Read Online After the Party by Jackie Braun - Free Book Online Page A

consider that a personal question. She glanced down at the pumps.
    “I decided my outfit needed a punch of color.”
    He nodded, as if he understood, which she doubted. Few men understood a woman’s predilection for shoes. Even her former boyfriend, Bradley, who was a clotheshorse himself, had been baffled by her obsession with footwear.
    “Ready?” Chase asked.
    “Yes.”
    She retrieved a small clutch from the counter. It was orange, a warm hue that was positioned opposite the purple of her shoes on the color wheel. As such they complemented one another as well as the more neutral-toned dress.
    “Aren’t you forgetting something?” At her quizzical glance, he added, “A tablet, whether the old-fashioned writing variety or the high-tech kind. You’ll need to take notes for my dinner party.”
    Dinner party. Notes. “Right,” she murmured, rummaging through the magazines, correspondence and clothes on her desk. She found a small pad of paper and tucked it into the purse. Then they were on their way. When they passed through the main door downstairs, Chase kicked to the side the brick her neighbor had placed there.
    She thought the gesture sweet, even though she knew from prior experience that the guy or one of his bandmates would only put it back.
    * * *
    Ella was familiar with the restaurant Chase chose. It was a favorite of her father’s, although it had been a while since either she or Oscar had eaten there. The price of an appetizer could buy her a couple of meals at the places she frequented these days, not that she ate out often. Eating in was much cheaper.
    “Mr. Trumbull, so good to see you again,” the maître d’ said with a hint of a bow. “I must have missed your name on the reservation list.”
    “You didn’t miss it. My guest and I made dinner plans at the last minute. I know it’s a Friday night, but I was hoping you could accommodate us.”
    The man’s gaze fell on Ella then and he blinked in surprise. “Miss Sanborn! It’s...it’s...it’s been too long.”
    She gave him points for the quick recovery as well as diplomacy, even if his complexion paled by several shades.
    “Hello, Charles. How are you?”
    “I’m well, thank you. And you?”
    “Never better,” she replied with a smile.
    He lowered his voice and glanced around. “Will your father be joining you this evening?”
    “No. It’s just Chase and me.”
    The maître d’s relief was palpable. Although her heart sank, Ella kept her smile in place.
    She didn’t need to look at Chase to know he was frowning. Questions were forming. Perhaps he already had answered some of them himself. She hoped any that remained could wait until after she’d eaten a thick slice of The Colton’s signature cheesecake, since talking about the past would spoil her appetite.
    “Do you think you can find us a table?” she said to Charles.
    There had been a time when Ella would have slipped the man a fifty-dollar bill along with the request. Money talked. Her father had taught her how to grease all sorts of skids with various denominations of currency. Now that neither of them had any to spare, doors that once swung wide open were all but bolted shut. That reality, along with the whispered comments whenever he came into a room, had left Oscar Sanborn bitter. Ella considered herself wiser. She put more stock in happiness than prosperity, even if she recognized the need for an income.
    “Of course. Right this way.”
    The table was one of three in a small alcove in the back, secluded from the front of the restaurant. Ella couldn’t decide if Charles had seated them there to ensure their privacy or to isolate them from the other guests, her father’s reputation being what it was these days.
    A waiter appeared almost immediately to take their drink order.
    “May I take the liberty of recommending a wine to start, Mr. Trumbull?” he asked.
    At Chase’s nod, the young man rattled off the selection, touching on its various notes and