Free For the Love of Family by Kathleen O`Brien Page B

wear Armani, too?”
    “He’s the exception, I guess. He’s got this jacket that probably costs a month’s rent. But he puts it on over jeans.” She smiled in spite of herself. “Fantastic jeans.”
    Her friend chuckled and glanced knowingly over her shoulder. “Ho, boy. I have got to get a look at this guy.”
    Belle wrinkled her nose sheepishly. Pandora had heard it all, eight years ago, so there was little point in pretending to be immune to Matt Malone’s charms now. “You won’t believe it, Dorrie. I had begun to wonder whether some of what I remembered was…you know…”
    “Pheromone hallucinations? Lust blindness? Gin-induced hysteria?”
    Belle laughed, and felt a little better. In spite of Pandora’s constant financial struggles, and now the baby to support, with no father in sight, her indomitable practicality and wit improved any situation.
    “Well, it was your gin, as I recall,” Belle reminded her. “But yeah, I wondered whether some of the sex appeal I remembered was…artificially enhanced. You know. ‘Objects you see in your memory are less romantic than they appear.’”
    Pandora grinned. “But not this one, huh?”
    “Nope. Unfortunately. But at least there’s no risk of ending up in bed with him this time around. Not without my Cleopatra costume. He’s obviously one of those men who always date bimbos named Trixi with an i .Bambi, with breasts out to here. He wouldn’t have looked at me twice without the padded bra.”
    Pandora laughed, just loudly enough to wake the baby, who whimpered adorably.
    “Here,” she said, thrusting out the black velvet pants, a shimmery royal blue blouse and a little black bolero jacket Belle had forgotten she owned. And, right on top, a pair of cherry-red pumps, the signature Pandora flair. “It’s not Armani, but you won’t disgrace yourself.”
    Belle took the clothes. No, she wouldn’t. And if she could just come up with an impressive idea for the product launch…
    She could. And she would.
    They were already running a diamond sweepstakes. Maybe there was some way to tie into that.
    She clutched the clothes to her chest and made herself a vow.
    She’d stay up all night if she had to, but she would not go in tomorrow without the best damn PR idea Matt Malone had ever heard.

CHAPTER FIVE

    T HE NINETY-MINUTE meeting was nearly over, and Matt noticed that Belle Carson hadn’t uttered a peep.
    She looked terrific today, much less like a scared kitten than she had yesterday, but she might as well have been mute. George had tried to draw her out a couple of times, but she’d deflected him with a murmur and a smile.
    Thank goodness Nana Lina had decided not to attend the meeting after all, Matt thought. His grandmother had resisted the idea of a public relations department in the first place. She held the purist’s view that if a product was superior, it would speak for itself. Matt had spent at least a year overcoming that.
    If Nana Lina met Belle today, she would be sure that Matt had hired a pretty face with no brain behind it. That was something he had always refused to do in his professional life, and, though Colby and Red laughed when he’d announced it, it was now something he would refuse to do in his personal life, as well.
    The era of the Tiffanis was over.
    Unfortunately, with the expansion bearing down on them, he had no time to pursue a woman of substanceand develop a relationship of substance, so that pretty much meant the era of sex was over, too.
    At least for a while.
    He’d heard that some men got a physical thrill out of obsessive work. He hoped to heaven that was true.
    “Okay, let’s talk about ideas for the launch. We’ve got exactly three weeks before the new foods are on the menus and the doors open at the new franchises. George, do you have the stats?”
    Of course he did. He was both smart and thorough—a one-man marketing and PR whiz. Thank God that stupid newspaper had let him go. Matt wasn’t sure he could have