LITMIR.BIZ

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exits. He should know.

      Sam stayed where he was, his feet still tangled in his slacks, damn it.

      That’s why she was the queen of Hollywood, while he, at the heart of it, bought and sold used furniture…

      After a few moments spent mentally kicking himself for having made the first move—Jolie would be quick to point that out if the subject of the last minutes ever came up, which he decided it wouldn’t, not if he could help it—Sam got up and headed for one of the guest room bathrooms to take his own shower.

      He was downstairs in the living room once more by the time Bear Man sounded the musical chime that alerted Sam that his guests had arrived. By the time he got to the foyer, Jolie was coming down the stairs. She was barefoot and dressed in a thin sleeveless navy pullover that didn’t quite meet the waistband of the white shorts topping her mile-long legs. Her long hair, still damp, was tied back in a ponytail, and she hadn’t reapplied her makeup, not even lipstick.

      There were women—legions of them he was sure—who could cheerfully kill her for being so beautiful.

      “You found the clothes,” he said unnecessarily.

      She looped a finger in the waistband of the shorts and pulled it away from her body. “I’ve lost weight in five years. Here’s hoping they stay up.”

      And then she bit her bottom lip before she smiled, shrugged. “Sorry.”

      “I didn’t think it was an invitation,” Sam told her, once more heading for the door. “Jade, Jessica, good to see you,” he said as the two women stepped into the foyer, both of them kissing him on the cheek before putting down their overnight bags. Rockne entered behind them, padded straight to Jolie and lay down at her feet.

      “It’s really great of you to let us barge in on you like this, Sam,” Jade said. “I’ve got one more trip to the car, and then we can all get reacquainted.”

      Jessica lifted her hands to her neck and gave her blond hair a quick flip as she grinned at Sam. “Ever notice how Jade takes charge? Do you want to get reacquainted, Sam? Maybe you’d rather go to a movie or take a nap or play a game of strip PingPong. But Jade says we’re to get reacquainted, so that’s what we’re going to do. She doesn’t even realize she’s arranging everyone else’s lives.”

      “Have you two been fighting?” Jolie asked as she picked up Jade’s overnight case and put it at the bottom of the stairs. “Again?”

      “Don’t be silly,” Jessica said, rolling her eyes at Sam. “I’m never combative—it’s not in my nature.”

      “Right. Which explains why you’re on suspension from your network.” Jolie looked at Sam.

      “I was asked to take an extended bereavement leave. That’s different.”

      “The extended part sure is,” Jolie said, winking at Sam, who was beginning to feel he was a spectator at a tennis match.

      “Did you see the interview she did with that poor Willie somebody-or-other?”

      “Cartwright,” Jessica said, turning the name into a dirty word. “New York’s own Willie Cartwright. And I only asked him a few questions.”

      “She asked him questions, all right, Sam. But how? she kept asking him whenever he said what he would do if he’s elected to the U.S. senate. He’d clean up crime in the streets. But how? Jess asked. He’d secure our borders. But how, Jess pushed him. He’d balance the budget, reduce the trade deficit, improve education, provide health care for all. But how? How? How you gonna do that, sir? She kept at him and at him until I thought the poor guy was going to have a stroke—Jade sent me a tape of the whole thing. And then—bam—our little Barbie doll zings him with a quick question about some by-the-hour motel just across the line into Jersey and how he was seen there the previous week with a woman not his wife.”

      “So what’s the big deal? The guy deserved it.” Jessica gave her hair another flip. “He was using my airtime to make a campaign speech, and I wasn’t going to let him get away with it. I wouldn’t have zinged him if he hadn’t been so damn determined to stay on his talking points and not say anything concrete. That’s all. Who knew he’d go so ballistic with my bosses?”

      “Right,” Jade said from the open doorway. “Shame, shame on poor old Willie. And it’s really not her fault, Sam, she’s right about that. Most times the men she interviews take one look at that hair, that face—the girls—and say oh, please, please, let me tell you all of my most embarrassing secrets.”

      “I’ll have you know, Jade, I don’t appreciate you saying that the only reason I’m on-air is because of my hair and face.”

      “And the girls. Don’t forget the girls.”

      Sam might have been embarrassed, except he’d heard all of this before, a dozen times. They’d soon be doing a verbal tag-team match, with everyone changing sides every few minutes just because it was fun. He looked to Jolie, waiting for her to chime in, wondering whose side she’d take. But she just held up her hands in a sort of surrender and shook her head. She’d taken her shot, bringing up Willie Cartwright, and now she’d retired to her corner.

      Jessica appealed to him, explaining, “Jade’s chest somehow missed out on puberty, and she thinks it’s my fault that I got her share. Isn’t that right, Jade? Hey, you want help with those briefcases?”

      “No, I don’t,” Jade said tersely, and Sam belatedly noticed that her trip back to the car had been to retrieve two ancient, battered tan briefcases, the sort that actually had straps on them to hold them closed.

      “Good,” Jessica said, “because I wasn’t planning on helping you anyway. Bar still in the same place, Sam?”

      “Straight ahead and then to your left,” he told her before helping Jade by taking the briefcases from her. “Wow, you brought me bricks, Jade? Really, you shouldn’t have.”

      Jolie seemed to have changed allies and was now targeting Jade. “You’re right, Sam. She really, really shouldn’t have. Jade, this could have waited until tomorrow, when we’re back home.”

      “Not really, sis,” Jade told her as they all headed for the living room. “If nothing else, we had to bring Rockne over to see you. He still hasn’t eaten anything, although he did drink some water—thank God—so we might want to take him outside later if he starts looking for doors.”

      Jolie bent down to give the setter a hug. “Why don’t you and I go into the kitchen and see if there’s anything there you want to eat, hmm?”

      “We’ve offered him everything from cold spaghetti to doughnuts, Jolie—he won’t eat. You can try again later, all right? The sooner we get started, the sooner we clear Teddy’s name. Jess,” she called out as she headed for the large round-topped coffee table flanked by curved tapestry couches done in the Empire style, “get me a soda, too, while you’re at it. Diet, please. And ask Jolie and Sam what they’d like to drink.”

      “Jessica is right,” Sam said, grinning. “Jade really does give orders.”

      “She’s the oldest, remember, even though she and I are Irish twins, only eleven months apart. After our mother took a hike, Jade elected herself mama duck, with Jess and me as the baby ducklings she had to keep marching all in a row. That, and she’s just basically bossy. Court used to tell her she’d make a fine prison warden,” Jolie told him as Rockne nuzzled his head against her knee, nearly knocking her over.

      “I saw him last week, you know, in London,” Sam told her, referring to his cousin, Courtland Becket, once Jade’s husband. Sam, for his sins, had introduced them. The marriage had lasted less than six months. But Court still should be told about Teddy. “Damn, I should have called him as soon as I heard about your dad.”

      Jessica approached carrying a tray with ice-filled glasses and cans of soda on it, offering them their choice. “Court? Oh, he whose

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