Page 13 of Code Name: Michelangelo

“As you said, this is an interesting development.” I remembered Pen had used those same words after getting the message from her father saying Hailey wasn’t anxious to meet her.

“I’ll suggest Penelope get in touch with her dad before we leave LA. Maybe he’ll see her if he knows she’s in town.”

“In the meantime, I’ll check with Quinn and see if she remembers Blair.”

“Good idea. I’ll do the same with Pen.”

“Hold off on that for a bit,” he responded. “It might be better to see what their mutual reaction is when they come face-to-face.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Honestly, that didn’t seem fair to Pen. I wouldn’t want to be blindsided that way, although my unannounced visit to the gallery yesterday was no different.

“What’s the plan?” she asked when I returned.

“I think you should contact your father, let him know you’re here, and see if we can finagle a get-together.”

“Finagle? That’s an interesting word choice.”

I decided to go against Doc’s suggestion. “Does the name Blair Dumont mean anything to you?”

Her eyes opened wide. “Why?”

“She and Hailey Watson are one and the same.”

“Are you serious?”

“Doc was able to run a background check on her. Apparently, she was at boarding school at the same time you were.”

“More than that, she was Tara’s roommate for about two weeks.”

“Why only two weeks?”

“Tara got her father, err…your father too, to spring for a private room so she wouldn’t have to share with her. Blair was…unpleasant.”

“How so?”

“The reality of boarding school is that most students are there because their absentee parents sent them. Others, because they got in some kind of trouble. Blair was both, and honestly, she had anger issues. She was such a bitch from the moment we met her until the day we graduated.” Pen cocked her head. “Now that I think about it, she was originally supposed to be my roommate. I can’t remember how she ended up with Tara instead. Either way, we were both glad to have dodged that bullet.”

“I have to ask…”

“If it’s personal?”

I nodded.

“Maybe, although I don’t know why it would be against me specifically, other than the fact my dad may have been an easy mark.”

“We should try harder to arrange a meeting,” I suggested.

“I’ll call him as soon as we take care of the car.”

“Go ahead. I’ll wait in the queue.”

Penelope stepped to the side like I had. I watched from afar, not so much to decipher how the conversation went but, more, just to look at her. As a teenager, she’d been gorgeous. With age came beauty. Simply put, my Butterfly was breathtaking. When she smiled, my heart felt as though it would beat out of my chest. I’d painted countless portraits of her from memory while I was in prison. In each one, her smile looked exactly as it did now.

“Success,” she announced, bounding back over to me. “They’re having dinner at Musso and Frank’s tonight. I told him we already made plans, but we’d meet them there for an after-dinner drink.”

“Do you think he’ll forewarn her?”

Pen shook her head. “He suggested it would be best to keep it a surprise.”

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