A Bad Boy is Good to Find - By Jennifer Lewis Page 0,88
past and how he might be the missing heir to this place. They’re eating it up like shrimp étouffé. ”
“I guess it’s a slow news day.” Lizzie chewed her brioche, wondering why she suddenly felt nervous.
“Phone’s been ringing off the hook ever since. Some other news stations want in on the act. There are vans from Baton Rouge and New Orleans out in the driveway.”
“Well, that’s good, isn’t it? All the more chance he’ll find his brother.” So why did her stomach feel so queasy?
What would this brother be like if he was still alive? Not many people would have Con’s sunny disposition after a childhood like that. Maybe what that asshole lawyer said about calling the local prisons wasn’t so far off the mark.
She took another bite of brioche.
“Nervous about meeting the in-laws?” Raoul read her thoughts.
“I’m nervous about everything,” she confessed. “Con never told me any of that business about his family. It was a horrible surprise. What’s next?”
Raoul stopped combing. “Hey, if that was your story, would you tell it to the beautiful girl you wanted to marry?”
Lizzie bit her lip. “I don’t know.”
“You probably would. You’re the up-front, in-your-face type. I like that about you.” He started combing again. “And that’s why you’re perfect for Conroy. Some girls would have just let sleeping dogs lie. Who cares where he’s from, right? He’s cute.” He winked. “But not you. You’re not that easy.”
No? She’d been ready to tie the knot when he was a virtual stranger with a past she’d unwittingly invented. Sucker.
Raoul paused again, held her gaze in the mirror with those all-seeing almond-shaped eyes. “I know why you’re here.”
Lizzie’s stomach tightened. To make fifty thousand dollars fast.
“You have all kinds of reasons you think you’re here for.” He leaned in and she could smell his expensive cologne. “But you’re really here because you needed to know all about Conroy. The good, the bad and the ugly.”
Did I? She had no idea anymore. Hadn’t it been just a cruel joke? Maybe it always was more than that. About getting under Con’s smooth, tanned skin and seeing what made him tick. And now that she had…
She was crazier about him than ever.
“Keep your head still. What are you doing?” The comb tangled in her hair as she sprung from the chair.
“I need air!”
“You need detangling, sweetheart. I wouldn’t go downstairs with all those cameras looking like this if I were you.”
She collapsed back into the chair, heart thumping. “I really do love him.”
“I know.” He sprayed more detangler on her hair.
“But,” she hesitated, watching his sharp profile in the mirror. “He doesn’t love me,” she said softly.
“Oh, yes he does,” Raoul replied without breaking his combing rhythm.
“No, really, you don’t understand—” She groped for the right words to explain without giving too much away.
“Sweetheart, there are a lot of things I don’t understand, but one thing I know for sure, that boy is head over heels in love with you. Now sit still or we’ll be here all day.”
Lizzie came downstairs to find everyone outside, in front of the house, filming Con and his supposed ancestral estate.
She stood in the hallway, wondering why no one had asked her to come on camera. Gia crashed in through the front door, running.
“Gia, am I having another dress fitting this morning?”
“Um, I don’t know. I need to find something. Ask Maisie.” And Gia darted past her.
Lizzie didn’t want to come out the front door into the shot, so she went out the back door and crept around the side of the house. Four TV vans with satellite dishes on top cluttered the long oak-lined drive. Con stood in front of a camera, next to a reporter in a bright blue suit. Dino crouched off to one side, filming the interview, and Maisie hovered next to him with her clipboard in her hands and an expression of fierce excitement on her face.
She tapped Maisie on the arm and pulled her out of earshot. “Maisie, what’s going on?”
“The Eyewitness News team has been putting pressure on all the right people. They found an old will attached to the property.” Her pale eyes gleamed with manic intensity. “It leaves everything to the owner’s firstborn child. Since it seems Con’s mother was the only daughter of the owner, and she’s dead, it all belongs to Con.”
Lizzie snuck a glance at the gleaming white façade with its double tier of balconies. Holy crap. No real surprise, though.
“The trust is almost completely empty, and they’re starting