The au pairs skinny-dipping (23 page)

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she and Ryan used to walk and the kids liked to play. It was also home to the piping plover, an endangered bird. Someone had dug a ditch through the fifty-foot beachhead to drain the pond water into the ocean overnight. There were "before" and "after" pictures, and Mara didn't even recognize the swampy mess in the "after" photo.

Ezra Reynolds was named as the prime suspect because he had publicly complained that the pond overflow was disturbing his construction, and he had been denied a permit to legally drain the pond. The article mentioned that those who lived on Georgica Pond "frequently saw themselves as above the law," and that neighbors included Calvin Klein, Martha Stewart, Stephen Spielberg, and Ron Perelman, who had all issued stern denials. The Reynolds contingent was suspiciously mum on the matter.

Mara felt more than a little repulsed. What kind of person-- what kind of family--would be so selfish? Those poor little piping plovers. She picked up the
New York Post,
immediately turning to Page Six to read their gossipy take on the Pond Drain Mystery. But a different article caught her eye:
QUARTER-MIL MISHAP!
Mara sat down, swallowing as she read.

Which not-so-wellborn girl who dated one It Boy last year and traded up for an even richer boyfriend this summer was loaned a pair of million-dollar earrings for an event and hasn't bothered to return them?

It was a classic Page Six blind item, except that it went on . . . and on.

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"She said she misplaced them, but I think they're stolen," an anonymous source revealed. "I thought she was a friend of the Perry twins, but she's from some cow town or something." Sugar Perry, when asked for a quote, said only, "So many people claim to be my friend, and I've never met them in my life!"

"Totally," her newly brunette sister Poppy added.

The article did everything but name Mara, although her identity wouldn't be too difficult to figure out from the incriminating details.

"I didn't steal them!" Mara said to the empty kitchen, her face ashen. So that was why the twins hadn't waited for her this morning. They had already written her off. The
Daily News
had a story about the earring scandal as well, and another gossip columnist lambasted her as a greedy, stealing au pair.

Garrett and the twins' brush-off would only be the first of many, she knew. Mara had never felt so deflated and rejected in her life.

It was raining hard when Jacqui returned from her SAT class late that night to find a shadowy figure on the lawn, holding an umbrella and combing the grass with a flashlight. Poor Mara. Even if Jacqui was still mad at her, it still made her sad to watch Mara searching the grass in the middle of a downpour. A flash of lightning lit up the sky, and Jacqui realized the figure was too tall to be Mara.

It was Ryan.

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"Hey," Jacqui said, calling to him. "What are you doing?" "Oh, hi, Jacqui," Ryan said, pointing his flashlight in her direction. "I lost my, uh, contact lens and I was looking for it." "I didn't know you wore contacts," Jacqui said. Ryan shrugged, and Jacqui smiled sadly. If only Mara knew how much Ryan Perry still loved her.

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the piping plovers have

never been so popular

ALLAN WHITMAN AND KARTIK COULDN'T RESIST A CHANCE
for publicity, and the weekend after the pond scandal, they quickly put together a benefit party for the homeless plovers at Seventh Circle.

Eliza found Jacqui in the middle of the crowd and hugged her. It was the first time that summer Jacqui had set foot in Seventh Circle, and she was impressed with the way Eliza controlled the crowd and worked the room. Neither of them mentioned how hurt they were by Mara, but they both knew what the other was thinking.

Eliza saw Ryan come in and walked over to his side. They hadn't seen each other in a week, and in that time, she had stopped being angry about the friends-with-benefits thing and had started wanting to be actual friends again.

"Hey," she said, bumping an arm on his shoulder.

Ryan managed a smile. "Hey, yourself."

She kissed him on the cheek, brushing the corner of his lips by accident. "I'm sorry about the other night," she said.

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"I'm sorry too," Ryan said. "I didn't realize ... I mean, I want to say, I really do care about you, Eliza. And I don't know what I was saying. I mean . . . you know you're more than a friend to me. We can be a couple if that's what you want."

"I know," Eliza said.

Ryan held out his arms and Eliza stepped into them. She nestled her head on his shoulder and he tightened his arm around her waist. It should have been enough, but it wasn't. Because just then, across the room, she spotted Jeremy and Lindsay walking into the VIP room.

Jeremy had slicked his dark hair back and was wearing a brown cashmere sport jacket and dark denim jeans. Lindsay had her arm snaked around him in a vise grip and was looking up at him adoringly. He bent down to whisper something in her ear, and Lindsay laughed as if she'd never heard anything funnier in her life. Eliza's heart clenched.

Ryan went to get them drinks, and Eliza turned to look out the window. It was still raining hard outside, like it had yesterday, but that didn't stop people from waiting outside the club as usual. Then she saw Mara at the door, underneath an umbrella, being turned away by one of Mitzi Goober's minions.

Eliza saw Mitzi Goober pretend not to see Mara. Mara was one of the few people who actually cared about the plovers, and Eliza knew it had taken courage for her to even show her face to this crowd. J.Lo had attended the MTV Music Awards wearing Harry Winston, and Mara had been blacklisted.

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Mitzi's assistants asked Mara to step aside, and, against Eliza's better judgment, her heart went out to her. Mara slowly turned away, but not before peering through the plate glass window and seeing Ryan kiss Eliza on the forehead and hand her a drink.

It's not what you think,
Eliza thought. But even if Eliza had wanted to run out of the club to call her name, Mara was already walking away.

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something's about to blow

The next morning, Jacqui and Mara woke up to
the sound of an explosive crack.

"Merda!"
Jacqui said, throwing off the covers and looking out the window.

"What's going on?" Mara asked.

It had been raining for several days now, but nothing like this. The wind howled and raged against the windowpanes, and the two of them had gotten dressed in silence, since Jacqui still wasn't talking to Mara. They ran into the main house, where Laurie had already turned on the television to the news channel. Hurricane Tiffany was coming in from North Carolina, but instead of moving over land and weakening, as had been predicted, it was moving over water and picking up speed.

"It's going to hit tonight," Laurie said grimly. "We're going to have to get the house ready. Where are the kids?"

Philippe helped Laurie find the storm windows in the basement and started hammering them on the sills.

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A quick reconnaissance of the pantry revealed a lack of fresh water and other supplies, so Laurie called Ryan on his cell phone and told him to go to the nearest Home Depot and stock up on bottled water, flashlights, batteries, candles, towels, canned goods, and other sundries.

Zoe ran up to Mara. "I'm scared," she said.

"It's going to be all right, sweetie," Mara said, hugging the little girl. "Just let me go a minute."

Even as the rest of Long Island was battening down for a major hurricane, the relentless business of publicity marched on. Now that Mara had been knocked off her pedestal and was rumored to have been dumped by Garrett Reynolds, all the designers wanted their clothes back. Pronto. Which meant Mara spent half the day tracking down flashlights and towels and the other half running back to her room and handing back all the shopping bags to the messengers. It was all so humbling and shameful, especially when one of Mitzi's assistants had arrived to tally up the total, just to make sure everything was there and accounted for.

"This Chloe blouse hasn't been cleaned," the assistant said rudely, checking it off of a list. "Okay, so we're just missing the Sally Hershberger jeans, the rhinestone Blahniks, and the Pucci scarf." She sighed.

"I don't, um, have them," Mara stammered, hating the way it sounded coming out of her mouth, especially after the earring scandal. The brown-uniformed man from the delivery company gave her a sympathetic look.

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"Fine, I'll just tell Mitzi you stole those, too," the assistant said snidely as she opened her umbrella and stepped outside.

Jacqui couldn't help but notice the parade out of the cottage. She held an armful of four-by-fours to help reinforce the front door and nodded to Mara as Mara led the assistant to the garage to pick up the BMW.

Poppy drove up in the car, and when she and Sugar heard that Mitzi had asked for it back, their matching faces contorted into a grimace. "What do you mean she wants it
baaaaack?"
Sugar whined at the publicist before giving back the keys. "We're the ones using it now!"

"You really are an idiot, Plum," Poppy complained, as they stood in the open garage, watching the BMW disappear down the driveway.

You have no idea,
Mara thought.

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eliza is an over-it girl

AT NOON THE SKY WAS PITCH BLACK, AND THE STREETS
were deserted. Everyone had battened down the hatches to prepare for the worst storm of the year. Eliza stood on the deck of her rented house, in a yellow parka with the Spence crest on its front pocket, watching for Ryan in the Cayenne. Her family had asked her to get supplies, and Ryan had offered to pick her up.

Ryan threw open the passenger door. He too was wearing a yellow windbreaker with his school crest, jeans, and his usual flip-flops. He told her it was a mess back at the house--none of the flashlights were working, and they were short several storm windows. Plus the water had begun to trickle in the front door, and they were already out of towels.

"I know, you'd think the people who own our rental would have stuff, but they just have all this dinky crap," Eliza said.

"Anna is having a nervous breakdown. She can't live without her hair-dryer if the power goes out."

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Eliza giggled at that and, catching Ryan's eye, they both chuckled again.

They drove slowly through the rain, and it seemed that every car on the highway was going their same direction. When they arrived, the parking lot at Home Depot was completely filled. Ryan managed to snag a spot just as a Bentley pulled out, a generator strapped to its roof.

The rain was coming down in huge droplets against the window-pane. The trees were bent backward by the wind. The storm howled and raged, shaking the SUV.

"God, look at that," Ryan said, as the wind carried a beach umbrella through the parking lot.

"I know. It's crazy." Eliza nodded. "And you know what else is crazy?" she asked quietly.

"What?" he asked, clearly having no idea what she was about to say.

"You and me."

Ryan's smile faded. "What do you mean?"

Eliza looked at Ryan. His hair was pasted to his forehead, but he looked as gorgeous as ever. But in the end, they were just too comfortable around each other. Too similar. Eliza craved mystery, spontaneity, the kind of guy who would get a job as a valet at a party just to be close to her. As wonderful as Ryan was, he wasn't that guy.

"You're not in love with me," Eliza said.

Ryan began to protest.

"And I'm not in love with you, either," she interrupted.

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"Ouch," he joked, clutching his heart in faux pain.

"This summer--this summer was like, kind of weird, you know? I thought it was going to be the best time ever." Eliza sank a little deeper into her seat. "I had this cool job--but it turned out to be totally worthless. I'd rather babysit kids than babysit celebrities. Believe me, even William is easier. Ever tried taking champagne away from a celebrity?" Eliza laughed.

"Eliza?"

"Yeah?" She turned to look at him.

"You're the coolest girl I know." Ryan leaned over and cupped her chin in his hands, then lowered her face so that his lips touched her forehead. "Friends?"

"Of course." Eliza laughed. "Stop it, that tickles."

They loved each other--as friends--and Eliza suddenly wanted to see her friend happy. She looked at Ryan again. He was tall, gorgeous, smart, rich, and her childhood friend--the kind of guy her parents always wanted her to end up with--but she knew they weren't meant to be together.

Ryan hugged her, and as she pressed her cheek against his, she whispered, "I know you love me, but I also know you're in love with someone else."

He released her slowly and sighed. "I have no idea what you're talking about." He picked at a cuticle.

"The girl we both love, the girl you're in love with--she's still there," Eliza insisted. "Believe me, I've been pissed at her too, but she's still in there."