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Alex retrieved her stiletto and popped it open. It only took one push in the right place by the lock to slip the door past the frame. She let it swing open silently.
She stepped inside the empty apartment.
Chapter 59
Sometimes even I was amazed at the turns my days could take. An hour ago, I was talking to a guy who tried to kill me. I cut a deal no sane cop would make. I gave up an immediate arrest that would probably lead to two other arrests for the chance to land the big one. As long as I didn’t tell anyone about it, I probably wouldn’t get in trouble. Now I was downtown and meeting Mary Catherine for lunch.
I had gone from talking to a guy who tried to kill me to talking with the woman who had saved me.
It was a spur-of-the-moment decision. I called her and asked her to meet me on the seventh floor of the Bergdorf Goodman department store, in the little restaurant. She sounded shocked by the invitation, then blu
rted out, “I didn’t know you realized there was a restaurant up there.”
The BG Restaurant was fancy by my standards, with big, ornate windows and stiff, formal chairs. The menu prices made me flinch a little, but I rationalized the midday splurge. The croque monsieur made that rationalization easier.
We sat at a small table overlooking Central Park near 57th Street. The view was spectacular. And so was Mary Catherine. Her beautiful face, framed by that lovely auburn hair, and those clear green eyes that seemed to take in the whole world made the view pale by comparison. It’s too bad I could never put that kind of shit into words around her. Instead I said, “You look great.”
She blushed slightly and smiled. “You always say the right things.”
We chatted about subjects we normally don’t get to chat about. Current events. Where the kids might end up going to college. Where we might go on vacation this coming summer. It was great.
Then we ended up on the topic of Juliana.
Mary Catherine said, “I really think you need to give her more room. By the way, that was a sneaky trick, getting Carter to admit he was planning on moving to LA.”
I smiled. “Sneaky or brilliant?”
She shrugged and said, “I guess it’s a little bit of both.”
“When you get a little older, you have to get sneakier. It’s our only advantage.”
Mary Catherine wasn’t swayed. “I want you to let her live her life. At least within reason. Carter seems like a nice enough boy.”
“I wouldn’t have a problem with him if he was a boy. But the fact that he’s closer to thirty than twenty bothers me.”
“Do you really think anyone would try to do anything stupid to any of your daughters after they met you?”
I thought about it. Maybe I did come on a little strong sometimes.
I changed the topic. “Have you thought about a date for us yet? A spring wedding might be nice.”
“No, I haven’t thought about it.”
“I could be sneaky and trick you into it.”
“There’s no need. It’s just that I have so much to keep up with running the house. It’s hard to take time to plan anything. I can’t even think about a wedding right now.”
I said, “It doesn’t have to be big and elaborate.”
“The hell it doesn’t. If I’m going to marry the man I love, it’s going to be way over the top. I mean Barbra-Streisand-as-entertainment big.”
I chuckled as I said, “What do you mean if you’re going to marry me?”
She reached across the table and took my hand in hers. “When I marry the man I love. But right now I want to focus on Bridget and Fiona as they get ready for their first boy-girl dance. And Trent, the forgotten kid, who never does anything wrong. And Chrissy, who is taking this baby-of-the-family thing a little too far.”
I thought about what she was saying. “I know you end up getting a whole family with me. A giant family. I don’t want to stress you out any more.”
“Oh, you silly, oblivious man. That’s just it. I do get the whole family. The whole fantastic family. It’s not a negative. I get to adopt each of the kids, just like you and Maeve did. It’s thrilling. It’s more than I ever wanted. But right now I have cookies I have to get to Shawna’s class for history day, and then I’m taking Seamus to the eye doctor.”
