Free Chocolate Kisses by Judith Arnold Page B

the pilot light started.”
    “And
why is there only one cake on display in the ballroom? We’re supposed to have
two.”
    “The
other one isn’t frosted yet,” Claudia explained.
    “Mother,
you’re going to ruin your hair,” Melanie whined as Claudia placed tools in Mrs.
Wyatt’s outstretched hand.
    “You
can fix it for me,” Mrs. Wyatt assured her. “How is Amy? Excited to death?”
    “Amy
and her friends are upstairs listening to some grating rap singer. I don’t know
where she picked up such terrible taste in music. We should never have let her
go to Bennington.”
    No
response from Mrs. Wyatt.
    Melanie
turned her sharp eyes on Claudia. ‘Well? Frost the cake!”
    Not
knowing what else to do, Claudia tucked Mrs. Wyatt’s bracelet and ring into the
pocket of her apron and tackled the cake. Fortunately, she’d made extra
frosting. As long as Ned didn’t show up and start stealing tastes from the
bowl, what she had would cover all three layers.
    Melanie’s
eyes shuttled from Claudia’s efficient labor to her mother’s visible bottom,
shifting and twitching as she plied her tools inside the oven. “I swear,” she
muttered, “that woman is the most humiliating mother a person could have.”
    Claudia
doubted Melanie’s daughter would agree, but she kept her opinion to herself.
    “Aha!”
Mrs. Wyatt crowed, at last wriggling out of the oven. “All set. Where are the
matches?” The pilot light ignited without an explosion, and Mrs. Wyatt dusted
off her hands and smiled smugly.
    “You’re
a mess,” Melanie said, grabbing her mother by the elbow and hauling her out of
the kitchen.
    Claudia
finished frosting the cake, then slid her trays of stuffed mushrooms into the oven
to heat. As she dappled the cake with chocolate kisses, she felt her pulse rate
return to normal. Everything was going to be fine. The party was going to go
well. She was going to survive.
    Not
just survive—to triumph.
    She
lifted the cake and started for the door to the hall—and discovered Ned filling
it, clad in a gray silk tuxedo. His bow tie was a muted red, thin, underlining
his thin lips. His hair was barely tamed, curling down over his collar in back,
and his eyes danced with pleasure as he regarded her.
    “You
look good,” she let slip.
    “You
look almost as good as you looked in the bathtub,” he told her. She blushed,
partly from embarrassment and partly from arousal. “Don’t drop the cake,” he
said, hurrying into the room and taking the tray from her.
    “Thanks,”
she whispered as he set the tray on the counter. “I don’t think I can handle
another disaster.”
    “You,”
he murmured, “can handle anything. That’s one of the things I like best about
you.” He took her hands in his and drew her toward him, lowering his mouth to
hers.
    She
held her breath, waiting for his kiss, needing it. Just as his lips were a
whisper away from hers, his sister’s voice blasted into the kitchen, preceding
the rest of her by a good couple of seconds. “Where are they? All right, I want
them now . Where are they?”
    Claudia
sprang back and jerked her hands away from Ned’s. “Where’s what?”
    “My
mother’s jewels.”
    “Oh—right
here,” Claudia said, pulling the ring and bracelet from her apron pocket.
    “Thief!”
Melanie howled. “She’s a thief! Arrest that woman!”
     
     
     
    Chapter Eight
     
    7:48
p.m.
     
    MORE
THAN TWO HOURS had passed since Melanie Steele had accused Claudia of stealing
her mother’s jewels, but the accusation still smarted.
    The
kitchen was redolent with the aromas of delectable entrées. A battalion of
waiters conveyed trays of food from the kitchen to the dining room. The
chocolate and vanilla valentine cakes stood in proud display in the ballroom,
where a chamber orchestra played to a rapidly dwindling throng. The
presentation of the town’s richest young ladies was grand, dancing was amusing,
checking out one another’s gowns was important—but Claudia’s gourmet