Just Deserts Read Free

Danielle. I have Alex on the line. We need to talk. Hold on for a sec while I get her.”
    She then switched over to bring Alex on the line, only to discover she wasn’t there, although she could hear noise in the background. “Alex? Are you there? What’s going on?”
    “Sorry about that, Danielle, but both Hunter and Little Sweetie don’t like it that you woke them up.”
    Danielle rolled her eyes. Hunter was Alex’s husband of less than a month, and Little Sweetie was Alex’s dog, which Alex treated like a human being. “Apologize to them both, please, but by now I’m sure you’ve heard that there’s a possibility Marc might have been engaged to another woman.”
    “Yes, we heard,” Renée said. “And as far as I’m concerned, she should be counting her blessings that a wedding never took place.”
    “You’re right,” Danielle said. “But think of the emotional trauma it might cause her when she finds out about us.”
    “Maybe she won’t find out,” Alex said quietly. And then in a playful voice she said, “Stop that, Hunter. We can’t mess around now. I’m talking to my wives-in-law.”
    Danielle rolled her eyes again at the term Alex had adopted to define their relationship. “What do you think we should do, Renée?” Danielle asked. At least she was certain she had Renée’s attention. When a few seconds ticked by and Renée didn’t respond, Danielle asked again. “Renée?”
    “Oh, sorry. What was your question?”
    Danielle wanted to throw the phone down and scream. There could be only one reason Renée was not focused. “Is Chris there with you, Renée?”
    “Of course he’s here. He lives here. Don’t you remember I told you that he transferred to Birmingham and is working for an agency here while we plan the wedding?”
    “Sorry, I did forget. And how are the wedding plans coming along?”
    “Fine. Just three more weeks to go. I’m getting excited.”
    Danielle couldn’t help but be excited for her. Marc had been an ass and as far as she was concerned, both Alex and Renée deserved real happiness in their lives.
    So did she.
    But there was no way she could be happy until she uncovered the mystery surrounding the fourth woman. “Look, evidently this is not a good time to discuss anything with you two, so how about calling me back later? And Renée, it would be nice if Chris was included in our call. Then he could cover everything with us that he found at Marc’s apartment.”
    “And what are you planning to do after that?” Alex asked on a yawn.
    “I plan to find her.”
    “Take Tristan with you when you go looking for her,” Renée said.
    Danielle lifted a brow. “Why?”
    “It will be fun,” Renée answered.
    “Besides, he seems to like spending time with you,” Alex added.
    Danielle knew what Alex and Renée were getting at. She was well aware that they thought something was going on between her and Tristan because of the time he had playfully kissed her hand in front of them. She had tried convincing them that she and Tristan were nothing more than best buddies, but evidently they didn’t believe her. “Thanks for the suggestion, Alex. I just might do that. Goodbye.”
    Then she quickly hung up the phone.
     
    An hour or so later, bored with the book she’d been reading, Danielle left the confines of her bedroom to look for Tristan. Funny how she considered the guest room at Tristan’s house as her room. When had that started? She wondered. Right after Paul had died and she had left the modeling world to return to Port St. Lucie.
    It was hard to convince the people she’d known all her life that she was no longer Dani, the highly paid fashion model who’d walked numerous runways and been named one of the top models in the world by People.
    And then when half the modeling world, including Tyra, Viva and Heidi, had shown up at Paul’s funeral, her home—the one she and Paul had inherited after their parents’ death—had become an overnight sensation,