Into the Fire - Leslie Kelly [71]
Just before the break ended, Lacey heard a tapping on the glass window of the booth. She glanced over to see Kelsey's producer making a rolling motion with his arm. "Brian doesn't have J.T. on the line yet," Kelsey said, interpreting the gestures. "Gotta stretch a little bit."
"Welcome back, Baltimore ," Kelsey said into the microphone. "This is Lady Love, and we're having a fascinating discussion with our guests, Lacey Clark and Nathan Logan. Their print debate has come alive right here in the WAJO studios. We're also about to be joined by magazine publisher J.T. Birmingham." She cast an evil grin toward Nate and Lacey. "Before we go live with J.T., I want to tell you something." She paused deliberately. "Someone in this studio is a fraud."
Lacey cast a quick, anxious glance toward Nate. He was frowning at his sister.
"One of my guests has a secret. You all know I just love secrets, right? Especially secrets involving passionate love affairs. Before the show tonight," Kelsey continued, obviously completely unconcerned by her brother's frown, "Nate told me something. It seems that one of the people in this room is not who they purport to be … not the person the world thinks they are. Someone's hiding something."
From his seat in the studio, Nate mentally uttered a curse. Kelsey, you rotten little monster! He knew instantly what she was getting at. His kid sister was about to tell the world, on live radio, that he, Nate Logan, was in love with his nemesis Lacey Clark—before he had a chance to make that declaration on his own.
Typical of Kelsey. If they weren't in the middle of a live radio broadcast, he'd throw a hand over her mouth and bribe her with chocolate to get her to shut the hell up, just like he had when they were kids. Kelsey had always taken fiendish delight in playing the obnoxious-baby-sister role to the hilt. It enabled her to get away with murder! And Nate had learned at a young age that arguing never worked. Reasoning never worked. Only bribery could get Kelsey Logan to quiet down once she was on a roll.
Nate wished he'd never let her sucker him into showing her his article, which made it very clear—to her and to everyone else—that he, Nate Logan, had fallen ass over elbows in love with Lacey. Ah, well, he supposed there were worse ways to propose to the woman he was crazy about than on live radio with thousands of titillated Baltimore residents listening in.
* * *
On her side of the studio, Lacey glanced between brother and sister, a sick feeling in her stomach. Nate shook his head, rubbing a weary hand over his brow, as if resigned to whatever Kelsey was about to say.
Lacey didn't know exactly what was happening; she just knew the room suddenly felt hot and close. Though they were expected to interact with J.T. during his phone interview, Lacey wanted nothing more than to leave. She leaned toward Nate to tell him exactly that. Before she could do so, Kelsey got a signal from her producer.
"It appears we now have J.T. Birmingham on the line," the deejay said into the microphone.
Lacey kept her hands clenched in her lap during Lady Love's interview with J.T. She hadn't liked Kelsey's comments about secrets. Obviously the first thought that came to mind was Lacey's situation, though she knew it had to be something else. Nate wouldn't have told his sister about Lacey's past. She couldn't imagine, however, what Kelsey had been talking about.
After the first few minutes of the interview with J.T., Lacey began to relax. Whatever Nate had discussed with his sister before the show, the subject seemed to be forgotten now.
"So, Mr. Birmingham, you must be pretty proud of your stars here," Kelsey said. "I've seen national TV coverage of their 'he said, she said' debates this week."
"I'm very proud," J.T. replied. Lacey could envision his chest expanding. "I can't wait to read both articles. I was out of the office today and haven't seen them yet."
"So you've had a real hands-on involvement with this project, I take it?"
"Absolutely.