Local Hero

in the kiss. It moved her unbearably with its understanding.
    “Feel better?” Mitch murmured.
    “I’m not sure.”
    With a laugh, he touched his lips to hers again. “Well, I do.” Linking his hand with hers, he walked to the door.
    ***
    The restaurant was French, subdued and very exclusive. The pale flowered walls glowed in the quiet light and the flicker of candles. Diners murmured their private conversations over linen cloths and crystal stemware. The hustle and bustle of the streets were shut out by beveled glass doors.
    “Ah, Monsieur Dempsey, we haven’t seen you in some time.” The maître d’ stepped forward to greet him.
    “You know I always come back for your snails.”
    With a laugh, the maître d’ waved a waiter aside.
    “Good evening,
mademoiselle
. I’ll take you to your table.”
    The little booth was candlelit and secluded, a place for hand-holding and intimate secrets. Hester’s leg brushed Mitch’s as they settled.
    “The sommelier will be right with you. Enjoy your evening.”
    “No need to ask if you’ve been here before.”
    “From time to time I get tired of frozen pizza. Would you like champagne?”
    “I’d love it.”
    He ordered a bottle, pleasing the wine steward with the vintage. Hester opened her menu and sighed over the elegant foods. “I’m going to remember this the next time I’m biting into half a tuna sandwich between appointments.”
    “You like your job?”
    “Very much.” She wondered if
soufflé de crabe
was what it sounded like. “Rosen can be a pain, but he does push you to be efficient.”
    “And you like being efficient.”
    “It’s important to me.”
    “What else is, other than Rad?”
    “Security.” She looked over at him with a half smile. “I suppose that has to do with Rad. The truth is, anything that’s been important to me over the last few years has to do with Rad.”
    She glanced up as the steward brought the wine and began his routine for Mitch’s approval. Hester watched the wine rise in her fluted glass, pale gold and frothy. “To Rad, then,” Mitch said as he lifted his glass to touch hers. “And his fascinating mother.”
    Hester sipped, a bit stunned that anything could taste so good. She’d had champagne before, but like everything that had to do with Mitch, it hadn’t been quite like this. “I’ve never considered myself fascinating.”
    “A beautiful woman raising a boy on her own in one of the toughest cities in the world fascinates me.” He sipped and grinned. “Added to that, you do have terrific legs, Hester.”
    She laughed, and even when he slipped his hand over hers, felt no embarrassment. “So you said before. They’re long, anyway. I was taller than my brother until he was out of high school. It infuriated him, and I had to live down the name Stretch.”
    “Mine was String.”
    “String?”
    “You know those pictures of the eighty-pound weakling? That was me.”
    Over the rim of her glass, Hester studied the way he filled out the suit jacket. “I don’t believe it.”
    “One day, if I’m drunk enough, I’ll show you pictures.”
    Mitch ordered in flawless French that had Hester staring. This was the comic book writer, she thought, who built snow forts and talked to his dog. Catching the look, Mitch lifted a brow. “I spent a couple of summers in Paris during high school.”
    “Oh.” It reminded her forcefully where he’d come from. “You said you didn’t have any brothers or sisters. Do your parents live in New York?”
    “No.” He broke off a hunk of crusty French bread. “My mother zips in from time to time to shop or go to the theater, and my father might come in occasionally on business, but New York isn’t their style. They still live most of the year in Newport, where I grew up.”
    “Oh, Newport. We drove through once when I was a kid. We’d always take these rambling car vacations in the summer.” She tucked her hair behind her ear in an unconscious gesture that gave him a tantalizing view of her throat. “I remember the houses, the enormous mansions with the pillars and flowers and ornamental trees. We even took pictures. It was hard to believe anyone really lived there.” Then she caught herself up abruptly and glanced over at Mitch’s amused face. “You did.”
    “It’s funny. I spent some time with binoculars watching the tourists in the summer. I might have homed in on your family.”
    “We were the ones in the station wagon with the suitcases strapped to