One Plus One Makes Marriage

With a sigh Lance strode back into the office and took the photograph from her. One sweep of the back of his hand and there was room on the desk. He planted the photograph back where it belonged, his eyes warning her to leave it alone.

Melanie looked at the woman with the soft mouth and kind eyes. There was a quiet, serene beauty there that didn’t immediately leap out at a person. She raised her eyes to Lance’s face. That couldn’t be his mother, or else he wouldn’t be so touchy about his privacy.

“Why, are you having an affair with her?”

The question stunned him. What kind of mind did this woman have? Were there only photographs of men she’d had affairs with on her desk?

“No, that’s my aunt Bess,” he snapped.

So, he had filial feelings. There was hope for him yet. Melanie grinned, thinking of her own aunt. “My aunt Elaine never married. Instead she had affairs with younger men. She used to say that was what kept her young, and going strong.”

Lance couldn’t picture Bess having an affair with any man, younger or older. From his earliest recollection, she had been entirely devoted to the memory of her husband, who’d died on a hotly contested piece of dirt half a world away, six months into their marriage. That had been thirty-three years ago. Bess had never shown the slightest inclination of wanting to go out with other men. One heart, one love, that was the way she liked to put it. From the sound of it, that wasn’t something McCloud’s aunt would understand.

“Your aunt sounds like a character.” Apparently, it was a family trait.

Striving for patience, Lance waited for Melanie to leave. She didn’t show the slightest inclination that she was going to.

The grin deepened into a smile. “I suppose she was.” Melanie saw the mute question in his eyes when she said was, though she doubted he’d ask. Not because any sense of politeness prevented him, but because he seemed unwilling to accumulate any extraneous information about people. It was almost as if he was afraid that knowing things would force him to be friendly. She told him, anyway. “Aunt Elaine died a little over two years ago. I made the shop look like her parlor.”

With all those photographs hanging on the wall? “Big movie buff?”

He’d asked without thinking. His aunt Bess loved old movies. They made her sentimental. As a boy, Lance had watched them with her. Believing in sentiment was what had set him up for the fall he’d taken, he remembered. His eyes darkened.

Melanie noticed the slight shift and wondered what brought it on.

“The world’s biggest.” A fond note crept into her voice. “That’s how she got into her line of work to begin with. She loved movie stars, loved being around them and figured she might as well be paid for it.”

Lance knew he shouldn’t ask. Like leaving food out for a stray cat, it would only encourage her to stay. But the same curiosity that made him so good at the investigations he conducted burrowed forth, obviously not knowing the difference between being curious about something trivial and something of grave importance.

“And your aunt was—”

Melanie warmed to her subject, fully aware that he was leading her out of his office.

“A wardrobe mistress, then a makeup artist for two of the major studios. She did a bit of designing, too,” she told him proudly. “Those were some of her clothes they wore in Next Year, Paris.”

Melanie doubted he was even mildly familiar with the old classic, a tragicomedy that still required at least three hankies to see the viewer through.

How was it, Lance wondered, with all the people in the world, the world could still be such a small place sometimes? He found it completely uncanny that out of almost an endless selection at her disposal, McCloud would hit upon Bess’s all-time favorite movie. Suspicions inched their way forward in his mind, but in all fairness, he had to dismiss them. There was no way the woman could have known something like that on her own. Not unless she knew Bess, and that was highly unlikely. He knew, by sight or at least by name, almost everyone his aunt was acquainted with.

Almost against his will, Lance recalled the first time Bess had made him watch the movie. He was twelve and rebelliously reluctant to sit through what he figured was just a “dumb-old girl movie,” though he would have never voiced his protest in those exact words to Bess. But she had prevailed, and he’d found himself struggling not to alternately laugh, then cry, then laugh again. Years later, he figured out she’d probably heard the gurgling noises he’d made and chose, for the sake of preserving his budding male pride, to ignore them and not comment.

Bess was one in a million.

So was the woman with him, for entirely different reasons.

Melanie cocked her head, studying his face. She’d been right. He did look better devoid of that constricting, severe, expression he wore. As a matter of fact, he was pretty nearly a heart stopper. She wondered if he knew and decided that he wasn’t the type to be aware of things like that.

“You’re smiling,” she observed, pleased that he did it in her company.

Lance collected himself, lifting his chin as if that would wipe everything away. “No, I’m not.”

She wasn’t going to let him deny it. There was nothing wrong in smiling. “I’ll admit it’s not very large, and some might even call it a grimace, but I’ve been around sound stages. I know the beginnings of a smile when I see one.” Her expression teased him, coaxing Lance to deepen the smile. “What?” she urged, wanting to know what had made him forsake that dark, dour expression.

Lance looked at her, debating. Maybe he’d just gotten accustomed to playing his hand too close to his chest, not letting anyone in. Having your teeth kicked in when you most needed someone did that to you.

But McCloud hadn’t been the one to do the kicking. In any case, there was no real reason not to tell her. No harm in it, anyway, and then maybe once he told her she would leave him alone and go about her business. Which apparently in her case meant sticking that very pretty nose of hers into other people’s lives.

As long as it wasn’t his.

He took a chance, shrugging as if it meant absolutely nothing instead of being an incredible coincidence. “It’s just that Next Year, Paris is my aunt’s favorite movie.”

Lance wouldn’t have admitted that if it weren’t true, Melanie thought. Well, well, well. Pleasure poured like rich red wine all through her. “No kidding.”

He saw her eyes light up like a child’s at Christmas. Why? Bess didn’t mean anything to her. She didn’t even know Bess.

“No kidding,” he echoed.

Lance ushered them out of his office and down the short corridor, very aware that he was garnering looks of unabashed admiration and envy because of his traveling companion. If only they knew. The woman brought new meaning to the term Superglue. He’d be more than glad to stick her onto any one of them and get on with his work.

Melanie smiled to herself at his assurance. “No, I don’t suppose you know how to do that...kid,” she elaborated and ignored the black look from him that followed. He was edging away from her. She took pity on him and began to cut him loose. “Well, you’ll have to make a point of stopping by the shop around Christmas. I have a still from the movie autographed by Elliot Anderson. If she’s a fan of the movie, I think she’d like to have that.”

Bess wouldn’t just like it, she’d love it. Lance paused despite himself. Very slowly he blew out a breath, knowing he was going to hate himself for what he was about to say. But this wasn’t about him, it was about Bess.

“She has a birthday coming up.”

He cared enough about his aunt to make an effort to give her a gift that meant something. The thought warmed Melanie. She was right. He wasn’t nearly the bear he wanted her to think he was.

“Even better.” She nodded her head, the ends of her hair swinging to and fro over her shoulder. “A birthday surprise. Stop by the shop,” she invited again. Then her face brightened. “Or, I can bring the photograph by here if you want.”

Lance raised a brow. Just how accommodating was she? He couldn’t help thinking that this was still all leading somewhere, to some ulterior motive. Bribery? But that didn’t make sense. She’d already paid her fines and besides, none of them had been large enough to warrant bribery to look the other way in the first place. Was there more going on here than he was aware of?