The Parent Trap(44)

He understood why a woman wanted to look and feel attractive, and he had a healthy appreciation for beautiful women. He had resented Georgette’s obsession with fashion, though. Not because of the clothes themselves, but because of the implication that if an item wasn’t expensive, if it wasn’t sporting a designer label, then it had no value. He would never understand the concept, and he resented the influence it’d had on their daughter.

But right now he had a more immediate problem. If Kate’s mother hadn’t given her the handbag, then where did she get it? There was a chance she had used the credit card Georgette had given her to order something online. He fished the card out of his wallet and dialed the number on the back to check the activity on the account. No recent purchases.

He had recognized the logo on the bag; it was one of Kate’s favorite designers, and those bags weren’t cheap. There was no way she could afford one on her monthly allowance. He put the card away, strode into the kitchen and poured himself a glass of water from a bottle in the fridge. Maybe she bought the bag before they left the city, when she’d shopped for back-to-school clothes. But then why lie and say it was a gift from her mother?

He slammed the fridge door harder than he should have and immediately felt guilty. He needed to get a grip. But what if she’d...? No, no way. She could give him some attitude, but she was a good kid. She would never take something that didn’t belong to her. Would she?

What were the options? She didn’t have the bag when they lived in Vancouver. The thing was huge, and it was distinctive enough that he would have remembered seeing it. She hadn’t bought it online. So where in Serenity Bay would she—

Sarah’s store?

No. Kate wouldn’t have shoplifted a purse from their new neighbor’s business. Heaven help her if she did. Maybe he should go next door, find out if Kate had been to the store, if Sarah had noticed anything missing.

Bad idea. He needed to wait till Kate came home, give her a chance to explain. He owed her that much.

He went out on the deck and leaned his forearms on the railing. He’d been congratulating himself for making this move, finding this great house, figuring a small town was a good place to raise a teenager. Was this a mistake? Was Kate so unhappy that she would act out like this?

“You don’t know that she took the purse.” He needed facts before he passed judgment. Surely Kate would have an explanation for the bag and why she lied about it.

“She better have,” he said to himself. “And it better be a good one.”



SARAH LOVED SUNDAY AFTERNOONS. This was her “me” time. Casey, usually occupied with one of her many projects and interests, had taken the dog and gone out with friends, leaving Sarah with the whole house and several hours to herself. She consulted her afternoon to-do list, smiling because it reminded her of her last conversation with Jonathan. Among other things.

She had already given herself a manicure, and because she was in such good spirits, she’d chosen a pale shade of pink instead of the clear polish she usually wore. The blush color satisfied her desire for something a touch more feminine and at the same time wouldn’t clash with this week’s wardrobe choices. The six days of outfits that now hung in an orderly row in her walk-in closet.

She sat at her desk and crossed off “clean the bathrooms”—which qualified as me-time because there were few things she liked better than a clean bathroom—and surveyed what was left. Figure out what to have for dinner. Check out the To the Nines’s Facebook page.

Dinner was hours away and she already knew there were frozen dinners in the freezer. Or she could run to the market and pick up something, or they could grab takeout at Wharfside Fish ’n’ Chips.

That left Facebook. She turned on her laptop and opened the browser, found the link Kate had saved for her, and logged in. The girl had done an amazing job in such a short time. The banner at the top of the page was a photograph Kate had taken of the storefront after she’d set up the windows a couple of weeks ago. They needed to be done again this Tuesday and she had promised the girl she could help after school. Kate had agreed to photograph each new window display and use it to refresh the banner.

Sarah should learn how to do these things herself, and she would, someday, but for now she was thrilled to have help. Kate had an eye for design and a head for business, no doubt about it. Sarah had lost count of the number of customers who had raved about the windows. Kate had also suggested they reward customers with a gift after the page had 250 “likes” and they were now at...

Wow. Two hundred and twenty-seven.