Party Crashers

had even briefly entertained the idea that he might be interested in her.
    He laughed at something the woman said, revealing even white teeth, then he glanced around the room and before she could look away, looked up and caught her staring at him. Great. He lifted his chin slightly and a smile played on his mouth before he turned his head to respond to something else the redhead said.
    Jolie looked away before she could make an even bigger fool out of herself. Undoubtedly, the man already thought she was certifiable—why not behave like a stalker too?
    Keeping an eye peeled for Roger LeMon, she scanned the crowd methodically, thinking she should have watched where he'd gone. A few seconds later, she chastised herself. Just because LeMon gave her the creeps and lied—possibly—about knowing Gary didn't mean he was a criminal monster. He simply could be a run-of-the-mill chauvinistic jerk.
    The wisecrack that Kyle Coffee had made about a divorce attorney—had he been hinting that he himself could use one, or Roger? Neither man, in her opinion, presented himself as being prime husband material. Is that what Della Underwood had decided, or had Roger LeMon ended their relationship?
    Carlotta snapped her phone closed and stashed it in her bag. "Hannah will meet us outside in a few minutes. Want to come?"
    "Sure. Carlotta, what do you know about Della Underwood?"
    Carlotta pursed her mouth. "Actually, Della and I went to the same private high school for a while."
    "Were you friends?"
    "No. She was a year ahead of me, and she hung with a very exclusive crowd. Her mother has always been sickly, so she began making public appearances with her old man when she was still in high school." Carlotta laughed. "I was wildly jealous of her, we all were."
    It was hard to imagine that Carlotta would be jealous of anyone.
    "After high school, Della was a party girl, but she had a lot of style, you know? Classy. Dated senators' sons, professional athletes, was always in the social column." She paused and lifted her shoulders in a slow shrug. "Then...I don't know, she just sort of dropped off the scene. There were rumors that she was in drug rehab, that she'd had a nervous breakdown, that she'd had a baby—but none of those things were ever verified. She started making appearances again, but she was like this scared little animal, like...like she'd been wounded."
    "What do you think happened?"
    Carlotta spoke behind her hand. "Personally, I always wondered if maybe Mrs. Underwood was a mental case, and if maybe Della inherited something." She shrugged. "But that's only speculation on my part."
    "She's never been married?"
    "No."
    "Beck mentioned at the museum the other night that she used to date Roger LeMon."
    Carlotta frowned. "Really? I don't remember that. Not that I'm an expert on the Underwoods."
    Jolie wet her lips. "Has Beck?"
    "Has Beck what?"
    Her cheeks tingled. "Ever been married?"
    A sly smile curved Carlotta's mouth. "Not unless he got married while he was in exile."
    "What do you mean, 'in exile'?"
    "Beck worked for his dad, but it was well known that they didn't always get along. Beck was a rebel, a real champion of the working man," she said, her voice heavy with sarcasm. "If you ask me, leading pickets against his dad's companies had more to do with making his old man crazy than with sympathy for the lowly masses, but regardless, Daddy Underwood sent him packing."
    Admiration bloomed in Jolie's chest. Despite her best intentions, she stole another glance in Beck's direction and saw that he had been cornered by a reporter and camera crew. Of course anyone covering award nominations for broadcasters and journalists would want to talk to the successor to the largest broadcasting company in the Southeast. A spotlight haloed his wide torso as he spoke into the extended microphone. His body language didn't read like a rebel. He looked thoughtful and distinguished, like someone on the verge of taking over the reins of a company he would most likely inherit. A crowd had gathered around him, and from the expressions on their faces, it was apparent that men wanted to be him, and women wanted to be with him.
    "He's something, isn't he?" Carlotta whispered with a sigh.
    Jolie jerked her head around, then flushed. "He's...perplexing."
    Carlotta linked her arm in Jolie's and pulled her in the opposite direction. "He's a man, Jolie—trust me, he's not that complicated."
    Jolie closed her eyes briefly, trying to sort her jumbled