Honeymoon Read Online Free PDF Page B

and I've been incredibly selfish.
     
But no more."
     
Nora sensed there was no talking him out of it. At least
     
not right then. He was such a typical guy. He had his mind
     
made up about what was best for
her,
and there was no
     
changing his mind.
     
"Tell you what," she said. "Do your book fair, wow the
     
ladies with your looks and charm and erudition, and then
     
we'll talk about it when you get back."
     
"Sure thing," he said in a tone that suggested otherwise.
     
"There's just one problem."
     
"What's that?" Nora asked.
You want to propose to me
     
again, in the middle of this crowded restaurant?
     
"Yesterday, I did an interview for
New York
magazine. I
     
came clean and told them about you. The wedding in Cuer-
     
navaca. You should have seen the reporter, she couldn't wait
     
to put the scoop in her article. She asked if the magazine
     
could get shots of the two of us. I said sure."
     
Nora's poker face finally folded. "
You did?
"
     
"Yes," he said, clasping her hands tighter. "That's not a
     
problem, is it?"
     
"No, it's not a problem."
     
Not at all,
she thought.
It's a
big
problem.
     
     
----
Chapter 46
     
NORA RETURNED to Manhattan late the following after-
     
noon. She missed her loft apartment, the comfort and quiet
     
of it, the things she'd bought for herself over the years. She
     
missed what she considered her
real
life.
     
While she drew herself a bath, she listened to her mes-
     
sages. She'd been checking them periodically while away.
     
There were four new ones. The first three were work-
     
related, bitchy clients. The final one was from Brian Stewart,
     
her first-class companion to Boston, the Brad Pitt look-
     
alike.
     
The message was short and sweet, the kind she liked.
     
Brian expressed how much he enjoyed meeting her and
     
how he looked forward to seeing her again. "I should be
     
back in the city by the end of the week and I'd love to take
     
you out for a night on the town. It'll be fun, I promise."
     
If you insist, Brian.
Nora took her hot bath. Afterward, she ordered in Chi-
     
     
nese and sorted through her mail. Before the eleven o'clock
     
news ended, she was sound asleep on the couch, sleeping
     
like a baby. And she slept
late.
     
Just before noon the next day, Nora strolled into Har-
     
grove & Sons on the Upper East Side. Personally, she thought
     
the place was beyond stuffy, with many of the sales staff
     
seemingly older than the antiques they were peddling. But
     
the store was a favorite of her client, longtime film producer
     
Dale Minton, and he had insisted on meeting her there.
     
Nora browsed on her own for a few minutes. After walk-
     
ing by yet another plaid sofa, she felt a tap on her shoulder.
     
"It
is
you, Olivia!"
     
The overly excited man standing before her was Steven
     
Keppler -- middle-aged, midtown tax attorney with a bad
     
comb-over.
     
"Uh… hi," said Nora. She quickly flipped through her
     
mental Rolodex and came up with his name. "How are you,
     
Steven?"
     
"I'm great, Olivia. You know, I was calling out your
     
name. You didn't hear me?"
     
She played it cool. "Oh, that's so typical of me. The more
     
I shop, the less I can hear what's going on around me."
     
Steven laughed and let it go. As he launched into his
     
"fancy meeting you here" small talk, Nora remembered his
     
ogling tendencies. How could she forget? Sure enough,
     
his eyes were beginning to drool. Do eyes drool? Well,
     
Keppler's did. Meanwhile, she was keeping one eye on the
     
entrance for Dale. This could be a disaster in the making.
     
"So, Olivia, are you shopping for yourself, or a client?"
     
asked Steven.
     
"A client," she said, looking at her watch.
     
That's when she saw him. Dale Minton was waltzing
     
through the front door that very second, looking as if he
     
owned the place. He certainly could have, if he wanted to.
     
"Oh, there he is now," she said. She tried not to panic,
     
but the