Close Up (10 page)

“So they are more criminal than protester?” That was not reassuring.

“I’m going to do some research on this.” Sean made some notations on his phone, fingers flying. Sean didn’t just multitask, he worked with the efficiency of an assembly line. He punched out emails while talking on the phone all while running on a treadmill. Her idea of multitasking was drinking wine with dinner.

Speaking of, she took a healthy swallow of the wine remaining in her glass. No reason to let that go to waste.

As much as she found herself wanting to linger with Sean, it was time to put the day to bed.

The waitress had brought his card back and Kristine stood up. “Thanks for everything.”

That sounded trite and small compared to the enormity of their previous relationship. She felt there was so much more to say, but she didn’t know how or what.

“You’re welcome for everything,” he said, smirking a little. “So this is my dismissal?”

Her cheeks burned. He didn’t exactly have that correct. It was never that she
wanted
to get rid of him; it was always that she thought she
should
. Right from their first date, she had known they were from two totally different worlds, and she didn’t fit in his. But he had a definite power of persuasion. Which would explain why she had agreed to a second date. To sleeping with him. To being his girlfriend. To marriage.

It was also why she had come very close to agreeing to spend this weekend with him. Especially after he had kissed her.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she lied. “I’m trying to be courteous of your time.”

He gestured for her to walk ahead of him. “Thank you, Kristy. But courteous is not what I want.”

She wasn’t going to ask. She wasn’t going to ask...

“What do you want?” Damn it. Why did she have to touch the stove to prove it was hot? It always got her into trouble. She knew what he wanted.

“You know what I want.”

A shiver rolled up her spine. They were suddenly out in the parking lot. It was dark. He was staring intently at her. His look was commanding, persuasive.

He was obviously going to kiss her again.

But he didn’t. He simply opened her car door for her, and yes, she was disappointed.

“Drive safely. See you on Friday.”

“Friday?” Why was she seeing him on Friday? Had she actually agreed to go to the lake with him?

“The opening of the exhibit. See you there.”

Right. Her job. The gallery. The opening of Ian’s exhibit.

“Sure. Of course. Thanks.” She wasn’t even sure why she was thanking him, exactly. For everything, she supposed.

“You can give me your answer then.”

“My answer?” she parroted, even though she knew precisely what he was asking.

“The lake. Yes or no. I’ll expect an answer on Friday.”

She nodded. Then because she hated being the only one off guard, Kristine gave him a soft kiss. His eyes widened as she pulled back. “Good night.”

Oh, yeah. That felt better. He looked as if he’d taken a two-by-four in the eyes.

He walked away shaking his head.

She drove away smiling for the first time all day.

7

T
HE EVENING OF
the exhibit, Sean let the catering staff in while Kristine was in the restroom. He found two of the women to be a bit underdressed in what looked like workout clothes, and he was about to ask what their role was when both stripped down to nothing but panties.

What the hell? He realized he was at the opening of a nude photography exhibit, but if these women were going to be wandering around handing out glasses of champagne in their underwear, he might find himself feeling slightly awkward. His parents were conservative people, and he had not been raised to treat the human body quite so casually. So when one said, “Hi,” to him, quite cheerfully, he found himself desperately looking at her face so he didn’t see any of her body.

“Hi. So, uh, what do you do here?” he asked.

“We’re sushi models,” she said, gesturing to herself and the blonde next to her. “We’re like a buffet table. Guests can eat the sushi off of us.”

Never let it be said Minnesota wasn’t capable of being as trendy and strange as New York and L.A. The whole concept of lifting an ahi roll off a stranger’s abdomen seemed odd, but growing up with two brothers and budget conscious parents, he wasn’t one to turn down free food. “So do you ever just fall asleep?” he asked. “Or is it more like getting one of those fish pedicures? You’re constantly aware of fingers fluttering over you?” He was pretty sure he would hate it, personally. Looking up and seeing all those hands coming at him? No, thanks.

Both women laughed. “I meditate,” the blonde said.

“I kind of get turned on,” the brunette said. “I’m not going to lie.”

“What are you doing?” Kristine asked, coming out of the restroom.

He turned and caught a very distinct stink eye from her. Someone was jealous. “I’m talking to the waitresses.”

“Find something else to do,” she said, tone peevish. “They need to set up.”

The front door to the gallery opened and Ian Bainbridge entered.

“Oh!” Kristine said, her hand going to her throat. “There’s Ian.”

“I’ll go say hello to him while you finish coordinating things here,” he said, wanting to help out. Kristine looked completely stressed.

“Could you?” The relief on her face was obvious.

But he had barely greeted Ian when the door pushed open again, and he glanced over to see Kristine’s mother strolling in as if she owned the place. So much for her feeling threatened by her daughter.

“Have you heard anything from the police?” he asked Ian. He had spent some time the day before researching Ian’s previous shoots and threats, and so far, he hadn’t come to any conclusions as to who the mystery woman was.

“No. They’re treating it like a common case of vandalism. Which maybe it is.” Ian shrugged. “Just a local protest, versus some grand conspiracy.”

“I still think you should be wary. But given the note they left, they seem to be enjoying a cat and mouse game, and I doubt they’ll be at the opening.”

The more immediate problem was Ebbe.

The artist grinned. “What fun is cat and mouse when the mouse doesn’t feel in danger? Maybe I should, but it all seems a bit silly to me.”

“Nothing wrong with some caution, but I understand where you’re coming from. The vandalism seems juvenile.”

Ebbe’s voice rang across the gallery, though Sean couldn’t make out what she was saying. He told Ian, “Well, congrats on your opening, and rest assured we have it covered.” Then Sean went to head off trouble.

A decade had added lines around her eyes and a few more pounds, and there was more gray than brown in her hair, but Ebbe looked essentially the same to Sean. She walked with confidence, eyes assessing the room, her outfit a complicated layering of fabrics and colors that looked like bedding to him. Sean had met her only twice when he and Kristine had been together, and that had been enough for him to form the opinion that when it came to her only child, Ebbe was actually a very selfish woman.

Her decided opinions and unwavering confidence had in so many ways damaged Kristine’s own sense of self-worth, and today seemed a perfect example of that. While Kristine ran herself ragged doing her job, Ebbe strolled in as if she owned the world and it owed her.

“Don’t I know you?” she said with a frown when she caught sight of him.

“I’m Sean Maddock. It’s definitely been a while since I’ve seen you. You look good,” he told her, because it was true.

“Of course I do. I live and die by yoga. I still don’t know who you are, though. You look familiar. Did I sleep with you?”

Oh, good God. Sean tried to hide the horror he knew was flashing over his face. “No, you did not.” He couldn’t bring himself to repeat it because even if she was not Kristine’s mother and she was ten years younger, he would never be interested in her. She was a handful and then some.

Ebbe shrugged. “I went through a corporate-man phase five years ago.”

This conversation needed to end right now. “I was married to your daughter ten years ago.”

“Kristine was married?” Her brow wrinkled. Then suddenly her expression cleared. “Oh, that’s right. She fancied herself in love for a minute.”

Ouch. That needled him. But he wasn’t going to address it at the moment. “Ebbe, is there something I can help you with? I’m handling security for this party and I have to tell you, you’re considered a security risk. I can’t let you stay, and I have to ask you to leave.”

He wasn’t going to glance behind him because he didn’t want to take his eye off Ebbe, but he was sure that Kristine watched them, and that by now the sushi models were splayed out with California rolls on their thighs. Guests would be arriving any minute and he did not want any sort of disturbance or issue. Kristine would have a meltdown.

“What? Are you serious?” Ebbe’s finger poked him in the chest to punctuate each word. “You. Can’t. Make. Me.”

What was this? Third grade? Was she going to throw a “na-ne-na-ne-boo-boo” at him next?

“Think about the impact of you being here on Kristine,” he murmured, his voice low so only she could hear him. “And if you can’t bring yourself to do that, think about the fact that this exhibit was vandalized on Wednesday and you very well could be a suspect if you pitch a fit here tonight.”

She sized him up, slowly nodding her head. “Nice. I like your strategy. No wonder you and Kristy didn’t work out. She couldn’t strategize her way out of a bathtub.”

How did Kristine tolerate her mother? Sean put his hands in his pockets so she wouldn’t see his fingers curling into tight fists. “Kristine is very intelligent.”

But Ebbe shrugged. “She is of average intelligence. She’s more like her father than me.”

Sean was grateful for the control he had carefully honed over the years. He absolutely needed it at the moment. “I can only assume then he is kind and generous and tactful, because she did not inherit those traits from you.”

With a laugh, Ebbe said, “I think I like you. Too bad we didn’t sleep together. Now will you let me stay if I promise to behave?”

At that moment, Kristine came up and hissed, “Mother! What are you doing? My boss who owns the gallery is here!”

“Oh, relax. I’m not going to do anything. I just wanted to see the exhibit up close. Online doesn’t do the smut justice.” She took Kristine by the arm and led her farther into the gallery. “You could have saved yourself a nasty text or two to me.”

Sean planned to follow them and encourage Kristine to support him in tossing Ebbe on her ear, but his two security guys had just arrived and he needed to debrief them. After he pointed out the usual security concerns, he gestured toward Ebbe. “Watch her like a hawk. I am 100 percent certain she is going to try to pull some sort of demonstration or protest. If she does anything weird or out of line, don’t hesitate to escort her out of the gallery.”

They were both security guards who had been with the firm for years, and Jason, the older one, seemed surprised. “What do you think she’s going to do?”

“I think it’s very possible she’ll stand on the sushi table and start spouting about the evils of overfishing. At bare minimum.”

It was going to be a long night. Sean was starving. If he didn’t eat something his stomach was going to digest his spinal cord, so he went to grab a tempura roll off the blonde’s belly before the guests arrived.

* * *

K
RISTINE GRATEFULLY TOOK THE
glass of champagne Ian offered her. She knew she shouldn’t drink on the job, but after the past few days she’d had, she thought she was entitled to some bubbly. It could serve as a celebratory glass—June had not fired her for the vandalism debacle, and Kristine had not killed her mother yet. Eyeing her anxiously as she wandered around the room perusing the exhibit, Kristine took comfort in the security guard who was clearly following Ebbe on Sean’s directive.

“I hope the fund-raiser is successful for you,” she told Ian, taking a small sip of champagne.

The artist was about her age, and he was an attractive man, his style eclectic, but not bizarre. He was from New Zealand originally, and while Kristine was sure his accent would cause swooning with some women, she preferred Sean’s smooth, low tones. It annoyed her to admit it, but on some level, she had been comparing every man in the past decade to Sean, whether she’d been aware of it or not.

Seeing him again, kissing him, had made it all too clear they did have unfinished business.

“I hope so, as well,” Ian said. “Raising money for cancer research is important to me.” He gestured with his glass to the food tables. “I’m not sure I’m sold on the concept of eating raw fish off strangers, but it’s splashy, and guests will have something to talk about.”

“I’m sure they will.” June had insisted on the models. Kristine hadn’t been sure how the artist would feel about it, but she hadn’t been allowed an opinion on the subject. Personally, she had no interest whatsoever in pulling a tuna roll off another woman’s thigh and popping it into her mouth.

Sean, on the other hand, clearly had no issue with it. He was standing between the two women taking turns pulling sushi from both. His hands were moving rapidly over them and he was loading his mouth as if he hadn’t eaten in weeks. Was he really that hungry or was he just packing it away as an excuse to linger over the models, who were naked except for a few pieces of strategically placed Bibb lettuce.

Then she was annoyed with herself for even caring. Wasn’t that what had destroyed their marriage in the first place? She had been unable to believe that of all the women in the world, Sean had chosen her. Now they weren’t even together and she was jealous of the attention he showed two strangers? Ridiculous.

June came out of the back, smoothing her chignon, her little black dress and pearls showing off her classic elegance. She was thin, fit and poised, her hair a stunning silver. A perfect example of how a woman could age gracefully. Her confidence and social graces always on display, June was the antithesis of Ebbe, and the woman Kristine sometimes wished she could be. June commanded respect and admiration from men and women alike, and Kristine wanted that for herself. But the reality was that she would never be organized, calm or a size two. The question was why did she always focus on that instead of the great things she was? There were different ways to be admired, skills she did possess, like resourcefulness, creativity and an abundant smile.