Masquerade (9 page)

When you came right down to it, Freud didn’t make a lot of sense.

Clarissa shrugged. “I imagine all children, both boys and girls, come with their own amount of trouble. I’m just happy I can work and still have my daughter with me.”

The woman turned her gaze to Elaina. “Yes,” she said slowly. “That is wonderful. Some employers wouldn’t allow it. Yours must be fond of you.”

Not really. “He’s a very nice man,” Clarissa said.

The woman leaned in a bit closer. “How lucky for you that you get along. How much time do you spend together?”

Before she could answer, a booming voice came from behind her. “Sylvia! Yes, I thought that was you. How are you doing?”

Clarissa turned around and saw
Landon striding toward them. He wore a pair of khaki swimming trunks and had a towel draped around his neck. His hair was wet, and water droplets glistened all over his tanned body, as though he had just stepped out of the pool and hadn’t had a chance to dry off yet.

Sylvia slipped the sunglasses from her face and smiled up at him. “I’m fine,
Landon. And I don’t need to ask you. I can tell you’re doing wonderfully.”

Landon
sat down on the other side of Sylvia and gave Clarissa a forced smile. “I see you’ve met Sylvia Stanfield. She’s one of the reporters for
The Scoop
magazine.”

Clarissa didn’t say anything. She shut her eyes and gulped. A reporter. She’d been talking to a reporter—something her employment contract specifically stated she could not do. But it wasn’t her fault. She hadn’t known. And she hadn’t said anything
bad. Well, except that Bella could compete with anyone for the title of “Terror.”

Clarissa laid her head back against the chair and gulped again.
Slade was not going to be understanding about this.

Sylvia’s attention turned to
Landon, and she didn’t seem to notice Clarissa’s discomfort. She tapped her sunglasses against Landon’s leg with an air of familiarity. “When are you going to let me interview you for
The Scoop
?
I’ve always wanted to do you, you know.”

Landon
’s smile was still forced. “Oh, I think your magazine has already done me quite a few times. The last time I read it, I learned I was secretly engaged to half a dozen showgirls and in drug rehab all at the same time.”

Sylvia didn’t even wince. She leaned toward
Landon and grinned. “Consider it your opportunity to set the record straight.”

Landon
’s gaze traveled back to Clarissa. His voice was still light, and yet felt heavy to her. “Is that what you were doing talking to Slade’s nanny? Getting the record straight?”

Sylvia glanced back at Clarissa as if
only now remembering she sat beside her. “We were just passing the time. Friendly chitchat. That’s all. Weren’t we, dear?”

“Bella is a lovely child,” Clarissa said quickly, “and Slade is only nice to me in a professional sort of way.”

“Yes, of course, dear,” Sylvia said.

Landon
rolled his eyes, but before Sylvia turned back to him, he put on his smile again. In a low voice, as though he and Sylvia were conspirators, he said, “Don’t use anything Slade’s nanny said in your magazine. Slade likes to keep his family life private. I’d hate to see her in trouble, since I’m the one who got her the job as nanny.”

Sylvia tilted her head a bit, seeming every bit as surprised as Clarissa was by this information. “You’re in the nanny business now?”

“No. Slade needed a nanny, and . . .” Landon hesitated only a moment before he came up with her name. “Clarissa is a friend of mine, so I hooked them up with one another.” Landon leaned forward and put one tanned hand on Sylvia’s not-so-tan knee. “How about this: You forget you talked to Clarissa, and I’ll buy you lunch. While we eat, you can interview me to your heart’s content.”

Sylvia’s smile grew so wide it seemed to cut her face in half. “I’ll take you up on that offer, and I happen to be famished right now.”

“Great,” Landon said. “Let’s go see what the hotel is serving.”

They both got up, and Sylvia didn’t even give Clarissa another glance as they walked away from the pool. That was all right
, though. The look Landon shot her was enough.

For quite some time Clarissa sat in the chair, limply w
atching the girls splash around while she chastised herself.

She should have known better. Well, okay,
she wasn’t sure how she should have known better, but she should have. She was in a different world now, a world where words—where the mere innuendo of words—was a dangerous thing. She couldn’t forget that again. If needs be, she’d take up sign language and pretend to be mute . . . that was, if she actually had a job after this afternoon.

Chapter 11

A little
after eleven Slade called Clarissa, asked where she was, and then said he would join her. He hung up without say much else. Which was probably for the best. If he’d asked, “How did things go this morning?” she would have had to tell him something. At least this way she could tell him in person his daughter had spent half the morning screaming and threatening to get her fired. And then Clarissa could mention that she’d told a reporter that Bella was a terror and at this moment, Landon was out having lunch with the woman to rectify the situation.

This wasn’t going to be a good afternoon. She didn’t want to face Slade right now.

As she put her phone back into her bag, she noticed the snags in her bathing suit again. And she especially didn’t want to face Slade wearing this beat-up old bathing suit. She pulled her robe out of her bag. If she was going to be fired, she should do it with as much dignity as possible.

Hadn’t that same thought flashed through her mind last night?

It wasn’t a good sign that this sentence had become the theme of her nanny career.

Slade showed up
twenty minutes later, and he didn’t come by himself. Two men and a woman walked with him toward the pool. The men were in their forties, both in good shape. One had a receding hairline and wore what hair he had left tied behind his neck in a ponytail. The other man had jet-black hair, a mustache, and wore metallic sunglasses.

The woman
, Clarissa vaguely recognized as one of the actresses from
Undercover Agents
, although she couldn’t think of her name offhand. Long red hair swung around her shoulders, and large green eyes looked out from the midst of flawless skin. She was easily 5' 10" tall, and most of that was willowy legs. Her swimming suit looked like it was made of black velvet and showed off a Barbie-perfect figure.

Next
, Clarissa’s gaze moved to Slade, and she couldn’t keep it from lingering there as he approached. He wore navy blue trunks, dark sunglasses, and had a pool towel slung over one of his shoulders.

Clarissa had never particularly appreciated how broad Slade’s shoulders were before, and now as he walked toward her, she tried not to stare at them. It probably wasn’t professional behavior for someone who was about to be fired.

When Slade reached Clarissa, he dropped his towel on the chair next to her, then stepped out of his sandals. The people with him began settling into the row of chairs by Clarissa.

Slade
gestured at Clarissa. “This is Bella’s nanny, Mrs. Hancock.” He then held his hand out to point at each of the people with him. “This is Sherry, the hardworking, streetwise junior agent; and two narcotic thugs, Joe and Breck, who get killed in a bloody shoot-out at the end of the next show.”

Joe, the one with the ponytail, reached over, shook Clarissa’s hand, and winked. “Only the good die young.”

Sherry laughed and sat down. “Slade, that’s the last time I tell you the plot line to one of our episodes.”

“You don’t have to tell anyone the plots,”
Breck said, plopping down on the chair next to her. “They’re all the same. Just for variety, I’m going to ask AJ to let me kill off one of the agents in our crossfire.”

“
Don’t let it be me.” Sherry adjusted her pool chair so it leaned back. “Natalie would be putting on my uniform before they could even shoot the poignant scene where everyone comes to my funeral and cries their eyes out.”

Slade
scanned the kiddy pool. “Where’s Bella?”

Clarissa pointed to the far
corner of the pool where Elaina and Bella were bent over on their hands and knees, periodically jumping across the pool. “They’re being sharks,” Clarissa said.

“Ah, yes, my daughter the shark.” Slade sat down in the ch
air between Clarissa and Sherry. He leaned back in a relaxed fashion. “How has Bella been today?”

H
ere it was. The time to confess all, only Clarissa couldn’t exactly bring herself to do it with three other people sitting with them. And Slade wouldn’t want these other people to know what had gone on this morning anyway. Hadn’t Landon just emphasized what a private person Slade was when it came to his family life?

Still Clarissa had to say something. She smiled weakly. “Bella wanted to go to the beach, but I thought it best if we
tried the kiddy pool first. She got quite upset about that.”

Slade looked back over at Bella. “Upset how?”

“You know, yelling and crying,” and issuing threats like a three-foot dictator.

Slade continued to look at Bella and at last shrugged. “She seems fine now.”

Clarissa let out a slow breath. That was easier than she expected. Of course, Slade’s attitude might change after he talked to Bella. Bella might carry through on her plans to tell Slade what an awful nanny she was. And there was still the matter of the reporter. Clarissa hadn’t formulated a casual way to tell Slade about that.

Slade’s
golden-brown eyes turned to Clarissa. “I thought I’d watch the girls for a while and give you the afternoon off. That way you won’t be mad at me when I ask you to watch Bella all evening.”

“Oh, you have something planned?”

“The Agents have a dinner and dance tonight. AJ will be there, and the press won’t.”

“The press . . .
” Clarissa repeated.

Joe leaned toward her. “Vultures,” he said. “And may I someday be famous enough to have them circling me.”

She should have said something about Sylvia then. She should have said, “Yeah, the press is horrible. Why, a little while ago . . .” But she couldn’t do it. Slade had already yelled at her in front of Landon. She didn’t want to add three more actors to that list of witnesses. Pretty soon she wouldn’t be able to turn on the TV without spotting people who’d seen her chewed out.

Breck
slapped suntan lotion across his arms and shoulders. “Dinner should be another one of AJ’s big affairs. I swear, he doesn’t think he’s running a production. He thinks he’s running a cruise ship, and he’s the director.”

Joe nodded. “He must have taken
dancing lessons and wants to get his money’s worth.”

Sherry
slipped a pair of designer sunglasses over her eyes. “Some people enjoy dancing.”

Breck
elbowed Joe and smirked. “Yeah, and those people are called women.”

Clarissa’s gaze fluttered over to
Sherry. Was she the one who had invited Slade to the party? They would make such a striking couple together. All of Sherry’s long red tresses next to Slade’s thick, dark, I’d-love-to-run- my-fingers-through-it brown hair.

Clarissa suddenly felt enormously dowdy in her terry cloth robe. It wasn’t fair. No one should have to sit next to a starlet at a swimming pool while wearing an old terry cloth robe. These men were probably comparing
Sherry’s long tanned legs to Clarissa’s pale ones, and Sherry’s shiny, curled-just-right hair to Clarissa’s dull, limp, pulled-back-in-a-ponytail blonde hair. She hated to think what else they might be comparing.

Clarissa had the sudden urge to name off her good qualities. Okay, so I’ve never appeared in
People
magazine, but I’m a caring mother, and I got straight A’s in college. I know how to bake cinnamon rolls, make life-like flowers out of crepe paper, and can sing Handel’s
Messiah
on key. I have lots of friends back home. Not famous friends, but still good people.

It wouldn’t have mattered to them, she supposed. Somehow in the great scale of life, being able to
bake cinnamon rolls never seemed to outweigh looking stunning in a black velvet swimsuit.

Slade leaned over to Clarissa. “I’m serious about you taking the afternoon off. Have you given the girls lunch yet?”

“No, I was just about to order something for them.”

“I can do it,” Slade said. “Go have some fun, and I’ll bring the girls to your room at 4:30.”

Clarissa glanced over at Bella and Elaina. They were leaping toward the chairs now, making tremendous splashes as they came. Any moment Bella would see her father, and then what would happen? Perhaps Clarissa should take Slade up on the offer and bolt before Bella had the chance to make even more waves.

“Are you sure you’re up to watching two children?”

Slade rolled his eyes. “I am a parent, Clarissa. Over the past four years I have managed to pick up a few child-rearing abilities.”

Bella let o
ut a squeal, followed by a loud “Daddy!” and then tramped up to the chairs and flung herself onto her father’s lap.

“Hey, princess.” He took
the towel off his chair and wrapped it around her until she looked like a mound of fluff with eyes. “Are you having fun?”

“I’m a shark,” she said.

“I see. And did you have a good morning with Clarissa and Elaina?”

Clarissa wrapped her own towel around Elaina and held her b
reath, waiting for the tell-all. The ocean. The chair. The I’m-going-to-tell-my-daddy-to-send-you-away story. To what degree would Slade take his daughter’s side over that of the nanny?

Bella’s gaze brushed across Clarissa without any resentment
. Then she said, “We played Go Fish. I won three times.”

“Ah, you’re a card shark then. It all makes sense now.”

Breck peered over his sunglasses at Slade. “What are you teaching your kid, Slade? You got her running a card racket?”

Joe leaned over and tousled some of Bella’s wet curls. “Hey, if you’re really tough
, we could use you during our shoot-out. We got some namby-pamby agents we got to teach a lesson to.”

Bella slipped off her father’s lap, probably to get out of Joe’s reach, and let the towel fall from her shoulders. She took hold of her father’s hand. “Come play with me, Daddy.”

“In a minute,” Slade said, and turned his attention to Sherry. “What’s the dress code for tonight?”

Clarissa felt Elaina shiver an
d pulled the towel around her tighter. “Do you want to stay out here and have lunch with Bella and Slade, or do you want to come back to the hotel with Mommy and have lunch there?”

Elaina
hopped up and down eagerly. “I want to stay here.”

Oh.

Clarissa wasn’t sure whether to be happy or disappointed. On one hand, she couldn’t remember the last time she had more than five minutes to herself. On the other hand, her daughter— her daughter, who usually couldn’t be pried from Clarissa’s side, had just voluntarily chosen to spend time away from her. That sort of hurt.

Then from the recesses of her mind, the child experts spoke again. They seemed to be nodding approvingly and murmuring things about a child’s quest for independence and a child’s ability to make her own choices.

Clarissa rubbed her hand up and down Elaina’s back. “Okay, honey, I’ll tell Slade you want to play out here for a bit longer, but if you change your mind
, he can always  . . .” She broke off as she noticed Bella. The little girl had given up tugging on her father’s hand, and now, with hands on hips, let out a heavy sigh. She looked over at Clarissa and something flickered in her eyes. Without a word, she circled around the back of the chairs.

Before Clarissa could even call out to her, Bella skipped over to the big pool and went directly over the edge. Her parting into the water
only made a whispered splash.

At first Clarissa could neither move nor breathe, then her body suddenly worked again, and she yelled, “Slade!”

She leapt from her chair without waiting to see his response. Her sandals made it hard to run, but she didn’t have time to take them off. In seconds she reached the pool. She saw the form of Bella beneath the water’s surface and immediately plunged into the pool next to her.

The water felt cool and heavy, too heavy. Her robe, now saturated, weighed her down, and every motion seemed to take aggravatingly long. She reache
d out for Bella, kept reaching. The little girl seemed to always be just beyond her grasp. Then a moment later she grabbed hold of Bella’s hand and pulled her into her arms.

Clarissa turned and pushed through the surface, holding Bella’s head up into the air. She swam to the
shallow water, checking the little girl’s face to make sure she was breathing.

“Are you all right?”
Clarissa asked.

Bella nodded, her eyes wide with surprise.

Clarissa pushed her way to the stairs, hugging Bella to her to keep herself from shaking. “You scared me to death. Didn’t I tell you not to go near the big pool—didn’t I?”

“But you weren’t watching me anymore. Daddy was.”

“That matters?”

Elaina, Slade, Joe,
Breck, and Sherry were all standing and staring at her from the side of the pool.

Slade
gazed at her without the worry, without the terror, Clarissa had expected to see. He only looked puzzled. “What in the world are you doing?”

“Bella jumped in the pool. I went in to save her.”

“Oh,” Slade said, and a smile played on his lips. “That’s very sweet of you. Very heroic.” He held out his hands and took Bella from her arms. “Of course, it would have been more meaningful if Bella didn’t already know how to swim.”