Kiss and Tell Read Free

go up and change into my costume before Simon catches sight of me and arrests me for violating party rules.”
    Leila felt a stab of disappointment and frustration. He had been on the verge of opening up to her, on the brink of telling her something important and personal. But the mood had been broken. What had he been about to say? Why couldn’t he talk to her that way—sincerely, and from the heart—all the time?
    “Walk me back to the house, and tell me what detained this fellow of yours,” Marsh continued. “Elliot. The man of your dreams, so to speak. Was it hell or high water?”
    “Neither.” Her gown made a
shush
ing sound on the ground as she walked. “It was work.”
    “Work. The worst of the four-lettered words. What is he, a doctor?” Marsh asked. “Was it some life-and-death emergency operation that only he could perform that’s keeping him from your lovely side?”
    Leila’s frustration turned to sharp annoyance. “Not everyone is a critically important small-town doctor.”
    “Just curious.” He ignored her insult. “New Year’s Eve and Valentine’s Day are the two most important holidays for lovers. It seems peculiar that he isn’t here with you.”
    Leila and Elliot weren’t lovers. Their relationship just hadn’t progressed in that direction. At least not yet. And Leila was in no hurry to change that. But she wasn’t about to correct Marsh and give him more ammunition to use against Elliot.
    “One of his clients had an emergency,” she said. “To be specific, a financial emergency. Elliot is a financial consultant.”
    “Splendid,” Marsh said, far too enthusiastically. “It’s truly comforting to know you’re considering spending the rest of your life with a man who believes that having bags of money is more important than silly old love. Of course that works out rather nicely since you’re not exactly in love with him, either.”
    Leila shook her head in exasperation. “Simon told you about Elliot’s proposal, didn’t he? God, I don’t know why I’m surprised. He tells you everything. There’s no such thing as a secret on Sunrise Key, is there?”
    “Ah, the great lack-of-privacy issue again. But this hasn’t anything to do with that. When Si told me you were bringing this Elliot fellow with you, naturally, I asked some questions.”
    Leila shot him a look. “You don’t honestly expect me to believe that there’s a single person at this party who
hasn’t
heard I was bringing a man to the island with me?”
    “Of course not.” Marsh held open the door to the house. “In a town this size, news of weddings and babies travels far and fast. Of course, everyone who’s heard about Elliot assumes you’re in love with the man. Only those privileged few of us know the real truth. I must say, marrying a man for his money…Somehow, I expected more from you, Leila.”
    “I’m not marrying Elliot for his money. If I marry him—and that’s a great big ‘if’—it’s because—” She broke off, suddenly unwilling to tell him her real reasons for considering marriage with Elliot. She couldn’t bear to hear him mock her fears of spending her life alone, to have him ridicule her desires for children, for a family.
    “My God.” Marsh somehow managed to read her mind. “Something has unleashed the traditional female in you. It’s time to have kids, so you latched on to the first idiot who came along!”
    “Elliot’s
not
an idiot,” Leila said defensively. “It’s true that I’m not exactly in love with him, but he’s a good man, and I like him. If you don’t like that, that’s tough luck. But then again, why should I care? You’ve never liked anything I’ve ever done.”
    “Don’t be ridiculous.” Marsh’s cool control was starting to slip. “Just because I was disappointed when you moved to New York City after college instead of back to the key—”
    “Hah.” Leila all but smacked him with her mask. “Disappointed because I wouldn’t be around