. “It says on my bidding list ‘A
Charmant Evening.’ Your mom’s not the only Charmant in your family
people would want to spend an evening with, you know.”

Reese groaned. “This is what I get for letting
Kelly design the program layout. She thought it’d be cute to play
off the
charming
angle of my name. Now it’s coming back to
bite me and I don’t have a choice, do I?”

“
I could always
volunteer.”

Reese gave that a half-second’s consideration.
“No, my name is on the event and the program. I’ll do
it.”