leaves the garden club in a mess,” Jewel ended with a scowl.
Jewel looked so frustrated that Merri opened her mouth without thinking. “Have you tried a mother-daughter luncheon and modeling show in the past?” What was the matter with her? That was the last thing she should’ve suggested. She simply had to learn to keep her mouth shut.
Shaking her head, Jewel looked thoughtful. “No… We didn’t have anyone that would know how to run such a thing.”
“Well…” Merri never should’ve mentioned modeling.
“We can organize a luncheon. That’s not a problem,” Jewel said, studying her. “Merri, have you ever put this kind of thing together? Or have you perhaps attended one of those modeling luncheons while your were living in L.A.? I understand they’re quite popular in big cities.”
“Did you?” Ty cocked his head and asked Merri.
“Well, yes, but…” She hesitated, not wishing to lie to them. But not wanting to step into something she’d been trying to avoid, either.
Unfortunately, she waited too long to finish. Just like she hadn’t waited long enough before suggesting it.
Ty jumped in. “Great. Merri has so far proven to me that she’s a fantastic administrator, Jewel. She seems to be a ‘take the bull by the horns’ kind of person. I’m sure she can whip this whole modeling deal into shape in time to save the fund-raiser.”
At his words of praise, Merri could feel the sting of embarrassment riding up her neck. “Thanks. But I…”
“If you’re worried about your job here, don’t,” Ty broke in. “You can spend mornings in the Foundation office while you learn the ropes. And your afternoons can be spent working on the luncheon. That way, you’ll get to meet and work with a bunch of the women volunteers, who are also some of our biggest contributors.”
“It’s not that,” Merri hedged, hoping she would think of something else—fast. “I don’t know enough people in the town to choose models.”
Ty casually shrugged a shoulder. “I understand you probably don’t know the first thing about modeling. But if you’ve been to a few of these shows, I’m sure you can take care of the behind-the-scenes stuff. I saw a show in a movie once. Someone had to get stores to donate the clothes and then coordinate the outfits with the words and the music. I’m positive you could do that.
“And Jewel and her friends can help you locate the women with daughters to be the models,” he said with a grin.
Merri bit down on her tongue to keep the smart remarks to herself. She’d wanted people to think she was capable, hadn’t she?
So maybe she’d done her job a little too well.
“I suppose I could help,” she mumbled at last. She knew every last detail about how to pull off a show. It was how to keep her ego out of the way and stay in the background that was really bothering her.
That and how to maintain a professional distance from the dangerous man that she suddenly wanted more than anything to impress.
Merri carried her teacup into her tiny new living room. Setting it down on the antique side table she’d found yesterday in that cute Main Street shop, she relaxed back into the floral print overstuffed chair and sighed with pleasure.
Her mother would be mortified if she ever caught her doing such things—having such things in her home. Hmm. Perhaps “mortified” was the wrong word to use about a woman who only cared about superficial things. Mother was not one to be humiliated by anything. No indeed.
Arlene Davis-Ross looked more like Merri’s sister than her mother. Though she had good genes and took care of herself, her big secret was that she’d also had more plastic surgery than any human being should be allowed. And it was highly unlikely that Arlene would even notice what Merri was doing if she was standing right in her living room.
Merri didn’t seem to matter one way or the other in either of her parents’ lives as long as she kept up their idea of appearances. But she’d always hungered for a life that mattered to someone.
There had been a time, many years ago, when Merri had wished for a mother who would care. She’d seen other girls at boarding school whose mothers were like that. They sent birthday cards and rushed to pick up their daughters from school on holiday breaks.
Merri’s mother always seemed to be irritated when her daughter arrived at one of the family homes for school vacations and someone had to be found to look after her. Eventually, Merri gave up her empty dreams of a family who cared. That was when she’d set out to find reality. She knew it had to be out there somewhere.
Maybe it was right here in Stanville, Texas. She had finally found a spot where the flashbulbs didn’t explode in her face at every turn. More, it was a place where people found satisfaction in having a simple cup of tea and in helping others who were less fortunate than themselves.
She’d come up with this desperate plan to both get away from the ravages of the paparazzi and to step into life in a very real way. Leaving modeling was no hardship. She’d hated the life they’d expected her to maintain. And leaving the lifestyle of her parents had been a longtime dream.
This opportunity that her lawyer had uncovered, the chance to do something for the Lost Children Foundation, was going to be her break from that former vapid existence. It was her opportunity to do something real…be someone…with real thoughts and feelings.
This evening she’d met with Jewel’s garden club and agreed to help them give their modeling show and luncheon. Fortunately, Tally Washburn was more than willing to oversee the luncheon details. Now there was a real administrator—or maybe a commandant would be a better description.
And Ty’s aunt Jewel had browbeaten a couple of the women into rounding up suspects for the mother-daughter modeling positions. This whole fashion show idea was going to work out all right. They had six weeks to pull it off.
It was just her relationship to Ty that Merri was having trouble dealing with. When she’d first come to this town and rented the cottage, the only thing she’d wanted was to be alone.
Well, to do her job the best she could, and to be alone. Far away from the runways, nightspots and microphones. Far away from the phonies of the world.
So…as much as Merri hated lying to Ty and having to hide out, she was willing to do anything for her one chance at a new life. And that included ignoring the sensual sensations she’d felt whenever he looked in her direction.
Okay. Maybe she could do that. But how on earth was she going to teach him to become less brash and uncivilized as his attorney had suggested? That was one job that might be a lot tougher than even she could handle.
Relationships, any kind of real relationships, were out of her experience. But phony ones—now there was a place where she excelled.
She smiled to herself when she thought of her recently broken engagement. Poor Brad. The tabloids were no doubt having a field day at his expense…and hers.
At first, she’d been more than willing to let herself become his tabloid girlfriend in order to throw the paparazzi off the trail of his real relationship. Brad was a good guy and she’d never minded lying to reporters—until the paparazzi
