More Than Paradise (3 page)

“She said she’d found someone who wanted to invest,” Tamsin continued. “Anyway, they kept having these meetings till two in the morning. And whenever they were on the phone, Dani would go in another room and get all weird if I came in.”

How many clues did it take for an intelligent woman to piece together a brain teaser a Þ ve-year-old could solve? Apparently a truckload.

“Well, there’s no point blaming yourself for not being psychic,”

Charlotte said briskly. “What we have to do now is make sure you’re okay. I hate to sound heartless, but have you checked your bank accounts and cancelled all the credit cards you gave her?”

Tamsin’s face froze and she was silent for several seconds. With strained defensiveness, she said, “I told my attorney to talk to my accountant.”

“When was that?”

“Thursday.”

“Thursday as in yesterday? You’ve been suspicious for months and you broke up with her two weeks ago, but you’ve only just thought about the Þ nancial side?”

Tamsin stared at her wine. “I didn’t want to do anything hasty. I thought we might get back together.”

“Oh, Tamsin.” Charlotte bit down on her lower lip to stop herself from saying things that would only hurt her friend’s feelings.

One of these days Tamsin would develop the self-respect that inoculated women against accepting poor treatment from a partner.

Meantime it was Charlotte’s job to encourage her to gain strength.

She’d always tried to build Tamsin up, but she also wanted her to face reality and let go of her blinkered delusions about Þ nding true love.

Tamsin stood to inherit an enormous fortune from her TV mogul father, and because she was also desperately insecure, she would always be a target for opportunists like Dani. Their betrayals only made her even more insecure, so it was a vicious cycle.

“Listen to me,” Charlotte said seriously. “There’s nothing wrong with your instincts and it’s time you started paying attention to them.

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JENNIFER FULTON

Remember what you said when you Þ rst hooked up with Dani? You wondered if she was trying to use you. That was your gut talking.”

“I’ve been thinking about that,” Tamsin conceded with a small frown. “It’s like I sensed things weren’t right, but then I just…”

“You wanted the fairy tale,” Charlotte completed. “So you turned a blind eye. How many times do you need to go through this?”

Tamsin’s mouth trembled. “I just want someone to love me. You know…for me.”

“
I
love you for you.”

“It’s not the same.”

Charlotte thought about trying to give Tamsin what she really needed and was instantly ß ooded with relief that they would never go there. It would be a disaster. She loved Tamsin, but they could never have a relationship as equals. Tamsin would be emotionally dependent and need constant reassurance, and Charlotte would struggle against the inevitable loss of personal space.

“Thank God I’m not a romantic,” she said, thinking aloud.

Tamsin leapt on this opportunity to change the subject. “That doctor. Are you two still dating?”

“I haven’t seen her in months. I thought I told you.”

“Maybe you did. I’m sorry, I’m not thinking clearly. What went wrong this time?”

“We’re not here to discuss me,” Charlotte said Þ rmly. “We’re here to make sure you don’t get screwed over by yet another gold-digger.”

Tamsin winced. “I guess I deserve that.”

Charlotte regretted her mean-spirited comment. She had promised herself not to get personal about Dani, even though that grasping little bitch had also hit on
her
. Charlotte wondered who she’d traded Tamsin in for. Was there another lesbian heiress even richer? Or had Dani found someone she was at least hot for and decided she could have it all? Perhaps she thought she could keep Tamsin as a cash cow and have a woman she really wanted on the side.

Charlotte knew for a fact that things hadn’t been going too well in their sex life. It had been Þ reworks for a few months, then Dani lost interest. The pattern was fairly common, Charlotte supposed, although she’d heard the honeymoon period was usually more like two years.

In her own case, the rosy spectacles had come off after one. She could still remember the day when everything changed. At the time she didn’t understand why Britt got so belligerent over a stupid domestic issue,

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but she’d added two and two long afterward. That memorable Friday, the day she was Þ rst struck across the face by her partner, was the day Britt had fallen off the wagon.

If only she had just walked out then and there, Charlotte reß ected.

It still confounded her that she’d stayed, that she’d fallen for the apologies and excuses. That she’d believed the promises, time after time. Just thinking about her determination to stay the course made her feel like the most stupid woman to draw breath. But she had loved Britt, and she thought that meant standing by her through good and bad. Britt had milked that naïve loyalty for all it was worth.

Of course, things got really ugly by the end, and when Charlotte packed her bags and left, Britt got hysterical and said she’d kill herself.

She blamed everything on alcohol and seemed to think if she checked into rehab, all would be forgiven and they could pick up where they left off. She claimed her affairs didn’t mean anything and “just happened,”

as if voices told her to sleep with other women. She refused to see why Charlotte couldn’t trust her to change—that lying about her betrayal and reacting violently when challenged had made trust impossible.

Five years had passed since that dark period, and these days Charlotte had the advantage of perspective. She never quite stopped being angry with herself for staying so long in a violent relationship.

But mostly, when she thought about Britt, she felt sorry for her. Anyone who could wantonly destroy the best thing in her life and still not examine her own behavior was a pitiful coward. That she could have given herself wholeheartedly to such a person truly appalled her.
Too
naked to be safe.
She hated that.

Unfortunately, Tamsin still hadn’t learned what Charlotte now saw as a tenet of happiness.
Never expose yourself.
She had railroaded Tamsin into seeing an attorney when Dani Þ rst moved in and, predictably, Dani had put up a Þ ght over signing a legal agreement.

But Tamsin’s attorneys threatened to freeze payments from her trust fund and when it looked like she might have to live with the woman she “loved” minus the unlimited ß ow of cash, Dani had signed on the dotted line quick smart.

“Apart from the Beemer, what else is in her name?” Charlotte asked bluntly.

Tamsin Þ dgeted with her empty wineglass. “You know the new condo in P-town—”

“Are you serious?” Charlotte spotted their waiter and waved him

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JENNIFER FULTON

over so she could take a moment to control her temper. After ordering another bottle of Pegasus Bay, she said, “Please tell me you didn’t put her name on the title.”

In a small, bitter voice, Tamsin replied, “We were Þ ghting. She was always guilt-tripping me about how unequal our situation was and how we’d been together all that time but I didn’t act like our relationship was real. Like we were married.”

All that time?
It hadn’t been two years. “So you wanted to prove something to her?”

“I thought if I made a meaningful gesture—”

“Wait. You paid for her plastic surgery. You bought her a Þ fty thousand dollar sports car and that ridiculous diamond ring. You got her a role in one of your dad’s shows and a Hollywood audition. You took her all over Europe and stayed in a palazzo, for crying out loud.

And you thought
you
owed
her
a meaningful gesture? What did Dani Bush ever do for you?”

Tamsin studied the table once more. They both retreated into silence as their waiter returned with fresh glasses and performed the wine ritual.

After he departed, Charlotte swirled her pinot noir and said,

“Tamsin, why do you do this?”

“Do what?”

“You know what I’m saying.”

“Choose bitches with no class for my partners?” She gave a rueful laugh. “Well, you won’t have me.”

“Be serious.” They’d known each other since grade school and had occasionally shared a halfhearted kiss. But there was no chemistry.

“I think I try to rescue them,” Tamsin said. “It makes me feel…I don’t know.”

“Needed?”
Why not rescue small animals?

“Yes. Like if they need me they won’t leave. I know that’s all about my mother.” She gave a tight, ironic laugh. “Twenty shrinks can’t be wrong.”

Charlotte sighed. The parent in question was a self-centered socialite who’d eventually been killed when her private plane crashed.

She’d walked out on her family when Tamsin was Þ ve, leaving her to be reared by a long succession of nannies who also kept leaving for whatever reason. Back at elementary school, Charlotte could remember Tamsin buying expensive presents for these young women and trying

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to behave like the perfect child so they would stay. She epitomized the poor little rich girl, an only child who had grown up spoiled but emotionally neglected in a huge Connecticut mansion.

Charlotte had no patience with the stereotype, or the way it was served up to excuse bad behavior or stupidity. But Tamsin was a genuinely sweet person who had somehow made it intact through the kind of upbringing that would usually produce an ethically stunted parasite. All the privilege in the world could not guarantee good fortune in love, and sometimes Charlotte wondered if that was the price the Fates exacted from women like Tamsin for the accident of their birth.

By contrast, she considered herself dead lucky. Despite her own relative privilege, she had grown up with two loving parents, a couple of smartass brothers who refused to treat her like a princess, and a ten dollar allowance until she was a high school senior, when her father gave her a mind-blowing raise to Þ fty. And she had to help him with translation work for those big bucks.

Her parents were philanthropists who made it clear most of their money was destined for charity. There would be no big trust funds for their kids. Charlotte had always known she would have to work for her living and make it on her own merits in whatever Þ eld she chose.

Although she could have walked into a legacy place at Harvard, she’d chosen to compete for entry to Stanford so she could join her lab-rat older brother there. Whereas Tamsin’s father expected nothing more of his daughter than big credit-card bills and eventually marriage to some Hollywood player, Charlotte’s parents expected her to shoot for a Nobel Prize.

Feeling sad that her dearest friend was now hurt and disillusioned all over again, Charlotte took Tamsin’s hand and said, “I have a great idea.”

A shaky smile plucked at the corners of Tamsin’s mouth. “I could use a great idea.”

“Good. Here’s what we’re going to do. You can come home with me and watch a DVD while I Þ nish some work I need to do tonight.

Then we’ll go over to your place and pack your bags.”

Tamsin gave her a blank stare. “Did I miss something?”

“You’re coming to Australia with me for a vacation. I’m leaving in four days.”

“Australia?” Tamsin toyed dazedly with a honey-kissed wave that had strayed onto her face. “For real?”

• 25 •

JENNIFER FULTON

“Kangaroos. Boomerangs. You name it.”

“Kangaroos. Oh! I’d love that.” A puzzled frown drew Tamsin’s Þ ne eyebrows together. “I thought you couldn’t take any more vacation this year. You’re not just doing this for me, are you?”

“Not exactly, although I would. Actually, I have some news.”

Charlotte gathered herself. She didn’t want to sound too gleeful in the face of Tamsin’s unhappiness. “Remember that job I applied for with the Sealy-Weiss Institute?”

Tamsin’s small heart-shaped face lit up and she bounced in her chair. “You got it? Oh, my God.”

Charlotte could only nod. She’d ß own to Chicago for her Þ nal interview the previous week and had received the call soon after. She was now a research biologist assigned to one of the most prestigious teams in the country. And, as if that were not enough, one of the Sealy-Weiss Institute’s major donors, Belton Pharmaceuticals, was funding a multidisciplinary scientiÞ c expedition to the Foja Mountains. Charlotte had been invited to participate.

“I’ve been asked to go to this amazing place in New Guinea, kind of a lost world.” She could hardly believe it even as she said it. “That’s my Þ rst assignment. It’s the chance of a lifetime.”

“A lost world…” Steadying her wineglass, Tamsin gasped out,

“I’m so proud of you. I always knew you’d do something amazing one day. Like invent a cure doing that bizarre stuff with plants. You’re such a genius.” Tears began rolling down her cheeks and she wiped them against the backs of her hands and lifted her glass. “To you, Charlotte.

Congratulations. You’re my hero.”

Touched, Charlotte thanked her and took a quick sip of wine. “So, you see, I Þ gured I could have a vacation in Australia Þ rst. I’ve been wanting to talk to you about it, but so much was happening and you’ve been hard to get ahold of.”

“I know.”

“I was worried when you didn’t return my calls.” Charlotte had Þ nally left a message yesterday telling Tamsin she urgently needed to see her and giving her a place and time. She had almost expected her not to show up.

“I’m sorry,” Tamsin said. “I needed some time to think, so I guess I’ve been avoiding people.”

“I’m not
people
,” Charlotte chided gently. She wasn’t going to say any more than that. Tamsin was already battling tears. “Now, where

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were we? Oh, yes. organizing for you to come Down Under with me.”

She located her BlackBerry and consulted her travel Þ le, looking for the e-mail addy for her agent. “I’m going to buy your ticket right now.

We’ll go to Melbourne Þ rst, then we’ll Jeep across the desert to Ayers Rock.”