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  He stopped, and Tess watched him, ready to disbelieve everything he said but feeling sorry for him at the same time in spite of herself.

  “And she opened the door,” Park said finally, “and she was just…beaming at me, and I thought she’d won the lottery or something, her smile was that big. I asked what happened, and she said…” Park swallowed again. “She said, ‘You’re here.”’ He blinked at Tess. “‘You’re here.’ That’s all it was. That big goofy smile just because I was there. Nobody ever smiled like that at me before.”

  Tess leaned back in her own chair, newly sympathetic, but still fed up with how self-centered he was. “And that’s when you knew you couldn’t leave her—when you realized she loved you,” she said derisively. “Well, terrific, Park, but that still leaves Gina out in the cold.”

  “No,” Park said. “That’s when I knew I loved her.”

  Tess eyed him skeptically. “Because she gets a big goofy smile every time she sees you?”

  “No,” Park said. “Because I get the same big goofy smile every time I see her.”

  Park’s face creased into a big goofy smile at the thought, and Tess closed her eyes and groaned. “Don’t do this to me. I was doing much better hating you. Now I have two of you to take care of. Oh, hell.”

  “What am I going to do?” Park asked. “Gina won’t even talk to me.”

  Tess could hear Nick’s voice saying, Stay out of it. Well, the hell with him. It was his fault they had two twits for kids. She straightened her shoulders and looked Park in the eye. “All right, here’s what you’re going to do. First, you’re going to call Corinne and tell her you’re not engaged. Then you’re going to go see Gina and invite her to dinner with us all tonight.”

  “Dinner with my father?” Park said appalled. “He’ll be awful to her. I can’t do that to her.”

  “Are you serious about loving her?” Tess demanded.

  “Yes, but—”

  “Well, she’s going to have to meet your parents sooner or later,” Tess said. “And under the circumstances, sooner is your best bet. It’s only a matter of time before your father gets you engaged to Princess Di.”

  “He’ll be awful to her,” Park repeated. “And my mother…Oh, God, my mother—”

  “You’re just going to have to stand up for her,” Tess said. “Gina’s going through hell, and she’s not going to believe you’re serious about her unless you announce it in front of your parents. You owe her.”

  Park swallowed. “All right.” He pulled the phone toward him again and punched a button that connected him to his secretary. “Get me Corinne,” he said into the receiver and then looked at Tess.

  “Good start,” Tess said.

  When Park finished breaking off his nonengagement, Tess called Gina.

  “Listen to me,” she said. “Park is coming over. The engagement was a mistake. He needs to talk to you. Let him in.”

  “You made him do that!” Gina cried hysterically. “I told you not to get involved. You can’t make him love me. Stop it.”

  “Gina, think for a minute. You know how I feel about Park.” Tess avoided his eyes as she spoke. “Why would I try to get you two back together if he didn’t want that, too? He loves you and he’s miserable you got hurt, and he’s on his way to your place, so let him in.”

  “He loves me?” Gina said woefully.

  Tess covered the mouthpiece and said, “Go,” to Park, who shot out of the office. “He loves you,” she said back into the mouthpiece. “Go wash your face and put on some makeup. We’re all going to dinner.”

  TESS STILL HAD half an hour to kill before Nick was due back, and she spent it exploring his office. It was all brown leather and wood instead of black and white, but it had the same varnished look that everything Nick owned had. The nobody-lives-here look. When she moved around to sit in his desk chair, she saw that even the photograph on his desk was framed in tooled leather.

  Her attention caught, Tess took a closer look at the photograph. Whatever she’d expected to find on Nick’s desk, it wasn’t this.

  The picture was the snapshot of them—muddy and disheveled—that she’d had back at her apartment, and she marveled at his keeping it on his desk since he looked like hell in it. Really attractive hell, but the absolute antithesis of the perfect image he flaunted for his clients. She picked up the picture and stared at it again, remembering how much fun they’d had that day. How much fun they always had. She traced Nick’s face with her fingertip, loving him so much she smiled just because his picture was in front of her. If only he was always like that, smiling and relaxed, instead of insatiably chasing that damn partnership. Maybe Nick could change and maybe their kids wouldn’t be twits. Park loved Gina. Anything was possible.

  She sighed and looked again at herself in the picture. She had a smudge of dirt on her cheek and she looked about ten. That’s probably what her kids would look like without Nick’s genes to balance hers. She scowled at the picture, cataloging her deficiencies. Her hair was standing straight up and her face was dirty. She was wearing no make up and she was laughing with all her teeth showing.

  Tess frowned at the picture, suddenly struck. She did look ten. Ten with crow’s feet, but ten just the same.

  Or maybe eight.

  “Christine?” she called, and Christine appeared in the doorway. “Hi, I’m Tess.”

  “That was my guess,” Christine said. “I’m very pleased to meet you. What did you do to Park?”

  “Fixed his life,” Tess said. “Tell me, was this picture of me on Nick’s desk when Norbert Welch was here?”

  “Yes,” Christine said.

  “Do you think Welch saw it?”

  Christine paused for a nanosecond. “He moved around a lot when he was in here. He saw it.”

  Tess looked at the picture and slowly shook her head. “I’ll be damned. I will be damned. I never thought of this.” She put the photograph down and asked, “Can I make a long-distance call on this phone?”

  “Certainly,” Christine said. “Press nine to get an outside line.”

  Five minutes later, Tess had Elise on the line.

  “Concentrate darling,” she told her mother. “This is important. Remember when I asked you about Lanny?”

  “Of course I remember,” Elise said. “I’m not senile.”

  “Right. I’m sorry.” Tess tried again. “Somebody else was looking for that manuscript and he found it. What I couldn’t figure out was how he found it. But then I thought, what if this guy knew Lanny, too? What if he was in the commune with us when Lanny wrote the story? So I want you to remember if there was another guy around that summer. Shorter than Lanny. Fatter. Maybe a little older.”

  “Well, there were a lot of men in the commune, dear.”

  “This one’s name was Welch,” Tess said. “Norbert Welch.”

  “No,” Elise said slowly. “I don’t remember anyone by that name.”

  “Damn,” Tess said. “I was sure this guy had recognized my picture and that’s why he invited me to his party—to see if I’d remember the story. It was too big of a coincidence otherwise. The commune and me and Lanny and the story…How could Welch have—”

  “The only Welch I remember was Lanny,” Elise said.

  Tess dropped the photo. “What?”

  “Lanny Welch,” Elise said. “He was the only one. No Norbert.”

  “Lanny’s name was Welch? Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “You didn’t ask. And I didn’t remember it until you said the name. We didn’t use last names much. Is it important?”

  “Yes. Thanks, Elise.” Tess hung up in a daze. Lanny Welch? A brother of Norbert’s maybe? But then why had Norbert recognized her picture if he wasn’t at the commune? She punched a button on the intercom. “Christine? Is Norbert Welch’s real name Norbert Welch?”

  “Yes,” Christine said. “Norbert Nolan Welch.”

  Tess blinked. “Nolan?”

  “Nick just called,” Christine said. “He’s on his