Pretend You Don't See Her Read Free Page A

summer home on Nantucket, and always urged Lacey to spend
her vacation with them instead.
                 As
she crossed the George Washington Bridge, Lacey braced herself for the
reproaches she knew would be part of their greeting. “You only spent three days
with us,” her brother-in-law would be sure to remind her. “What’s East Hampton
got that Nantucket doesn’t?”
                 For
one thing it doesn’t have you, Lacey thought, with a slight grin. Her
brother-in-law, Jay Taylor, the highly successful owner of a large restaurant
supply business, had never been one of Lacey’s favorite people, but, as she
reminded herself, Kit clearly is crazy about him, and between them they’ve
produced three great kids, so who am I to criticize? If only he wasn’t so damn
pompous, she thought. Some of his pronouncements sounded like papal bulls.
                 As
she turned onto Route 4, she realized how anxious she was to see the others in
her family: her mother, Kit and the kids—Todd, twelve, Andy, ten, and her
special pet, shy four-year-old Bonnie. Thinking about her niece, she realized that
all day she hadn’t been able to shake thoughts about poor Isabelle Waring, and
the things she had said. The woman’s pain was so palpable. She had insisted
that Lacey stay for coffee and over it had continued to talk about her
daughter. “I moved to Cleveland after the divorce. That’s where I was raised.
Heather was five at that time. Growing up, she was always back and forth
between me and her dad. It worked out fine. I remarried. Bill Waring was much
older but a very nice man. He’s been gone three years now. I was so in hopes
Heather would meet the right man, have children, but she was determined to have
a career first. Although just before she died I had gotten the sense that maybe
she had met someone. I could be wrong, but I thought I could hear it in her
voice.” Then she had asked, her tone one of motherly
concern, “What about you, Lacey? Is there someone special in your life?”
                 Thinking
about that question, Lacey smiled wryly. Not so you’d notice it, she thought.
And ever since I hit the magic number thirty, I’m very aware that my biological
clock is ticking. Oh well. I love my job, I love my apartment, I love my family and friends. I have a lot of fun. So I have
no right to complain. It will happen when it happens.
                 Her
mother answered the door. “Kit’s in the kitchen. Jay went to pick up the
children,” she explained after a warm hug. “And there’s someone inside I want
you to meet.”
                 Lacey
was surprised and somewhat shocked to see that a man she didn’t recognize was
standing near the massive fireplace in the family room, sipping a drink. Her
mother blushingly introduced him as Alex Carbine, explaining that they had
known each other years ago and had just met again, through Jay, who had sold
him much of the equipment for a new restaurant he’d just opened in the city on
West Forty-Sixth Street.
                 Shaking
his hand, Lacey assessed the man. About sixty, she thought—Mom’s age. Good,
solid-looking guy. And Mom looks all atwitter. What’s up? As soon as she could
excuse herself she went into the state-of-the-art kitchen where Kit was tossing
the salad. “How long has this been going on?” she asked her sister.
                 Kit,
her blond hair pulled back at the nape of her neck, looking, Lacey thought, for all the world like a Martha Stewart ad, grinned. “About a month. He’s nice. Jay brought him by for dinner,
and Mom was here. Alex is a widower. He’s always been in the restaurant
business, but this is the first place he’s had on his own, I gather. We’ve been
there. He’s got a nice setup.”
                 They
both jumped at the sound of a door slamming at the front of the house. “Brace yourself ,” Kit warned. “Jay and the kids are