“I wouldn’t expect you to do it for free, that is if you had the time to do it.”
“I’ll make the time, and I wouldn’t take your money,” Rainey assured her.
Their host got up to pour himself a cup of coffee. “Why don’t you girls grab a plate of food?”
“Thanks. We’re starving. Oh—before I forget—where did you put Manhattan Merger, Uncle Payne?”
“It’s in my study. Left-hand drawer of my desk.”
“Can I get it now so I won’t forget?”
“Go ahead.”
“Do you like romances, Linda?” Diane inquired as Catherine left the dining room.
After their previous conversation, Rainey had to give the other woman credit for hanging in there. Payne had said his fiancée was a competitor at heart. Rainey believed him.
“I love them,” Linda said. “They’re really fun.”
“How do you mean fun?”
Catherine’s friend found the food she wanted and sat down. “It’s fun to see how two completely different people get together, the problems they have to overcome.”
“Don’t you know that’s one of the big concerns about romances? Our magazine did an in-depth article on them some time ago. It wouldn’t hurt you to read it. Those stories only show the exciting parts of a relationship, and never deal with the ever after.”
“At least the couples in the romances I’ve read get married, Ms. Wylie. In real life a lot of them live together first, and statistics show that more of them break up later and then kill each other or something.”
“Does your mother approve?”
“She doesn’t mind. Mom’s sick of all the violence and sex on TV.”
“Don’t tell me there isn’t a lot of that in those books.”
“Some are graphic, some aren’t. What I like is that the two people are really in love and faithful to each other. There isn’t any violence in them. My grandma says every man should read one so he’d know how to treat a woman better.”
Rainey drained the rest of her juice so she wouldn’t smile.
“Your grandmother reads them?” Diane sounded incredulous.
“Yes. When I had my tonsils out last year she came over and read one to me. That got me started.”
Their host chuckled. “You’re never going to win this argument, Diane.”
“Let me see that novel, Catherine,” she said when Payne’s niece came back in the dining room. Just then his glance slid to Rainey’s. Something was going on with his fiancée. She refused to leave the subject alone.
Catherine handed it to her before hurrying over to the buffet.
“Who wants to go for a sail after we’re through eating?”
“We do!” the girls said at the same time, thrilled over Payne’s suggestion.
“What about you, Diane? It’s a calm sea today.”
“I believe I will come with you.”
“That’s great!” Catherine enthused. “We’ll all get a tan together.”
“Give me a few minutes to get ready.” She pushed her wheelchair away from the table and headed for the hallway.