Skinny Dipping (The Au Pairs 2)

Mara still didn't feel it was totally right to lend Eliza clothes that weren't hers, but she didn't feel like she could really say no.

"So what's going on with you and Garrett?" Eliza asked, changing back into her own clothes. Jacqui handed Eliza a shopping bag for the jeans.

"I like him," Mara said hesitantly. "He's a cool guy. I thought he was just some obnoxious rich kid, but he's not."

"What about Ryan?" Jacqui asked.

"He doesn't even remember that I'm alive," Mara shrugged. The new, aloof Ryan was sure not the sweet boy she remembered from last summer. "So, I don't know. Who cares about him, right?"

Eliza felt relieved. It looked like she could stop worrying about Palm Beach. If Mara had moved on from Ryan, then who cared? Even Jacqui had stopped thinking it was a big deal. Like everyone else in the Hamptons, she'd started to think of Mara as Garrett Reynolds's new girlfriend.

Mara found an outpost of her bank, and after depositing her money met Eliza and Jacqui at the Neiman Marcus Last Call

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store at the outlet mall, where they were browsing through the discounted designer offerings. The place was famous for selling glamorous duds from seasons past at fire-sale prices. Price tags were stamped with color-coded stickers according to date, and the longer they remained unsold, the cheaper they became.

"Check it out!" Eliza giggled, holding up a minuscule orange tube top with a busy multicolored print. "Do you think it's too much?"

"It's definitely loud," Mara agreed.

"But it's Missoni," Eliza said reverently. "And in my size. I'm getting it. It's going to look great with my new jeans," she said, already feeling possessive of the Hershberger denim. She found several other choice pieces--a nifty little white Balenciaga coat dress that didn't look too last-season, and a Yves Saint Laurent lipstick-print skirt with a small black smudge that Eliza was sure a good dry cleaner could get out. Jacqui found a gray Narciso Rodriguez shift and a pair of Christian Dior sunglasses, both at less than half price.

"You're not getting anything?" Eliza asked Mara, as they walked up to the counter. "Did you see the Marc Jacobs flats back there?"

"I have the new ones," Mara said, wiggling her toes in a pair of the designer's

bubble-gum-colored open-toed shoes.

"Oh," Eliza said, feeling a little strange that Mara of all people would be the one with the latest "it" garments. She had thought all along that being associated with Seventh Circle would bring

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her those kinds of perks, but so far, the only bounty she'd scored was a free movie pass to a screening Kartik wasn't interested in.

"I just have so many clothes at home that I haven't even worn yet," Mara sighed as she absently picked up an open perfume bottle near the counter and took a big sniff.

Did Mara not hear how snotty she sounded? "Yeah, I forgot, you're like, the Julia Roberts of the Hamptons," Eliza grumbled, even more ticked when her total at the cash register was more than what was left on her card. "Jac, do you think I could borrow a fifty?"

Jacqui shook her head while handing Eliza the money. Eliza would never change. Give the girl a million bucks and she would still be broke by midweek. Apparently looking like a million cost that much too. Unless you were Mara Waters, of course.

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the world looks

better from atop a pedestal (or a table)

"CAN WE GET ONE OF MARA ONLY?" THE PHOTOGRAPHERS demanded when Garrett and Mara stepped out of the Maybach at the entrance to Seventh Circle late on a Saturday night. Since the Fourth of July, which they'd spent together on the Reynoldses' boat watching fireworks burst above the Atlantic, the two of them had been inseparable.

"Be my guest," Garrett bowed, stepping aside. "She's something else, isn't she?" he asked, as Mara was blinded by flashbulbs.

"You are such a star," he growled in her ear as they settled into their usual table. Even though she'd initially gone out with Garrett only to make Ryan jealous, Mara couldn't help but enjoy his company.

He swung an arm around the back of the booth and put his hand possessively on her shoulder. She snuggled underneath his armpit, liking the feel of his heavy hand on her bare skin. Garrett leaned over for a kiss, settling in to nuzzle his cheek against her neck at the same moment she looked up from the table, straight

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into the eyes of Ryan Perry. He was standing next to Allison, who was waving to Garrett.