Free Parallel Desire by Deidre Knight Page A

expression she could manage. "Daddy?"
    He smiled back at her, his freckled face crinkling with laugh lines. "Yes, angel?"
    "You do realize I turned twenty-eight three months ago, right?" she asked. "Which makes this Blaire person, what? Four years younger than me?"
    His boyish grin had slipped somewhat then; he'd jingled the change in his pockets as the doors opened to the lobby, but said nothing else.
    As for meeting Blaire that night, it had been … confusing. Although she'd grilled her endlessly, determined to unmask her evil plan to scarf up her dad's money, girlfriend had never crumbled.
    "So you graduated from Georgetown last year?" Kelsey had asked while they waited in the buffet line.
    Blaire brushed at her sleek blonde hair, granting her an awkward smile. "I graduated three years ago," she corrected. "Actually."
    "Oh, my mistake. I guess I figured you'd have gone for a graduate degree or a doctorate."
    Blaire glanced around the darkened banquet room, laughing. "I guess I wasn't exactly a 'school' person," she said. "At least not on a long-term basis. I mean, I wanted to get out into the world. To make things happen. I can be pretty impatient that way."
    Was this a subtle dig at Kelsey's many years of schooling? At her preference for study and learning over the driven social interaction her father thrived upon?
    "I personally prefer to use my mind," Kelsey answered coolly, and Blaire glanced up at her, her brown eyes widening.
    "Oh, believe me, I'd love to be more like you," Blaire answered sincerely. "Patrick has told me all about your maps, and how NASA came to you when you were just a freshman." Genuine admiration—almost a kind of awe—filled the small woman's voice. "You really should hear Patrick talk about you."
    Patrick . Blake's familiar, breathy use of her father's name definitely undercut her efforts at placation. Kelsey clutched her dinner plate and wondered how on earth she could make conversation with the girl for another two hours or so.
    The buffet line snaked forward at that moment, and Kelsey pointed. "You need to move up," she said, but Blaire stood her ground, obviously refusing to be derailed in their conversation.
    "You know, maybe it's hard for you to believe, but I really love your father, Kelsey," Blaire continued with a tentative smile. "And I'm hoping you and I can be friends."
    "Sure," Kelsey said with a disaffected shrug, glancing around the room at the gathered bunches of balloons hovering over each table. "We can be friends." But everything in her was screaming Terror alert!
    Blaire pressed the dinner plate against her chest protectively, holding it there like a china shield. "I know this is awkward," she said with a serious expression.
    "My dad dates lots of women, Blaire." Kelsey laughed. But he doesn't marry them . That's what she wanted to add, but something about the genuinely warm expression in Blaire's brown eyes caused her to hesitate. "Lots of women who—" she tried again, and Blaire nodded, urging her to continue. "Look, you better move up," she said instead, pointing to the gap in the buffet line. Blaire turned without another word, and Kelsey found herself wanting to dislike her, yet somehow not quite able to. Especially as she watched the rail-thin woman slather gravy and potatoes and all manner of evil carbs onto her plate without batting an eye.
    Blaire turned back to her. "Lots of women who what?" she asked, smiling. "You were about to warn me off your father, I think." Blaire watched her, waiting, and obviously didn't plan to let the almost comment go.
    Kelsey shrugged. "The man has commitment issues, that's all."
    Blaire still smiled, almost as if this assessment of Patrick Wells came as a surprise, but said nothing more.
    Later that night, things had actually been going pretty well until she realized her father didn't plan to stick around for more than a few hours the next day. He was determined they'd all have lunch even though Kelsey had warned him