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ethereal work she had done before, but sheseemed to have lost the knack. Those damn vivid colors kept getting in her way, and even though she cursed them, she was losing herself in them. And not only were her colors changing, but it seemed as if her perspective was, too. She didn’t know what was going on, but the result was jarring, somehow discordant. She had always been confident about her talent, if nothing else, but now she was so paralyzed by insecurity about her new work that she hadn’t been able to show it to anyone.
    â€œOh, really.” He looked interested. Of course, he was paid to look interested, so she didn’t read a whole lot into his expression. “Do you have anything ready to hang? I’d like to see what you’re doing.”
    â€œI have several canvases ready to hang, but I’m not sure
I’m
ready.”
    â€œI think you have only one piece left on display; everything else has sold. You need to bring something in.”
    â€œI will.” She had to, reluctant though she was. If her new work didn’t sell, she didn’t eat; it was that simple. And they couldn’t sell if she never allowed anyone else to see them.
    Kai glanced at his watch. “The McMillans should be here soon. I hope Richard leaves before then. Candra doesn’t like him coming here at all; she prefers to meet him in the lawyer’s office, so she’ll be furious if he delays her. She’s furious anyway, because he keeps balking.”
    â€œHe doesn’t want the divorce?”
    Kai gave another graceful shrug. “Who knows what Richard wants? All I know is, he isn’t beingvery conciliatory. Candra seems to have two moods these days: worried or infuriated.”
    Infuriated
sounded like normal behavior during a divorce;
worried
didn’t. “Maybe she’s changed her mind and wants to back out of the divorce, but doesn’t know how to smooth things over.”
    â€œOh, she didn’t want it at all.” His eyes sparkled with the glee of delivering juicy gossip. “From what I gather, Richard’s the one who filed. Candra’s putting a good face on things, acting as if the decision was mutual, but she isn’t at all happy with the split.”
    Abruptly Sweeney felt ashamed of herself, and irritated, too. Candra had supported her professionally, promoted her, steered clients her way. It went against her grain to gossip like this. If only gossip weren’t so titillating. Sweeney tried to control an avid desire to know more, to dig for all the dirty details.
    The temptation was great. Dirt was like fat; it made life more delicious.
    She was saved from herself by the opening of Candra’s office door. She turned and for a brief moment found herself looking directly into Richard Worth’s eyes. It was like being touched with a cattle prod, an unwanted but electric connection. Then Candra appeared, her face pale with fury, gripping his arm and pulling him around as the door slammed shut again, closing out the sight and sound of marital disintegration.
    â€œUh-oh,” Kai said with malicious satisfaction. “There’s gonna be murder.”

C HAPTER
    T WO
    S weeney was numb with shock. She wasn’t certain what had just happened, but she knew something had. For a moment, just a split second, it had been as if she and Richard Worth were linked. She didn’t like the sensation, didn’t want that uncomfortable intimacy. She had always enjoyed her sense of being alone, envisioning herself as a ball that rolled through life, bumping into other lives but not stopping. For a moment, just for a moment, the roll had been halted, and she didn’t know why. He was only an acquaintance, little more than a stranger. There was no reason for him to look at her as if he knew her. There was no reason for her to feel that funny jolt in her stomach, akin to the pleasure she had gotten from the Diet Coke commercial.
    If