by Joy Fielding
Jeff and Tom had been best friends since high school, the two men enlisting in the army together, serving several tours of duty in Afghanistan. Jeff had come home a hero; Tom had come back disgraced, having been dishonorably discharged for an unprovoked assault on an innocent civilian. That was all she really knew about their time over there, Kristin realized. Neither Jeff nor Tom would talk about it.
She deposited the rose-pink martini on the round wooden table in front of the dark-haired young woman, casually studying her flawless, if pale, complexion. Was that a bruise on her chin?
The woman handed her a rumpled twenty-dollar bill. “Keep the change,” she said quietly, turning away before Kristin could thank her.
Kristin quickly pocketed the money and returned to the bar, the ankle straps of her high-heeled silver sandals chafing against her bare skin. The men were now placing bets on who could balance a peanut on his nose the longest. Tom should win that one, hands down, she thought. His nose boasted a natural ridge at its tip that the others lacked. Jeff’s nose was narrow and straight, as handsomely chiseled as the rest of him, while Will’s was wider and slightly crooked, which only added to his air of wounded vulnerability. Why so wounded? she wondered, deciding he probably took after his mother.
Jeff, on the other hand, looked exactly like his father. She knew that because she’d stumbled across an old photograph of the two of them when she was cleaning out a bedroom drawer, just after she’d moved in, about a year ago. “Who’s this?” she’d asked, hearing Jeff come up behind her and pointing at the picture of a rugged-looking man with wavy hair and a cocky grin, his large forearm resting heavily on the shoulder of a solemn-faced young boy.
Jeff had snatched it from her hand and returned it to the drawer. “What are you doing?”
“Just trying to make room for some of my things,” she’d said, purposely ignoring the tone in his voice that warned her to back off. “Is that you and your dad?”
“Yeah.”
“Thought so. You look just like him.”
“That’s what my mother always said.” With that, he’d slammed the drawer closed and left the room.
“Ha, ha—I win!” shouted Tom now, raising his fist in the air in triumph as the peanut Jeff had been balancing on his nose dribbled past his mouth and chin and dropped to the floor.
“Hey, Kristin,” Jeff said, his voice just tight enough to reveal how much he hated losing, even at something as insignificant as this. “What’s happening with those grenade martinis?”
“Pomegranate,” Will corrected, then immediately wished he hadn’t. A bolt of anger, like lightning, flashed through Jeff’s eyes.
“What the hell is a pomegranate anyway?” Tom asked.
“It’s a red fruit, hard shell, tons of seeds, lots of antioxidants,” Kristin answered. “Supposedly very good for you.” She deposited the first of the pale rose-colored martinis on the bar in front of them.
Jeff lifted the glass to his nose and sniffed at it suspiciously.
“What’s an antioxidant?” Tom asked Will.
“Why are you asking him?” Jeff snapped. “He’s a philosopher, not a scientist.”
“Enjoy,” Kristin said, placing the other two martinis on the counter.
Jeff held up his glass, waited for Tom and Will to do the same. “To the winner,” he said. All three men promptly threw back their heads, gulping at the liquid as if gasping for air.
“Done,” Jeff whooped, lowering his glass to the bar in triumph.
“Christ, that’s awful stuff,” said Tom with a grimace half a second later. “How do people drink this shit?”
“What’d you think, little brother?” Jeff asked as Will swallowed the last of his drink.
“Not half-bad,” Will said. He liked it when Jeff referred to him as his little brother, even though, strictly speaking, they were only half brothers. Same father, different mothers.
“Not half-good either,” Jeff was saying now, with a wink at no one in particular.
“She seems to be enjoying it.” Tom nodded toward the brunette in the corner.
“Makes you wonder what else she enjoys,” Jeff said.
Will found himself staring at the woman’s sad eyes. He knew they were sad, even from this distance and in this light, because of the way she was leaning her head against the wall and looking off into space, her gaze aimless and unfocused. He realized that she was prettier than he’d first suspected, albeit in a conventional sort of way. Not strikingly beautiful like Kristin, with her emerald green eyes, a model’s high cheekbones, and voluptuous figure. No, this woman’s looks tilted more toward the ordinary. Pretty, for sure, but lacking sharpness. Her eyes were her only truly distinguishing feature. They were big and dark, probably a deep-water blue. She looks as if she has profound thoughts, Will was thinking as he watched a man approach her, experiencing an unexpected wave of relief when he saw her shake her head and turn him away. “What do you think her story is?” he heard himself ask out loud.
“Maybe she’s the jilted lover of a British prince,” posited Jeff, downing what was left of his beer. “Or maybe she’s a Russian spy.”
Tom laughed. “Or maybe she’s just a bored housewife looking for a little action on the side. Why? You interested?”
Was he? Will wondered. It had been a long time since he’d had any kind of girlfriend. Since Amy, he thought, shuddering at the memory of the way that had turned out. “Just curious,” he heard himself say.
“Hey, Krissie,” Jeff called out, leaning his elbows on the bar and beckoning Kristin toward him. “What can you tell me about the pomegranate lady?” He pointed with his square jaw toward the table in the corner.
“Not much. First time I saw her was a few days ago. She comes in, sits in the corner, orders pomegranate martinis, tips very well.”
“Is she always alone?”
“Never noticed anyone with her. Why?”
Jeff shrugged playfully. “I was thinking maybe the three of us could get better acquainted. What do you say?”
Will found himself holding his breath.
“Sorry,” he heard Kristin answer, and only then was he able to release the tight ball of air trapped in his lungs. “She’s not really my type. But, hey, you go for it.”
Jeff smiled, exposing the two glistening rows of perfect teeth that not even the dust of Afghanistan had been able to dull. “Is it any wonder I love this girl?” he asked his companions, both of whom nodded in wonderment, Tom wishing Lainey could be more like Kristin in that regard—hell, in every regard, if he was being honest—and Will pondering, not for the first time since his arrival ten days earlier, what was really going on in Kristin’s head.
Not to mention his own.
Maybe Kristin was simply wise beyond her years, accepting Jeff for who he was, without trying to change him or pretend things were otherwise. Clearly, they had an arrange ment they were comfortable with, even if he wasn’t.
“I have an idea,” Jeff was saying. “Let’s have a bet.”
“On what?” Tom asked.
“On who can be the first to get into Miss Pomegranate’s panties.”
“What?” Tom’s guffaw shook the room.
“What are you talking about?” asked Will impatiently.
“A hundred bucks,” Jeff said, laying two fifties on the countertop.
“What are you talking about?” Will asked again.
“It’s simple. There’s an attractive young woman sitting all by herself in the corner, just waiting for Prince Charming to hit on her.”
“I think that might be a contradiction in terms,” Kristin said.
“Maybe all she wants is to be left alone,” Will offered.
“What woman comes to a place like the Wild Zone by herself hoping to be left alone?”
Will had to admit Jeff’s question made sense.
“So, we go over there, we chat her up, we see which one of us she lets take her home. A hundred bucks says it’s me.”
“You’re on.�
� Tom fished inside his pocket, eventually coming up with two twenties and a pile of ones. “I’m good for the rest,” he said, sheepishly.
“Speaking of home,” Kristin interrupted, looking directly at Tom, “shouldn’t you be heading back there? You don’t want a repeat of last time, do you?”
In truth, Kristin was the one who didn’t want a repeat of last time. Lainey was as formidable a force as her husband when she was angry, and she wasn’t too proud to wake up half the city when it came to ferreting out her errant husband’s whereabouts.
“Lainey’s got nothing to worry about tonight,” Jeff said confidently. “Miss Pomegranate’s not going to be interested in his bony ass.” He turned toward Will. “You in?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Oh, come on. Don’t be a spoilsport. What’s the matter? Afraid you’ll lose?”
Will glanced back at the woman, who was still staring off into space, although he noticed she’d finished her drink. Why hadn’t he just told his brother he was interested? Was he interested? And was Jeff right? Was he afraid of losing? “Do you accept credit cards?”
Jeff laughed and slapped him on the shoulder. “Spoken like a true Rydell. Daddy would be very proud.”
“How are we going to do this exactly?” Tom asked, bristling at all this newfound brotherly camaraderie. During the almost two decades he and Jeff had been friends, Will had been nothing but a thorn in his brother’s side. He wasn’t even a real brother, for shit’s sake, just a half brother who was as unwanted as he was unloved. Jeff had had nothing to do with him, hadn’t spoken to or about him in years. And then, ten days ago, Will showed up on his doorstep out of the blue, and all of a sudden it’s “little brother” this and “little brother” that, and it was enough to make you puke. Tom gave Will his broadest smile, wishing “little brother” would pack his bags and go back to Princeton. “I mean, we don’t want it to look like we’re ambushing her.”
“Who said anything about an ambush? We just go over there, thank her for introducing us to the pleasures of vodka-laced antioxidants, and offer to buy her another.”
“I have a better idea,” offered Kristin. “Why don’t I go over, chat her up for a few minutes, and try to feel her out, see if she’s interested.”
“Find out her name anyway,” Will said, trying to think of a way to extricate himself from the situation without embarrassing himself or alienating his brother.
“How much do you want to bet her name starts with a J?” Tom asked.
“Five dollars says it doesn’t,” Jeff said.
“More names start with J than any other letter.”
“There are still twenty-five more letters in the alphabet,” Will said. “I’m with Jeff on this one.”
“Of course you are,” Tom said curtly.
“Okay, guys, I’m on my way,” Kristin announced, returning to their side of the bar. “Anything you want me to say to the lady on your behalf?”
“Maybe we shouldn’t bother her,” Will said. “She looks like she has a lot on her mind.”
“Tell her I’ll give her something to think about,” Jeff said, giving Kristin’s backside a playful tap to send her on her way. All three men followed her exaggerated wiggle with their eyes as she sashayed between tables toward the far corner of the room.
Will watched Kristin retrieve the empty glass from the woman’s table, the two women falling into conversation as easily and casually as if they were lifelong friends. He watched Miss Pomegranate suddenly swivel in their direction, her head tilting provocatively to one side, a slow smile spreading across her face as Kristin spoke. “You see those three guys at the end of the bar?” he imagined Kristin telling her. “The good-looking one in black, the skinny, angry-looking one beside him, the sensitive-looking one in the blue button-down shirt? Pick one. Any one. He’s yours for the asking.”
“She’s coming back,” Jeff said as, moments later, Kristin left the woman’s side and began her slow walk back to the bar, the three men swaying forward in unison to greet her.
“Her name’s Suzy,” she announced without stopping.
“That’s another five you owe me,” Jeff told Tom.
“That’s it?” Tom asked Kristin. “You were over there all that time, and that’s all you got?”
“She moved here from Fort Myers a couple of months ago.” Kristin returned to her side of the bar. “Oh, yeah. I almost forgot,” she said with a big smile in Will’s direction. “She picked you.
ALSO BY JOY FIELDING
CHARLEY’S WEB
A writer who pushes the limits in her controversial column for the Palm Beach Post, Charley Webb has spent years building an emotional wall against scathing critics, snooty neighbors, and her own disapproving family. When a death row inmate asks Charley to write her biography and expose the hidden truths behind her trial and conviction for the murders of three children, Charley jumps at the career-making opportunity. But getting inside the mind of this deeply troubled woman has Charley walking a fine line—and in a series of threatening anonymous letters, someone is targeting Charley’s own son and daughter. With time spinning down to a terrifying climax, Charley is forced to cast the seemingly intrusive people from her past in a new light—for they may be her only hope of getting out alive.
SEAL BOOKS / ISBN: 978-1-4000-2516-9
ALSO BY JOY FIELDING
HEARTSTOPPER
Welcome to Torrance, Florida. Population: 4,160. As Sheriff John Weber would attest, the deadliest predators to date in his tiny hamlet were the alligators lurking in the nearby swamps. But that was before someone abducted and murdered a runaway teenage girl … and before the disappearance of popular and pretty Liana Martin. The pattern is chilling to Sandy Crosbie, the town’s new high school English teacher. With a marriage on the rocks, thanks to her husband’s online affairs, and a beautiful teenage daughter to protect, Sandy wishes she’d never come to the seemingly quiet town with shocking depths of scandal, sex, and brutality roiling beneath its surface. And as Sheriff Weber digs up more questions than answers in a dead-end investigation, one truth emerges: the prettiest ones—the heartstoppers—are being targeted. And this killer intends to give them their due….
SEAL BOOKS / ISBN: 978-1-4000-2505-3
ALSO BY JOY FIELDING
MAD RIVER ROAD
After spending a year in prison, Ralph has explicit plans for his first night of freedom: tonight, someone will be held accountable. He goes to murderous lengths to learn the address of his former wife—the woman he blames for his fate, and has sworn vengeance against. Determined to bring her to his idea of justice, Ralph’s next step is to travel from Florida to Ohio to find his ex-wife’s house on Mad River Road.
Also in Florida, Jamie Kellogg wakes from an agonizing nightmare of her mother’s funeral, and assesses her life: a twenty-nine-year-old woman in a dead-end job, with an ex-husband in Atlanta, a married lover in the hospital, and a virtual stranger in her bed. But this stranger is everything the previous men in her life weren’t: tender, attentive and adventurous. After convincing Jamie to quit her miserable job and ditch her judgmental, perfectionist sister, Ralph proposes a romantic getaway. While Jamie wonders if this thrilling man might finally be her Prince Charming, they plan a road trip to visit his son, who lives with his mother on a street called Mad River Road….
SEAL BOOKS / ISBN: 978-0-7704-2959-1
ALSO BY JOY FIELDING
PUPPET
Amanda Travis is a beautiful twenty-eight-year-old criminal attorney who wins just about every case for her less than admirable clientele. She races through her glamorous life, her only concerns being herself, a good bottle of red, and her pristine Palm Beach condo. Her estranged mother, dead father, two ex-husbands, and countless one-night stands have since lagged far, far behind.
But when ex #1 won’t stop calling, Amanda finally gives in and learns that her mother has shot a man in the lobby of Toronto’s Four Seasons hotel. Despite her best arguments, Amanda knows she must retur
n to her hometown to face her demons and uncover the truth about the dark, strange power her mother seems to hold over everyone. Her childhood nickname, Puppet, echoing in her ears, Amanda must finally confront the past and learn to stand on her own.
SEAL BOOKS / ISBN: 978-0-7704-2958-4
ALSO BY JOY FIELDING
LOST
Losing Julia has become a constant in Cindy Carver’s life. The first time Julia disappeared, she was five years old and vanished at the playground. That inspired motherly paranoia. The second was when, at age fourteen, Julia decided to move in with her father. That broke Cindy’s heart. But when twenty-one-year-old Julia disappears without a trace after a promising audition with one of Hollywood’s most powerful and influential directors, Cindy begins a frantic search. Secrets are revealed, lives are forever altered, and Cindy is forced to acknowledge the disturbing truth about the young woman she realizes she never really knew….
SEAL BOOKS / ISBN: 978-0-7704-2920-1
Copyright © 2009 Joy Fielding, Inc.
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STILL LIFE
Seal Books/published by arrangement with Doubleday Canada
