All Dressed in White by Mary Higgins Clark, Alafair Burke Page B
Authors: Mary Higgins Clark, Alafair Burke
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break free of me and be the person she truly wanted to be. But he just could not admit that.
“We’ll talk soon,” Henry was saying. “Okay, Dad. Bye.”
As he hung up the phone, Walter wondered whether Sandra and his children would ever realize how much he really had changed in the last few years.
18
I t was Monday morning, which meant that Jerry and Grace were outside Laurie’s office, gossiping about their weekend activities. From Laurie’s vantage point at her desk, she gathered that Grace had been carrying on about the strikingly good looks of her latest gentleman suitor.
“And where did you find this one?” Jerry asked.
“You say that like there have been thousands,” Grace objected. “And to be clear, it’s all just flirting, nothing serious. I met Mark—this one, as you called him—at the driving range at Chelsea Piers.”
“You? Playing golf?”
“I’m a woman of many talents. The clothes are adorable, and so are the other players; what’s not to like? Speaking of surprising attributes, is that a tan I see?”
Laurie found herself paying more attention to their chatter than the memo she was drafting to the studio’s marketing team. She had also noticed some color on Jerry’s usually pale skin.
“I visited friends on Fire Island. And it’s not a tan. Unlike you, I have two settings: pasty or sunburned.”
Laurie found herself smiling as she hit the save key on her computer and rose from her desk. “Okay, are we ready for our meeting?”
Once they were settled into their usual spots—Grace and Jerryon the sofa, Laurie in the gray swivel chair—she asked which of them wanted to start.
She was eager to hear their reports. Normally, she was the one calling the shots in the office, but when it came to social media, she was almost oblivious. She barely understood the difference between a Tweet and a status, a like and a follow. But Jerry and Grace, just a decade younger, seemed perfectly at home in the virtual world.
As a convenient way to split the work in half, Laurie had asked Jerry to see what he could find about Jeff and his half of the wedding party, while Grace researched Amanda’s friends.
Jerry seemed more than happy to go first. “Jeff has a fairly small social media imprint, just a LinkedIn profile—that’s for professional networking,” he added for Laurie’s benefit—“and a relatively quiet Facebook page. But I have been able to confirm that he is still in close contact with both Nick Young and Austin Pratt, who are both more active online, and still very much BFFs.”
Best friends forever. Between Jerry, Grace, and her son, Laurie was fluent in slang.
“Austin and Nick are still happy bachelors on the prowl, while Jeff has settled down in Brooklyn with his wife, Meghan.”
Grace looked at Jerry as if surely he must have more to say. “Is that it? I wish my job had been that simple.”
“I also called the Grand Victoria. Want me to start in on that?” Jerry interrupted.
“One at a time, guys. Grace?”
“Well, since my people are more complicated,” she said with a pleased smile, “I’ll take them one by one. Meghan White, as mentioned, is married to Jeff. She has no Facebook, Twitter, nothing. Private. The other college girlfriend was Kate Fulton. She has four kids and lives in Atlanta. Her husband is the store manager at a Home Depot. There are some old pictures on her Facebook page with Meghan and Amanda, but, as far as I can tell, she has no currentcontact with any of the old gang. We’ve got Charlotte, Amanda’s sister, working at Ladyform here in New York. And her brother, Henry, is in Seattle. He’s co-owner of a winery, married with two girls, at least according to his online posts.”
Laurie was nodding. The three Colby men, all still in contact. Meghan now married to Jeff. Amanda’s family, scattered across the country. Kate the college friend, married with four children in Atlanta.
“Jerry, you heard back from the Grand
“We’ll talk soon,” Henry was saying. “Okay, Dad. Bye.”
As he hung up the phone, Walter wondered whether Sandra and his children would ever realize how much he really had changed in the last few years.
18
I t was Monday morning, which meant that Jerry and Grace were outside Laurie’s office, gossiping about their weekend activities. From Laurie’s vantage point at her desk, she gathered that Grace had been carrying on about the strikingly good looks of her latest gentleman suitor.
“And where did you find this one?” Jerry asked.
“You say that like there have been thousands,” Grace objected. “And to be clear, it’s all just flirting, nothing serious. I met Mark—this one, as you called him—at the driving range at Chelsea Piers.”
“You? Playing golf?”
“I’m a woman of many talents. The clothes are adorable, and so are the other players; what’s not to like? Speaking of surprising attributes, is that a tan I see?”
Laurie found herself paying more attention to their chatter than the memo she was drafting to the studio’s marketing team. She had also noticed some color on Jerry’s usually pale skin.
“I visited friends on Fire Island. And it’s not a tan. Unlike you, I have two settings: pasty or sunburned.”
Laurie found herself smiling as she hit the save key on her computer and rose from her desk. “Okay, are we ready for our meeting?”
Once they were settled into their usual spots—Grace and Jerryon the sofa, Laurie in the gray swivel chair—she asked which of them wanted to start.
She was eager to hear their reports. Normally, she was the one calling the shots in the office, but when it came to social media, she was almost oblivious. She barely understood the difference between a Tweet and a status, a like and a follow. But Jerry and Grace, just a decade younger, seemed perfectly at home in the virtual world.
As a convenient way to split the work in half, Laurie had asked Jerry to see what he could find about Jeff and his half of the wedding party, while Grace researched Amanda’s friends.
Jerry seemed more than happy to go first. “Jeff has a fairly small social media imprint, just a LinkedIn profile—that’s for professional networking,” he added for Laurie’s benefit—“and a relatively quiet Facebook page. But I have been able to confirm that he is still in close contact with both Nick Young and Austin Pratt, who are both more active online, and still very much BFFs.”
Best friends forever. Between Jerry, Grace, and her son, Laurie was fluent in slang.
“Austin and Nick are still happy bachelors on the prowl, while Jeff has settled down in Brooklyn with his wife, Meghan.”
Grace looked at Jerry as if surely he must have more to say. “Is that it? I wish my job had been that simple.”
“I also called the Grand Victoria. Want me to start in on that?” Jerry interrupted.
“One at a time, guys. Grace?”
“Well, since my people are more complicated,” she said with a pleased smile, “I’ll take them one by one. Meghan White, as mentioned, is married to Jeff. She has no Facebook, Twitter, nothing. Private. The other college girlfriend was Kate Fulton. She has four kids and lives in Atlanta. Her husband is the store manager at a Home Depot. There are some old pictures on her Facebook page with Meghan and Amanda, but, as far as I can tell, she has no currentcontact with any of the old gang. We’ve got Charlotte, Amanda’s sister, working at Ladyform here in New York. And her brother, Henry, is in Seattle. He’s co-owner of a winery, married with two girls, at least according to his online posts.”
Laurie was nodding. The three Colby men, all still in contact. Meghan now married to Jeff. Amanda’s family, scattered across the country. Kate the college friend, married with four children in Atlanta.
“Jerry, you heard back from the Grand
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