Fic - DWP - Like Family Pt 9
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“Wow!” Cassidy’s eyes bugged out when she saw the playground equipment in the park. “This is great!” The area was landscaped. A huge section marked with a low brick wall was filled with sand and standing proudly in the middle was an incredibly intricate looking structure made with wooden planks and strong ropes; the nets and bridges seemed endless.
Caroline didn’t seem quite as excited.
Andy laughed. “Man, you girls are so lucky. C’mere.” She beckoned them closer and pulled a small bottle of sunscreen from her purse. Dabbing bits on each of their cheeks and noses, she watched them spread the goo evenly over their faces. “They didn’t have anything like this when I was growing up.” Andy nodded as they put the excess from their fingers on the backs of their ears and gave them a bit more for the backs of their necks. Winking at them, she gestured for them to go on and play. “We’ll be here in the shade watching you, okay?”
“Yeah!” Cassidy grabbed Caroline’s hand and began to drag her toward the play area. “C’mon, this looks like so much fun.”
“I’m going to get splinters!” Caroline fussed. Even though the structure looked kinda fun, she knew wood had splinters and rope often had those prickly bits that scraped your skin.
“Oh, you are not!” Cassidy rolled her eyes. “They wouldn’t build it if it gave kids splinters.” They were close enough now that she rubbed her hand along one wooden plank. “See… smooth as glass.”
Caroline relented and followed her sister up the small set of steps to the first bridge.
Miranda watched as her daughter’s started to explore the playground structure then studied the park with some amount of interest. “This area is quite lovely.”
“Yeah.” Andy looked around. “It never seems to be, when you are growing up, but after you leave for a while and come back you see it with different eyes.”
“Mmmm…” Miranda nodded and spoke quietly. “You can never go home, is what they say. I think they mean once you leave, home just really isn’t the same anymore.”
“You’re my home, Miranda.” She watched the girls playing on the updated playground. “And I’ll never leave you.” The silence on her left almost made her turn to look, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to see Miranda’s face at the moment. There were too many expressions the older woman could be making and Andy knew almost all of them would cause tears to flow. As it turned out, tears began anyway as a petite, elegant hand slipped into her own.
“I don’t deserve that kind of loyalty.” Miranda sighed. “But thank you.”
Lacing her fingers with Miranda’s, Andy brought the hand up and kissed the back of it. “You do deserve it.” She dared glance into shimmering blue eyes and squeezed the hand in hers, gently, for emphasis. “You most certainly do.”
Unwilling to mar the moment with much needed discussion, Miranda watched the girls, felt the presence of Andrea at her side and thought. This is, she thought, a perfect moment. Turning to look at her lover’s profile, blue eyes blinked at the insane beauty she saw there. A perfect moment, because of her, my Andrea.
Andy knew there were so many things they should be discussing, but she simply couldn’t bring herself to talk about anything at the moment. So she sat, on the bench in the park, holding Miranda’s hand and listening to the sound of their children at play. I’m so lucky… She sighed in contentment. How perfect is this?
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Both women watched as the girls ran full pelt toward the bench.
“We’re thirsty.”
Andy looked around but didn’t see any water fountain, she was sure there was one, but she looked at her watch. “We’ve been here a while.” She glanced at Miranda. “You guys wanna go find something to drink and maybe shop a bit?” Caroline’s eyes lit up, and Miranda’s showed a spark of wary interest.
Cassidy shrugged. “Okay, I guess so.” She was thirsty enough to agree to just about anything at this point, so long as she got something to drink in the process.
“I know there’s a Macy’s not too far from here.” Andy nudged Miranda with her shoulder. “Won’t it be interesting to go shopping?”
“That will depend entirely on if anyone recognizes me.” Miranda shrugged at Andy’s snort of disbelief.
“Recognize you? In Cincinnati?”
“You actually believe that there won’t be at least one person in Macy’s that reads Runway?” Miranda sighed. “My picture in on the editorial page, you know.”
“True.” Running her fingers through her hair, Andy asked seriously. “Would you rather not try?”
Miranda exhaled slowly as watched the disappointment begin to show on Caroline’s face. “No,” Miranda pushed herself up off the bench. “We can go.” What’s the worst that could happen? She thought and quickly squelched the answer from forming.
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“Ohhh… look at this one!” Caroline pulled the dress off the rack and held it up against her front. “What do you think, Mom?”
Miranda eyed the lines of the dress thoughtfully. “Acceptable.”
“Excuse me, ladies.” An impeccably dressed man approached them. “The store will be closing in fifteen minutes, so if you would, please finish your selections and make your way to the front checkout registers.”
Andy pressed her lips together and tried not to laugh as Miranda regarded the man much like a scientist would look at a bug about to be dissected.
Miranda’s tone was calm, and her words precise. “This store will close when my daughters are finished shopping and not one second sooner.” She turned back to the girls, well Caroline at least, happily looking through the racks. Cassidy didn’t seem to have much interest in any of the offerings.
“Um… pardon me, but we have very strict hours.” He wasn’t sure what to make of the white-haired woman, especially when she turned her gaze back to him for a long moment, then spoke to the young woman accompanying her.
“Andrea, take care of this please?”
Andy winked and pulled her blackberry phone from her purse as she took the man by the arm and led him away. “I think we should talk in your office.”
He wasn’t wearing a nametag, but he obviously worked there, so he was either the manager, or head of security, either way he’d have an office. Andy nodded to herself as he led her to a door marked Manager. Once inside, she told him who Miranda was, asking for his discretion since she was on vacation with her daughters.
The manager explained to her that it was determined that this store operated best on these hours and they didn’t start staying open later until school was out for the summer. At this time of year they closed at five pm on weekdays.
Sighing Andy scrolled through the contacts in her phone and found the one she was looking for. Punching the connect button, she held up one finger for him to wait while she made the call. She hoped they were still in the office.
“Susan Kronick’s office.”
“Hi Patty, it’s…um… Andrea Sachs… calling on behalf of Miranda Priestly.”
“Andy!? Wow, I thought she fired you?”
Laughing, Andy shook her head, even though the woman couldn’t see it. “Long story. I’m helping her out for the next few weeks.”
“Where’s Emily?”
“Oh… she’s back in New York, holding down the fort.” Andy bit her lip. “That’s kinda why I’m calling. Miranda is on the road, currently she’s in Cincinnati and I’m standing in the office of the Manager of Macy’s here.” Andy explained to Patty the problem and asked if there was any way to ‘convince’ him to let Miranda and the girls shop a while longer; even though it was a corporate policy to close strictly on time.
“Oh… I think we can do that.” Patty assured her. “Hold on just a sec.” Within a minute Patty was back on the phone. She asked which Macy’s and Andy told her their location. “I’m dialing now… hold on.”
The phone on the Manager’s desk rang and Andy could hear Patty’s distant, professional, voice through the phone in her ear. “Please hold for Susan Kronick.” Andy watched as the man’s face paled. “Thanks Patty, you’re a life-saver.”
“No worries, Andy.” The assistant to the woman in charge of Macy’s department store division laughed. “Even I know not to get Miranda Priestly angry at Macy’s…” She whispered, “And Ms. Kronick won’t deny her, because if she did, Miranda would just go up the line to Thomas or Terry… and if she made it all the way to the CEO…” Patty left that threat hanging and Andy laughed.
It wouldn’t have gone that far, Andy knew, she’d met Tom Cole at some of the charity events she’d covered for The Mirror. He’d have fixed the problem before it got all the way to the CEO, but if he’d have been out of the office and it had gone farther...
“Yeah, not a pretty picture.” Andy grinned at the Manager who must be getting an earful, because he wasn’t saying a word into the phone, only nodding. “Thanks for your help anyway.”
“Sure.” Patty sounded like she was smiling. “Have a great evening.”
“Yup.” Andy grinned. “You too. Bye now.” Hanging up the phone, Andy waited for the man to finish being yelled at.
“Yes, yes ma’am, I understand.” He hung up the phone and blinked. “Uh… you can tell your boss they can stay as long as they want.”
Andy smiled. My boss. She nodded. “Okay, thank you.” She scrolled through her blackberry contacts again and dialed the number of her favorite New York florist. Tomorrow morning Patty was getting a huge bouquet from Miranda.
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Andy approached the trio and raised her eyebrows at the dress Cassidy was dubiously holding up to her. “Oh… nice one Cass.”
Conscious of the security cameras, Andy stopped herself from kissing Miranda on the cheek, but grinned as she delivered the results of her ‘talk’ with the Manager. “Shop as long as you want to, Boss.”
Rolling her eyes, Miranda almost, almost grinned at the term then took on a haughty attitude. “Of course.”
Laughing at that, Andy turned to watch the children happily looking through the racks, oblivious to the fact that their mother had just changed the policy of a huge corporation, for them.
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“Hey…”
“Where are you?”
“um.. yeah, sorry Mom… we’re at Macy’s the girls are shopping and we lost track of time.” She glanced at her watch and winced. Quarter after five.
I thought they closed at five. Dottie did some quick calculations in her head. “I can hold dinner until six-thirty.”
Andy sighed. “Well… thing is, the girls are looking at dresses and I dunno how long we’ll be.”
“I thought they closed at five this month.”
“Well…not today…”
Dottie wasn’t sure why Andy didn’t seem to think business hours applied to her. There had been at least three people from her church complaining about being pushed out the door at closing time, that store just didn’t stay open past five.
Andy sighed. “They won’t close until Miranda is finished shopping.” She glanced over at her family, gauging the level of interest. “Can you hold dinner until seven-thirty?” There was silence on the other end. “Mom? You still there?”
“Yes.”
“We’ll be there as soon as we can.” Andy promised.
“Okay Sweetie.”
Andy gave the phone a funny look, as if she could see her Mother on the screen and figure out why the woman sounded so weird. Shrugging, she tucked the Blackberry back in her purse and perused the ear-ring selection while the girls continued their hunt for the perfect accessories to complement their dress selections.
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Richard and Dorothy again met their daughter as if she were a visitor in their home.
Andy inhaled deeply and smiled as she hugged her mom. “Yum…roast. Thanks for holding dinner for us, Ma. It smells great.”
Dottie returned the hug. “It will be finished in a few minutes.”
Richard hugged his daughter quickly. “Let’s go to the living room while we wait.”
They all went in and took the same seats they’d had earlier.
“Mom,” Caroline asked Miranda. “Can I go outside and play basketball for a while?”
“Me too?” Cassidy asked hopefully.
Chad saw the opportunity to make his escape. “I can go out with them.” He stood. “We don’t have all that long before supper anyway, but we could play for a few minutes.”
“Very well.” Miranda nodded to her children and gave the young man a smile. “Thank you.”
Winking, Chad guided the girls out of the room.
“So,” Dottie leaned back and crossed her arms in front of her. “How did you manage to stay at Macy’s after hours? They have a very strict closing policy.” She glared at Miranda. “Several people from my church have actually been pushed out of the store so that they could close on time. It’s impossible to stay after hours.”
Miranda regarded the confrontational woman calmly. “I asked Andrea to handle it, and she did.” She turned to smile at her partner. “I’ve found that Andrea can often manage the impossible.”
Andy nudged shoulders with Miranda. “Thanks, Boss.”
“Boss?” Richard narrowed his eyes at his daughter.
“It’s a nickname.” Andy laughed. “It’s just about the only one I think I’d be able to get away with.”
“I always knew you were intelligent.” Miranda slid her arm around Andy’s, noticing Richard look away from the gesture.
“So,” Dottie turned to her daughter. “Explain how you managed it.”
Andy shrugged. “When the manager wouldn’t listen to reason, I made a phone call.”
“Reason?” Dottie looked skeptical.
Nodding, Andy told her the story. “When I explained to him who Miranda was, and he still didn’t understand that he needed to stay open, I called someone who could tell him to.”
“Who did you call Andrea, Thomas?”
“Nah… I called Susan’s office.” Andy ran her fingers through her hair. “I know Patty better than I do Tom’s assistant.” She redirected her attention to her Mom. “I called the assistant to the woman on the Board of Directors in charge of Macy’s Department Store Division. She explained the problem to her boss and the boss in turn called the manager of the store we were shopping in and voila, Miranda and the girls got to shop.”
“What makes you so special?” Dottie glared at Miranda. “Why should you get to break the rules?”
“Mom.” Andy spoke quietly. “Miranda is special. She is special to the fashion industry because of the position she holds at Runway. The decisions she makes there effect millions of dollars and countless jobs. There is no way I would ever be able to explain all the reasons she is special to me, but if there is anything I can do to give her just a bit of happiness, I will.” She felt a tiny tightening around her arm and leaned closer to her love. “She works all the time. All the time, do you understand? No breaks, no time off… the only time she ever takes off is if the girls, or I, need something. As Editor-in-Chief at Runway it is impossible for her to shop in public and so she never gets to shop with the girls. You can gripe about it all you want, but I’m glad I had a part in making that happen tonight.”
Dorothy’s forehead wrinkled even more than it normal. She dismissed all the other blabbering her daughter had done and focused on what was important to her. “You don’t take your daughters shopping?” Those were some of her favorite memories, taking Andy shopping.
The timer went off on the stove and Dottie stood, pushing herself off the chair with a slight grunt. “Dinner will be ready shortly.” She put her hand on her husband’s shoulder. “Would you please escort Miranda to the dining room?” She turned to her daughter. “Go let Chad and the girls know to come in and wash up…then come back and help me set the table.”
“Sure Mom.” Andy untangled her arm from Miranda’s and stood, automatically holding her hand out for Miranda to assist her up from her seat.
Miranda glanced at the hand and rose smoothly from her sitting position without touching anything with her hands. She smiled at the man who very courteously offered her his elbow.
“Shall we?”
Andy watched as her father linked arms with her partner, stiffly walking with the older woman to the dining room. Odd. She couldn’t think about it for long because her mom was already in the kitchen so she went quickly to complete her task and help with serving the meal.
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“Your wife seems to have several problems with me.” Miranda commented as he politely pulled her chair out for her. “Your son is trying to deal with whatever issue he has with me.” She watched him settle into his customary seat at the end of the table carefully. “I get the idea you haven’t decided exactly what to think of all this but you do have a major issue with me as well...”
“Dot worries.” He sighed. “She does have concerns...”
Obviously. Miranda thought then spoke. “And you?”
“I’m trying to reconcile how terrified Andy was of you when she was working for you, with how she interacts with you now,” He lied.
Well, she thought. That is something to consider. She knew it went deeper than that though and she waited for him to continue.
He fiddled with his silverware for a moment, unwilling to look at the woman. “She, Andy, slammed a taxi door in my face once, because of you.”
“Excuse me?”
“You were stuck in Florida and wanted to come home… Andy was frantic trying to find a way to get you back to New York.” He shrugged. “She thought she was going to get fired, or murdered, because she couldn’t find any pilot willing to fly into a hurricane to get you.”
“She was,” Miranda confessed. “I was very angry that I’d missed my daughter’s recital.” Miranda knew the truth and admitted. “Anyone else would have been fired.”
“You were… even then?” He ground his teeth together; the thought of them together making him a little nauseous. “While she worked for you?”
“No… definitely not.” Miranda assured him. “I was still married at that point, and I would never do anything inappropriate with an assistant.” She exhaled softly. “We didn’t begin an actual relationship until much later… after my divorce… after she left Runway.” It was almost a lie. She knew how she’d felt about Andrea the entire time the young woman had worked for her. She knew if she’d been given the right opportunity, things might have been… different. “I love your daughter, Mr. Sachs.” She gave him a glare that made most Runway employees shake. “Nothing will change that.” Her voice lowered and intensified the next word. “Nothing.”
Richard nodded. There was nothing he could say to that; he only knew that he felt the same. He loved Andy and nothing would change that. Not even… he swallowed against the bile rising in his throat and tried to smile at the guest in his home.
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“This looks great, Ma.”
Dorothy regarded her daughter’s thinness. “Guess it’s been a while since you’ve had a home cooked meal.”
“Mom.” Andy began but then the girls and Chad stomped in through the backdoor. Caroline’s eyes widened.
“Wow!” She regarded the roast with awe. “That’s huge!”
Cassidy agreed. “Peggy never makes them that big!”
Andy pressed her lips together and her eyes closed for the length of her sigh. “Peggy only cooks for four.” She spoke logically. “There are seven of us tonight.” She gave her Mom a little smile. “And Mom knows I love beef stew made from the leftovers.” She bumped the woman gently with her hip. “Is that part of my birthday meal?”
Dottie smiled. “That was the plan.”
Andy winked at the girls. “Why don’t you guys go wash up? Your Mom is already in the dining room.”
“C’mon girls.” Chad gestured for them to follow him. “I’ll show you where the bathroom is.”
Dorothy barely waited for the trio to leave the kitchen before turning on her daughter. “Peggy?”
With a deep breath, Andy nodded. “The cook…housekeeper.”
Dottie opened her mouth, but then her jaw snapped closed and she shook her head. “Help me get this to the table.”
Without another word, Andy picked up the side dish bowls and carried them into the dining room.
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Chad laughed as the young trio entered the dining room. “Remind me never to play basketball with these guys again… they kick my butt.”
Miranda smiled at her daughters as they took their seats at the table. “They are rather competitive.” She heard the footsteps approaching and cleared her throat, speaking clearly as first Dorothy and then Andrea appeared. “It’s probably Andrea’s fault.”
A furrow appeared between her mother’s eyes but Andy laughed. “Great, what am I being blamed for now?” She grinned at Miranda. “Earth rotating too fast for you?”
Miranda laughed, and everyone at the table was amazed at the sound of amusement in the older woman’s voice. “Yes!” She winked at her young partner. “I believe it should be moving slightly slower. See to it, will you?”
Nodding, Andy set the dishes on the table and moved to sit next to Miranda. “Yep… I’ll get right on that.” She reached for a serving dish when Dottie cleared her throat. “Oh,” she sighed. “Sorry.” Andy placed her hands in her lap and bowed her head as Dottie said Grace. She noticed that Miranda did not bow her head, nor did the girls, but they all remained quiet and respectful, for which Andy was truly grateful.
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“This is delicious, Dot.” Richard smiled at his wife.
“It is quite good.” Miranda nodded.
Dorothy practically sneered. “I don’t suppose it’s as good as your cook could make it.”
She hates that I’m rich. How odd. Miranda thought, then decided to have a little fun. “No doubt any of them would be able to make it taste as good or better.” She relented when she saw the pleading look in Andy’s eyes, smiled and smoothly continued. “But none of them would make it with as much love.” She tilted her head at the chef. “Thank you.”
Dottie opened her mouth to speak, snapped her jaw shut and shook her head before answering quietly, “You’re welcome.”
“It was really good.” Caroline wiped her mouth and pushed her plate a little away from her. “I liked the carrots, not mushy like Peggy had them last time.”
Cassidy nodded. “Yeah, and the potatoes didn’t fall to little bits off the fork either.” She also pushed her plate away.
Andy spoke quietly to the girls. “It was because Peggy was busy that day. She put everything in the crockpot and let it cook, instead of adding the veggies later.”
“I don’t remember that,” Miranda commented, took one last bite of carrot, leaving just a little bit on her plate, then copied the girls, pushing the plate slightly away from her.
“You had a dinner to go to.” Andy said. “James Holt, I think.” She shrugged. “Peggy had a dental appointment that afternoon, so I came home early from work to be there when the girls got home from school.” She smiled at Miranda. “No biggie.”
“You missed work to watch the girls?” Dorothy was appalled. “What did your boss say?!”
“I believe he said ‘See ya tomorrow’.” Andy laughed. “Mom, I’m a reporter, writer, I can do my job from anywhere as long as I have a laptop and internet access.” She shrugged. “I don’t have to be sitting at my desk at the office to write, heck… I finished one article on the plane here.” Then she grimaced, she shouldn’t have brought up the plane.
“Weren’t you afraid of someone reading it over your shoulder?” Dottie was intrigued. “Richard is always saying he can’t really do any work on the planes, because of other people watching.”
He agreed. This, at least, was a safe topic. “Even when I fly first class, there isn’t exactly room to work.”
“Well…. Um…” Andy didn’t know exactly how to tell them.
Miranda helped, straightforward as always. “It was a private plane.”
Chad’s eyes widened. “Whoa… you have a plane?!”
“No,” Miranda smiled at the young man. “I have friends who have planes.”
“Someone let you borrow their plane?” Dorothy was completely amazed by that.
“She wasn’t using it.” Miranda was completely casual about the whole thing.
“She?” That made Richard a little nervous. Who was this ‘she’ that Miranda was close enough to that she would lend her plane. How many women does this woman… know??
“Yeah,” Andy sighed. “It’s um… Donnatella Versace’s plane.”
“You know um...her… well enough for her to lend you her plane?” Chad was intrigued.
Andy laughed. “Miranda knows everyone well enough for them to lend her anything she wants. No one can refuse Miranda.”
Dorothy narrowed her eyes. “So you get her plane and she gets to be in your magazine, is that it?”
Andy snorted and it was Miranda’s turn to laugh. “Not at all. No one gets their designs featured in Runway unless they are what I want in Runway.” She glanced at Andrea and her laugh turned to a mere wicked grin. “I can tell you that the issue after Paris put Christian Dior and Christian Lacroix on the alert. They would have done pretty much anything to get on the pages of Runway…” She watched Andy’s eyes widen. She patted the young woman’s arm. “I made it up to them, the next month seventy five percent of the magazine was dedicated to their designs.”
“Mr. Garavani was just happy you liked the Paris show,” Andy smiled. “He’s such a nice man.”
“Who’s that?” Richard asked happy the conversation shifted to a man his daughter knew.
“Valentino Garavani.” Miranda smiled. “He creates quite a few pieces for me personally, but I’ve always found his designs delightful.”
“Valentino.” Dorothy echoed quietly.
Chad was laughing now. “Great, my sister is hob nobbing with the rich and famous, flying on private planes, and living in a million dollar house with servants…”
“Twelve.” Miranda corrected absently.
“What?” Chad stopped laughing.
“Huh?” Andy turned toward Miranda. “Twelve?”
Nodding once, Miranda took a sip of her water. “After the divorce I thought I might like a change, I had the house appraised, in preparation for sale. The number they gave me was twelve…million, not one.”
Andy willed herself to keep a straight face, and keep breathing. Twelve million? Geez, I knew one sounded a little low, but twelve?! It was a daunting thought, but then she laughed. “Well, it is a nice house.”
“Yes,” Miranda agreed. “It’s perfect for us. I’m glad I didn’t sell it.”
“Me too!” Caroline was shocked. “I love our house.”
Miranda rolled her eyes. “I certainly would have discussed it with you if I’d decided to actually sell it.”
“Discussed it? With the children?” Dorothy didn’t think that sounded right.
“Of course,” Miranda regarded the woman in surprise. “It’s their home too.”
Andy rolled her eyes. “Mom doesn’t believe children have any rights when it comes to their own lives.”
Chad snorted. “Amen to that.” He couldn’t count the number of times they’d been told what was going to happen, not asked, not discussed with… just told ‘this is how it’s going to be’.
“Children need boundaries.” Dottie said. “They can’t be allowed to make decisions for adults. It’s the adults that make the decisions for them. It’s up to the parents to do what’s best for their children.”
“I agree.” Miranda smiled at the surprise on Dottie’s face. “We teach them what they need to know to make their own way in the world, then we have to let them do it. The girls know that when they turn eighteen they’re going to have to earn their own living.” She chuckled. “Well, not exactly on their own, and not exactly that soon.” She leveled a look at her children. “I will, of course, pay for their schooling, but it’s up to them to learn something useful and make a living for themselves after that.”
Dottie looked at the twin heads nodding. “You want that?”
“Oh yes,” they said in chorus.
“What will you do?” Dorothy was appalled that Miranda would raise the girls in an environment of such luxury and then just toss them out onto the street.
Both girls shrugged and Cassidy spoke. “We’re only eleven, we still have time to decide.”
Andrea and Miranda glanced at each other, knowing both girls knew exactly what they wanted to do when they got older. Cassidy was totally enamored with the theater and film; sound design especially. Helping the drama instructor at their school had only given her an appetite for more. Caroline was very much going to follow in her mother’s footsteps. She’d told them both in no uncertain terms that she was going to go into publishing and, when she got the chance, was fascinated watching Miranda with The Book.
Andy noticed that everyone was finished with their meals. “Maybe we should go back into the living room for a while?”
“Oh,” Dottie spoke up. “I made dessert.”
Richard and Chad’s faces lit up, but Andy, Miranda, Caroline and Cassidy waved off the suggestion all with similar murmured comments. “I’m stuffed”, “I couldn’t possibly”, “No way”, and “Perhaps later”.
Dorothy wasn’t inclined to believe them, most of the meal on their plates were gone, but they hadn’t taken much in the first place. “Okay then, maybe later.” She stood and began to clear the plates, gesturing to Andy for help.
“Can we go upstairs and play with the dolls some more?” Both girls looked hopefully at their Mother.
Miranda turned to Andy and raised an eyebrow. “Andrea?”
Surprised at being asked, Andy shrugged. “Sure.” She watched as the girls clambered up the stairs.
“I think I’ll just step outside for some fresh air,” Miranda said casually.
Andy grinned and spoke quietly as the white-haired woman moved away from the table. “Tell Nigel I said hi.” She watched as Miranda stumbled a bit and looked back over her shoulder with an unreadable expression. Andy just grinned. “Busted.”
Rolling her eyes, Miranda chuckled and continued out the door.
“Busted?” Richard didn’t understand what Andy had caught the woman doing.
Laughing, Andy piled the dirty plates on top of each other. “She’s going to call the guy she left in charge at Runway, to see how things are going. They have explicit instructions not to call her, but she can call them.” They walked into the kitchen. “I have to say I’m surprised she’s waited this long.”
On to Part 10
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