Identity Crisis (19 page)

‘I’ve been in Japan negotiating for an exhibition of antique kimonos and armor from the time of the Shoguns. I haven’t heard anything.’

‘They don’t have CNN in Japan?’ he asked.

‘They do, but not where I was.’ She was speaking to Garrett but her eyes were locked on Kendra. ‘Tess won?’

He nodded.

‘Congratulations.’ She folded her arms across her chest and offered Kendra a wicked smile. ‘Don’t know how you managed it, Garrett, but Tess certainly looks radiant.’ She cocked her head and returned her attention to Garrett. ‘No bruises, near-drownings? Other injuries I should know about?’

‘Shut up, Stacie,’ he growled.

She only smiled and looked from one of them to the other. ‘I’m assuming the guest room is unoccupied, so I’ll just stash my bag, and I’m starving. How about I make pancakes? You have stuff for pancakes?’

‘No,’ Garrett said.

‘Yes,’ Kendra said. ‘Full larder. You make pancakes?’

Stacie nodded. ‘The best.’ She offered them a knowing smile. ‘Why don’t you two go slip into something a little less comfortable, and I’ll get cooking.’ She waved a hand to the wheelie bag sitting on the floor by the door. ‘I’ll stash that later.’

Kendra pushed Garrett’s arm off her shoulder and shot him an evil look. ‘I’ll help you in the kitchen,’ she said.

Stacie shrugged, and Kendra thought she heard Garrett say a few unsavory words under his breath. Then she sauntered down the stairs, tugging the sash of the robe as though she was making every effort to cut herself in half with it, and led the way into the kitchen.

She already had a Diet Pepsi open for courage and was beginning a pot of coffee when Stacie came in behind her, and easily found her way around to gather ingredients.

‘I’m not sleeping with him,’ Stacie said as she bent to get eggs out of the fridge. She said it as casually as if she was discussing the weather outside. ‘We haven’t fucked in a very long time now, sweetie. And we were friends long before we were lovers, so that part of us has stayed.’

‘None of my business,’ Kendra said, starting the coffee pot.

‘True, but I could tell you wanted to know, since clearly you’re sleeping with him, I can’t blame you. I certainly would if I were you. Garrett’s good in bed.’

‘Jesus,’ Kendra whispered under her breath.

‘I stay with Garrett when I’m in Portland since he has a house now. It’s just nicer than a hotel, and it gives us a chance to catch up.’

‘You don’t seem surprised we’re having sex,’ Kendra said, trying not to feel self-conscious in her underdressed state. Upstairs, she could hear the shower running and remembered she had planned to fuck Garrett senseless in their morning ablutions.

‘Not surprised that you’re having sex, no. I mean, when two people are at each other’s throats the way you two were at Dee and Ellis’s engagement party, sex is pretty much the next step, isn’t it? I am a little surprised you haven’t killed each other in lieu of post-coital bliss.’

Kendra nodded to the press beyond the door. ‘We’ve had to put acts of random violence temporarily behind us and fight the good fight.’

Stacie offered a throaty giggle as she perused the contents of the refrigerator for what she needed. ‘Oh, this just keeps getting better and better, tell me more. I’m dying to catch up and I –’ She gave a little gasp and laid a hand against her ample cleavage. ‘You have blueberries.’

‘Yes.’ Kendra replied. ‘So?’

‘Do you like blueberry pancakes?’

‘Better than almost anything,’ Kendra said. ‘And if there’s maple syrup then they’re almost –’

‘Almost better than sex?’ Stacie walked to the pantry and pulled out a bottle of maple syrup.

‘God, yes!’ And suddenly both women were giggling.

Stacie kicked off her shoes and pulled out an apron, noticing Kendra’s look of surprise. ‘The syrup and the apron, I bought. I cook for Garrett occasionally when I’m here because that’s one thing I can manage without bodily injury.’ She shrugged ‘That and suss out the best art in the world for my galleries. Otherwise, I’m a bit of a klutz, I’m afraid.’

Kendra watched in fascination as Stacie began to whisk together the ingredients like a pro. She couldn’t resist. ‘Were you really engaged to Ellis when you married Garrett?’

‘Yep,’ the woman said without looking up at her. ‘I was very young and very stupid, and very sorry very soon.’ She glanced over her shoulder. ‘They were my two best friends. You can’t imagine the loss, and how much I regretted it.’

‘Your two best friends. Really? How did you meet?’ If she sounded like she was giving the woman the third degree, well, she supposed she was a little bit.

‘I moved in next door to the Thornes when I was 12. And my telescope was better than Ellis’s.’

‘You were into astronomy?’

‘I was, yes, and my father helped me build my own telescope. That made me very popular with Ellis. His parents were both professors, but neither had any interest in astronomy, so he’d had to save birthday money and money from paper routes for his.’ She began to spoon the batter onto the griddle. ‘Soon after that, Garrett got interested too, and we became fast friends. In the end, the friendship was strong enough to survive Garrett and my stupidity, something I’m very grateful for. Good friends are hard to come by.’ Before Kendra could comment, she turned the conversation back to her.

‘So, tell me what happened. How did Garrett ever convince you to be his Tess Delaney? To be honest, I’m surprised he could even convince you not to shoot him on sight.’

‘I don’t own a gun,’ Kendra said, finding a colander to rinse the blueberries.

‘Better for Garrett. Now, tell me what happened.’

And, strangely enough, Kendra found herself quite comfortable talking to Stacie. She had told her everything except for the part about the emails and was setting the table when they both turned to find Garrett standing in the kitchen door, freshly scrubbed, hair still damp, with his arms folded across the unbuttoned, untucked black cotton shirt, and God, he looked hot.

Stacie smiled up at him. ‘Sit down. Breakfast is served.

‘Smells great. Thanks, Stacie,’ he said, but his gaze was locked on Kendra, like it wasn’t Stacie’s pancakes he wanted to eat.’

‘I see you two haven’t killed each other,’ he said.

Kendra shrugged and moved to pour him coffee. ‘How was your shower?’

‘Not as good as it could have been.’ He raked her with a hungry gaze.

All the way through a delicious breakfast, Stacie regaled them with her adventures in some of the more remote regions of Japan in search of exhibits for the grand opening of her New World Gallery West. She owned New World Gallery in New York City, and was now expanding to the West Coast.

‘Since there’s a large Japanese influence in the Northwest, I thought that would be a wonderful way to open New World West,’ she said, cradling her coffee cup between her hands. ‘That would be half of the exhibition, and the other half I’m hoping to dedicate to the natural beauty of the area itself. I want to exhibit some of the best wildlife and nature photography, photographed by local photographers.’ She nodded to Kendra. ‘I’d like to get your friend Harris Walker to display some of his work. In fact, I’d like to have him be the main exhibitor. Problem is he won’t talk to me now that he knows who I am.’

Kendra nodded. ‘You mean after what happened with Dee and Ellis.’

‘A little surprised you’ll talk to me, actually.’ She held Kendra’s gaze. ‘What happened was totally unintentional, you know.’ She glanced at Garrett. ‘Neither of us ever wanted anything but the best for Dee and Ellis.’

‘I know,’ Kendra said, laying her fork down and folding her hands in her lap. ‘But you have to understand, the three of us are close. Really close, and we’re really protective of each other. We have been for a long time.’

Stacie and Garrett shot each other a knowing look. ‘We do understand,’ Garrett said. ‘If anyone understands, we do.’

The conversation was light and easy, a thing Kendra hadn’t expected. There was nothing between Garrett and Stacie that felt in the least like lust. The relaxed way the two were together reminded Kendra a lot of how she was with Harris.

It was the ringing of Garrett’s BlackBerry that interrupted their relaxed chat. ‘That would be Don.’ He sighed. ‘I hung up on him last night. Surprised it’s taken him this long.’

‘You’d better answer it,’ Kendra said, sorry for the interruption of such an unexpectedly pleasant morning.

Garrett didn’t even manage a hello before he shot Kendra a glance that said this was not a happy call, and the shit storm was well on its way. ‘Christ,’ he cursed out loud, not bothering to put his hand over the phone. ‘He says to turn on the damn TV again. I knew I should never have had the stupid thing installed.’

Kendra could make out only Don’s garbled displeasure on the other end of the device as they all three left the table and crowded onto the sofa in the living room where Garrett switched on the TV.

‘How could he do this to her?’

A woman in a book store clutching a hardback copy of Tess Delaney’s latest to her chest practically yelled into the microphone the reporter thrust at her. Her eyes welled with tears.

‘I mean, I knew it wasn’t a good sign when Tess Delaney showed up at the Golden Kiss Awards on Garrett Thorne’s arm. Everyone knew that. OK, it’s true the man is gorgeous, but everyone knows he’s not worthy of her.

Stacie cursed.

Next to Kendra, Garrett stiffened, and she could see the muscles along his jaw tense. She felt her insides clench in empathy, and fought back the sudden urge to throw something heavy at the television.

The woman continued, ‘Then, even while poor Tess is bravely slaving away under death threats from a stalker, as if the poor woman doesn’t have enough to deal with. Then this!’

‘Death threats, what death threats? What stalker?’ Stacie was practically bouncing off the sofa. Both Garrett and Kendra shushed her. And the woman on the television sniffed back another sob.

‘As if she isn’t under enough stress, that – that beast brings in his ex-wife!’

‘Fuck,’ Stacie cursed, just as the camera cut to earlier scenes in front of Garrett’s house and Stacie’s arrival, with plenty of close-ups of her, dressed to kill, pulling her wheelie weekender along behind her.

Skilled in interaction with the press, Stacie had only smiled and pushed her way gently to the door. The reporter gave a brief voiceover.

‘Stacie Emerson, owner of the New World Gallery in New York City, has a long-running relationship with both Garrett Thorne and his more famous brother, Ellison Thorne, CEO of the cutting edge company, Pneuma Inc. With the ex-wife showing up, bag in tow, it would appear that there’s trouble in paradise. As the saga of reclusive author Tess Delaney’s first public appearance at the Golden Kiss Awards unfolds, adoring fans meeting their heroine for the first time, only to discover that she has received death threats from an anonymous stalker, are not pleased with the younger Thorne brother’s less than stellar behavior.’

‘Oh shit,’ Stacie said. ‘Oh Garrett, I’m so sorry. I had no idea.’

‘They want to crucify you,’ Don said. At some point Garrett had put him on speaker phone.

‘I can see that, Don,’ Garrett said.

The noise in front of the house crescendoed and suddenly the scene on the television cut back to the front of Garrett’s house. This time the view was live.

‘Damn,’ Kendra said. ‘Is there a mob gathering?’

‘Oh my God.’ Stacie’s voice was little more than a whisper. ‘I’m so, so sorry. I didn’t know. I’ll leave.’

‘No!’ Kendra grabbed her arm and pulled her back onto the sofa. ‘You can’t leave.’ She nodded to the TV where someone in the growing crowd threw an egg, then another.

‘Garrett, what the hell were you thinking?’ Don growled over the speaker phone.

‘It’s not his fault,’ Stacie said. ‘He didn’t know I was coming, and I have a key. I always just let myself in, and there’s nothing going on between us, Don. You know that.’

‘I know that,’ Don said. ‘But they don’t.’

On television a woman in the mob thrust a sign in front of the camera that read
Garrett Thorne, Devil Spawn
.

‘Devil spawn,’ Kendra said. ‘You’re kidding me.’

Garrett only shrugged and sat staring at the television.

Just then Kendra’s iPhone rang. She’d grabbed it up when Don had summoned them all, once again, to the television. There were already several urgent emails for K. Ryde, as she had expected, and several texts for Kay Lake. They were all from Don. But it was Harris calling.

‘Ken, thank God!’ The concern in his voice was palpable. ‘Are you all right?’

‘Fine. I’m fine, Harris, don’t worry.’ She slipped off the sofa and moved to stand in the hallway where she could still see and sort of hear the television, but could have a little privacy in which to speak to Harris.

‘You watching TV?’ She could hear at least a little bit of the tension drain from his voice.

‘I’m watching,’ she replied. In the background she could hear traffic noise. ‘I’m on my way over. I’ll be there in about 20 minutes.’

‘No, Harris. That’s not necessary. Really, everything’s all right.’

‘Not all right, Kendra. Not all right at all. I’m on my way, and Dee and Ellis are on their way back from Seattle. They’ll be there as soon as they can get there.’

‘Harris, please, it’s not a big deal. Really, it’ll be all right. Please don’t.’

‘Ken, I’m coming and that’s that. End of conversation. I don’t trust Garrett Thorne, and well, after everything that’s happened to you, I’d just feel better if I were there.’

‘Harris, all that’s over. I’m fine, really. This is just part of negotiating the PR maze.’

‘I don’t care if it’s all over. Ken, I know what you went through. I was there, remember? There’s no way in hell either Dee or I will let that happen to you again, and frankly I’m shocked Thorne would drag you into this.’

She rolled her shoulders and massaged the base of her skull and the onset of a tension headache. ‘He didn’t know, Harris. It wasn’t his fault. It was my fault.’

‘I don’t care whose fault it is, I’m still coming. Deal with it.’

She nodded, even though she knew he couldn’t see. Another complication she didn’t need. ‘Park a couple of blocks away and come in the back,’ she said.