On Sunset Beach by Mariah Stewart Page A

Cam disappeared into the hall, and seconds later, Ellie and Carly heard the front door open, then close.
    “So what did you think of Grace’s wandering boy?” Ellie got up from the table and began to fill the dishwasher.
    “Who?” Carly frowned. “Oh. Right. The guy the party was for. I never did meet him.”
    “Actually, you did.”
    “No, I didn’t.”
    “Yes, you did. I saw you talking to him when I went to the ladies’ room.” Ellie turned and added, “In the lobby.”
    “I met some guy in the lobby but …” Carly paused. “That was him? Grace’s son?”
    Ellie grinned. “Some hunk, huh?”
    “I didn’t notice.”
    “Liar.” Ellie laughed.
    “Okay, yeah, I noticed. He didn’t introduce himself. He just walked over and …” Carly blew out a long breath. “Yeah. He was pretty hot.”
    “So what were you guys talking about?” Ellie leaned back against the counter.
    “Mostly just the painting. I’d wanted to see it up close but the desk clerk wouldn’t allow me to go behind the counter. Then he came along and just walked back there and took it off the wall …” Carly sighed. “I should have figured out right then that he wasn’t just another guest at the inn. At the time, I guess I thought he’d charmed her into letting him hold it.”
    “That’s it? You just talked about the painting?”
    “Pretty much.” Carly got up and refilled her water glass. “Why no interrogation last night? Why wait till now?”
    “I didn’t think you’d come clean with Cam in the room, since he and Ford are old friends.”
    “There’s nothing to come clean about.” Carly shrugged. “We had one brief conversation, then the next thing I knew, someone was calling him from the room where the party was being held and he disappeared.”
    “So, what? No impression?” Ellie persisted.
    “I didn’t talk to him long enough to form an impression. Other than his previously established hotness. Why the interest?”
    “As we were leaving, Grace mentioned that she was disappointed that she hadn’t had an opportunity to introduce you to Ford, that’s all. Apparently she hadn’t seen the two of you in the lobby.”
    “I don’t know why that would have disappointed her.” Carly took a long drink of water. “So, did you actually meet him?”
    Ellie nodded. “Sure.”
    “So how did he impress you?”
    “As not wanting to be there.” Ellie appeared to choose her words carefully. “As someone not comfortable with the spotlight on him.”
    “Maybe he’s not a party guy,” Carly suggested.
    “The party was clearly Grace’s idea, and it seemed as if everyone there was happy to see Ford, but it didn’t seem that he really engaged with anyone. He didn’t show much emotion.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I mean that you’d think that if you’d been away from your friends for a long time, when you finally saw them again, you’d look happy to see them.”
    “Well, yeah, if they were really your friends, you would be. Are you saying he seemed unhappy?”
    “ ‘Unhappy’ isn’t the right word. I think maybe ‘distant’is a better term. Or ‘detached.’ ” Ellie appeared to weigh the word. “Yes, detached is the best way to describe him.”
    “Funny. I didn’t have that impression of him at all. At least, not at first.” Carly rinsed her glass and sat it on the counter. “In the lobby, he was friendly and talkative. We were going to go out front to look at the porch columns, but—”
    “Wait. What?”
    “He was talking about the painting, how it was the front of the inn. I mentioned that I hadn’t seen the front, so he said I should probably take a look, that I could go out through the double doors, and we started walking in that direction. That’s when someone came out from the party room and told him that people were looking for him.” Carly paused again. “I suppose it should have occurred to me right then who he was, if people were looking for him.”
    “Not necessarily. But