Magnificent Folly Read Free Page A

nearer to Cassie. “You seem to be very well informed about my daughter’s activities, Mr.…” She trailed off pointedly.
    “Ramsey. Andrew Ramsey.” He smiled, and his lean face was suddenly lit with an inner radiance. “Just a guess. Cassie’s last concerto made her an exceptionally famous young lady. It’s only reasonable that she would be working on another one.”
    “Is it also reasonable that a perfect strangershould recognize my daughter? Cassie isn’t exactly a household name.”
    “It’s all right, Mom,” Cassie said quickly. “He’s not—” She broke off and grimaced at Andrew. “She doesn’t mean to be rude. She only wants to protect me. There are all kinds of weirdos running around, you know.”
    “I know,” he said gravely. “And she’s quite right to be careful of you. I’d react the same way myself.”
    “I don’t need you to apologize for me, Cassie,” Lily said in exasperation. “I think you’d better go back to the cottage until I finish talking to Mr. Ramsey.”
    “I told you he isn’t a slimeball. You’d see that if you’d just—”
    “I’ll see you later, Cassie.” Andrew Ramsey smiled down at the little girl. “Let me talk to your mother and straighten this out.”
    “Okay.” Cassie started reluctantly up the beach. “But don’t let her chase you away. Make her understand.”
    “I will.”
    “You’d better,” Lily said as she whirled back to face him. “I don’t like what’s going on. Dammit, Cassie
knows
you, and she told me she had never spoken to you. My daughter has never lied to me before, and I’m mad as hell.”
    “Cassie didn’t lie to you,” Andrew Ramsey said quietly. “But yes, she does know me. Perhaps it’s instinct. Haven’t you ever met someone and felt you’d known him before?”
    “Déjà vu? It won’t wash, Mr. Ramsey. Why have you been watching Cassie? You won’t deny that’s what you’ve been doing for the last three evenings.”
    He shook his head. “Actually, it’s been five days. You didn’t notice me for the first two nights.” His brown eyes were suddenly twinkling. “You’ve been a hell of a lot more patient than I thought you’d be. I expected to see you climbing up the path to my aerie after the second night.”
    “That’s exactly what I was going to do this evening.”
    “I had an idea you might, so I thought I’d saveyou the trouble and come down to you. Tell me, do you really think I’m a threat to Cassie?”
    “How do I know?” She met his gaze directly. “But I’m damn well going to find out. Just because you look like the clean-cut all-American boy is no sign that’s what you are. I hear there are several varieties of pretty wild flowers that will grow in a toxic-waste dump.”
    He chuckled. “I’m glad you think I’m pretty, but I’ve never been compared to a toxic-waste dump before. That’s an original turn of phrase.” His smile faded. “What would you have done if you’d found me to be the weirdo Cassie said you suspected me of being?”
    “Warned you off.”
    “And if I wouldn’t be warned off? Would you have called the police?”
    “The police aren’t always effective until after a crime is committed. I would have handled it myself.”
    He looked surprised. “How?”
    She smiled sweetly. “I have a .32 Smith and Wesson at the cottage. If I’d found you to be anysort of danger to Cassie I would have blown away that part of your anatomy on which most men place an exceedingly high value.”
    He chuckled. “I’d say that would have proved effective.”
    “Very.” Her gaze searched his face. “But somehow I don’t think you’re a pervert.”
    A smile tugged at his lips. “Thank you.”
    “Still, you may be something almost as bad. What magazine do you write for?”
    “Ah, now I’m a member of the unscrupulous paparazzi?”
    “It computes, doesn’t it? You know who Cassie is and you’ve been stalking her for almost a week.”
    “I haven’t been stalking