Summer Secrets - Barbara Freethy [165]
"I wish I could talk to my mother about this," Julia continued. "Now that she's gone, I have no one to ask."
"What about your stepfather?"
"I suppose," she murmured, "but he's had a rough year. My mom was sick for a long time, and he doesn't like to talk about her."
"There must be someone."
"Obviously there isn't, or I wouldn't have come looking for you," she snapped.
"What was your mother's name before she became a DeMarco?"
"It was Sarah Gregory. Why?"
"Just wondered." He filed that fact away for future use.
She suddenly started, glancing at the clock on the wall. "I have to go. I have a family birthday party at DeMarco's."
"DeMarco's on the Wharf?" he asked, putting her name together with the seafood cafe on Fisherman's Wharf.
"That's the one. Gino DeMarco is my stepfather. It's my aunt Lucia's birthday. Everyone in the immediate family, all thirty-seven of us, will be there."
"Big family," he commented.
"It's a lot of fun."
"Then why go looking for trouble?"
Her jaw dropped at his question. "I'm not doing that," she said defensively.
"Aren't you? You think you're the girl in the picture."
"You're the one who thinks that. I just want more information about her."
"Same thing."
"It's not the same thing. It's completely different. And I'm done with it. Forget I was ever here."
Julia left with a toss of her head. Alex smiled to himself. She wasn't the first blonde to walk out on him, but she was probably one of the few he wouldn't forget. She might be done with the matter, but he was just getting started. Unlike Julia, he did have someone else he could talk to—his mother. Maybe it was time to return her calls.
Kate Manning loved parties, and she especially enjoyed being the center of attention as she was tonight. Actually, the party was in honor of her late husband, Charles Manning, whose photographs were on display, but that was beside the point. She was here, and he wasn't. She'd had twenty-five years to come to terms with that fact, and there was nothing to do but keep moving on. Maybe that seemed cold to some, but she was a practical woman, and as far as she was concerned, the love she'd had for her husband had been buried right along with him.
She was now sixty-two years old, and after two failed marriages in the last twenty years, she'd resumed using the Manning name. This exhibit in honor of Charles's work had put her back on the society A-list, and she was determined to stay there. She'd been dropped from most invitation lists three years ago when her then husband, a popular city councilman, had slept with an underage girl, causing a huge scandal. He'd been booted out of office, and Kate had been shunned by her supposed friends. But now she was back, and if she had to play the tragic widow of a brilliant photographer, then that's exactly what she would do.
It had also occurred to her in recent weeks that she might be able to augment her income by selling Charles's photographs to a book publisher. While she wasn't poor by any standards, she was acutely aware that her lifestyle required a steady income, and if there was still interest in Charles's work, then who was she to deny the public the opportunity to buy a book of his photographs? She just needed to convince Alex to go along with it. But he was a lot like his father— stubborn, secretive, and always leaving to go somewhere. It was no wonder he wasn't married. He couldn't commit, couldn't settle, couldn't put a woman before his work—just like Charles.
"Kate, there you are."
She put the bitter thoughts out of her mind as Stan Harding came up to her. Stan had been one of Charles's closest friends and the best man at their wedding. He was also one of the many photo editors Charles had worked with over the years. Stan was semiretired from World News Magazine as of last year, working only on special projects, like putting together the photographs for this exhibit.
A handsome man, just a few years older than herself,