Unfortunately, though, after that brief interlude, the evening had turned from one where she was playing with nice, friendly dolphins to one where she was swimming with the sharks.
First, she’d run into Fluffy, who’d been eager to make sure Kayla would mention her in Monday’s column.
Then Buffy the Man Slayer had homed in on Noah. Evidently, she’d taken to heart the hint in Kayla’s column and decided Noah would make a lovely addition to her all-male menagerie.
Kayla was thankful Huffy, at least, wasn’t around to add to the drama. According to word of mouth, she was still in Europe, presently flirting with a German count who was dancing attendance on her. Kayla had no doubt the two of them would soon hit the European gossip magazines.
Kayla wondered whether Noah would be crushed by the news. She glanced over at him now and caught his look of mild irritation from across the room, where Sybil LaBreck had run him to ground.
Under other circumstances, Kayla might have felt some pity. Under present ones, however, she was too busy dealing with her own problems.
Because, just as she’d been breathing a sigh of relief, she’d turned around and spotted Bentley Mathison IV.
For an instant, she’d frozen. Then she’d embarked on her present and so-far-fruitless search for a hiding spot.
Bentley Mathison and his wife wouldn’t recognize her, but she still had no interest in encountering them. Particularly here. Particularly now.
Giving up on the tent, she headed toward an exit. She could take a moment outside to collect herself.
As she made her way toward a gap in the tent, she recognized Noah’s siblings as they entered along with their spouses, and groaned at the timing.
Trapped, she made a complete 360-degree turn, looking for at least a potted plant that might afford some camouflage.
Noah, she noticed, had disentangled himself from Sybil’s clutches and was heading her way. His family, with Allison Whittaker in the lead, was bearing down on her from the opposite direction. And, she noticed, Bentley Mathison and his wife were making their way toward all of them, too.
She dredged up a smile. It was the least she could do when her life was bearing down on her with all the horror of an impending train wreck.
“Noah!”
“Allison!”
“Kayla!”
Help! Kayla thought.
“Well, isn’t this a pleasant surprise,” Allison said.
“We didn’t know you’d be here, Noah.” Allison looked for affirmation at the dangerously good-looking man next to her.
Kayla knew Connor Rafferty by sight. Rumor had it that he’d carried a torch for Allison for years before they’d recently begun seeing each other and gotten married.
Bringing up the rear, behind Connor, was a tall, dark-haired man who looked as if he’d stepped off the pages of GQ magazine and whom Kayla knew by sight to be Noah’s older brother Matt.
Behind Matt, Kayla noticed that Noah’s other brother, Quentin, and his wife, Liz—whom she knew from various social functions that she’d covered in the past for the Sentinel—had already been waylaid by a couple of other guests nearer the tent’s entrance.
Noah shrugged. “Until recently, I wasn’t sure I’d be showing up either.”
Allison looked from Noah to Kayla, zeroing in on the arm that Noah had just slipped around her waist and was using to guide her forward.
She couldn’t blame Allison for looking confused. After all, mere days ago, Kayla had been the bane of Noah’s existence.
“Allison, Connor, Matt, this is Kayla.”
Allison reacted first. “Kayla and I have been introduced to each other before.” She looked at her brother, her lips twitching upward. “I’m just surprised Kayla’s here with you.”
Kayla felt herself grow warm, but Noah said, “I guess you haven’t heard that Kayla is shadowing me because she’s doing a profile on Whittaker Enterprises for the Boston Sentinel.”
Allison raised her eyebrows, and Connor and Matt, though they refrained from making any comment, wore looks that said they found it all highly entertaining.
Allison opened her mouth to speak, but, before she could say anything, a voice caused all of them to turn.
Bentley Mathison, who until now had remained quiet, spoke up. “Noah and Matthew Whittaker.” He stepped forward, hand outstretched and chuckling too heartily to sound sincere. “How long has it been?”
Kayla winced. Bentley Mathison’s audacity was stupendous, especially in light of the fact that, if it had been a long time, it was entirely due to his thirty-six months spent behind bars for tax evasion and misappropriation of funds.
“Bentley,” Noah said, nodding in acknowledgment and, reluctantly, it seemed to Kayla, accepting the proffered hand. “Yes, it’s been a while.”
“Too long,” Bentley said jovially. He then turned to greet the other Whittaker siblings and introduce them to his wife, Margaux.
Allison, Kayla noticed, appeared cool during the introductions. And, no wonder, Kayla thought. As an assistant district attorney who’d recently been harassed by a defendant in one of her cases—before Connor had reportedly led the police to the culprit—she doubtlessly did not suffer criminals, past or present, gladly.
When Noah turned and introduced Kayla to the Mathisons, she tried to appear unaffected. Nevertheless, her hand was clammy and cold as it was grasped by Bentley Mathison’s.
Her biological father.
She looked into his pale blue eyes—as clear and cold as a winter sky—and could not believe this was the man who’d set her life on its trajectory, and, in fact, the man responsible for her very existence.
Unbidden and uninvited, her mind busied itself looking for resemblances. She dreaded finding any.
She caught Noah looking at her oddly.
It was then she realized she’d been holding on to Bentley Mathison’s hand.
Embarrassed, she murmured, “Nice to meet you,” and then withdrew her hand.
She was vaguely aware of conversation continuing to flow around her, but she was in a weird state where she heard everything but took in nothing. Mostly she faintly discerned that Bentley was attempting to ingratiate himself with the Whittakers—probably in the hopes of resuscitating business contacts—and that the Whittakers were responding with varying degrees of polite detachment.
No one apparently noticed how uncomfortable she’d become. No one except Noah, apparently, since she caught him tossing her a quizzical look or two.
At some point, she heard Noah say, “Excuse us.” Then, without waiting for a response, he tugged her toward the dance floor. He guided her into his arms and they started swaying to a slow tune.