Read Online Catching Hell: A Hot Contemporary Romance by Mindy Klasky - Free Book Online Page A

yet to hear him name a specific sum he expected any guest to give to the cause. But she heard several promises of checks, and three different people said they’d speak to their lawyers in the following week. Lawyers—that could only mean sizable donations, perhaps even the redrafting of a will.
    Throughout the evening, Anna kept a smile on her face. She repeated the names of RADD’s powerful patrons as her grandfather introduced her, and she threw herself headlong into cocktail-party chatter. She did her best to keep anyone from knowing that her feet throbbed in the high heels she’d borrowed from Emily. She only forgot once that her hair was swept into a graceful up-do—and even then she stopped herself before she raked her fingers completely through her best friend’s hard work.
    “Enough,” Gramps said when the pastor of his church had walked away. He leaned back in his chair and gestured for Anna to lean down so he could whisper in her ear. “Call Phil, and tell him I’m ready to go home.”
    “You can’t leave yet!” Anna said. “The ball will last till midnight!”
    “And I intend to be tucked into my bed well before then,” the old man said tartly. “You can represent the Benson name. Unless you’re afraid your carriage will turn into a pumpkin?”
    Anna frowned. Her carriage was going to be a taxi. She’d decided it was foolish to keep a driver waiting all night to take her home from the ball. In fact, if this had been any other party, she would have just walked home. It would do her good to get some fresh air. But she wasn’t about to subject her feet to that torture, not when she’d let Emily bully her into three-inch heels.
    “Let me call Phil,” she said exasperatedly, plucking her phone out of the tiny bag Emily had approved for the night.  
    In the end, it took nearly half an hour for Gramps to leave. Dozens of people needed to deliver their best wishes, and RADD’s president had to reiterate her gratitude for the generous donation from the Benson Family Trust. Anna leaned down to kiss her grandfather on his forehead after he was settled in the back seat of his town car. Only when she saw the tight lines of his pale lips did she realize how much the event had taken out of him.
    “I’ll come home with you,” she said. “Just make sure you get settled in for the night.”
    “That would be a fu—, a full-time waste of your charms, dear. Get back in there, Anna-cakes. Enjoy the rest of the night—and see if you can’t pin down Gwendolyn Chalmers for the donation she promised last spring.”
    Anna decided that protesting would only stress her grandfather more. Instead, she pasted a smile on her face and stepped back so Phil could close the car door. “Take it easy with him,” she said to the trusted driver. “He’s exhausted, even though he’ll never admit it.”
    “Of course,” Phil said, with a firm nod. Anna had the distinct impression he would have touched his finger to the bill of his cap, if he’d been dressed in a traditional chauffeur’s garb. As it was, the man wore a dark suit that bunched over his linebacker muscles. He’d get Gramps home without a problem.
    Anna sighed and turned back to the hotel ballroom. The theme of this year’s event was The Age of Innocence . The tables had been festooned with flowers worthy of an Edith Wharton novel, and the usual rock band had been replaced with a chamber orchestra. A dozen couples spun about the dance floor, demonstrating their skill at the waltz.
    Anna snagged a glass of champagne from a passing waiter, and she stepped to the side of the room. Gwendolyn Chalmers… The woman should be sitting with friends from the Garden Society; she was famous for the formal plantings that guaranteed her house was on the home tour every spring.  
    There was the Garden Society; Anna would recognize those matrons anywhere. But Gwendolyn was nowhere in sight. Frowning, Anna turned to her right, ready to scrutinize every face in the