A Fashionable Affair Read Online Free Page B

seat. Patsy slid in next to her and turned to grin at the children.
    “Hi, Steven! How are you?”
    “Hi, Aunt Patsy,” the three-year-old returned with enthusiasm. “Did you bring me something?”
    “Steven,” his mother said despairingly.
    Patsy laughed. “I did. And I brought something for my godchild, too. Hi, Matthew.” The baby gur gled in reply.
    “What is it?” Steven asked.
    “You’ll see when we get home,” Patsy answered, and turned back to Sally. “Is Steve on duty today?” Steve Maxwell was an orthopedic surgeon at Long Island Medical Center on the north shore.
    “Yes, but he should be home for dinner. Michael is coming too. He was sorry to put you to the trouble of coming out, but I’m glad you did. It’s so good to see you.”
    Patsy hadn’t thought he sounded at all sorry, but she refrained from saying so to Sally. “It’s great to see you,” she said instead, and meant it.
    “Michael’s very busy,” his sister explained. “Last- minute tax returns, you know.”
    They chatted comfortably during the ten-minute ride to Sally’s house, a big old colonial with a fenced-in yard containing a gas grill, picnic table, sandbox, and swing set.
    “The house is looking great,” Patsy commented as she looked around the front hall and the living room. “You had the floors done.”
    “Yes. Finally. And we had new linoleum put down in the kitchen. My next big job is to refinish all the doors.”
    * * * *
    Patsy was playing blocks with Steven on the floor of the family room when Michael came in. She didn’t hear him at first. Sally was in the kitchen and had opened the door before he had even knocked. Michael stood for half a minute in the doorway watching her play with the little boy. She had a truck in her hand and was pushing it along a track they had built with the blocks. They were both mak ing rumbling noises and Patsy was crawling on her hands and knees when she noticed a pair of Top- Siders in the doorway. She looked up and met a pair of amused hazel eyes. “Oh,” she said. “I didn’t know you were here.”
    “Well, I am,” he replied amiably.
    “Uncle Michael! Uncle Michael!” Steven shrieked, and hurled himself forward.
    “Hi there, tiger,” Michael said, swinging him up into his arms.
    “Did you bring me anything?” Steven asked.
    Patsy laughed and got to her feet. “He’s got it down to a science.”
    “Of course I brought you something,” Michael answered. He put his nephew down, reached into his pocket, and removed a small magnet and a penny.
    Steven was absolutely delighted and raced off to show his mother.
    “I brought him a long black cord from an old dress of mine,” Patsy said. “He adored it. He was winding it around every doorknob in the house until we decided to play blocks.”
    Michael chuckled. “Between us, we’re spoiling him to death.”
    Patsy dusted off the knees of her wide-wale cor duroy pants and looked at him from under her lashes. They were very lovely lashes, artfully dark ened and naturally long—almost as long as his. He really looked very fit in those chino slacks and navy Izod shirt, she thought.
    “Did you manage to soothe your hysterical client?” she asked as she straightened up.
    “Marginally. He got himself into a mess, I’m afraid.”
    “What did he do?”
    “Tried to be clever with his taxes. It’s going to cost him plenty to bail out.”
    “Oh, dear. I can understand why he was hyster ical. Can you help him?”
    “If he’ll listen to me. The advice I’m giving him is good, but I rather doubt he’s going to take it.”
    “He sounds like a nuisance,” Patsy said frankly.
    Michael shrugged. “My favorite clients are incompetent nuisances with their affairs in a mess.”
    “Like me?” Patsy asked sweetly.
    “Like you. What’s this racehorse I see you own?”
    Patsy decided to go along with the change of sub ject. “Ebony Lad? He’s a darling, and he’s done very well this year. He started to come on last fall.