Match Me If You Can (Chicago Stars #6)(104)

Annabelle smiled sweetly. “I promised he could tie me up afterward and spank me.”

Heath enjoyed that, but her mother huffed. “Annabelle, not everyone here is familiar with your sense of humor.”

Annabelle turned her attention to the stranger in the room, Adam’s latest conquest. Like the others, including his ex-wife, this one was well tailored and attractive with square features, a blunt-cut dark brown bob, and a total lack of charm. Just the sight of those thin, unsmiling lips announced that her brother had chosen still another emotionally robotic female.

“This is Dr. Lucille Menger.” He slipped a protective arm around her shoulders. “Our very talented new pathologist.”

Good job choice, Lucy. Not much need to worry about bedside manner.

Heath gave her a megawatt smile. “You and I seem to be the only outsiders tonight, so we’d better stick together. For all we know, these people could be serial killers.”

Her parents and brothers chuckled, but Lucille looked mystified. Finally her mental fog cleared. “Oh, that’s a joke.”

Annabelle shot a quick look at Kate, but beyond the flicker of an eyebrow, her mother wasn’t giving anything away. Annabelle’s irritation grew. Her brother had a track record for choosing these humorless brainiacs, but did anybody stage an intervention for Dr. Adam? No, they did not. Only for Annabelle.

Heath looked boyishly repentant. “A bad joke, I’m afraid.”

Lucille seemed relieved to know it wasn’t her.

Kate always booked the Mayfair Club’s second-floor private dining room for the Granger family’s Chicago gatherings. Decorated like an English manor house with polished brass and chintz, the room offered a cozy seating area near a mullioned bay window that looked down on Delaware Place, and they settled there for cocktails and birthday presents. Doug and Candace presented her with a gift certificate for a makeover at a local salon. No mystery who’d come up with that idea. Adam gave her a new DVD player along with a collection of workout videos, thank you very much. When she unwrapped her parents’ gift, she found an expensive navy suit she wouldn’t have been caught dead wearing, but couldn’t return because Kate had ordered it from her favorite working woman’s boutique in St. Louis, and the manager would squeal.

“Every woman needs a power suit as she gets older,” her mother said.

The corner of Heath’s mouth twitched. “I have a gift for Annabelle, too. Unfortunately, it won’t be ready until Monday.”

Candace pressed him for details, but he refused to say more. Kate could no longer hold back her curiosity about why he was here. “We never mind when Annabelle shows up without a date, even though she says it makes her feel like a fifth wheel. Asher client, you certainly had no obligation to be her escort, but…Well, I must say we’re all glad you agreed to join us…?”

She ended her sentence with an implied question mark. Annabelle hoped Heath would somehow put an end to her mother’s assumption that this was a mercy date for him, but he was more intent on playing the charm card. “It’s my pleasure. I’ve been looking forward to meeting all of you. Annabelle’s told me the most amazing stories about your banking career, Kate. You were a real trailblazer for women.”

Kate melted all over him. “I don’t know about that, but I will say things were a lot more difficult for women back then than they are now. I keep telling Annabelle that she doesn’t know how lucky she is. These days, the only obstacles standing in the way of a woman’s success are ones of her own making.”

Zing.

“You’ve obviously taught her well,” Heath said smoothly. “It’s amazing what she’s been able to create in such a short time. You must be enormously proud of her.”

Kate looked hard at Heath to see if he was kidding. Candace snickered. Annabelle didn’t exactly hate her sister-in-law, but she wouldn’t be the first person standing in line if Candace turned up needing a kidney.

Kate reached across the arm of her chair to pat Annabelle’s knee. “Tactfully put, Heath. My daughter has always been a free spirit. And you look lovely tonight, sweetheart, although it’s too bad they didn’t have that dress in black.”

Annabelle sighed. Heath smiled, then turned his attention to Candace, who’d maneuvered a position on the leather sofa between him and Doug. “I understand that you and Doug have a gifted little boy.”

Gifted? The most Annabelle had said about Jamison was that he’d learned to get everybody’s attention by peeing on the living room rug. But the Granger clan ate it up.

Kate beamed. “He reminds me so much of Doug and Adam at that age.”

Tiny penises?

“We’re having him tested,” Doug said. “We don’t want him to be bored in school.”

“He loves his nature enrichment class.” A strand from Candace’s hair extensions was sticking to her lip gloss, but she didn’t seem to notice. “We’re teaching him to recycle.”

“It’s amazing how well coordinated he is for a three-year-old,” Adam said. “He’s going to be quite an athlete.”

Kate puffed up with maternal pride. “Doug and Adam were swimmers.”

Annabelle had been a swimmer, too.

“Annabelle swam, too.” Kate hooked a sickle of blond hair behind her ear. “Unfortunately, she didn’t take to it like her brothers.”