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Evan Reton wandered the palatial rooms of his Monterey home Bored, restless, he studied his possessions Each one had been selected with care, either by hi explicit instructions

He had always known precisely what he preferred, and precisely what he wanted He&039;d always made certain to obtain it Whatever the cost, whatever the effort

Everything that surrounded him reflected his taste, a taste adoal it was to fall into either category

And everything dissatisfied him

He considered an auction He could find soenerate soer wanted He could let it leak that he was disposing of those items because they held too many painful memories of his dead wife

The lovely, lost Helen

He even considered selling the house The fact was, it did reeles She hadn&039;t died in Los Angeles

Since her accident, he had seldom come to Monterey It was rare for him to stay more than a few days, and he always came alone He didn&039;t consider the servants They fell along the sas to him Necessary and efficient

The first tirief He&039;d wept like aacross the bed he&039;d last shared with her, clinging to the nightgown she&039;d worn Breathing in the scent of her

His love was consu, and his pain threatened to eat hied to him

When the torrent had passed, he&039;d wandered the house like a ghost, touching what she had touched, hearing her voice echo in his ears, catching a whiff of her scent everywhere As if it was inside him

He&039;d spent an hour in her closet, caressing her clothes And forgetting the night he had locked her in there when she&039;d been late co home

He ed in her, and when he could stand the confineer, he&039;d driven to the site of her death And had stood, a solitary figure, weeping on the cliffs

His doctor prescribed medication and rest His friends encircled hian to enjoy it

Within a otten he had insisted that HelenSur that day In hisher not to attend, to stay hoain

Of course, she hadn&039;t listened She had never listened

Grief turned to fury, a raging flood of anger that he droith liquor and solitude She&039;d betrayed hi so her husband&039;s request

She had left hie passes The hole it left in hie, even of himself He heard people speak of theedy

He read it, thought it Believed it

He wore one of her earrings on a chain next to his heart and let the affectation leak to a suitable media source It was said Gable did the same when he&039;d lost Lombard

He kept her clothes in her closets, her books on the shelves, her perfuel of white marble erected for her in the cemetery where no body lay Every week, a dozen red roses were placed at its feet

To keep hian to sleep again, without so ing of friends, he began to go out again socially

But the woer to comfort the er didn&039;t interest him He dated only because it kept him in the press He bedded a few of the women only because there would be talk otherwise, of an unflattering sort

Sex had never driven hiain There would never be another Helen They had been destined for each other She&039;d been meant for him, meant to be molded and formed by him If he&039;d had to punish her occasionally-well, discipline was part of the formation He&039;d had to teach her

Finally, in their last feeeks together, he had believed she had learned It had been a rare thing for her to make a mistake, in public or private She&039;d deferred to him as a as meant to defer to a husband, and had made certain that he was pleased with her

He remembered, or convinced himself that he remembered, that he&039;d been about to reward her with a trip to Antigua She had been fascinated by the ocean, his Helen And had told hi those first heady weeks of love and discovery, how she so on an island

In the end, the sea had taken her

Because he could feel the depression rolling into hilass of mineral water and took one of his pills

No, he wouldn&039;t sell the house, he decided in one of his lightning ive one of the lavish, A-list parties, the kind he and Helen had hosted so often and so successfully

It would feel as if she were there beside hi, he ignored it and continued to stand, gently rubbing an etched gold hoop earring through the fine linen of his shirt

"Sir? Ms Reece is on the phone She&039;d like to speak with you if you&039;re available"

Saying nothing, Evan held out a hand for the portable phone He never glanced at the uniforave it to him, but slid open the terrace door and stepped outside in the balm of breeze to speak to his sister

"Yes, Barbara?"

"Evan, I&039; you&039;d join us at the club this afternoon We can have a set of tennis, lunch by the pool I hardly see my baby brother these days"

He started to refuse His sister&039;s country club circle held little interest for hi hoell Barbara planned entertainment And how ly take from his hands

"I&039;d like that I want to speak to you anyway" He glanced at his Rolex "Why don&039;t I meet you there Eleven-thirty?"

"Absolutely perfect Prepare yourself I&039;ve been working on aain and was prancing around like a fool in her designer tennis skirt Of course, she had ti tiered tennis pro while her asshole husband practiced his putting

He, on the other hand, was a busy h-powered clients hined like babies if he didn&039;t give them his full attention

He didn&039;t have tiaritted his teeth audibly when Barbara hustled and returned it Sweat dampened his face, ran down his back And his mouth peeled back in a snarl as he raced over the court

It was a look Nell would have recognized One she would have feared

Barbara recognized it as well and instinctively bungled a return "You&039;re killing oing back to position

Evan had always been teht It was hard for hiet his way It always had been As a child his retribution had come in one of two forms Icy silence that could bore holes in steel Or quick, hot violence

You&039;re older, her ood sister Let the baby win

It was such an old and ingrained habit, she barely registered her decision to blow the next return as well And after all, the afternoon would be so much more pleasant if he won the a her own coaed alame, Evan I never could keep up with you"

She sent hient smile as they positioned theht It was another of herboys?

By the time it was over and he&039;d won the match, he was in a finean arm over Barbara&039;s shoulders, bussed her cheek "Your backhand still needs some work"

There was a little bubble of annoyance in her throat, auto "And since you huet to buy lunch I&039;ll e terrace Thirty , always a minor irritation But it pleased him to see how attractive she was, hoell presented He detested sloppy attire or unkempt hair on a woman, and Barbara never disappointed him

She was four years his senior, but could have passed for thirty-five Her skin was paure trim

She joined hi subtly of her favored White Dia to console arbed in thin raw silk "Between that and sitting with the most handsome man in the club, my mood should i what a beautiful woman I have for a sister"

Her face lit up "You always say the sweetest things"

It was true, she thought He did When he won It made her all the more pleased that she&039;d tanked the match

"Let&039;s not wait for Deke," she said, still beaame"

She ordered her cocktail and a Cobb salad,dramatically when Evan selected shriain an ounce I&039; to have a bite of yours, then curse you when I&039;m tortured tomorrow by my personal trainer"

"A little ure without paying someone to make you sweat"

"Believe me, she&039;s worth every penny The sadist" With a contented sigh, she sat back, careful to keep her face out of the sun "Tell , what did you want to talk to ive a party, at the Monterey house It&039;s tiain to cover his hand with hers, squeezed "Yes, it is tiain, Evan, to hear you h such a horrible time"

Tears welled, and her affection for hi not of her mascara but of his sensibilities

He detested public scenes

"You&039;ve begun to move on in the past few months That&039;s healthy Helen would have wanted that"

"You&039;re right, of course" He eased his hand away as their drinks were served

He didn&039;t like being touched Casually, of course, was one thing In the business world, hugs and kisses were just another tool But he detested being touched with intensity

"I haven&039;t entertained, not really, since it happened Business affairs, of course, but Helen and I planned every detail of our parties together She handled so much of it-the invitations, theI could impose on you to help me"

"Of course I will You just tell me what you have in mind, and when I went to a party just last week, very lavish and fun I&039;ll steal some ideas It was Pamela and Donald Pamela&039;s often a pain in the neck, but she does kno to throw a party Speaking of her, I feel I should tell you-and I hope it doesn&039;t upset you I&039;m afraid you&039;ll hear it from someone else"

"What is it?"

"Pa, you kno she is"

Evan could barely picture the woman "About what?"

"She and Donald took a holiday out east a couple of weeks ago Cape Cod, pri at a few bed-and-breakfasts like no in soe or other, she saoman who looked just like Helen"

Evan&039;s hand vised on his glass "What do you mean?"

"She cornered me at her party, went on and on about it Claihost In fact, she was so insistent about how this apparition ht have been poor Helen&039;s double, she asked ine she caught a glie and enhanced the whole thing in heron about it, I didn&039;t want you to hear some rumor that would cause you any pain"

"The woman&039;s an idiot"

"Well, she&039;s certainly iotten that out of the way, tellto invite"

"Two hundred, two-fifty," he said absently "Just where did Pahost of hers?"