Free Finders Keepers by Fern Michaels Page A

mother that there should be a connecting door between the rooms. The very next day there was a door. What Jessie really liked was the fact that there were locks on all the doors in the Ashwood house. Perfect for keeping overbearing mothers at large. Or in Sophie’s case, a neglectful mother. Jessie only remembered seeing Janice Ashwood a couple of times.
    The room was extra large for a bedroom, and so luxurious Jessie had a hard time imagining the amount of money spent on the costly furnishings. Ankle-hugging carpeting tickled her bare toes as she walked around touching costly figurines and crystal accent pieces. The room was decorated in champagne-colored brocade, imported lace, and satin. A film director would have been hard-pressed to come up with a room that looked half as luxurious. A flowering deep pink dogwood in a Ming urn complemented the priceless paintings in soft summer colors that adorned the walls.
    The big question was, how did one turn this room into a sanctuary? One didn’t, she decided. It was just a perfect room like all the rooms in the Ashwood mansion, except for Sophie’s room, which was such a mess you had to kick stuff out of the way just to walk through to the bed.
    The magnificent room boasted three telephones with three separate numbers, just like Sophie’s room. The white phone was for parents’ calls and never answered. The blue phone was for friends and answered all the time; the beige phone was for any young man who had the desire to call. She really should call her mother, Jessie thought. A promise was a promise. It would be her last phone call. She could rehearse her conversation while she changed into the bikini. From past experience she knew it wouldn’t work because her mother went off on tangents she had to respond to.
    â€œI need a tan,” she moaned when she viewed her slim figure in the long, gilt-edged mirror hanging on the bathroom door.
    Sophie poked her head in the door. “What’s taking you so long, Jess?”
    â€œI’m trying to make up my mind if I should call home now or wait?”
    â€œWhat do you feel like doing?”
    â€œNot calling at all. I did promise, though.”
    â€œThen do it and get it over with. The water’s great since we put in the heater. I do like that suit. Maybe we can all go skinny-dipping tonight when the party winds down.”
    â€œYou wouldn’t!”
    â€œI would. I’ve done it. Believe it or not the girls aren’t shy about it, but the boys kind of flinch and hold their hands in front. It’s worth it to just watch them. Everybody checks everybody else out. I say if you got it, show it. You don’t have to do it, Jessie, but it is fun. So, are you going to call or not?”
    â€œI guess I might as well. Don’t go. Stay and listen.” Sophie perched on the edge of the bed. “How many times do you think your mother will call while you’re here?”
    â€œEvery ten minutes. You were such a genius for coming up with the three phones. Isn’t it expensive, though?”
    â€œMy mother doesn’t care. We have so much money we could probably burn a pile of it and no one would notice, especially the bankers. My mother’s favorite expression is ‘Send me the bill.’ ”
    â€œIt’s a good thing she married that rich Greek the first time around.”
    â€œYou’re not kidding. She inherited everything he had. My father was so poor my mother had to buy him a suit to get married in. She said he was good in bed.” Her voice turned flat when she said, “And then he drank himself to death a year after I was born.”
    â€œWe are two misfits. You realize that, don’t you, Sophie?” Sophie nodded. “I don’t know which is worse, a mother like mine or one like yours. Have you seen her at all this year?”
    â€œShe came home for Easter and managed to rustle up an Easter basket she left by my door Easter