He slipped on his sungla.s.ses and told her she had thirty seconds to move her d.a.m.n car.

Francesca's vast, walk-in closet was one of Dallie's favorite places, maybe because it reflected so many of his wife's contradictions. The closet was both luxurious and homey, chaotic and well organized. It smelled of sweet spice. It testified to overindulgence and rock solid practicality. What the closet didn't show was her grit, her generosity, or her loyalty to the people she loved.

"It's never going to work, Francie," he said as he stood in the doorway watching her pull a particularly fetching lace bra from one of the closet's built-in drawers.

"Rubbish. Of course it will." She shoved the bra back in the drawer as if it had personally offended her. That was all right with him because it left her standing in front of him in nothing but a pair of low-cut purplish lace panties. Whoever said a woman in her fifties couldn't be s.e.xy hadn't seen Francesca Serritella Day Beaudine naked. Which he had. Many times. Including not half an hour ago when they'd been tangled up in their unmade bed.

She pulled out another bra that looked pretty much the same as the last one. "I had to do something, Dallie. He's wasting away."

"He's not wasting away. He's rea.s.sessing. Even when he was a kid, he liked taking his time to think things over."

"Rubbish." Another bra met with her displeasure. "He's had over a month. That's long enough."

The first time he'd seen Francie, she'd been stompin' down the side of a Texas highway, dressed like a southern belle, mad as h.e.l.l, and determined to hitch a ride with him and Skeet. It had turned out to be the luckiest day of his life. Still, he didn't like letting her get too far ahead of him, and he pretended to inspect a nick on the doorjamb. "What did Lady Emma have to say about your little plan?"

Francie's sudden fascination with a bright red bra that didn't come close to matching her panties told him she hadn't mentioned her plan to Lady Emma. She slipped on the bra. "Did I tell you Emma is trying to talk Kenny into renting an rv and driving around the country with the children for a few months? Homeschooling them while they're on the road."

"I don't believe you did," he replied. "Just like I don't believe you told her you were going to set up an e-mail account in Meg's name and make the winning bid in that stupid-a.s.s contest. You knew she'd try to talk you out of it."

She pulled a dress the same color as her eyes from a hanger. "Emma can be overly cautious."

"Bull. Lady Emma is the only rational person in this town, and I'm including you, me, and our son."

"I resent that. I have a great deal of common sense."

"When it comes to business."

She turned her back to him so he could pull up her zipper. "All right, then ... You You have a great deal of common sense." have a great deal of common sense."

He brushed the hair away from the nape of her neck and kissed the soft skin beneath. "Not when it comes to my wife. That got wiped out the day I picked you up on that highway."

She turned and gazed up at him, her lips parting, her eyes going all dewy. He could drown in those eyes. And, d.a.m.n it, she knew that. "Stop trying to distract me."

"Please, Dallie ... I need your support. You know how I feel about Meg."

"No, I don't." He zipped the dress. "Three months ago you hated her. In case you've forgotten, you tried to drive her out of town, and when that didn't work, you did your best to humiliate her by making her wait on all your friends."

"Not my finest hour." She wrinkled her nose, then grew thoughtful. "She was magnificent, Dallie. You should have seen her. She didn't bend an inch. Meg is ... She's rather splendid."

"Yeah, well, you thought Lucy was rah-ther splendid, too, and look how that turned out."

"Lucy is wonderful. But not for Ted. They're too much alike. I'm surprised we didn't see that as clearly as Meg did. Right from the beginning, she's fit in here in ways Lucy could never quite manage."

"Because Lucy's too levelheaded. And we both know that 'fitting in' isn't exactly a compliment when you're talking about Wynette."

"But when we're talking about our son, it's essential."

Maybe she was right. Maybe Ted was in love with Meg. Dallie had thought so, but then he'd changed his mind when Ted had let her go as easily as he'd let Lucy go. Francie seemed sure, but she wanted grandbabies so much that she wasn't objective. "You should have just given the library committee the money right from the beginning," he said.

"You and I talked about that."

"I know." Experience had taught them that a few families, no matter how well off, couldn't support a town. They'd learned to pick their causes, and this year, the expansion of the free clinic had won out over the library repairs.

"It's only money," said the woman who'd once lived on a jar of peanut b.u.t.ter and slept on the couch of a five-hundred-watt radio station in the middle of nowhere. "I don't really need a new winter wardrobe. What I need is to have our son back."

"He hasn't gone anywhere."

"Don't pretend not to understand. More than losing the golf resort is bothering Ted."

"We don't know that for sure, since he won't talk to any of us about it. Even Lady Emma can't get him to open up. And forget about Torie. He's been dodging her for weeks."

"He's a private person."

"Exactly. And when he discovers what you've done, you're on your own, because I'm going to be conveniently out of town."

"I'm willing to take that risk," she said.

It wasn't the first risk she'd taken for their son, and since it was easier to kiss her than argue, he gave up.

Francesca had an immediate problem. The committee had used the e-mail address Francesca had established in Meg's name to notify her she'd won, which left Francesca with the job of locating her to deliver the news. But since Meg seemed to have disappeared, Francesca was forced to contact the Korandas.

She'd interviewed Jake twice in the past fifteen years, something of a record, given his obsession with privacy. His reticence made him a difficult interview subject, but off camera, he had a quick sense of humor and was easy to talk to. She didn't know his wife as well, but Fleur Koranda had a reputation for being tough, smart, and completely ethical. Unfortunately, the Korandas' brief, awkward visit to Wynette hadn't given either Francesca or Dallie a chance to deepen their acquaintance.

Fleur was cordial, but guarded, when Francesca phoned her office. Francesca patched together a cobbled version of something approximating the truth, leaving out only a few inconvenient details, such as her part in all this. She spoke of her admiration for Meg and her conviction that Meg and Ted cared deeply about each other.

"I'm absolutely certain, Fleur, that spending a weekend together in San Francisco will give them the chance they need to reconnect and repair their relationship."

Fleur was no fool, and she zeroed in on the obvious. "Meg doesn't have nearly enough money to have placed that bid."

"Which makes this situation all the more tantalizing, doesn't it?"

A short pause followed. Finally, Fleur said, "You think Ted is responsible?"

Francesca wouldn't lie, but neither did she intend to confess what she'd done. "There's been a lot of speculation in town about that. You can't imagine the theories I've heard." She hurried on. "I won't pressure you for Meg's telephone number ..." She paused, hoping Fleur would volunteer to hand it over. When she didn't, she pressed on. "Let's do this. I'll make sure the itinerary for the weekend is sent directly to you, along with Meg's round-trip plane ticket from L.A. to San Francisco. The committee had planned on using a private jet to fly them both from Wynette, but given the circ.u.mstances, this seems like a better solution. Do you agree?"

She held her breath, but instead of answering, Fleur said, "Tell me about your son."

Francesca leaned back in her chair and gazed at the snapshot of Teddy she'd taken when he was nine. Head too big for his small, skinny body. Pants belted too high on his waist. The too-serious expression on his face at odds with his worn T-shirt, which announced born to raise h.e.l.l.

She picked up the photo. "The day Meg left Wynette, she went to our local hangout and told everyone that Ted's not perfect." Her eyes filled with tears she didn't try to blink away. "I disagree."

Fleur sat at her desk replaying her conversation with Francesca Beaudine, but it was hard to think clearly when her only daughter was in so much pain. Not that Meg would admit anything was wrong. The time she'd spent in Texas had both toughened and matured her, leaving her with an unfamiliar reserve Fleur still hadn't adjusted to. But even though Meg had made it clear that the subject of Ted Beaudine was off-limits, Fleur knew Meg had fallen in love with him and that she'd been deeply hurt. Every maternal instinct she possessed urged her to protect Meg from more pain.

She considered the gaping holes in the story she'd just heard. Francesca's glamorous exterior concealed a razor-sharp mind, and she'd revealed only as much as she wanted to. Fleur had no reason to trust her, especially when it was clear that her son was her priority. The same son who'd put the new sadness in Meg's eyes. But Meg wasn't a child, and Fleur had no right to make a decision like this for her.

She reached for the phone and called her daughter.

The chair Ted had commandeered in the lobby of San Francisco's Four Seasons Hotel gave him a clear view of the entrance without making him immediately visible to whoever walked in. Each time the doors swung open, something twisted in the pit of his stomach. He couldn't believe he'd been thrown off stride so badly. He liked taking life easy, with everybody having a good time and appreciating one another's company. But nothing had been easy since the night of his wedding rehearsal when he'd met Meg Koranda.

She'd been wrapped in a few twists of silky fabric that left one shoulder bare and hugged the curve of her hip. Her hair was a belligerent tangle around her head, and silver coins swung like nunchucks from her ears. The way she'd challenged him had been annoying, but he hadn't taken her nearly as seriously as he should have. From that very first meeting, as he'd watched her eyes change from clear blue to the green of a tornado sky, he should have taken everything about her seriously.

When Lady E. had told him Meg was the winning bidder in the stupid-a.s.s contest, he'd experienced a surge of elation followed almost immediately by a crashing return to reality. Neither Meg's pride nor her bank account would have allowed her to place that bid, and it didn't take him long to figure out who'd done it. Parents had always liked him, and the Korandas were no different. Even though he and Meg's father hadn't done more than exchange a few glances, they'd communicated perfectly.

The doorman helped an elderly guest into the lobby. Ted made himself ease back into the chair. Meg's plane had landed well over an hour ago, so she should be walking in any minute. He still didn't know exactly what he'd say to her, but he'd be d.a.m.ned if he let her see even a hint of the anger that still simmered inside him. Anger was a counterproductive emotion, and he needed a cool head to deal with Meg. His cool to her hot. His orderly to her messy.

But he didn't feel either cool or orderly, and the longer he waited, the more anxious he got. He could barely sort out all the c.r.a.p she'd thrown in his face. First she'd dumped on him about what had happened at the luncheon. So what if he'd known the women wouldn't say anything? He'd still made a public declaration, hadn't he? Then she'd announced she'd fallen in love with him, but when he'd tried to tell her how much he cared, she'd discounted it, right along with refusing to attach any importance to the fact that he'd stood at the altar three months earlier, ready to marry another woman. Instead, she wanted some kind of everlasting promise, and wasn't that just like her-jumping into something without putting the situation in any kind of context?

His head shot up as the lobby doors once again swung open, this time admitting an older man and a much younger woman. Even though the lobby was cool, Ted's shirt was damp. So much for her accusation that he stood on the sidelines where he didn't have to sweat too much.

He checked his watch again, then pulled out his phone to see if she'd sent him a text, just as he'd done so many times since she'd disappeared, but none of the messages were from her. He shoved the phone back in his pocket as the other memory crowded in. The one he didn't want to deal with. What he'd done to her that day at the landfill...

He couldn't believe he'd lost control like that. She'd tried to brush it off, but he'd never forgive himself.

He tried to think about something else, only to end up stewing over the mess in Wynette. The town refused to accept his resignation, so his desk at City Hall sat empty, but he'd be d.a.m.ned if he was jumping back into that disaster. The truth was, he'd let everybody down, and no matter how understanding they all tried to be, there wasn't a person in town who didn't know he'd failed them.

The lobby doors opened and closed. In the course of one summer, his comfortable life had been destroyed.

"I'm messy and wild and disruptive, and you have broken my heart."

The unbearable hurt in those green-blue eyes had cut right through him. But what about his heart? His hurt? How did she think he felt when the person he'd grown to count on the most left him in the lurch right when he needed her?

"My stupid heart ... ," she'd said. she'd said. "It was singing "It was singing."

He waited in the lobby all afternoon, but Meg never appeared.

That night, he wandered through Chinatown and got drunk in a Mission District bar. The next day he pulled up the collar of his jacket and walked the city in the rain. He rode a cable car, drifted through the tea garden in Golden Gate Park, poked into a couple of souvenir shops on Fisherman's Wharf. He tried to eat a bowl of clam chowder at the Cliff House to warm up but set it aside after a few bites.

"Just the sight of you made me feel like dancing."

He woke up too early the next morning, hungover and miserable. A cold, thick fog had settled in, but he hit the empty streets anyway and climbed to the top of Telegraph Hill.

Coit Tower wasn't open yet, so he walked the grounds, gazing out across the city and the bay as the fog began to lift. He wished he could talk this whole mess over with Lucy, but he could hardly call her up after all this time and tell her that her best friend was an immature, demanding, overly emotional, unreasonable nutcase, and what the h.e.l.l was he supposed to do about that?

He missed Lucy. Everything had been so easy with her.

He missed her ... but he didn't want to wring her neck like he wanted to wring Meg's. He didn't want to make love with her until her eyes turned to smoke. He didn't yearn for the sound of her voice, the joy of her laughter.

He didn't ache for Lucy. Dream about her. Long for her.

He didn't love her.

With a rustle of leaves and a chilly gust, the wind carried the fog out to sea.

Chapter Twenty-Three.

A few hours later, Ted was headed south on I-5 in a rented Chevy Trailblazer. He drove too fast and stopped just once to grab a mug of bitter coffee. He prayed Meg had gone to L.A. with her parents when she'd left Wynette instead of heading off to Jaipur or Ulan Bator or some other place where he couldn't get to her and tell her how much he loved her. The wind that had carried away the San Francisco fog had also swept away the last of his confusion. He'd been left with a blinding clarity that cut through all the turmoil of old fiancees and aborted weddings, a clarity that let him see how skillfully he'd used logic to hide his fear of having his easy life disturbed by chaotic emotions. few hours later, Ted was headed south on I-5 in a rented Chevy Trailblazer. He drove too fast and stopped just once to grab a mug of bitter coffee. He prayed Meg had gone to L.A. with her parents when she'd left Wynette instead of heading off to Jaipur or Ulan Bator or some other place where he couldn't get to her and tell her how much he loved her. The wind that had carried away the San Francisco fog had also swept away the last of his confusion. He'd been left with a blinding clarity that cut through all the turmoil of old fiancees and aborted weddings, a clarity that let him see how skillfully he'd used logic to hide his fear of having his easy life disturbed by chaotic emotions.

He, of all people, should have known love wasn't orderly or rational. Hadn't his own parents' pa.s.sionate, illogical love affair overcome deception, separation, and pigheadedness to last more than three decades? That kind of soul-deep love was what he felt for Meg-the complicated, disruptive, overpowering love he'd refused to admit was missing in his relationship with Lucy. He and Lucy had fit together so perfectly in his mind. His mind ... but not his heart. It should never have taken him so long to figure that out.

He ground his teeth in frustration when he hit L.A. traffic. Meg was a creature of pa.s.sion and impulse, and he hadn't seen her in over a month. What if time and distance had convinced her she deserved something better than a boneheaded Texan who didn't know his own mind?

He couldn't think like that. He couldn't let himself contemplate what he'd do if she'd gotten fed up with the whole idea of ever having fallen in love with him. If only she hadn't cut off her phone. And what about her history of hopping on planes and flying off to the farthest reaches of the planet? He wanted her to stay put, but Meg wasn't like that.

It was early evening by the time he reached the Korandas' Brentwood estate. He wondered if they knew Meg hadn't shown up in San Francisco. Although he couldn't be certain they were the ones who'd put up the winning bid, who else would have done it? The irony didn't escape him. What the parents of daughters most liked about him was his stability, but he'd never felt less stable in his life.

He identified himself over the intercom. As the gates swung open, he remembered he hadn't shaved for two days. He should have stopped at a hotel first to clean up. His clothes were wrinkled, his eyes bloodshot, and he had a bad case of flop sweat, but he wasn't going to turn back now.

He parked his car at the side of the English Tudor that was the Korandas' primary California home. Best-case scenario, Meg would be here. Worst-case scenario ... He wouldn't think about worst-case scenarios. The Korandas were his allies, not his enemies. If she weren't here, they'd help him find her.

But the cool hostility Fleur Koranda exhibited when she opened the front door did nothing to bolster his shaken confidence. "Yes?"

That was all. No smile. No handshake. Definitely no hug. Regardless of age, women tended to go all melty-eyed when they saw him. It had happened so many times he barely noticed, but it wasn't happening now, and the novelty unbalanced him. "I need to see Meg," he blurted out, and then, stupidly, "I- We haven't been formally introduced. I'm Ted Beaudine."

"Ah, yes. Mr. Irresistible."

She didn't say it like it was a compliment.

"Is Meg here?" he asked.

Fleur Koranda looked at him exactly the way his mother had looked at Meg. Fleur was a beautiful six-foot Amazon with the same boldly slashed eyebrows Meg had, but not Meg's coloring or more delicate features. "The last time I saw you," Fleur said, "you were scrambling in the dirt, trying to knock a man's head off."

If Meg had the guts to stand up to his mother, he could face hers down. "Yes, ma'am. And I'd do it again. Now I'd appreciate it if you'd tell me where I can find her."

"Why?"

If you gave mothers like this an inch, they'd mow you down. "That's between her and me."

"Not exactly." The deep voice came from Meg's father, who'd appeared at his wife's shoulder. "Let him in, Fleur."

Ted nodded, stepped into a grand entrance hall, and followed them to a comfortable family room already occupied by two tall younger men with Meg's chestnut brown hair. One sat on the fireplace hearth, ankle crossed over his knee, strumming a guitar. The other tapped away at a Mac. These could only be Meg's twin brothers. The one with the laptop, Rolex, and Italian loafers had to be Dylan, the financial whiz, while Clay, the guitar-playing New York actor, had s.h.a.ggier hair, ripped jeans, and bare feet. Both of them were exceptionally good-looking guys and dead ringers for an old movie idol, although he couldn't immediately recall which one. Neither resembled Meg, who took after her father. And neither appeared to be any more welcoming than the senior Korandas. Either they knew Meg hadn't shown up in San Francisco and blamed him, or he'd gotten it dead wrong from the start, and they weren't the ones who'd entered the contest for her. Either way, he needed them.

Jake made perfunctory introductions. Both brothers uncoiled from their respective seats, not to shake his hand, he quickly discovered, but to meet him at eye level. "So this is the great Ted Beaudine," Clay said with a drawl almost identical to the one his father used on-screen.

Dylan looked as though he'd sniffed out a hostile takeover. "No accounting for my sister's taste."

So much for hopes of cooperation. Although Ted didn't have any practice dealing with animosity, he d.a.m.ned sure wasn't going to back away from it, and he cut his gaze between the brothers. "I'm looking for Meg."

"I take it she didn't show up for your party in San Francisco," Dylan said. "That must have been quite a blow to your ego."

"My ego doesn't have anything to do with it," Ted countered. "I need to talk to her."