Нора Робертс - Vision in White

“Yes.”

“Well, let’s go to New York.” Parker plucked up the phone. “Go get Laurel and Emma on board. I’ll handle the details.”

“Woot!” Mac did a quick dance, rushed over to grab Parker long enough to plant a loud kiss, then raced out of the room.

“Yeah, yeah,” Parker muttered as she speed-dialed the limo company. “We’ll see if you and your hangover dance and sing in the morning.”

IN THE BACK OF THE LONG BLACK LIMO, MAC STRETCHED OUT her legs, highlighted by the short black skirt. She’d kicked off her heels at the start of the two-hour drive to Manhattan. She sipped from her second glass of the champagne Parker had stocked.

“This is so great. I have the best friends ever.”

“Yeah, this is a hardship.” Laurel lifted her own glass. “Riding in a limo, drinking the bubbly, heading to one of the hottest clubs in New York—thanks to Parker’s connections. The sacrifices we make for you, Mackensie.”

“Em broke a date.”

“I didn’t have a date,” Emma corrected. “I had a Maybe We’ll Do Something Tonight.”

“You broke that.”

“I did. You so owe me.”

“And to Parker, for making it all happen. As always.” Mac toasted her friend who sat at the far side of the limo, talking to a client on her cell.

Parker sent her friends a wave of acknowledgment as she continued to pour oil on troubled waters.

“I think we’re almost there. Come on, Park, hang it

up,” Mac said in a stage whisper. “We’re almost there.”

“Breath, makeup, hair,” Emma announced as she flipped out a pocket mirror.

Mini Altoids were passed, lipstick freshened. Four pairs of shoes were slipped onto four pairs of feet.

And Parker finally hung up the phone. “God! Naomi Right’s maid of honor just found out that her boyfriend—the brother and best man of the groom—has been having an affair with his business partner. MOH is on a rampage, as one might expect, and is refusing to serve unless the cheating bastard is banned from the wedding. Bride is frantic and sides with MOH. Groom is pissed, wants to strangle cheating bastard brother, but feels unable to bar his own brother from his wedding, or replace him as best man. Bride and groom are barely speaking.”

“The Right wedding.” Laurel narrowed her eyes. “That’s soon, isn’t it?”

“A week from Saturday. Final guest count is one-ninety-eight. This one’s going to be a headache. I’ve calmed the bride down. Yes, she’s right to be upset, yes, she’s right to support her friend. But to remember the wedding’s about her and her fiance, and what a terrible spot the man she loves is in, through no fault of his own. I’m meeting with them both tomorrow to try to smooth it out.”

“Cheating bastard and cheated-on MOH both attend—much less remain in the wedding party—it’s going to get ugly.”

“Yes.” Parker acknowledged Mac’s observation with a sigh. “But we’ll handle it. It’s just a little bit worse, as the business partner’s on the invite list—and the cheating bastard’s insisting if she’s removed,

he won’t attend.”

“Well, he’s an asshole.” Laurel shrugged. “The groom needs to have a serious come-to-Jesus talk with his brother.”

“Which is also on my list of suggestions for tomorrow’s meeting. But in more diplomatic terms.”

“That’s tomorrow’s business. No business calls during therapeutic drinking, dancing, and heartbreaking.”

Parker didn’t give her word on Mac’s decree, but she did tuck her phone back in her purse. “All right, girls.” She flipped her hair back. “Let’s go flaunt it.”

They slid out of the limo, then streamed past the line of hopefuls outside the club. Parker gave her name at the door. In seconds they were inside the wall of music.

Mac scoped it out. Two levels of booths, tables, and banquettes left room for a central dance floor. On either side, under the rainfall of colored lights, stood stainless steel bars.

Music churned; bodies gyrated. And her mood clicked up a couple of notches.

“I love when a plan comes together.”

They hunted up a table first, and Mac considered it an omen of good when they scored a small banquette where they could squeeze in together.

“Observe the species,” Mac said. “This is my first rule. Observe the plumage, the rituals before making any attempt to acclimate.”

“Screw that, I’m going for drinks. Are we sticking with champagne?” Emma wanted to know.

“Get a bottle,” Parker decided.

Laurel rolled her eyes as Emma wiggled out and started toward the nearest bar. “You know she’ll get hit on a dozen times before she orders anything, and feel obliged to have actual conversations with the guys who drool on her. We’ll all die of thirst before she gets back. Parker, you should go, and put on your invisible cloak of Back Off until we’re set up here.”

“Give her a few minutes first. How’s the fear factor, Mac?”

“Diminishing. I can’t even imagine the undeniably cute Dr. Maguire in a place like this, can you? At a poetry reading, sure, but not here.”

“Now, see, that’s assumption and conclusion based on profession. Like saying because I’m a baker, I must resemble the Pillsbury Doughboy.”

“Yes, yes, it is, but it helps my cause. I don’t want to get involved with him.”

“Because he has a PhD?”

“Yes, and great eyes, a really soft blue that go all sexy when he’s wearing his glasses. And there’s the unexpected superior kisser factor, which could blind me to the basic fact that we’re not suited. Plus any relationship with him outside the most casual of friendships would be a

serious relationship. What would I do about that?

And he helped me on with my coat, twice.”

“Dear God!” Parker widened her eyes in shock. “You have to nip this in the bud, quickly, finally. I understand it all now. Any man who would do that is . . . Words fail.”

“Oh, shut up. I want to dance. Laurel’s going to dance with me while Parker swirls on her Back-Off cloak and rescues our champagne—and rescues Emma from her own magnetism.”

“Apparently it’s time to acclimate,” Laurel said when Mac pulled her up and toward the dance floor.

SHE DANCED, WITH HER FRIENDS, WITH MEN WHO ASKED, OR whom she asked. She drank more champagne. In the silver and red ladies room, she rubbed her sore feet while Emma joined the army of women at the mirrors.

“How many numbers have you collected so far?”

Emma carefully applied fresh lip gloss. “I haven’t counted.”

“Approximate?”

“About ten, I guess.”

“And how will you tell them apart later?”

“It’s a gift.” She glanced over. “You’ve got one on the line, I noticed. The guy in the gray shirt. He’s got some moves on the floor.”

“Mitch. Smooth on the floor, great smile. Doesn’t strike me as an asshole.”

“There you go.”

“I should get the tingles for Mitch,” Mac considered. “But I’m not getting them. Maybe I’ve been detingled. That would be seriously unfair.”

“Maybe you’re not getting them for him because you’ve got them for Carter.”

“You get the tingles for more than one guy at a time.”

“Yes, yes, I do. But I’m me and you’re you. I figure men are there to make me tingle, and if I can do the same for them, everybody’s happy. You’re much more serious about such matters.”

“I’m not serious. That’s a mean thing to say. I’m going out there and dancing with Mitch again, open to tingles. You’ll eat those words, Emmaline. With chocolate sauce.”

It didn’t work. It

should have worked, Mac thought as she settled at the bar with Mitch after another dance. The man was great-looking, funny, built, had an interesting job as a travel journalist but didn’t bore her senseless with countless stories about his adventures.

He didn’t get pissy or pushy when she turned down his suggestion they go somewhere more quiet. In the end they exchanged business numbers, and parted ways.

“Forget men.” At two A.M. Mac crawled back into the limo, and sprawled. “I came to have fun with my best pals in the land, and said mission was accomplished. God, do we have any water in here?”

Laurel passed her a bottle, then groaned. “My feet. My feet are screaming like voices of the damned.”

“I had the best time.” Emma slid onto the limo’s side bench and pillowed her head on her hands. “We should do this once a month.”

Parker yawned, but tapped her purse. “I have two new contacts for vendors,

and a potential client.”

And so, Mac thought as the limo streamed north, we each define ourselves. She toed off her now very painful shoes, shut her eyes, and slept the rest of the way home.

IN THE MORNING THE SUN WAS JUST A LITTLE STRONGER THAN it needed to be, in Mac’s estimation. But otherwise, all was well.

See, she told herself. Young and resilient.

In her pajamas she ate a mini Hostess coffee cake with her coffee and watched the birds swoop and dive at the feeder. Ms. Cardinal enjoyed breakfast this morning, too, she noted. Along with her brightly plumed mate, and some unidentified neighbors.

She’d need her zoom lens to get a closer look and identify them. Probably some sort of book or guide, too, as the visual wouldn’t tell her anything unless it was a robin or a blue jay.

Catching herself, she stepped away from the window. What the hell did she care? They were just birds. She wasn’t going to sideline into nature photography or birdography.

Annoyed with herself, she crossed into her studio to check her appointment book and her messages. She had an afternoon appointment with a former Vows bride, now an expectant mother for pregnancy portraits. That, Mac thought, would be fun. And a nice stroke for the ego that her wedding photos had been so well received, the mom-to-be wanted this follow-up.

It gave her the rest of the morning to complete some work already ordered, to take the meeting at the main house, and to review the client’s wedding portrait for ideas on baby-in-waiting.

An hour or so toggled in, either side of the studio shoot for website work, she determined, and that was a good day.

Shifting, she pressed Play on her answering machine, business line. She followed up when necessary, congratulated herself on being a good girl, then checked her personal line.

Three messages in, she got the tingle.

“Damn it,” she said under her breath as Carter’s voice hit her straight in the belly.

“Ah, hi. It’s Carter. I wonder if you might want to go out to dinner, or maybe the movies. Maybe you like plays better than movies. I should’ve looked up what might be available before I called. I didn’t think of it. Or we could just have coffee again if you want to do that. Or . . . I’m not articulate on these things. I can’t use a tape recorder either. And why would you care? If you’re at all interested in any of the above, please feel free to call me. Thanks. Um. Good-bye.”

“Damn you, Carter Maguire, for your insanely cute quotient. You should be annoying. Why aren’t I annoyed? Oh God, I’m going to call you back. I know I’m going to call you back. I’m in such trouble.”

Calculating, she decided the odds were strong in her favor that he’d already left for work. She preferred the idea of talking to his answering machine in turn.

When his clicked on she relaxed. Unlike Carter, she

was articulate on answering machines. “Carter, Mac. I might like to go out to dinner, or the movies, possibly a play. I have no objection to coffee. How about Friday, as it’s not a school night? Pick the activity and let me know.

“Tag, you’re it.”

See, it doesn’t have to be serious, she reminded herself. I can set the tone. Just having some fun with a perfectly nice guy.

Satisfied, she decided to indulge by working the first hour of her day in her pjs. Nicely on schedule, she dressed and took the consult at the main house, breezed back to her own with time to spare before her shoot.

Her message light blinked at her.

“Uh, it’s Carter again. Is this annoying? I hope it’s not annoying. I happened to check my messages at home on my lunch break. Actually, I made a point to check them in case you called me back. Which you did. I’m afraid I have a faculty dinner to attend Friday. I’d invite you but if you accepted and attended, you’d never go out with me again. I’d rather not risk it. If another night would do, even—ha ha—a school night, I’d like very much to take you out. If you’d like that, maybe we could do dinner and a movie. Is that too much? It’s probably too much. I’m confusing myself. I’d like to add, though it may not seem possible, I have asked women out before.