Third Time's a Charm (33 page)

The next hour passed quickly, and Tori was sure she was getting some great data for her analysis. A few people weren’t interested in taking the time to talk to them, but most seemed prepared to go on at length about the reasons they liked Maguire’s.

She had just finished talking to a pair of businessmen when she turned around and got an unpleasant surprise. Kate stood on the sidewalk, arms crossed, glaring in her direction.

Busted!

Tori schooled her features and approached her boss. “Hello, Kate.”

“Do you mind telling me what you’re doing?” Her voice was chillier than Tori had ever heard it.

“I’m gathering data to help with my marketing plan.”

“I thought we agreed that you didn’t need to conduct any research.”

Tori worked hard to keep her voice pleasant. “No, we didn’t. You said I couldn’t hire a research firm, and I haven’t. I recruited my sisters to help, so it won’t cost anything.”

“No?” Her pencil-thin eyebrows arched. “Then what are you using as an incentive?”

Okay, yes, technically there was a cost involved, but not to Connolly and Farrin. “The Maguires agreed to a free dessert.”

Kate’s lips tightened. “Tori, does this have anything to do with our discussion about the location of their new restaurant?”

Behind her, both Allie and Joan stood quietly, waiting for the next customers to leave the restaurant. Probably listening to every word.

“Not only that,” Tori said. “I’m collecting information to determine the customers’ decision set. I’ve gotten some good responses on what they see as alternative choices that will help—”

Kate raised a hand to cut her off. “I don’t care. I want you to know one thing. If you so much as mention the new location in front of the Maguires on Monday, you’ll be looking for another job by Tuesday. Do I make myself clear?”

She didn’t trust herself to answer. Her teeth clenched, she nodded.

“Good.” Kate brushed past her and went inside the restaurant.

Allie and Joan approached.

“Wow.” Allie’s round eyes stared after Kate. “You said you worked for Attila the Hun, but I didn’t believe you.”

“I may not work for her much longer.” Tori’s lower lip trembled. Even if she didn’t get fired on Monday, she’d blown her chance at the Account Executive position. No way would Kate promote her now.

Joan put an arm around her shoulders and squeezed. “Are you going to be okay?”

Tori nodded. “But let’s get out of here. I’ve done enough damage to my career for one night. I don’t want to be here when she comes back out.”

And the worst part of the night still lay ahead of her.

Tori unlocked the door of her apartment and they all trooped inside.

“I hope you’ve got food in the fridge.” Allie dropped her overnight bag on the living room floor on her way to the kitchen. “I thought we’d get to eat at Maguire’s when we finished surveying people. I’m starving.”

Laughing, Joan picked up the discarded bag and headed for the bedroom. “Careful, or you’ll blow that diet you’ve worked so hard at.”

“I can afford to take a night off.” Allie’s voice was muffled by the refrigerator door. “Hey, what is this?” She appeared in the serving window to glare at Tori. “Diet Dr Pepper? Baked Lays? Are you kidding me? This is a Sanderson Sister Sleepover. Where’s the good munchies?”

“Allie, you’ve lost so much weight, I don’t want to be the reason you fall off the diet wagon.” Tori smiled. “But I got reduced-fat Oreos, and they’re yummy.”

Joan came back into the room. “Just remember, you have a bridesmaid dress to fit into in one month.” She dropped onto the sofa. “What are we watching tonight?”

Tori picked up a stack of DVDs and waved them in the air. “Girls, tonight we’re going to soak up the sights of Or-
lan
-do!”

“Oooh, Orlando Bloom.” Allie returned to the living room with her hand stuck in a bag of chips. “I just love sexy pirates. And if you got
Troy
, we also get to see men in skirts.”

“You bet I did.” Tori set the DVDs on the entertainment center. Might as well get it over with sooner rather than later. “But before we start watching movies, I have to talk to you two about something serious.” They exchanged a guilty look, and Tori knew what they were thinking. She fixed a scowl on them. “And it’s not about Ryan, though he told me how you two have been feeding him information.”

Allie put a hand to her collarbone and affected an innocent tone. “Who, us?”

Tori put a hand on her hip and stared her sister down.

Joan asked, “But if he told you, does that mean it worked?”

Even the memory of last night’s kisses sent an answering flutter to Tori’s stomach. She couldn’t stop a dreamy sigh from escaping her lips. Her sisters grinned and high-fived each other.

“We knew it.” Laughing, Joan clapped with delight. “You’re perfect for each other.”

Allie raised her nose in the air. “That’s right. You just remember that from now on, Tori. Your big sisters know what’s best.” She tossed a chip in her mouth and crunched for emphasis.

“What-
ever
.” Tori rolled her eyes, trying to hide a grin. “Do you know what Linus of the Peanuts gang says? ‘Big sisters are crabgrass in the lawn of life.’”

“Yes, but he didn’t have
your
big sisters,” Allie answered with a smirk.

Tori could have come up with another barb, but instead she sobered. What she had to tell them wasn’t funny. She drew in a breath and perched on the edge of the chair beside the sofa. “Seriously, I found out something last weekend that you need to know.”

Their laughter died away.

“What is it?” Joan asked.

There was no good way to deliver bad news. She’d thought about it, tried to come up with some way to ease the blow, but finally decided the best thing to do was say it quickly and get it over with.

“Our father is dead. He died of a heart attack last March.”

Their faces became mirror images of shock. Joan sank slowly backward until she rested against the back sofa cushion, and Allie’s lips parted as her jaw went slack.

“How do you know?” Allie asked. “Did someone contact you?”

Tori shook her head. “I found him on the Internet. And that’s not all I discovered.”

She retraced her steps for them, how she’d paid to get his address in Cincinnati, and about seeing Patricia Ann Parker’s name listed below Mom’s. How she’d driven to Cincinnati yesterday, and what she found there.

Joan leaped to her feet. “Wait a minute. Are you saying we have a sister?”

“A half-sister,” Allie said.

Joan gave her a quick look. “Whatever. There’s another Sanderson sister living less than two hours from here?”

Tori nodded. “She looks a lot like you, Joan. The same dark hair, same bone structure. Even her eyes are shaped like yours. Like Daddy’s.” She smiled at Allie. “And she’s a talker too. Like you. She opened right up to me about her feelings over losing . . .” She stared at her clasped hands, unable to finish the sentence.

Joan paced to the balcony door with a quick step, then whirled. “I want to meet her!”

“We can’t. Her mother doesn’t want us around.” Tori swallowed, her throat tight. “She said Daddy made his choice, and we have to live with that.”

Allie snorted like a bull. “That’s who I want to meet. This
woman
. I think she owes us an explanation.”

Joan’s eyes widened. She took a step toward them. “Let’s go. Tonight. Right now. It’s eight o’clock. We can be up there by nine-thirty.”

“She won’t talk to us,” Tori said.

“Oh, yes she will.” Allie set her jaw, her eyes hard. “We’ll
make
her talk to us.”

Full dark had fallen by the time Tori pulled the car to a stop in front of the house. A light shone around the edges of the curtain in the front window. “This is it.”

The silence deepened inside the car as they stared at the house. Finally Joan said, “It’s not very big, is it?”

“It looks even smaller than my house,” Allie said. “I wonder if Daddy left it to that woman in his will.”

“I didn’t do a property search,” Tori said, “but I figured they must have bought it together. That’s how come her name showed up at all. There had to be some official documentation that connected them.”

Joan spoke up from the backseat. “It could have been Chelsea’s birth certificate.”

“I didn’t think of that.”

Allie slapped a hand on the armrest. “Well, girls, we’re not getting anything done here. Let’s go confront the Other Woman.”

They climbed out of the car, and Tori let her older sisters take the lead, like the coward she was. She’d gone head-to-head with Patti before, and came away feeling bruised and bloodied. Besides, Allie was better at confrontations.

But even Allie seemed hesitant over this one. At the top of the stairs she paused and waited until all of them were in place. Reluctantly Tori joined her sisters on the small porch. When the three stood shoulder to shoulder, Joan knocked.

The curtains at the window moved, and Tori shrank behind Allie. If Patti saw her, no way she’d open the door. Breath caught in her lungs, Tori waited as seconds ticked by. Patti might even call the police. There wasn’t a No Trespassing sign posted, though she’d made it clear she didn’t want Tori to come back. Could they get thrown in jail?

A click sounded as the door was unlocked. It opened, and Patti stood inside. This time she wore jeans and a tank top, and her hair was pulled back into a quick twist. She looked less threatening tonight, and a lot younger. Her eyes moved as she looked from one of them to the other. Tori thought her eyes widened when she looked at Joan, but then they came to rest on her.

“I figured you’d come back, but I didn’t think it would be this soon.”

Tori stood straight, drawing strength from her sisters on either side of her. “I—” Her throat threatened to close. She swallowed and started again. “We just want to know about our father.”

Patti broke eye contact first. Her head drooped forward as she stared at her feet. “I know. And I’m . . .” She took a breath. “I’m sorry I sent you away yesterday. It’s just that I wasn’t prepared. I didn’t know what I was going to say to my daughter.” She looked up again, and her eyes begged Tori to understand. “She didn’t know anything about Tom’s past. And I don’t want to ruin her memories of him. He was a good father to her. She deserves to keep that image of him.”

Beside Tori, Allie stiffened. “But apparently we don’t?”

Patti winced. “I know it’s not fair. And it’s my fault.”

“Your fault?” Joan shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

A young voice came from somewhere in the house. “Mom, who are you talking to?”

Patti turned her head and shouted her answer. “Just some people at the door, honey.” She turned back to them. “Chelsea’s in the bathtub. She’ll be out in a few minutes.”

“Listen, we’re not here to cause problems for Chelsea. We can come back another time.” Tori started to back away, but Allie grabbed her by the arm and glared her into silence.

“No, it’s okay,” Patti said. “After you left yesterday, we had a long talk. She knows about you now.” Her glance swept the three of them. “All of you. Do you mind if we talk outside for a minute?”

She stepped through the door and pulled it shut behind her. They retreated down the stairs and stood on the cracked sidewalk just inside the circle of light created by the porch light. Tori noticed that Patti’s feet were bare, her toenails bright spots of pink in the grass.

“Tom and I met fourteen years ago in Las Vegas. He was working construction, and I was dancing at a nightclub.”

Tori and Allie exchanged a glance. Fourteen years ago was a year after he left them.

“You must have been very young.” Joan’s voice was soft.

A sad smile curved Patti’s lips. “I was twenty-four. He was thirty-seven.”

Tori swallowed. Patti had been the age she was now. Younger than either Allie or Joan.

Patti continued. “I don’t know if you knew this, but Tom had a drug problem. When we first got together he kept it fairly well hidden, but within a year he was out of control. He was in the carpenter’s union, but he was let go from one job site after another. After a while he couldn’t get a job anywhere. He couldn’t stay clean long enough to pass the drug test. We paid the bills on the money I made dancing.”