Skinny Dipping (The Au Pairs 2)

she and Ryan used to walk and the kids liked to play. It was also home to the piping plover, an endangered bird. Someone had dug a ditch through the fifty-foot beachhead to drain the pond water into the ocean overnight. There were "before" and "after" pictures, and Mara didn't even recognize the swampy mess in the "after" photo.

Ezra Reynolds was named as the prime suspect because he had publicly complained that the pond overflow was disturbing his construction, and he had been denied a permit to legally drain the pond. The article mentioned that those who lived on Georgica Pond "frequently saw themselves as above the law," and that neighbors included Calvin Klein, Martha Stewart, Stephen Spielberg, and Ron Perelman, who had all issued stern denials. The Reynolds contingent was suspiciously mum on the matter.

Mara felt more than a little repulsed. What kind of person-- what kind of family--would be so selfish? Those poor little piping plovers. She picked up the New York Post, immediately turning to Page Six to read their gossipy take on the Pond Drain Mystery. But a different article caught her eye: QUARTER-MIL MISHAP! Mara sat down, swallowing as she read.

Which not-so-wellborn girl who dated one It Boy last year and traded up for an even richer boyfriend this summer was loaned a pair of million-dollar earrings for an event and hasn't bothered to return them?

It was a classic Page Six blind item, except that it went on . . . and on.

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"She said she misplaced them, but I think they're stolen," an anonymous source revealed. "I thought she was a friend of the Perry twins, but she's from some cow town or something." Sugar Perry, when asked for a quote, said only, "So many people claim to be my friend, and I've never met them in my life!"

"Totally," her newly brunette sister Poppy added.

The article did everything but name Mara, although her identity wouldn't be too difficult to figure out from the incriminating details.

"I didn't steal them!" Mara said to the empty kitchen, her face ashen. So that was why the twins hadn't waited for her this morning. They had already written her off. The Daily News had a story about the earring scandal as well, and another gossip columnist lambasted her as a greedy, stealing au pair.

Garrett and the twins' brush-off would only be the first of many, she knew. Mara had never felt so deflated and rejected in her life.

It was raining hard when Jacqui returned from her SAT class late that night to find a shadowy figure on the lawn, holding an umbrella and combing the grass with a flashlight. Poor Mara. Even if Jacqui was still mad at her, it still made her sad to watch Mara searching the grass in the middle of a downpour. A flash of lightning lit up the sky, and Jacqui realized the figure was too tall to be Mara.

It was Ryan.

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"Hey," Jacqui said, calling to him. "What are you doing?" "Oh, hi, Jacqui," Ryan said, pointing his flashlight in her direction. "I lost my, uh, contact lens and I was looking for it." "I didn't know you wore contacts," Jacqui said. Ryan shrugged, and Jacqui smiled sadly. If only Mara knew how much Ryan Perry still loved her.

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the piping plovers have

never been so popular

ALLAN WHITMAN AND KARTIK COULDN'T RESIST A CHANCE for publicity, and the weekend after the pond scandal, they quickly put together a benefit party for the homeless plovers at Seventh Circle.

Eliza found Jacqui in the middle of the crowd and hugged her. It was the first time that summer Jacqui had set foot in Seventh Circle, and she was impressed with the way Eliza controlled the crowd and worked the room. Neither of them mentioned how hurt they were by Mara, but they both knew what the other was thinking.

Eliza saw Ryan come in and walked over to his side. They hadn't seen each other in a week, and in that time, she had stopped being angry about the friends-with-benefits thing and had started wanting to be actual friends again.

"Hey," she said, bumping an arm on his shoulder.

Ryan managed a smile. "Hey, yourself."

She kissed him on the cheek, brushing the corner of his l

ips by accident. "I'm sorry about the other night," she said.

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"I'm sorry too," Ryan said. "I didn't realize ... I mean, I want to say, I really do care about you, Eliza. And I don't know what I was saying. I mean . . . you know you're more than a friend to me. We can be a couple if that's what you want."

"I know," Eliza said.

Ryan held out his arms and Eliza stepped into them. She nestled her head on his shoulder and he tightened his arm around her waist. It should have been enough, but it wasn't. Because just then, across the room, she spotted Jeremy and Lindsay walking into the VIP room.

Jeremy had slicked his dark hair back and was wearing a brown cashmere sport jacket and dark denim jeans. Lindsay had her arm snaked around him in a vise grip and was looking up at him adoringly. He bent down to whisper something in her ear, and Lindsay laughed as if she'd never heard anything funnier in her life. Eliza's heart clenched.