Moonlight Masquerade Read online

  Carter watched the girl as she poured the iced tea. When he’d arrived, the owner had come out and asked to serve him, but Carter had said he wasn’t ready to order. In this town whatever a Treeborne wanted was law.

  Twice Sophie had glanced at him, but he’d put his head down and hidden his face. Wasn’t there some tragedy connected to her? What was it his mother had written about her? Something about Sophie’s mother. Did she die?

  Carter couldn’t remember. His mother had written to him of so very many families. What she hadn’t mentioned was how extraordinarily pretty this girl was. He couldn’t help wondering if his mother’s omission was on purpose. If so, had she known that someday her son’s wife would be chosen for him? Did she know that her son wouldn’t be strong enough to stand up and say no?

  He didn’t like to think any of those things, but it did seem odd that his mother hadn’t told him about pretty little Sophie Kincaid who’d gone to college but had returned home. Had she graduated? Probably not or she never would have returned to her two-bit Texas hometown.

  When she got to his booth, he smiled at her, but she didn’t smile back. No doubt all the men in town came on to her.

  “So what will it be?” she asked, her notepad in hand.

  Carter looked at the menu as though considering, then put it down. “What’s the sauce on the escargot?”

  Sophie didn’t hesitate. “Lots of garlic.”

  “Are they fresh?”

  “Pulled out of the cabbage patch this morning.”

  “And the calamari?”

  “Flown in from Italy at six a.m. It was late because of the time difference.”

  He was trying not to laugh since she wasn’t, but Carter couldn’t contain a smile. “I hate Italian squid. You’d better give me the burger. Medium well.”

  “You got it,” Sophie said and picked up his menu.

  When she bent forward, he said softly, “Thanks. It’s been a tough day and I needed a laugh.”

  She looked startled, her eyes widened, and for a moment it was all he could do to keep from kissing her. Her lips were full and pink and he wanted to put his arms around her and hold her. He hadn’t had a girlfriend in over a year.

  She gave him a quick frown, as though she could read his mind, then she went into the back of the restaurant. When Carter looked up, the football boys were glowering at him. They seemed to be saying that Sophie was local and therefore off limits to a Tree-borne. Carter turned and looked out the window. He didn’t see Sophie again that day, but was served by the owner.

  For the next week he went to the little restaurant every day, but she never waited on him. Twice he saw her, but she ran to the back and stayed hidden until he left.

  Carter had never had anyone evade him before, not in school and not afterward, and certainly never in his family’s town. Maybe it was the novelty of it, but maybe it was Sophie’s big blue eyes. Or maybe it was that she wasn’t like all the other people who saw him only as the heir to a fortune.

  At the beginning of the second week he went there for lunch and this time she came to his table with her little pad. He kept his eyes on the menu so she wouldn’t see how much he wanted to be near her.

  “So why’d you come back to this town?” he asked.

  Sophie didn’t answer, just stood there, waiting for him to give her his order. When he did, she went away, and later returned with a tuna melt and fries. She put the plate in front of him, but she didn’t leave and he didn’t look up.

  “My mother died and left my twelve-year-old sister with our stepfather. I stayed here to protect her. I had no choice,” Sophie said, then left.

  He ate his sandwich, put money on the table with a hundred percent tip, then waited for her to come and take the plate away. “I came back because my mother died and I have to learn the business. I had no choice.”

  She looked into his eyes but only for a second, then took his plate and left.

  The next morning he came again. This time he said, “I hate it here.”

  “Me too,” she said.

  That evening he showed up for dinner but Sophie wasn’t there—but her sister was. She was taller than Sophie, not nearly as pretty, and looked to be old enough to graduate from the local high school. Carter asked the owner about her, and he was pleased to talk to the Treeborne Prince.

  “She’s Sophie’s little sister and what a handful she’s been to Soph. When their mother died, Lisa was twelve but she looked twenty. She was wearing big earrings and half a pound of makeup to school every day.” He leaned across the table and lowered his voice. “Nobody knows for sure but we all think maybe her stepfather was . . . you know, trying things with the girl.”

  Everybody knew but nobody did anything about it, Carter thought but didn’t say. “So what did Sophie do?”

  The man shrugged. “Stayed here and took care of everything. Soph worked three jobs and got the girl into shape. There were some loud arguments and Lisa threatened to run away, but Sophie wouldn’t let her. She’s a good girl.”

  “So now what?” Carter asked. “After Lisa graduates from high school, what then?”

  “Sophie got the girl into State on a partial scholarship. And once Lisa leaves in the fall, Sophie is out of here. No more waitressing for her.”

  “What did she study in school?”

  “You mean in college?” He sounded as though he were talking of an alien establishment.

  “Yes. What did she study in college?”

  “I have no idea,” the man said, then got up and left.

  The more Carter heard about Sophie, the more he liked her. She had a college degree but she hadn’t abandoned her sister.

  That summer his father was often away, and when he did return, his anger was so violent that he appeared to be oblivious to everything around him. All he cared about was getting possession of the Palmer canning plant.

  “That bastard,” Carter’s father, Lewis, said at dinner. “If you knew what he’s demanding—” He broke off as he looked at his son. Carter was tall and handsome and looked as healthy as a human could be. And why not? He’d never done drugs, had always eaten well, and played sports. That he was going to be married off to a girl like Traci Palmer was a shame. The girl had been doing drugs since she was a kid. Last year her nose had had to be rebuilt from all the cocaine she’d snorted.

  But Lewis knew it couldn’t be helped. Old man Palmer was saying that his daughter needed stability, that she’d clean up her ways if she was married to an upstanding, honorable boy like Carter.

  Lewis knew that old saw wasn’t true, but he also knew that men can become desperate when it comes to their children. His own hope was that a marriage with some conflict in it might make a man of his son. As it was, all Carter wanted to do was read his fancy books and give away the Treeborne fortune. Lewis well knew that his son no longer did any work for the company, but the people he’d hired to replace him were so damned good that he wasn’t about to fire them.

  “So who’s the town girl you’re seeing?”

  Carter nearly choked on his food.

  “You didn’t think you could keep a thing like that a secret from me, did you?”

  Carter knew better than to lie. “Sophie Kincaid, and I’m not really seeing her. I asked her out, but she said no.”

  “Did she?” Lewis asked. “When I was a boy there wasn’t a pretty girl in town who said no to me.”

  Carter wanted to say, And I have the half siblings to prove it, but he didn’t. “She’s just here until her sister graduates from high school.”

  “Didn’t that girl get into trouble a few years back?”

  “That’s what I heard,” Carter said, “but Sophie straightened her out.”

  “Sounds good,” Lewis said and Carter looked at him with hope in his eyes. “Just so you understand that this is just a summer romance. I want you engaged to the Palmer girl by Halloween. Got it?”

  Carter knew that he should stand up to his father, but he didn’t. He didn’t have