And then it froze. Lily Moreau was coming her way. Though barely five foot two, in person she appeared larger than life. Wearing a flowing, winter-white silk caftan with threads of purple shot through it to highlight her eyes, the renowned artist looked like an empress descending upon her court.
Before Kayla could murmur a heartfelt “Save me” into Alain’s ear, Lily had taken her hand in both of hers, trapping her not just physically, but with her eyes. “So this is the woman who saved my son’s life.” She smiled, and it seemed to Kayla as if the sun was rising across a dark lake, its rays reflected in the shimmering waters.
Kayla was relieved that she hadn’t begun to shift from foot to foot. “That’s a little dramatic,” she replied quietly.
Lily laughed. “They tell me so am I.”
Alain stepped in. “Let the others meet her before you overwhelm her, Mother.” “It is not my intention to overwhelm her, Alain. I just wish to thank her.” She made no effort to release Kayla’s hand.
Kayla looked down at their clasped hands, then at Lily. “I’m not going to run away, I promise.”
The woman laughed and, inclining her head, stepped back. Alain was quick to draw Kayla to his side. “Kayla, you’ve already met Philippe. This is his fiancée, Janice. And this is my brother, Georges—”
“The doctor,” Kayla stated, shaking his hand.
“You’ve researched us,” Philippe commented.
“I like knowing things,” she replied with a smile. Lily nodded. “Very commendable.” Then she glanced at Alain. “You’re too slow.” With that, she rattled off the names of the others, sweeping over Vienna, Janice’s brother, Gordon, and the assorted nephews-in-law that three husbands had netted her. “Done,” she declared, turning her attention back to Kayla. “Now, let’s chat.” With that, she tucked Kayla’s hand through her arm and led her off to a more private area of the large room.
“Don’t you think you should save her?” Georges murmured.
But Alain merely watched the two women as they took over a corner. “Kayla can hold her own.” He saw Philippe studying him. “What?”
“Nothing,” his older brother responded, then smiled that all-knowing smile that used to get under Alain’s skin when they were teenagers. “Don’t give me ‘nothing,’” he retorted. “You’ve got that I-know-something-you-don’t look on your face.”
Philippe’s smile only widened. “Maybe I do,” he allowed, “if you don’t realize that this girl is different.”
“Woman,” Janice interjected patiently. “We’re called women.”
“Yeah.” Kelli chimed in, tugging on the bottom of Philippe’s jacket until he looked down at her. “We’re women.”
“Well, ‘little woman’—” he bent down to pick up the child he’d already adopted in his heart “—let’s see about getting you some cake to keep that mouth of yours busy.”
Kelli tucked her arm around his neck and happily nestled in. “Okay.”
Philippe glanced over his shoulder at Alain just before he walked over to the table laden with desserts. “She has my approval.”
“Mine, too,” Georges echoed, clapping him on the back.
Alain had suddenly become the center of attention, and he wasn’t all that sure he liked it. “Not that I need it, but exactly what does Kayla have your approval for?” “Joining the family,” Georges answered, since Philippe was out of earshot. He threaded his fingers through Vienna’s. “I’ve got to say I never thought it would happen.”
Alain could feel himself growing defensive. That in itself was unusual. He’d never felt the need to before. “It’s not happening now. This is a fund-raiser for homeless dogs, not a meet-Alain’s-future-wife party.”
“Keep telling yourself that, Alain,” Georges laughed. Remy joined the conversation, draping an arm over his younger cousin’s shoulders. “If I were you, I’d take a look in the mirror.”
“Why?” Alain looked down at his shirtfront, assuming that he’d gotten it dirty somehow.
Remy’s grin grew wider. “Well, from where I’m standing, you look like a pretty smitten guy.” “Smitten?” Alain echoed. He stopped watching Kayla and his mother and now looked from his brother to his cousin. Behind Remy, his other cousins, Beau and Vincent, were both nodding their heads. “What are you talking about?”
Vienna surprised him by joining the conversation. She affectionately pressed her hand to his cheek. “The look in your eyes,” she told him. “It does say a lot.” He was fond of Vienna, the same way he was fond of Philippe’s fiancée. Both of his brothers had lucked out. But he was not about to be talked into anything. Even if there was a slight chance that what they were all suggesting was true.
“It says that you’re all imagining things.”
But even as Alain said it, he had the uncomfortable feeling that he was protesting too much—and that they all knew it.
Chapter 14 Despite the attempts of several women at the fund-raiser to entice Alain to leave with them, he continued to mingle, always keeping Kayla in his line of sight. In case she needed him.
From where he stood, she seemed to be doing fine, but that could just be an act. The famous were intermixed with the not-so-famous at this last-minute gathering his mother had thrown together. Many of these people had drifted in and out of his life, as they had his mother’s, for as long as he could remember.
But until tonight, he had never realized how unusual seeing all these celebrities in one place might seem to someone who’d lived most of her life in a small town where the most well-known person was probably the town sheriff.
Was she overwhelmed? Starstruck? Gilbert Holland was very hot on the Hollywood scene, and right now, the handsome actor was giving Kayla the benefit of his charismatic smile.
The surge of jealousy that washed over Alain surprised him. It took him several seconds to bank it down. Craning his neck, he continued watching the trio. Gilbert was dominating the conversation, gesturing and looking particularly seductive. Alain couldn’t tell if Kayla was responding. Well, responding or not, this had been going on for over an hour. It was high time that he rescued her, he decided.
Besides, he wanted Kayla to himself before Gilbert or someone else decided to sweep her off her feet. Shouldering past several people who called out to him, Alain made his way to where Kayla and his mother were standing. Gilbert, he noted, looked mildly curious as he glanced up.
An image of two male bucks locking horns flashed through Alain’s mind. Reaching Kayla, he placed his hand on her shoulder, his message clear as he nodded a greeting to the actor.
Gilbert took his cue and withdrew, but not before saying, “Add my pledge to the tally, Lily. Wonderful meeting you, Kayla.”
Alain kept his hand where it was, drawing Kayla closer to him. “All right, Mother. Let her up for air.” His tone was mild, but he wasn’t about to take no for an answer. Lily had spent the last hour-plus steering her son’s young woman from one circle of friends to another, becoming increasingly more taken with Kayla as she listened to her speak. She liked the streak of steely determination she detected just beneath the surface. Alain was the most like her, and he would need a strong hand to keep him close to home.
“Air?” she echoed, looking at the young woman who was so artfully championing these dogs she and her associates rescued. “She’s breathing just fine. And we’re networking, aren’t we, Kayla?”
Part of Kayla felt as if she was dreaming. This had to be the way Cinderella had felt walking into the ballroom filled with elegantly dressed people who belonged to a world she could only fantasize about. The house was littered with individuals she had read about in the pages of People magazine. And Alain’s mother was introducing her around as if she were one of them. Very heady stuff. It took some effort to remember why she was here.
In response to Lily’s comment about networking, she grinned as she looked at Alain and said, “Yes, we are.” His mother, Alain noticed, seemed exceedingly pleased with herself. But there was something more
going on, something he couldn’t quite get hold of yet. He continued studying her.
“Tell him how much we’ve gotten in pledges so far,” Lily urged. Numbers had been flying at her right and left. The generosity overwhelmed her even more than the people did. “I lost count at fifty thousand,” Kayla confessed.
“I didn’t,” Lily announced. Born to poverty, she was ever conscious of money. The fact that she was given to spending it lavishly when the mood hit her didn’t alter that. Despite having an accountant, she kept her own tallies. “Sixty-two thousand, seven hundred. So far,” she added smugly. It was obvious she thought they would do much better by evening’s end. Her next words confirmed it. Leaning her head toward Kayla, who was several inches taller, she said, “The night is still young.”
“Only if you’re in Hawaii, Mother,” Alain patiently pointed out. It was past eleven, and despite her beaming smile, Kayla looked a little worn around the edges. “I’d still like to claim her.”
Lily sighed and gestured for him to take the young woman from her side. “If you must. If we played tug-of-war with this lovely creature, tongues would wage and words would somehow leak to those horrid tabloids.”
Alain hadn’t stopped studying his mother. The glimmer of sadness in her eyes became apparent as she delivered her last line. Ever the dramatic grande dame, she had underlying seriousness to her tonight.
He glanced around the gathering, swiftly scanning the guests. Ordinarily, he wouldn’t have to look more than a few feet to find who he was searching for.
“Where’s Kyle?”
Lily took a breath, as if to launch into a long tale, then apparently changed her mind. “Not here,” she said simply. “I can see that.” Alain lowered his voice so that only his mother and Kayla could hear him. “Why?” The young, so-called artist had been his mother’s shadow ever since he had come into her life. He wouldn’t have missed a gathering like this. “This is his element.”
Lily made a disparaging sound under her breath. “I found Kyle ‘in his element’ earlier today.” She saw Alain raise an eyebrow, urging her to elaborate. To buffer the pain, she clung to her anger, using it like a shield. “That little groupie who’s been coming to the gallery every day to admire his work. She decided to ‘admire’ it a little closer today.” Lily’s carefully made-up lips twisted in disgust. “When I came by to surprise him, I was the one surprised.” And then a strange smile curved her mouth, devoid of humor, tinged with triumph. “Although, I must say, it was probably a toss-up as to who was more surprised. His groupie lost the ability to speak. So did some of the people in the immediate vicinity of the gallery.” Alain was about to ask why when she told him. “Usually you have to go to Venice Beach to see a naked man running down the street.” Her tone changed, as if she was talking about someone who was merely an acquaintance and not the man she had taken into her heart.
“The last I saw of Kyle, he was trying to make a policeman understand how he came to be separated from his pants.” She raised her chin, a queen sharing a not-soamusing anecdote with her court. “I hope, for his sake, he was more forthcoming with the officer than he tried to be with me.”
As much as he and his brothers held Kyle suspect, Alain felt bad about the situation. Not for Kyle, but for his mother. He hated seeing her hurt. Even though she would never say as much, he could feel it.
Turning his back to block the view of other people in the room, he put his hand on her arm. “Are you all right?” Lily tossed her head, her famous black mane flying over her shoulder. “I am wonderful,” she declared. “I have just lost a hundred and seventy-two pounds of unnecessary weight and—” her eyes shifted to Kayla “—I have a cause to sponsor.” Out of the blue, Kayla suddenly asked, “Would you like a dog?”
The question took Lily by surprise. “Darling, you don’t have to try to sell me—” “No, I’m serious,” she interrupted. “There is nothing like the unconditional love you get from a pet.” Because she had been so wonderful to her tonight, Kayla decided to share something very personal with this dynamic woman. “I don’t know what I would have done without mine when I had my breakup.”
Alain’s ears perked up at this mention of a man in her past. He had no idea why he’d imagined himself the first to have discovered her, but he had. “Breakup?” Kayla had an uneasy feeling that she was suddenly walking on a tightrope and working without a net. But she needed to say this to Lily. “I was really shaken up, stunned that I could have misjudged someone so much.”
Lily laughed shortly. “There is a lot of that going around.”
Kayla deliberately avoided looking at Alain. “The man I thought I was going to spend forever with didn’t turn out to be anything like I thought he was.”
Lily rolled her eyes heavenward. “Amen,” she murmured. “I already had a dog to comfort me, but then someone from the rescue society asked me if I’d be willing to take in a couple of German shepherds until permanent homes could be found for them. They thought that being a vet, I wouldn’t mind doing it for a few weeks. Well, my dog would lick my tears off my face, but Lenny and Squiggy wouldn’t let me feel sorry for myself. And they were so tremendously grateful for any attention, any affection I showed them. I think we all kind of healed each other.”
“Lenny and Squiggy?” Alain echoed. He couldn’t contain the laughter that followed. Why would she have called the dogs after two hapless characters from an old classic sitcom?
“I didn’t name them,” Kayla protested. “The society likes to give them new names to signify their new life. But they just about saved mine.” And then she got down to the heart of the matter. The people at the fund-raiser were generously giving money, but she needed homes for the dogs as much as she needed donations. “I have a lovely purebred who’s eighteen months old and needs a loving home. She was abused by her owner. He all but starved her to death. Audrey is yours for the asking. I promise you, she can fill up a lot of space inside you, until you don’t feel empty anymore.”
Lily was silent for a long moment, and Kayla became uneasy that she might have crossed the line with her enthusiasm. “I come on strong sometimes,” she began to apologize, but got no further.
“And that, my dear, is a very good trait,” Lily declared in no uncertain terms. “Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. You have to push in this world to get anywhere.” It was obvious that she was thinking of her own journey, as well. “All right,” she said with feeling, “I’ll take this—Audrey, did you say?” Kayla nodded. “I’ll take Audrey in—as long as you let me pay for her,” she qualified.
“There’s no fee,” Kayla protested. Especially not after the amount of money Lily had raised for her.
The woman didn’t seem to hear. “I can write you a check for five thousand dollars. Will that be satisfactory?” Kayla opened her mouth to protest, but Alain interrupted. “That’ll be fine, Mother,” he assured her as he began to steer Kayla away. “Just make it out to the German Shepherd Rescue Society, like all the other donations tonight.”
His arm around Kayla’s waist, Alain ushered her toward the buffet table. As he forged a path through the wall of people, he deliberately swung past Philippe and Janice. He scarcely broke stride as he told his brother, “Kyle’s been eighty-sixed. Go talk to Mother, tell her something to make her feel good, the way you always do.”
Philippe, holding a sleeping Kelli in his arms, turned around, surprised. “What happened?”
“From what she said, this Kyle person cheated on her,” Kayla said, before Alain had a chance to. Her heart went out to Alain’s mother. She hated seeing anyone in pain.
“Oh, your poor mom.” Putting down her glass of punch, Janice turned on her heel and began to make her way toward Lily. Philippe fell into step behind his fiancée.
Kayla watched the duo until they reached Lily. “How long were your mother and Kyle together?” Alain thought for a second, working his way backward. “About six, seven months. She was with him longer than a lot of the others.” He tried to sound c
asual about it, knowing that a lot of people judged his mother and saw her actions in a less than flattering light. But there was no way to sugarcoat it. “Mother goes through men like someone with a head cold goes through a box of tissues. But we all thought— worried—that this one was serious. I know that he thought he was.” Alain would have been willing to bet on it. He’d seen it so many times before, especially in the cases he handled. An older person, trying to hang on to youth, ultimately being taken advantage of by a younger con artist.
The case he was working on now fit the bill, he thought abruptly. “So did she,” Kayla said, looking toward the artist. Philippe and Janice had just joined her. “Listen, I’m a stranger to her, but if you want to go and be with her, I’ll understand.”
Alain shook his head. Philippe was better at that sort of thing than he was. “I think that pet you offered to give her will do more good than I could. Besides, this has an upside to it—other than not having to call a money-hungry SOB ‘daddy,’” he qualified. “My mother will probably paint something utterly magnificent and move on.”
Kayla had read that some of the world’s greatest artists did their best work while in the depths of distress. “Is that how she usually handles her heartache?” He nodded. One of her most famous paintings had been created right after she’d heard that Georges’s father had died. That was when he’d realized that she never quite stopped loving any of the men who’d been in her life. “Pretty much.”
“Maybe I should give her Audrey after she finishes the painting.” A smile played on Kayla’s lips. “We don’t want to deprive the art community.”
He knew she was kidding. But the concern he saw in her eyes about a woman she hardly knew, touched him. The bantering words faded from his lips.
“You’re a really nice person,” he told her softly, “you know that?”
“Yes, that much I know.”
The way she said it, it sounded like something she had taken to heart after having gone through a learning experience. “About that breakup you mentioned—” She waved a hand, as if to dismiss it. “Happened a long time ago.” Ordinarily, he didn’t pry. He believed in privacy, his own most importantly. Besides, not knowing made things less personal. But he didn’t want to be less personal, not with Kayla. “How bad was it?”
[The Sons of Lily Moreau 03] - Capturing the Millionaire Page 14