Bachelor No More. Victoria Pade

the lawyer on the phone the night before and her own initial curiosity about what their relationship might be. Now she thought there was something proprietary in his reference to the woman and her curiosity grew—along with an antipathy toward a person she’d never even met.

      “Is she a friend of yours—Stephanie?” Mara heard herself ask before she could stop it.

      “Yes, she is.”

      “A good friend?”

      Jared Perry was standing behind Celeste’s chair and he aimed those mesmerizing eyes at Mara, raising a questioning brow. “Stephanie is a longtime friend,” he qualified, still not telling Mara what she wanted to know.

      And even though she told herself it was absolutely none of her business, she couldn’t seem to keep from pushing it. “A long-time friend who owes you one, which is why she’s taking Celeste’s case,” she said, repeating what he’d told Celeste the previous night.

      “Right,” he confirmed. Then both of his brows lowered. “Are you worrying again that we’re conspiring to do my grandmother harm? Do you think that because we’re friends, Stephanie isn’t on the up and up? That she’d do my evil bidding or something?”

      Mara shrugged in an effort to conceal her relief. Obviously he didn’t realize she was trying to get information about the woman and what role she might play in his life.

      “Just checking,” she said.

      “Check all you want. Stephanie is at the top of her field in New York and, as a result of being in demand in a number of high-profile cases across the country, she happens to be licensed to practice law in several states—Montana among them. Were she and I not friends I doubt she’d bother with something like this. But since we are, she took the case. So our friendship is working in Celeste’s favor, not against her.”

      Friends again. But were they more? That was what Mara really wanted to know.

      “Is there something about Stephanie’s handling of things today that’s made you more suspicious?” Jared asked.

      “No,” Mara had to admit. “She spent a long time on the phone with Celeste this morning, and afterward Celeste seemed much less nervous about the questioning. We were both happy to learn that there was no reason I shouldn’t be able to sit in—and you, too, since it’s what you wanted. Apparently, at this point, the attor—Stephanie is insisting Celeste be treated strictly as a potential witness to a long-ago crime—”

      “A witness—that’s a good way to look at this,” he said, sounding impressed with the attorney’s point of view.

      It served to remind Mara that whether or not he was involved with Stephanie, he and the attorney were in a different league, one in which she couldn’t compete. He was never likely to be impressed by a small-town dry cleaner. And that was something she had to keep in mind whenever his cologne went to her head.

      “I hear cars outside,” he said then, pointing his chin in the direction of the apartment’s entrance.

      Mara returned to the window she’d used all day to watch for Jared. But, unlike the rest of the time, when there had been nothing for her to see, now one of Northbridge’s police SUVs was parked below, in front of an unmarked black sedan.

      “Looks like the show’s about to begin,” Mara announced as she watched people—one of them her brother—getting out of the vehicles. “Cam is—”

      “I know. He a local cop and will be in on this. I spoke to your brother today when I tried to do what I could to get this postponed,” Jared said.

      “Well, you’re right, he’s here with the rest of them.”

      Celeste must have heard the arrival, too, because she came out of the bedroom carrying the handset of a cordless telephone with her.

      “Stephanie wants to speak to you, Jared,” the older woman announced in lieu of a greeting.

      He accepted the phone and took it into the kitchen to talk.

      Mara’s gaze trailed along; she was consumed with interest in that conversation. Was it all business or were they saying how much they missed each other? How much they couldn’t wait to be together again?

      And why should it make the slightest difference to me? she asked herself.

      The guy was here today and would be gone forever shortly after this. He was completely inconsequential to her life and so was everything about him. Especially anything he had to do personally or otherwise with Stephanie-the-lawyer.

      “Here we go,” Celeste said in a hushed voice.

      Mara forced her eyes from the man at the other end of the apartment and looked again through the window just as a number of men and women headed for the narrow wooden stairs that led up to the apartment.

      Glancing back at Celeste, Mara said, “Are you okay?”

      The older woman nodded and settled herself regally in her recliner, feet flat on the floor, head held high, hands resting primly in what there was of her lap.

      Jared rejoined them, leaving the phone on the small table beside Celeste’s chair. “Stephanie has arranged for the public defender to call her as soon as things get started,” he explained just as the sound of voices and footsteps on the stairs made it clear the authorities were drawing nearer.

      Mara moved toward the door, but with one hand on the knob, she suddenly couldn’t make herself turn it.

      She’d been protecting Celeste from reporters and newshounds and gossip seekers all week, but never had the sense that she needed to protect the older woman been as strong as it was at that moment. She felt as though she as about to unleash something that could well be disastrous for someone who had been as important to her, as close to her, as her own mother.

      Mara just froze, unable to do what she knew she had to do, even when there was a knock on the door.

      “Mara?” Celeste said from behind her.

      Still Mara couldn’t budge. She just kept thinking, This could be so awful….

      Without her being aware of his approach, Jared was suddenly there beside her.

      She could smell his crisp, bracing cologne. She could feel the heat of his body. The strength of his presence. And when he placed a big hand gently on her arm she absorbed it all like a sponge.

      “It’ll be okay. There’s nothing you can do to keep this from happening,” he said quietly, for her ears alone. It was as if he knew exactly what she was going through right then.

      Mara managed to look up into his eyes, pale but also warm and kind now.

      “It’ll be okay,” he repeated.

      Mara nodded, somehow believing him.

      Then he took her hand from the doorknob as if he understood, too, that she couldn’t be the one to let in the people who might bring harm to Celeste.

      “Go sit with her,” he advised. “I’ll do this.”

      Mara swallowed hard. “Thanks,” she whispered.

      Then, sorry to leave behind the touch of his hand or the strength of his nearness, she did as he’d said and went to sit on the ottoman beside Celeste’s chair.

      And as Jared did what Mara hadn’t been able to bring herself to do—as he opened the door—it occurred to her that regardless of what was or wasn’t going on with the Stephanie-the-lawyer, regardless of what Jared Perry’s reputation was, she was glad he was there.

      Chapter Three

      With Celeste’s small apartment full of police and FBI, as well as Mara’s brother Cam, Mara stayed firmly planted on the ottoman to Celeste’s left. Jared stood behind Celeste’s recliner, and the public defender sat on Celeste’s right, his cell phone on Speaker and positioned so that Celeste’s