This Heart of Mine (Chicago Stars #5)(62)

Kevin came through the door and glanced toward Lilly and Jenner but apparently decided not to ask any questions. "Are those eggs ready yet?"

She handed him the plates. "They're overdone. If Mrs. Pearson complains, charm her out of it. Would you bring in some coffee? We have kitchen guests. This is Liam Jenner."

Kevin nodded at the artist. "I heard in town that you had a house on the lake."

"And you're Kevin Tucker." For the first time Jenner smiled, and Molly was startled by the transformation of those craggy features. Very sexy indeed. Lilly noticed, too, although she didn't seem as impressed as Molly.

He stood and extended his hand. "I should have recognized you right away. I've been following the Stars for years."

As the two men shook, Molly watched the temperamental artist turn into a football fan. "You had a pretty good season."

"Could have been better."

"I guess you can't win them all."

As the conversation turned to the Stars, Molly gazed at the three of them. What an odd group of people to have come together in this isolated place. A football player, an artist, and a movie star.

Here on Gilligan's Isle.

She smiled and took the plates from Kevin, who seemed to be enjoying the conversation, then plopped them on a tray and delivered them to the dining room. Luckily there were no complaints about the eggs. She filled two mugs from the coffee urn, picked up an extra cream and sugar, and carried it all back to the kitchen.

Kevin was leaning against the pantry door ignoring Lilly while he spoke to Jenner. "… heard in town that lots of people are visiting Wind Lake hoping to catch a glimpse of you. Apparently you've been a boon to local tourism."

"Not by choice." Jenner took the coffee Molly set in front of him and leaned back in his chair. He looked easy in his skin, she thought. Solidly built, a little grizzled, an artist disguised as a rugged outdoorsman. "As soon as word got around that I'd built a house here, all kinds of idiots started showing up."

Lilly accepted the spoon Molly handed her and began stirring her coffee. "You don't seem to think much of your admirers, Mr. Jenner."

"They're impressed by my fame, not my work. They start babbling about how they're so honored to meet me, but three-quarters of them wouldn't know one of my paintings if it bit 'em on the ass."

As one who'd babbled, Molly couldn't let that pass. "Mamie in Earnest, painted in 1968, a very early watercolor." She poured out the batter onto the griddle. "An emotionally complex work with a deceptive simplicity of line. Tokens, painted around 1971, a dry brush watercolor. The critics hated it, but they were wrong. From 1996 to 1998 you concentrated on acrylics with the Desert Series. Stylistically, those paintings are a pastiche—postmodern eclecticism, classicism, with a nod toward the Impressionists that only you could have pulled off."

Kevin smiled. "Molly's summa cum laude. Northwestern. She writes bunny books. My personal favorite of your paintings is a landscape—don't have a clue when you painted it or what the critics had to say about it—but there's this kid in the distance and I like it."

"I love Street Girl," Lilly said. "A solitary female figure on an urban street, worn-down red shoes, a hopeless expression on her face. Ten years ago it sold for twenty-two thousand dollars."

"Twenty-four."

"Twenty-two," she said smoothly. "I bought it."

For the first time Liam Jenner seemed to be at a loss for words. But not for long. "What do you do for a living?"

Lilly took a sip of coffee before she spoke. "I used to solve crimes."

Molly briefly debated letting Lilly's evasion go, but she was too curious to see what would happen. "This is Lilly Sherman, Mr. Jenner. She's quite a famous actress."

He leaned back in his chair and studied her before he finally murmured, "That silly poster. Now I remember. You were wearing a yellow bikini."

"Yes, well, the poster days are obviously long behind me."

"Praise God for that. The bikini was obscene."

Lilly looked surprised, then indignant. "There was nothing obscene about it. Compared to today it was modest."

His heavy brows drew together. "Covering your body with anything was obscene. You should have been nude."

"I'm outta here." Kevin headed back to the dining room.

Wild horses couldn't have dragged Molly from that kitchen, and she slipped a plate of pancakes in front of each of them.

"Nude?" Lilly's cup clattered into the saucer. "Not in this lifetime. I once passed up a fortune to pose for Playboy."

"What does Playboy have to do with it? I'm talking about art, not titillation." He tucked into the pancakes. "Excellent breakfast, Molly. Leave here and come cook for me."

"I'm actually a writer, not a cook."

"The children's books." His fork paused in midair. "I've thought about writing a children's book…" He speared one of Lilly's uneaten pancakes from her plate. "Probably not much of a market for my ideas."

Lilly sniffed. "Not if they involve nudes."

Molly giggled.

Jenner shot her a quelling gaze.

"Sorry." Molly bit her lip, then gave an unladylike snort.