Sometimes It Is Rocket Science Read Free

this party was not my idea.”
    She waved her free hand dismissively.  “That’s not what I mean and you know it.”  Her pink lips trembled.  The shadows under her tear-shiny eyes appeared darker.  “Family is everything, Bobby, and you can’t stay away from it just because it’s messy and inconvenient.  Had I known it was going to take you two days to get your not-as-photogenic-as-you-think ass down here, I’d have flown up there and dragged you home.”
    Robert’s scathing retort about minding one’s own business withered on his tongue.  Laid up in Switzerland with a broken leg, he’d had his assistant send a nice plant to Jerome Collier’s funeral.  Fourteen years ago, he’d been a pallbearer in the televised funeral for film darling Corrine Mailloux Collier, Georgiana’s striking and talented mother.  He was willing to give Georgiana a smidgen of leeway.  Despite his irritation, it was comforting to know his father had such a staunch supporter.
    “I’m sorry,” he said.  It was inadequate, but anything else would seem trite. 
    She released his hand, took a small step backwards.  Her shoulders curved in as if she were trying to shrink back into herself.  “Me, too.  I’m sorry.  That was uncalled for.  You came as soon as you could, I know.”
    Robert slipped an arm around Georgiana’s waist.  He had hoped that Georgiana could answer a few questions for him, but all she’d done was make him more confused.  Perhaps the dinner wasn’t going to be as boring as he’d expected.
     
     

Chapter Two:
     
     
    For the first time since setting foot inside the palatial Mercer mansion, Robert Norwood found himself alone.  He used the precious moments of solitude to sip his aged Irish whiskey and recover from the last bout of question-and-answer regarding his father’s health.  If he had to hear how it had been such a close call one more time, he was going to walk out, Lacey Mercer’s feelings be damned.  He didn’t like constant reminders that he’d almost lost his father.
    “I’m starving.”
    Robert jolted when a familiar fine-boned hand landed on his arm.  He swallowed the whiskey warming his taste buds and smiled down at his date.  He was surprised Lacey, the grande dame of Houston society, had relinquished Georgiana before dinner.  The older woman had scarcely left Georgiana’s side.  From all the attention she’d received, it would have been easy to mistake Georgiana, rather than Robert, for the prodigal.
    She’d handled the questions regarding Dan’s recovery with ease; he hadn’t missed the way she stiffened whenever anyone mentioned her brother.  He’d found Walt Prask’s smug smile unnerving, but she’d politely brushed Prask off when he’d tried to engage her in a more intimate conversation.  Though she looked like a shadow of the Georgiana he remembered, her social skills hadn’t suffered.  He’d tried to stay with her, but they’d been pulled in to too many different conversations. 
    “I thought Mrs. Mercer was known for serving dinner early.”
    Georgiana shrugged.  “She was, but last year the meals started gradually being served later.  No one knows what prompted the change and no one’s brave enough to ask her.  Dan and I usually stop for a burger or something before one of her parties.”
    “You didn’t stop tonight?”  His stomach rumbled at the mere mention of a hot, greasy hamburger.  The reheated, rubbery meal he’d eaten on the plane was nothing but a memory.
    Georgiana’s stomach burbled quietly.  Her eyes fell to the toes of her metallic silver sling-backs.  “It didn’t feel right knowing that Dan and I hadn’t warned you.  It’s only fair that we both starve.  Two stomachs growling in solidarity and all that.”
    Robert’s eyes narrowed suspiciously.  He didn’t believe her for a second.  She was a right terror when she wanted to be.  His Georgiana would have wolfed down the burger and then tormented him with a