Free Lone Star Santa by Heather MacAllister Page B

looking at him, his dad asked, “Are you okay?”
    Mitch thought of Kristen’s skepticism. “I think so.”
    “You should know so.”
    “You’re right.” Mitch nodded. “I should.”
    “Need help finding out?”
    Again he thought of Kristen. “I’ve got help.”
    “T HANKS SO MUCH for all your help.” Kristen’s mother hung up the telephone and called to Kristen’s father. “The code is RE6SL94PDOR and the year you’re looking for.”
    “What if I don’t know what year I’m looking for?” he bellowed from his office.

    Everyone was getting a little testy, Kristen thought. Low blood sugar, no doubt.
    Her parents had commandeered both computers, which left Kristen sitting in the waiting area trying not to bite her fingernails. She hadn’t had an urge to bite her nails in years and now, even faced with her perfect and difficult-to-do-by-herself manicure, she felt like nibbling a red thumbnail.
    Maybe she should offer to make a hamburger run.
    Maybe she’d make a hamburger run and swing by Mitch’s house and bring him back to the office to see how totally messed up his life was. Or was about to be. Depending.
    Carl Zaleski had returned from following Nora Beckman, who had resisted temptation, bless her heart. Then he’d pretty much taken over from Kristen. With Barbara interpreting a lot of the real estate info, they’d found that essentially, Mitch’s company had funneled substantial investment money from clients into companies that turned out to deal primarily with, or were owned by, Jeremy Sloane’s father.
    But that made it sound so much simpler than it was. Getting to that info had been tedious and difficult, as it was meant to be. Connections were tangled and obscured and it was only by luck—pure luck—that anything suspicious had been uncovered. Luck that Kristen had time to keep poking around because her parents were running late. Luck that her mother knew real estate and was able to connect the pieces and fill in the gaps. And if Barbara couldn’t fill in the gaps, then she’d contacted colleagues who could.
    Yes, Mitch was oh, so very lucky that he’d confidedin Kristen and she could hardly wait to tell him and show him how clever she—and her parents—had been. She’d succeeded at something for a first time in a long while and success felt good.
    Kristen was still in the throes of self-congratulation when both parents gasped in unison. That couldn’t be good.
    Her father came out of his office to stand behind her mother and stare at the computer monitor as though he couldn’t believe what he’d seen on his.
    “What?” Kristen got to her feet.
    Her parents just looked at her.
    “ What? ” She headed toward the desk as her mother clicked off the screen.
    “Barbara,” Carl Zaleski murmured.
    “What did you find?” Kristen demanded.
    “She can’t handle it.” Her mother spoke without moving her lips.
    “I heard that. What can’t I handle? Scratch that. I can handle it. I can handle and have handled more stuff than you might guess.” What could they have found? “I’ve handled rejection. Lots of rejection. And bad news.” They weren’t looking at her. “Weird stuff.” That got their attention. “Yeah, really weird stuff that we don’t have in Sugar Land.”
    “Don’t be so sure,” Barbara murmured, again without moving her lips.
    “I can still hear you. Now come on.”
    “What do you think, Barb? Should we tell her Mitch owns GBE?”
    “GBE? What’s GBE?”
    “Nice one, Carl.” Barbara’s lips were moving plentynow. To Kristen she said, “GBE is Golden Boy Enterprises.”
    “That doesn’t sound like Mitch. Besides, his hair is brown.”
    “She does have a unique take on a situation,” her father commented.
    “Maybe if I knew what the situation was, I could be less unique and more relevant.”
    “No, you misunderstand. I like your fresh eyes. You bring a new interpretation to the facts.”
    Barbara gave him a puzzled look. “But facts are true by