Free Nancy’s Theory of Style by Unknown Page A

people, people you
wouldn’t mind sitting next to on the plane or at the theatre. They looked like
people who took interesting vacations, read serious books, and never argued in
public.
    Hester’s narrow, sharp features had
softened with age, and people always assumed that she had been pretty when she
was young. Her hair was a tasteful ash blonde and in heels she was as tall as
her husband. She wore a simple cream knit jacket with black piping, black slacks,
and a gold necklace and earrings.
    Hester’s only flamboyance was her
handbags and now she carried a rose-colored handbag in shining patent leather
with glittering gold hardware.
    Nancy smiled at her father. Julian Carrington
was a good-looking, trim man in a navy blazer, Tattersall check shirt, and
gabardine trousers. His blondish hair had gone silver years before. He made a
point of looking at his steel chronograph, which was precise enough to mark a
daughter’s tardiness before it actually occurred.
    Then he smiled and greeted Nancy with a kiss. “Hello,
dear. You were almost late.”
    “Sorry, Daddy! Traffic was a grizzly. Hi,
Mommy.” Nancy gave her mother a hug and a kiss, inhaling the floral scent of L’Air du Temps,
which she’d worn since she was a student.
    Hester released her daughter and looked her
up and down. “Your nail shade…very dramatic, isn’t it?”
    Julian signaled to the maitre d’, who
immediately led the trio to a table by a window looking out to the city and the
Bay Bridge stretching out to Treasure Island.
    Nancy made sure to keep her fingernails out
of view, which wasn’t easy when she was holding a menu. She didn’t bother taking
out her sustainable fishing guide, which would have given her father something
to criticize.
    “How is Miss Winkles?” her mother asked.
    “She’s as effervescent as ever,” Nancy said.
    After they’d ordered, Julian said, “Nanny,
your mother and I came here because we’re extremely worried about you. You left
Todd and didn’t tell us.”
    “Todd tried to put the best face on the
situation,” Hester said. Her eyes lit up as the waiter brought her double martini.
    Nancy kept her voice as calm as theirs. “It’s
just a sabbatical, to get my business going.”
    “Planning parties isn’t a business,”
Julian said. “It’s socializing. If you really want to go into business, you’ll
get your MBA like you should have in the first place. Or, you can go to law
school.”
    “You should finish graduate school before
you have children,” Hester said. “After you have babies, you can’t do anything.
Even with Nanny.”
    “What did I have to do with it?” Nancy asked.
    “I meant the nanny.” Hester finished her
drink and said, “It would be a terrible shame if you were the first in our
family to divorce.”
    “Not to mention the problems you’d cause
in my dealings with Todd and his family,” Julian said. “We’re going in on a
vacation development in New
Zealand , you know.”
    Nancy ’s smile was tense. “Yes, you’ve told me.
Todd’s told me.” Her father’s private equity firm and Todd’s family were investing
in the development to benefit Todd and herself. “I just needed a break from
that house. That’s all.”
    Her parents exchanged looks and Julian said,
“You could have saved everyone all this trouble by doing what I suggested,
buying a good house in an established neighborhood, like Bailey Whiteside. There’s
a young man with some common sense.”
    “The house could have been livable if
Todd hadn’t hijacked my plans. There’s a wet bar and a huge television in my
bedroom!”
    “A first house should be built with
resale in mind, and that wet bar and theater-size TV are desirable features for
most homeowners.” Julian frowned and said, “I hope that your Foam foolishness
doesn’t draw the wrong kind of attention to our family.”
    Hester said, “ No attention is always the best, Nanny. That’s why we pay the PR
firm.”
    “Froth, not foam,” Nancy said