In Love Again Read Online Free PDF Page B

coffee?”
    “Oh, coffee please. If it’s not too much trouble.”
    “Two coffees, please, James.” The man nodded and walked quietly up the stairs to the upper floor.
    The two women walked in silence toward the back of the house. The hallway was lined with photographs of different projects, some of them yellowed with age and looking a bit dated, but the styles were enduring. Claire was tempted to slow down and take a closer look. The hall ended at a matching pair of tall, glass-paned Victorian doors like the ones at the front of the townhouse. Boppy pushed open the right-hand door and held it for Claire. A set of narrow, black wrought-iron stairs led down the side of a tiny, perfect secret garden.
    Claire gasped with pleasure. “What a lovely spot.”
    “Thank you,” Boppy said. “I love it. It was my husband’s gift to me. I am terrible with growing, living things.” She looked momentarily perplexed, like it might have been a more meaningful statement than she had initially intended, then she shrugged her shoulders and smiled at Claire. “It’s funny how statements like that seem so ominous as we get older. Have you noticed that?” Boppy gestured to two large wicker chairs with chintz cushions and waited for Claire to sit first.
    Claire sighed, deciding she was just going to talk to this woman and hope that would suffice for an interview. When she thought of it as a proper interview, she got too nervous to speak normally. “I know exactly what you mean. Lately, I feel like everyone is being particularly careful about everything they say to me. It’s tiresome.”
    Boppy laughed a full-blown, deep, throaty laugh. “Oh, you are so right.”
    They both looked up when a pretty woman in her twenties came down the stairs with a silver, oval-shaped tray holding two mugs of coffee and a small Limoges plate of madeleines.
    “Thank you, Hilary.”
    “You’re welcome.” The assistant clasped her hands in front of her. “Do you need anything else?”
    “No, I think we’re all set. Please come back in thirty minutes, will you?”
    “Of course.” Hilary nodded.
    “Oh, forgive me. Hilary Rattner, this is Claire…Heyworth.”
    “Nice to meet you, Hilary,” Claire said.
    “Oh, so nice to meet you,” Hilary beamed.
    “Thirty minutes, Hilary,” Boppy said, in a more impatient voice.
    Hilary’s face went back to a professional mask. She nodded, and quickly left the garden.
    Claire reached for one of the coffee cups and tried not to be a part of whatever little scuffle she had just witnessed.
    “They’re all gaga over your brothers,” Boppy said.
    Claire almost choked on her coffee. “Excuse me?”
    Boppy smiled. “You must know Max and Devon are the stuff of dreams here in the beating hearts of New York City’s pretty young things.”
    “I guess I just think of them as my annoying younger brothers.”
    “Good. That answers my first question. I don’t have a lot of time for that nonsense. I know it appears that we’re all lounging around here, but it’s not at all the case. I mean—” Boppy took a sip of her coffee and looked up at the back of the townhouse, then continued. “I have obviously tried to create a feeling of ease and luxury for when my clients come to meetings here, but the real work is happening up on the second and third floors, where my nine assistants are fighting with fabric wholesalers, Turkish carpet manufacturers, a terribly ill truck driver in Palm Beach, an angry client in Santa Monica, and seventeen million other things that require immediate attention.”
    Claire nodded again. “I can understand that.”
    “What? The facade?”
    “Well…” Claire said, holding her mug in both hands. The October sun was bright, but the air was cool, and she had always suffered from freezing fingers. “I didn’t think of it as a facade when I did it. I don’t know if Sarah told you about my place in Scotland?”
    “Yes, a bit. I know it of course, from the National Register, but