Drop Dead Gorgeous by Heather Graham Page B

sensible woman; she’ll know to stay away from strangers.”
    “Yeah,” Brad said dryly. He frowned. “You know, Ricky, it’s late—”
    “I’m sorry. I needed a favor, You know that Sean Black is in town?”
    “Yeah, yeah, I know,” Brad murmured. He couldn’t help but know. Yeah, yeah, everyone had told him already—including Ricky. The great Sean Black was back. Poor boy/school hero. Football genius. Famous writer. The guy who muscled up by just waking in the morning. He’d almost been convicted of murder— and now people were half killing themselves to get the guy’s autograph.
    “He wants to reach Lori Kelly. Or Corcoran, or whatever her name is now.”
    Brad felt a prickle of annoyance run down his spine. He wasn’t really jealous of Sean Black, never had been. He’d had the advantages all his life; Sean had just been a hard-luck kid. But it had irritated him way back when that Lori had been such good friends with Sean— when he had supposedly been the hottest thing around and she’d been his privileged choice. That had been a long time ago. A lot was forgotten, but feelings, emotions, annoyances re mained. He’d had a lot of knock- downs since then, but he liked his life now. Jan was a great ex-wife. Available—without the nagging. He really did love her, and his daughter was a beauty queen and a brain, the perfect child. He did what he wanted and never went without.
    But he had to admit, he’d been really curious to see Lori Kelly again himself. All right, so it was unlikely he’d get Jan and Lori into bed at the same time. He’d still like to see Lori.
    Seemed Sean Black wanted to beat him to the punch.
    “Do you have Lori’s number?” Ricky asked.
    “Do I have her number … ?” he repeated, then smiled, shaking his head with amusement as he looked to his side, where Jan was beginning to stir beneath the sheets. He smacked a hand on her rump, covering the mouthpiece on the phone with his other hand. “Hey—what’s Lori’s number?”
    Jan turned over, hair tangled, eyes heavy— and still suspicious. “Why?”
    “I’m going to call her over.”
    She tried to hit him. He laughed, stopping her.
    “Seriously, Ricky wants to know.”
    “Ricky?”
    “Ricky Garcia wants the number. For Sean.”
    “Oh. For Sean!” Jan sat up, hugging her knees to her chest. “I saw Lori tonight. I meant to tell her that Sean was in town … but then I saw the paper about poor Ellie and I blanked on that. Let’s se e, her number is four-four-four … four-four-four … damn! I forgot. But she’s listed. Under L. Corcoran, on Almansa.”
    Brad conveyed that information to Ricky, told him to keep in touch, and hung up. Then he pretended to dial information and ask for the number, and then dial the number.
    Jan sprang up. “What are you doing?”
    He looked at her innocently. “Hey, I don’t want to let Sean get in there first, and there might be danger out there on the streets. She’s your friend, you should share. I’m calling Lori Kelly Corcoran to see if she wants in on my great stud service—”
    Jan wrenched the phone out of his hands, her eyes wide, her features taut.
    “Hey, now!” Brad teased.
    “You leave Lori Kelly out of this.”
    “Jan!”
    “You were nuts about her in high school.”
    “We were kids!”
    “You said she was great.”
    “She was.”
    “She said you never touched her.”
    “One of us is lying,” Brad said, eyes sparkling. Jan made a point of slamming the phone receiver down, and he started laughing, pinning her to the bed. “All right, all right, so we won’t ask Lori over. We’ll let her take the chance of picking up a homicidal maniac.”
    “Sean always liked Lori; she can pick him up . ”
    “And maybe Sean is a homicidal maniac.”
    “You’re a pervert, so maybe you’re a homicidal maniac, too.”
    He ignored that. “Okay, so we’ll have to pick another woman. Just once. Then we could get married again.”
    She inhaled sharply, staring at