Tempting Fate by Carla Neggers Page B

tomorrow?”
    Dani shrugged. It didn’t surprise her there were rumors or that Kate Murtagh had heard them. She was one of Saratoga’s most sought-after caterers. She’d even landed the Chandler lawn party for the first time, in spite of her long friendship with Dani.
    â€œIt’s going to be all over the gossip columns, you know,” Kate said. She was clearly on one of her tears. “Are you prepared for that kind of publicity?”
    â€œPeople will say what they say.”
    â€œOh, indeed they will. In my opinion—” not that Dani had asked “—things have gotten too quiet between you and your grandfather. You’d rather have him fighting with you than not paying any attention at all.”
    Dani deliberately didn’t answer. Everyone, including her friends, seemed to have a theory about her relationship with her mother’s family.
    Kate sighed. “What’re you going to wear to this shindig?”
    â€œIs that the real reason you’re here?”
    â€œYou know you can’t be trusted to pick out a party dress on your own.”
    Dani laughed but was already on her feet, leading Kate through the back door into her cottage’s small, charming kitchen. As always, her friend had to take a minute to shudder. “I have nightmares about this kitchen.”
    â€œYou just have unrealistically high standards.”
    â€œLike a fully functional stove and a refrigerator that postdates Donna Reed?”
    â€œPicky, picky.”
    â€œAnd counters,” Kate added.
    â€œThe kitchens at the inn are state-of-the-art—”
    â€œSo?”
    Dani pushed through the dining room, hoping to circumvent one of Kate’s lectures on how she should scrimp a little more on her companies and a little less on herself.
    â€œI don’t know how you live like this,” Kate grumbled, following Dani upstairs.
    She’d kept the small back bedroom she’d used during stays there as a child, leaving the larger front bedroom for Mattie’s increasingly rare visits. Its leaded-glass windows and view of the garden made up for its size and meager furnishings. Dani had cleared out the junk and old furniture that had gathered over the years, then painted the walls a fresh white. She’d added an antique chestnut bureau and a cherry bed she’d covered with a flower-garden quilt and an old woolen blanket from a mill in Mattie’s hometown in Tennessee.
    Kate immediately went to the closet, giving an exaggerated groan when she opened the door. “Is this it? Don’t you have stuff in other closets in the house?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œWhat about your apartment in New York?”
    The biggest closet in her three-room apartment was half the size of her one here. Kate had never been to her apartment. She hated New York.
    â€œIt’s bursting with gowns and furs,” Dani said, straight-faced. “I have entire drawers filled with diamonds, sapphires, silk scarves—one whole closet just for shoes.”
    Kate scowled over her shoulder. “Very funny.”
    With a brave sigh, she plunged into the closet. Dani flopped down on her bed, convinced that Kate, with her unerring sense of style, would come up with something. She could turn heads in a five-dollar flea-market rag.
    There wasn’t a sound from inside the closet.
    Finally Kate emerged with static hair and a grim look. “It’s bad,” she said.
    â€œSometimes I wish I were as rich as people think I am.”
    â€œYou could have been. It was your idea to tell your grandfather to shove your Chandler trust up his rear end.”
    â€œI wasn’t that blunt.”
    â€œDoesn’t make any difference. The way the Pembroke’s going and with mineral water and natural sodas all the rage, you’ll be rolling in money before too long. Which will no doubt drive you crazy, and you’ll buy some moribund company to gobble up your