Skinny Dipping (The Au Pairs 2)

"Hey, isn't that Sugar?" Eliza asked, looking up at the screen from her list of text messages. It was the E! reality show. They were covering the tennis match.

Ryan grunted in a disapproving manner. He was about to

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change the channel when something caught his eye. Eliza saw it too--Mara, in the corner of the screen, staring longingly at something--or someone. And when the camera panned to where she was looking, there was Ryan, sitting in the stands, intently watching the game.

Huh.

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the best things in life are (still) free

"TELL ME THOSE AREN'T REAL!" MEGAN PRACTICALLY

screamed, lunging at Mara's ears as she pulled her hair into a ponytail. "They're the size of ice cubes!"

The day of the benefit fashion show, Mara had received two visitors: her sister Megan, toting a huge battered suitcase and a fifteen-pound bag of makeup, and a brown-uniformed messenger bearing a small black bag. Inside the bag was a velvet case with a pair of ten-carat diamond earrings worth two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, on loan from one of Mitzi's new clients.

Now they were on their way to Jean-Luc East, where Mara was friendly with the owner. "Yup. Nicole Kidman wore them to the Oscars," Mara responded. "I'm supposed to wear them tonight."

After the two were seated at one of the bes

t tables in the restaurant, Mara's sister filled her in on the latest news from Sturbridge--trouble on Dad's construction site, Mom's work at the church rummage sale--but it all sounded so small-town and

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hokey to Mara's ears that she found herself spacing out without meaning to.

"And the Infusium sales rep is so cute!" Megan squealed, getting Mara's attention. Every week the salon got a delivery of beauty products, and the Infusium rep--a nice Irish guy named Bobby O'Donnell--was Megan's current crush.

Mara looked at her sister from behind her oversized Chanel frames: Megan was taller than Mara, with red, curly hair and a loopy Julia-Roberts-like grin. She was fearsomely pretty, whip-smart, and in love with a guy who delivered boxes of shampoo and conditioner for a living. What gave?

"You can do a lot better than Bobby O'Donnell," Mara said, cutting short any more discussion on the beauty product sales rep. She'd forgotten how boring life was back home. Had it always been that way?

After lunch, Mara opened her handbag and left a few bills on the table, dismissing Megan's charge card. "I got paid today," she explained, patting a fat brown envelope.

They spent the rest of the day browsing among the East Hampton shops and then returned to the Perry house in time to get ready for the show. Mara looked at herself in the mirror. She was wearing a skinny Christian Dior evening dress with hand-beaded pearls and a feathered hemline. Scott Barnes, the famous makeup artist, and one of Mitzi's clients, had arrived to do her makeup. He'd attached custom fox-fur lashes to hers, just like he did for J.Lo., and Edward Tricomi, who'd given half of

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Hollywood their shaggy cuts, had personally cut and styled her hair for the evening. On top of that, she was wearing ten carats' worth of flawless ice on each of her earlobes.

Megan came out of the bathroom. "Isn't this the best?" she said. "I got it from Loehmann's!"

She was wearing a Marc Jacobs mod minidress with big plastic buttons and knee-high white go-go boots. It had been a huge hit. . . two seasons ago.

"Why don't you borrow something from me?" Mara asked, motioning to the racks of clothes that were stuffed with the latest fashions. "Really, I don't mind."

"Are you kidding? I bought this especially for tonight!"

Mara groaned. Her outfit practically screamed, "Over," which wasn't exactly what you wanted your fashion show ensemble to say. Mara knew it was wrong, but for the first time, she felt a little embarrassed to be related to her sister.

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don't hate them because they're

beautiful