“I need to run an errand this morning—on Worth Avenue, as a matter of fact.”
“We could meet for coffee.”
She settled back in her chair at the kitchen table, calmer. “Don’t you have a real story you should be working on?”
“I’ve got a few leads I could chase down, but right now I’m still officially between stories. I can focus on you.” His voice was low, the twangy drawl not too obvious. “Don’t you feel lucky?”
“Uh-huh. Sure. Since you waltzed back into my life, I’ve been attacked, threatened, suspected of being a thief, and driven to letting you and your mysterious friend Croc sneak around while I ate dinner.”
“You’ve also been kissed quite thoroughly.”
“Jeremiah, you are incorrigible.”
“So people keep telling me, although not because I find myself kissing just anyone in a parking garage.” He paused. “We should have gone upstairs last night.”
She inhaled sharply, a hot jolt of awareness coursing through her. “You’re in an awfully cheeky mood this morning.”
“Comes from lack of sleep. What’re you doing after Worth Avenue?”
He would not be distracted from the point of his call, which was to keep tabs on her. “I have a luncheon at the Paulette Mansion. A security expert is speaking to one of the local women’s societies—”
“George Marcotte. How fortuitous. I’ll be there myself.”
“You will?” She frowned. “Why?”
“Gut instinct. Plus I’ve lined up a quick interview with Marcotte. I want to hear his take on our cat burglar.”
“You just made that up.”
He laughed. “For a publicist, you have a suspicious mind.”
“That’s because I know you.”
“You’re getting there.” The sexy undertone was unmistakable. “Reconsider coffee.”
He started to hang up, but Mollie said, “I talked to Leonardo this morning. I asked him if he had any enemies who might be targeting me to get to him. You know, that’s what this could be about. Someone setting me up for the robberies or just capitalizing on them as a way of getting at Leonardo.”
“What did he say?” Jeremiah asked, serious now. She could almost feel his mind opening, taking in a new scenario.
“He has enemies—the usual jealousies and lost loves and whatnot—but he can’t think of anyone who would take their animosity toward him out on me, and certainly not in such a byzantine approach.”
“Did he say byzantine?”
“Yes, why not?”
“I don’t think my father and I have ever used byzantine with each other, even when I studied Constantinople in the sixth grade. Okay. Never mind. Go on.”
She sighed. “His enemies, he said, were more likely to take a direct approach or just sue him.” She suddenly felt self-conscious, especially when Jeremiah went quiet on her. “Anyway, I just wanted to let you know. Consider every angle, right?”
“Yes. Thanks for telling me. I’ll give it some thought and see you at the luncheon.”
She hung up feeling prickly-skinned, as if she’d said something wrong, something that had spooked Jeremiah or sent him spinning off in a whole new direction. She could imagine him sitting in his truck, frowning, his reporter’s mind at work. When she finally headed off to Worth Avenue, she found herself looking for him. All the parking spots in front of the children’s store were taken, none with a beat-up brown truck. She ended up taking one farther down the street. She fed the meter, wondering if Jeremiah was watching her from a shop window.
Her errand took her to a small, eclectic music shop on one of the famous Worth Avenue vias—the shaded alleyways and patios Addison Mizner had set behind the buildings that fronted the street. Vines of fuchsia bougainvillea and ivy cascaded from the wrought-iron balconies of pastel-colored buildings, and there were window boxes and urns of bright flowers, decorative trees, stone fountains, and benches. Mollie breathed in the heavenly scents and sights, only half-pretending she wasn’t keeping an eye out for Jeremiah or his skinny cohort.
“You can relax,” she told herself. “It’s just another day on the job.”
She returned to her car without incident. Perhaps Jeremiah had already gone to the luncheon, she thought with a palpable sense of anticipation. Don’t analyze it, she told herself. Just go with it.