Kiss Mommy Goodbye Read Free Page B

Understand?” She laughed. “Gotta go,” he said, straightening up.
    “Where are you going?”
    “Home. I’m beat. Aren’t you beat?”
    “It’s not even lunch time!”
    “That late?” He walked toward the door. “Gotta rest. I’m taking out your friend tonight.”
    “Susan?”
    “That’s the one. Great girl. Cover for me, okay.” He opened the front door. “Did your friend ever show up again, by the way?”
    “What friend?”
    “Last night. The guy you kept looking at.”
    Donna was momentarily startled. Had she been that obvious? “I left before you did, remember?”
    “Oh, yeah. Well, have a nice weekend.” He walked through the door and was gone.
    “Warrack take off?” Scott Raxlen asked, finished with his phone call. Donna nodded “That’s a good idea.” He stood up and stretched. “Think I’ll go home too. Take care of my headache.”
    Donna looked around the fast-emptying office. “What’s with everybody? We have one little party to celebrate the end of a successful campaign—”
    “Mayflower Condominiums—An Original Concept—For Original Americans—”
    “And the whole place falls apart the next morning. Rhonda doesn’t even bother to show up; Irv takes off five hours early; you’re about to do the same—”
    “Who was the guy?”
    “What guy?”
    “The one Warrack was asking you about?”
    Donna shook her head. “I don’t know how you do it. You have two sets of ears?”
    “Who is he?”
    “I don’t know. We were introduced, then he disappeared.”
    “The best kind. Take my word for it, Donna, it’s better that way.”
    “Go home, Scott.”
    He walked to the door. “He was that good-looking, huh?”
    “Go home, Scott.”
    “Cover for me?”
    Donna waved him out the door. She returned to her design layout, but her pen remained poised without moving. Maybe she should just get up and go home like everybody else. No, she couldn’t do that. “Why do I have to be such a Goody Two-Shoes?” she asked herself out loud. Always have to stay to the bitter end. Except at parties. Then she usually left early. Her mind drifted back to last night’s festivities, sponsored by the satisfied client. Immediately, she saw the stranger’s face. What a face, she thought, picking up the phone, feeling a sudden need to confide in someone. “Susan Reid, please. Thank you.” She waited several seconds. “Oh, all right. I’ll hold.” Why not? It was becoming obvious to her that she would get nothing much else accomplished today. She looked around. “Great,” she said into the receiver. “I’m the only one here. What? Oh, sorry. No, I wasn’t speaking to you. Will she be much longer? Thank you.” Almost five minutes later, Susan Reid finally came onto the other end. “Boy, you’re a hard lady to get to talk to. I’ve been holding on for ten minutes. I’m a busy person, you know.” She stopped. Her eyes stared straight ahead at the large picture window which looked out onto picturesque Royal Palm Road in the fashionable heart of fashionable Palm Beach. “What? Oh, sorry. Look, Susan, I have to go. I can’t talk to you now. No. What? No. Listen, I have to go. He’s here. He! Him! This gorgeous guy I met last night. He’s standing outside the front window with what looks like a bottle of champagne, my God,it’s champagne, and two glasses. I don’t believe this. My heart is pounding like a drum. I have to go. He’s coming inside. I really don’t believe this. I’ll talk to you later. Goodbye.”
    She hung up the phone at the precise moment Victor Cressy walked in the front door.
    “Hi,” he said casually, placing the glasses on her desk and promptly uncorking the champagne.
    “Oh,” she said loudly as the cork shot across the room, and then tried to sound as casual as she could. “Good shot.” He smiled, his crystal-clear blue eyes fastening on hers, themselves blue though several shades darker. He poured the champagne, which Donna couldn’t help but notice