The Cost of Happiness: A Contemporary Romance (31 page)

“Holy shit.”

Wally’s smile didn’t falter. “Precisely.”

Meghan pressed her lips to keep from grinning at his dry tone.

Lou sounded stunned. “Wally, I don’t know what to say. We had to inform the board of directors that the litigation would go in the next report to the shareholders. Everyone was expecting the stock to take a hit when we estimate potential damages. It will be wonderful if we don’t have to do that.”

“And I hope you never have to face a class action case like this again. But if you do, I trust you’ll remember our firm.”

“You got it. My first call is going to be to Philly, I promise.”

“I’ll keep you informed on the negotiations for dismissal,” Wally said.

The call wrapped up quickly after that. Everyone sounded tired and happy and relieved—and still a bit amazed at how quickly the case had reached this point.

Meghan, who hadn’t spoken on any of the calls, allowed herself a deep breath and tiny smile when it was all done. She stood near the windows, watching as Wally slapped Dan on the back and grinned like a fool. The moment would pass soon enough, so it was nice to see a staid lawyer like Wallace Leith celebrate.

Dan stopped Wally before he could leave. “Ms. Mattson has saved ProCell a lot of money, which in turn should result in the firm getting some of ProCell’s more lucrative litigation down the road. And let’s be clear, Fergusson had to be talked into hiring her as a paralegal. I hope that her value to the firm will be reflected in her paycheck.”

Leith looked like someone had thrown a water balloon at him. His gaze went from Dan to Meghan, then back to Dan. “Well, I don’t normally…”

“Then who does? Because I’m telling you, I don’t get any credit at all for finding Greg Agnarsson. That was all Meghan.”

“Quite.” Wally stood still for a long moment before saying, “I will raise this matter with the appropriate committee. I assure you, Ms. Mattson, your contribution to this case shall not go unrecognized.”

“Thank you, sir.” Meghan allowed her smile to widen, just a bit.

“I want to take you out to dinner.”

They were reviewing the draft of the technical report they’d prepared for Jeanette Pierson in support of the deal to get ProCell dismissed. Meghan was still floating on air thinking about the possibility of getting a bonus in her next paycheck.

She looked at Dan, whose expression was hopeful and determined.

“I can’t. Kassie is treating this like the night before—” She stopped herself before the words “a wedding” popped out of her mouth. “—Christmas. I’m supposed to be home, alone, and in bed no later than eleven.”

“Eleven?” Dan’s mouth looked pinched. Then he smiled. “No problem. We’ll go to my place, rumple the sheets, then I’ll drive you home.”

“Oh, and no sex.”

“Is this your next-door neighbor or your den mother?”

Meghan shook her head. “It’s about the mystique. Or something. She’s actually taking tomorrow off from her job so she can do a whole at-home spa day thing. I don’t know. She’s my fairy godmother, so I have to do what she says.”

“Your fairy godmother?” Dan laughed. “It sounds kind of sweet, I guess.”

“I’m not supposed to tell you about the dress, but trust me when I say that Kassie really went out of her way to make tomorrow night special.”

He threw his hands in the air. “God forbid I interfere with a fairy tale.” Then he narrowed his eyes. “Are we allowed to sleep together tomorrow night?”

“Of course. You’re my Prince Charming.” She crossed her fingers under the table while she said it.

“I solemnly promise to rescue your shoe on the steps of the Franklin Institute.” He even held his right hand up.

“Silly.”

“It’s in the princes’ charter. Must rescue stray shoes, climb any tower with a braid hanging down the side—” His voice dropped to a husky baritone. “—kiss any sleeping princesses.”

He started to lean toward her, but a cough at the doorway stopped both of them. Meghan thought she heard him mutter, “Shit,” but she was already looking over to see who it was.

Great. Vicky. The last person Meghan wanted to see Dan kissing her. Hopefully it didn’t look that bad. And anyway, it’s not like their relationship was going to remain secret after the Formal.

“Sorry to interrupt,” the redhead said in a barely civil tone. “Dan, I have a problem I need to discuss with you.”

Meghan stood up. “I’ve got enough to get on with, Dan, thanks.” She brushed past Vicky with a smile and a cheery, “Love the shoes,” which Vicky ignored.

Back in her office, Meghan tried to get lost in the bits of work she had hanging over from the week, but her mind was on the dance. Kassie had gotten the dress cleaned, accessorized it—she called it “styling,” whatever that meant—and said it looked spectacular. Daily emails from Kassie reminded Meghan not to eat sweets—“they can make you retain fluids”—not to twist an ankle and under no circumstances to sleep with Dan the night before. “You’ll have all night after the party, so keep those panties on, okay?” To which there could be only one answer—“Yes, ma’am.”

After staring at her screen for several minutes, Meghan could no longer pretend she was actually working. She packed everything up, tidied her desktop, closed the computer, and unlocked her file cabinet to get her bag. She half-hoped that Dan would offer to walk her out the building. She rejected the option to go get him. She’d see him—she checked her watch—in a little less than twenty-four hours.

Back home, Kassie must have been watching for her because she bounded into the hallway as soon as Meghan had unlocked her own door.

“How hard was it to wrench yourself away from Mr. H?”

Meghan waved Kassie in ahead of her. “Not too hard. I had to explain your Victorian rules for how we couldn’t see each other until tomorrow evening, but after cursing at you viciously, he seemed to take the news pretty well.”

Kassie settled on the bed while Meghan disappeared into the closet to get undressed. “I should hope so. He’s going to be blown away when he sees you.”

“The hell with him.” Meghan pulled on shorts and a loose T-shirt. “I’m planning on being stunned when I see me.” She came out to join Kassie on the bed, lying across the foot with her head on one hand.

Kassie’s eyes crinkled at the corners. “Everyone’s going to be stunned. You’ll be the prettiest woman there.”

Meghan rolled her eyes. “There are women at that firm for whom ‘office casual’ means the
less
tailored Armani pantsuits. I’m not sure what I’ll see tomorrow night, but I know I’ll be quite ordinary in the fashion parade.”

“Well, Dan will love it, and that’s all that matters.”

Meghan tapped Kassie’s ankle. “Hey, what’s happened with your mom?”

Kassie rolled her eyes. “Nothing. Dad’s moved out. He called me yesterday to give me the number at some long-stay residence hotel, but I don’t believe it. I mean, I believe he’s got a couple of suits hanging in the closet there, but no way he’s not moved in with his lady friend.”

“And your mom? How’s she holding up?”

“She’s such a Main Line matron. She insists she’s fine, that this is temporary, blah blah blah.”

“Have you talked with your sister?” Kassie’s younger sister was in New England at a private school.

“Naomi is clueless. I texted her to see if she was okay and I got back a long string of messages about some guy she likes.” Kassie snorted. “Sometimes I think I’m the only one aware of what’s going on. Mom and Nay just want things to stay the same. They’re like those babies who think if they cover their eyes,
you
cease to exist.”

“I’m sorry. Must be hard on you.”

Kassie pulled her hair back, tight against her head. “Why do men cheat? I don’t get it. Is it some hunter-gatherer behavior? They have to collect as many scalps as they can?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s something about the grass being greener?” Meghan didn’t want to disparage Kassie’s mother, who sounded a bit high-maintenance. Anyway, even if there had been problems in the marriage a man should work those things out without resorting to adultery.

“Did your dad do this stuff?”

Meghan rolled onto her back, staring at the ceiling. “My dad was around for a year, maybe two. According to my grandfather, he was a sperm donor and not much else. He dropped my mom and me off at Pops’ house and drove away. Must not have liked late-night feedings and spit-up.”

“So your mother’s a single mom?”

“Bianca? Hardly a mother of any sort. My grandfather raised me, changed my diapers, bought me shoes and clothes. Bianca couldn’t be counted on to do any of that stuff.”

“Hunh.”

Meghan turned her head to look at Kassie. “My mother is bipolar. Won’t take her meds because, and I quote, ‘They squash my creativity, Meggie.’” She raised her hands to make exaggerated air quotes. “So I grew up with these extremes. She’d be miserable or she’d be manic. And hers was not a nice, happy mania, either.”

“Sorry to hear that.”

“The worst was my birthdays. She’d get excited, insist she would plan a huge party, make me invite the entire class, then she’d crash the week before and there’d be no party. I actually had a classmate’s mom call me to complain about a gift she’d bought me that was going to waste because the party had been canceled. The following year, I lied and told Bianca I’d invited kids when I hadn’t. You’d think she’d have noticed that no one showed up for the imaginary party, but she never did. She’d crawl into her room with a bottle of Jack Daniels and complain if I climbed the stairs too loudly.”

“God, that’s so horrible. You poor kid.”

“Well, I had Pops. He kept me safe and sane, which was about as much as he could do. And I think he kept Bianca’s craziness at bay somehow because when he died, she escalated.”

“How could it get worse?”

Meghan flung an arm over her eyes. “Prison. Mental wards, although all they did was pump her full of anti-anxiety drugs, write her a script for whichever bipolar drug was fashionable at the time, then release her. They never checked to see if she was taking it.”

“How did you get so smart?”

“Oh, Bianca’s smart. Crazy smart. I get it from her. But that’s the only thing I got. I refuse to look flashy or take chances with money. I figure boring beats crazy every day of the week.”

“Amen to that,” Kassie said.

Meghan lifted her arm to study the blonde, who looked like she’d just taken a temperance pledge or seen the light or had some other truth revealed. “I don’t think of you as boring.”

“Do you see me dating?”

Meghan shook her head.

Kassie made a sour face. “I don’t trust men. Some guy flirted with me at the store while he was buying a gift for his sister, but all I could imagine was that he lied about who the gift was for. It could be for a girlfriend, so he’s flirting with me while buying her something.”

Meghan propped her feet on the bed and started to laugh. “You made all that up out of two facts? He was buying some women’s clothing and he flirted with you, so of course he has to be a two-timing schmuck?”

“Of course,” Kassie said even as she joined in the laughter. “We see what we want to see.”

“Okay, you can look now.”

Meghan turned at Kassie’s words. The full-length pier mirror in Kassie’s bedroom framed a stranger. A beautiful stranger in a wonderfully retro dress, black satin peep-toe pumps, a cameo on a thin black velvet ribbon at her neck, dark eyes made huge by Kassie’s skillful makeup, and at the top of it all, a perfect cluster of curls falling from the crown. This woman was elegant and poised without looking middle-aged or on her way to a prom.

“Do not cry,” Kassie commanded.

“No, ma’am.” Meghan’s voice was breathless. She still couldn’t comprehend that she looked like
that
.

“Okay, last touch.” Kassie handed over a scarlet satin clutch with a rhinestone clasp.

Meghan touched it with a forefinger. “It’s gorgeous. Not too bold?”

“Hold it in your hands, in front of your dress.” Kassie turned Meghan back to look at the mirror.

“Wow. It makes all the difference, doesn’t it? That single pop of red.”

“Styling is everything.”

Meghan twisted on one toe to see the back of her dress. The wide black velvet ribbon sash ended with a simple bow, the tails getting lost in the frothy gray tulle.

She looked down. “I’m just noticing that my toenail polish and lipstick kind of match the bag.”

Kassie grinned. “Styling is everything.”

“So I’ve learned.” Meghan leaned forward to give Kassie a careful hug. “Thank you so much.”

They both jumped when the buzzer sounded. Dan had been told to find her in Kassie’s apartment. Kassie buzzed him up. When he knocked on the door, she opened it with a flourish.

“Mr. Howard, may I present your date for the evening, Ms. Mattson?”

Dan walked in wearing a tuxedo. The stark black jacket made his hair look almost blond and his eyes cobalt blue flame. Seeing him sucked the air out of the room, making Meghan feel lightheaded for a moment. Her Prince Charming. Her mouth quirked up at the corner.

His eyes widened. Then his smile widened to include her joy as well as his. “You are so beautiful.”