Heavenstone 01 - The Heavenstone Secrets

myself.

    “And,” she added before she left, “what you do for me you do for yourself.”
    It was something that should have made me feel happy, reinforced our being sisters, close and loving, but like so many things Cassie said and did, it left me standing with my heart skipping beats.

Hangover
    W HEN THE DOORBELL rang, I felt as if I were about to step onstage as the curtain was raised. Cassie insisted that I answer the door and start showing Porter the house. She was still very busy in the kitchen. Porter was wearing a beautiful black silk sports jacket with a light wool black V-neck sweater and black slacks. He wore no jewelry aside from his gold watch. In his right hand, he had a bouquet of red roses and in his left a box of candy wrapped in a pink ribbon.
    “Hi, Sam, this is for you,” he said, handing me the box of candy. “Your sister told me chocolate mints were your favorite.”
    “Thank you.”
    I was more surprised at Cassie telling him what I favored than I was at receiving the gift. I couldn’t get used to the idea of them spending much time talking about me.
    “You look beautiful. That’s quite a dress, and I love what you had done to your hair.”
    The way his eyes moved over my body and the way he smiled made me very self-conscious. I held thebox of candy against my breasts, covering my cleavage because his gaze seemed locked on that. When he widened his smile, I felt silly being so modest. What did I expect when I put on this dress? I blushed, and my heart did little flip-flops when I looked at myself in the mirror the first time I put it on. It still amazed me that Cassie, who was so critical of the way girls dressed to go to school, would have chosen this dress for me.
    I stepped back so he could enter.
    “Something smells really good, and I don’t only mean your delicious perfume,” he added, which only made me feel more nervous.
    “Cassie’s been preparing all day. She finally decided on surf and turf. She likes to marinate the filet for hours and hours, and she’s made special couscous. No one steams vegetables as well as she does, and there’s this dessert …”
    I saw from the amused look on his face that I was babbling, and stopped.
    “Your father told me what a great cook she is. I skipped lunch today so I could make a pig of myself.” He looked around. “This is an amazing house.”
    “Cassie wants me to start you on the tour. She’ll be right out,” I said.
    “Thank you.”
    I led him into the living room first and began to explain the portraits. I told him the story of Asa Heavenstone but didn’t mention how his father had died. After I described our furniture and why Mother loved this style, I showed him her artifacts, her collected pieces from Spain, Hungary, and England. Heseemed very impressed and told me I was as good a guide as any he had met.
    “After all, this house is historic. I do feel as if I’ve entered a museum, although,” he added quickly, “it does have a warm, lived-in feeling. Your mother made wonderful choices.”
    “She spent most of her time in this room,” I said, gazing at the settee on which she would sit for hours and hours reading. “Let me show you the den.”
    “This is my kind of room,” he said when I took him to the den. He admired all of Daddy’s electronics and told me it was all high-end. He loved the leather furniture and thought our collection of movies and CDs was quite extensive.
    “My mother only liked to see films here. She loved this room as much as my father does,” I told him.
    “I can see why.”
    As I took him toward Daddy’s office, Cassie joined us, and he gave her the roses. I showed her my box of candy.
    “How thoughtful. Thank you, Porter. Semantha, why don’t you put these in a vase for me and put it on our dining-room table? You can get the salad ready to serve and open one of the bottles of wine I have out so it can air.”
    I nodded, and she led him on to see the rest of the house. They were gone for a good fifteen minutes. The moment I heard them coming down the stairs, I brought out the salad.
    “What a beautiful dining room and table,” Porter said, standing back to admire it. “Where was theset made, Semantha?” he asked with a tight smile, as if we shared secrets.
    “Spain.”
    “I thought so,” he said. “We don’t sell furniture this expensive, of course, but I know something about it.”
    “You’d better. We’re slowly going to upgrade our merchandise,” Cassie told