A Fashionable Affair Read Online Free

to your mind?”
    “Seeing you in your shirt sleeves,” Patsy replied with disconcerting candor.
    He looked startled at first, and then began to smile. “Dean Walters was a swine,” he said, taking a long sip of his drink.
    “He was,” Patsy agreed cordially. “And he wasn’t my boyfriend for very long.”
    “True.” He looked at her out of inscrutable hazel eyes. “You never could bear anyone who wasn’t kind.”
    “It doesn’t take a great deal of effort to be pleas ant,” Patsy said lightly. She took the steak out of the freezer and put it on a countertop. Michael was looking around the kitchen.
    “Do you have a view of the park from here?” he asked.
    “Yes. From both the living room and the bed room. Come on, I’ll show you the rest of the apart ment.”
    The drapes in the living room were open and the big, high-ceilinged room was filled with natural light. It was a comfortable room, with bookcases, plants, and chintz-covered furniture. Michael walked around the room, his thoughtful gaze taking in the good but certainly not fabulously expensive furniture. Just as Patsy was starting to get her back up, he turned to her and smiled. “It’s a great room,” he said. “I like it very much.”
    Immediately disarmed, she smiled back. “The rest of the apartment will probably look very famil iar. When Mother and Daddy moved to Arizona, I inherited all the furniture they didn’t want. Here’s the dining room.” And the dining room was indeed furnished with the Hitchcock set Michael remem bered from her parents’ home. “I’ve got my old maple bedroom set, too,” Patsy informed him.
    “And the twin beds from the spare room. Mother didn’t want another big house, she said.”
    They were in the living room again and she gestured for him to sit down. He chose a club chair and Patsy subsided on the sofa, kicking off her shoes and pulling her legs up under her. Her red hair floated around her shoulders, glinting with copper and gold highlights. Her body was relaxed and unstudiedly graceful against the cushions, her flawless face clear in the afternoon light. She sipped her drink and gazed at him.
    She had never had any vanity, he thought suddenly. She was so beautiful that she didn’t need it.
    “How are your parents?” he asked, revolving his glass in his hands.
    “Pretty good. The move to Arizona was a good idea. Mother’s arthritis is definitely better.”
    “Do you miss them?”
    Patsy made a face. “I do. Isn’t it silly? I haven’t lived at home for years and during the week I never think about them, but come Sunday afternoon and it hits me that there’s no mother to make me leg of lamb and mashed potatoes. I visit when I can, of course, but it isn’t the same.”
    “No,” he agreed. “That’s one of the reasons Sally and Steve came back East, I think. Steve’s parents aren’t getting any younger, and Sally’s only family is me.” He smiled faintly. “And you,” he added.
    Patsy met his eyes and felt an odd little flutter in her stomach. “I’m glad she’s back,” she replied. “I missed her. I have other friends, of course, but there’s no one like Sally.” She laughed and tried to recover her balance. “When I think of my phone bills!”
    He didn’t say anything but continued to regard her, that faint smile still on his face. In order to cover her confusion, Patsy stood up. “Well, if we’re going to eat, I’d better get to work.”
    He stood up as well. “I’ll make a salad if you want.”
    “Great,” Patsy said.
    They prepared and ate the meal together in com fortable conversation, and by the time Patsy got up to make coffee, she felt as if she had the old Michael back.
    “Did I tell you that Fred knew who you were?” she asked, stirring milk into her coffee.
    He looked at her, his hazel eyes intent and nar row. “No,” she said. “You didn’t tell me.”
    “When I told him you used to be with the Justice Department. He said, ‘Oh, that