Page 21 of Switching Places

She took a sip of wine. “What about the party?”

“We got sidetracked before we could complete our life histories. Tell me more about yours. We’ve been neighbors for two years, but I don’t know that much about you. Tell me about your family.”

“My family?”

He wanted to know about her family? What had Lily told him? That she had a twin? That she had a sister who never came to visit, but kept in touch through emails and phone calls while Lily rarely dashed off more than a sentence or two in a text, relying on phone calls to keep in touch?

“Family—you know, mother, father, siblings. I know more than I need to about your father. The tabloids and fan magazines keep everyone up to date with the Hollywood crowd. You told me once he divorced your mother ages ago. How about the rest of your family? Do you have any brothers or sisters?”

“Brothers or sisters?”

He leaned back. “Yes, brothers or sisters. Is it too noisy here? Should we go somewhere else?”

“No, this is fine. Yes, I have.”

“What?”

“Brothers and sisters. To be accurate, I have two half-brothers and a half-sister and one other sister. My mother remarried after she and my father split.”

If she had much more wine, she’d be sloshed before dinner, Emma thought, taking another sip to stall, to give herself time to think.

“What about—”

“Sir, I have a table for you.”

The waitress stopped by the table, a wide smile on her face.

Logan nodded and stood, stepping aside for Emma.

She rose, grateful for the interruption. In her effort to escape the inquisition, she swung around the table, giving Logan a wide berth. Unfortunately, her purse caught on the edge of a chair, tipped, and dumped its entire contents on the tiled patio. Brush, lipstick, change purse—and a dozen sample sizes of flavored dental floss.

Chapter Seven

Logan stooped and began to gather the small plastic boxes, reading the labels. Peppermint, cherry, root beer.Root beer?He looked up, arrested by the sight of Lily scrambling around gathering up spilled items. She avoided his eyes as she stuffed comb, lipstick, wallet back into the large handbag.

She held out her hand and Logan slowly stood up, dropping the dental floss onto her palm.

“Floss?” he asked.

Was his brain on a total hiatus? Was he imagining things? Glamorous world traveler Lily Rambeau carrying around a bagful of dental floss?

She turned and followed the waitress, her head held high. But the sway of her hips caught his attention. Rubbing his hands across his burning eyes, he followed, feeling as if he were caught up in the Twilight Zone.

When they’d been seated in a wide booth and a second round of drinks ordered, he ignored the large menu and stared across the booth at Lily who appeared to be trying to hide behind the colorful listing of tonight’s specials.

“Lily, why do you have a dozen or more containers of flavored dental floss in your purse?” he asked.

She peered at him over the edge of the menu.

“Do you think I don’t floss?” she asked.

He shrugged. “To tell the truth, I never gave it any thought. But flavored floss? And so many of them?”

“I got them from my dentist to try. He gives those little boxes away to his patients and wanted my opinion on the flavored ones.”

She ducked behind the menu again.

Logan stared at the barrier she’d erected, totally baffled. His entire impression of Lily Rambeau was undergoing a radical change.

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