She smiled. "Yeah?"
He patted the cushion next to him. "You're pretty far away down there."
"Wild things happen when we touch."
"I promise to restrain myself."
She grumbled, "It's not you I'm worried about." But she slid down the sofa, facing him, and draped herself across his lap. "Better?"
He stroked her hair off her face. "Much."
"Once, I brought a motorcycle-riding hooligan to one of my parents' Sunday dinners."
He raised his eyebrows. "Hooligan, huh?"
"Well, my mother called him that, not me."
"Is this a contest? To see who has the badder past?"
"No, you win hands down there. Just so you know my own past wasn't as idyllic as it might seem."
He was curious about how she'd become the black sheep, and how-given her father's reputation-he'd managed to raise such an interesting woman. "Go on."
"And what are we doing about lunch? We are having lunch, aren't we?"
He loved that she always thought with her stomach. "I ordered pad thai. It should be here any moment."
"Yum." She sipped her wine. "Now where was I?"
"Motorcycle-riding hooligan."
"Right." Lustily, she sighed. "Justin."
Jealousy stabbed him. He hoped wherever Justin was today it was near Outer Mongolia.
"Justin wasn't really a hooligan-whatever that is. He was just different. His dad was a big-time music producer, so he wasn't around much, and Justin had definitely seen Rebel Without a Cause one too many times, but I liked him."
"Joseph and Elise thought differently, I take it."
"Joseph and Elise live on an entirely different planet."
They were interrupted by the arrival of the food, but Vanessa continued her story as they shared the spicy noodle dish loaded with shrimp at the coffee table.
"Anyway, Mother was always nagging me about inviting a nice boy to dinner. 'How about that Middleton boy?'" she said in a high, formal tone that no doubt mimicked her mother's. "'Or Arthur Richardson's boy?' Naturally, Quint Middleton's father was a circuit court judge and Richardson was dean of the business school at Georgia Tech."
She wrinkled her nose to communicate what she thought about that. "Boring and pompous. I liked Justin, so I invited him."
"You had to know that wasn't going to go over well."
"Yeah, I guess. I was young and reckless. And I figured I'd just get grounded or something. I had no idea Justin would be the one punished."
"By your parents?"
"By everybody. They were horrible to him. They made demeaning comments about his hair, his leather jacket, his earring. They giggled behind his back, then to his face."
Lucas had experienced that kind of painful shunning himself. Both as a poor teenager and as a grown man-the dignified New Orleans set had only been slightly more accepting than the Atlanta country clubbers. Though the Crescent City crowd had eventually softened. Most of them respected a true scoundrel, after all.
"Needless to say, you won't be meeting my parents anytime soon. I won't put you through that."
"I'm not a sixteen-year-old boy, Vanessa. I can handle your parents."
"I guess. Just don't be offended when I don't invite you to dinner tomorrow."
"You still go?"
"Sometimes. But I don't bring dates."
"I'll endeavor to hide my disappointment."
"I am surprised you haven't asked me about them yet."
"What about them?"
"How Joseph Douglas's daughter wound up as a caterer in a barely respectable neighborhood with an empty bank account."
He'd figured there'd been a falling out, and he didn't expect she was catering as a charity project. But his curiosity about her was also connected to his thirst for information about her father and his "two wills" moral dilemma.
How could Lucas separate his needs, keep what he considered a legal secret and still learn all he wanted about Vanessa? He'd just have to find a way. He wanted to know what had happened along the way that had kept her from turning into those women he'd met Thursday night.
"Tell me," he said.
"I never really made much of a debutante. I'm not quiet, demure or traditional. I don't like lacy dresses, flat shoes or having my hair cut in a bob. I liked the sycamore tree in proximity to my bedroom so I could sneak out, the Mercedes my father gave me for high-school graduation and the unconventional friends I'd made.
"During my junior year in college, I was living at home and going to Emory. In my infinite wisdom, I decided to wear a white shirt to a ladies' luncheon my mother and I had been invited to. I also decided to wear a red bra underneath the shirt."
Lucas swallowed a mouthful of noodles. "You should have worn it to the men's luncheon. You'd have made a better impression there."
Her eyes twinkled. "If I'd only had you for inspiration. Well, you can imagine how my mother felt about my lingerie selection. When we got home, of course, we got into a huge argument. I was embarrassing my family, I wasn't living up to my obligations as a Douglas, I respected nobody's wishes but my own, et cetera.
"I listened, I apologized, and, when she left my room, I packed. I left that same night and moved in with a friend from school. Of course, I wasn't a complete martyr." She winked at him. "I did take the Mercedes. I got a job as a waitress when my parents, predictably, cut off all financial support. We rarely spoke over the next several months, and at the end of the school year, I went to my career counselor and told her I needed a new direction. She advised me to leave school."
"That must have been some counseling session."
"Temporarily, of course, though I never did go back to Emory. She told me to take a year off and work and think about what I wanted to do, what I really enjoyed doing. I figured out pretty quickly that I enjoyed working at the restaurant-the craziness, the ever-changing customers and menus. I eventually became a sous chef, then I got into the CIA-that's Culinary Institute of America. After I graduated, Mia and I decided to open Dessert First, and one day I realized I was actually happy."
"So you repaired your relationship with your family."
Shadows darted through her eyes. "Not exactly. My sister and I do okay, but my parents don't approve of my catering, or of me. Until Thursday night, I'd never gotten business from Mother. In fact, she's gone out of her way to steer people away."
Lucas fought to keep his voice even as anger rolled through him. "So why were you at the fund-raiser?"
"Mother's caterer canceled on her a few days before the event. She called me in desperation."
"You bailed her out even though she'd tried to sabotage you in the past?"
She looked startled. "She didn't sabotage me. She just didn't help."
"Hoping you'd fail."
"And come crawling back, I'm sure." She shook her head. "Like that's going to happen."
Lucas rose and poured more wine. As he sipped, though, he knew he was too furious to appreciate the delicate flavor, so he set the glass aside. "I'll hire you. And recommend you. Hell, I'll stand on the street corner and pass out your business cards if you need me to."
She glanced up at him. "That's really sweet, but I'm fine. Some months it's a struggle, but-"
"Don't you think it's odd that I've known you two days, and I'm willing to do whatever's necessary to help you succeed, and your own mother does nothing?"
Vanessa jumped to her feet. "Look, Lucas, I know it sounds awful, but it's not. I'm doing this on my own. I wouldn't have it any other way."
"On your own is entirely different from steering people away. I would have told her to screw off if she called me for help at the last minute."
Her eyes turned glacial. "She's my mother."
"Exactly. What kind of mother-" He stopped, turning away as he caught the stricken look on her face. Sometime in the last few seconds he'd gone from being angry at her mother to being angry at his own. "I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I have no place criticizing your family." Especially since I have no idea how a good one is supposed to behave anyway.
She wrapped her hand around his arm. "It's okay. It's sweet of you to want to defend me." She urged him to face her. "I have a weird relationship with my family, but I hope it won't always be that way. My mother's call felt like an olive branch, not a family obligation."
"Your family should appreciate you more. They should support you."