Anything You Can Do(56)

"I can't believe Gordon stood you up. There must be some mistake." Bailey sank onto the sofa beside her friend, and Samantha curled into a ball between them. The extravagant floral arrangement was conspicuously absent from the coffee table where it had been earlier in the evening. "Where—?"

"I snipped off all the flowers and put the stems on his doorstep."

"No, you didn't."

"No, I didn’t. They're in your room," Paula confessed with a shrug. "They became suddenly offensive. Set off my hay fever."

"I'm sure there's a logical explanation," Bailey persisted.

"Right. I probably misunderstood the terms. I missed the part where he said we were going to have this date at separate places. In any event, he didn't show, which shouldn't come as a surprise to those of us familiar with the morals of lawyers. Male lawyers, I mean."

"Well, it does come as a surprise. That's not like Gordon. All the things we've done together, he's never let me down. You know how he even showed up for that race when he didn't want to." She shook her head. "No, there's more to the story."

"Right. We'll probably read in the morning paper about how he was kidnapped and held for ransom or spent the night on an alien spaceship." Paula stretched her arm over the back of the sofa and laid her head on it.

"Did you call his house?"

"I tried," Paula admitted. "The first time, it rang, then it sounded like somebody lifted the receiver, but nobody said anything, just a lot of static. After that, all I got was a busy signal. The operator said there was trouble on the line. As in the phone being off the hook, for example."

"Let's go over to his house."

"I will not!" Paula protested, sitting bolt-upright. "And you won't, either. Leave me a little dignity."

Bailey threw her hands into the air. "Gordon could be lying over there dead, and you're worried about your dignity!"

"It seems to me you're being unusually dramatic about this whole thing, possibly to avoid talking about your evening and this man you're going to kill."

Bailey cringed as the remark struck home. She was concerned about Gordon, but the whole truth was, she found his behavior easier to think about than her own. "Austin came to the bar," she said.

"Go on," Paula encouraged, settling comfortably into one corner of the sofa, facing Bailey.

"If you insist on leering like that, I won't tell you a thing. Not that there's anything to tell." Bailey folded her arms over her chest, then quickly unfolded them as she touched her bare midriff and remembered the way Austin had touched her.

"I can tell by the look on your face that this is going to be good," Paula said. "Want me to make some hot chocolate?"

"No!" She wasn't about to confess to the way she'd lost control, practically made love with Austin on the dance floor. "All that happened was, Austin came into the bar wearing this ridiculous cowboy outfit. I recognized him at once, of course, and went over to try to divert his attention so he wouldn't find out what I found out." Suddenly it hit her that she hadn't thought about her recently acquired information since Austin's appearance. His ability to distract her from the important aspects of her life was really frustrating.

She ran a hand through her hair, still sweat-damp from wearing the stupid wig. "I found out that Candy is probably a fraud. She's been involved in another personal injury suit with another man, and she’s hanging around with Alvin Wilson but doesn’t want anybody to know. I got the first guy’s name, and I'll check out the details on Monday, but I have an eerie feeling they're going to be similar to the details of this accident."

"Oh, boy." Paula grimaced. "Austin's going to love it when you have to throw in the towel because your client's a fraud."

Bailey nodded dismally. "I think I diverted him tonight, but he'll find out eventually. Maybe he's known all along. Maybe that's why he got involved in the suit. No, that doesn't compute. If he'd known, he wouldn't have offered a settlement."

"A lot of companies settle to avoid the expense of going to court," Paula pointed out.

"Not Austin. He'd fight to the bitter end. He'd never compromise." Bailey smiled then quickly turned it into a frown. That hadn't come out right.

Not surprisingly, her irritating friend hadn't missed it. "You sound proud when you say that." Paula tilted her head to one side and smirked. There was no other word for her expression. "Tell me how you diverted him tonight."