Page 18 of Vodka and Chocolate Drops

Amber pushed Scott away from her, ignoring the rush of sparks that sped up her arms where they touched. “He’s just goofing around. Russell’s book portrays nobody real. The disclaimer at the beginning even said so. It’s a work of fiction. End of story.”

“Aw. You don’t find me sexy?” Scott did a little hip shimmy that made Amber blush.

“Enough,” she muttered, smacking him in the chest. Him being sexy had nothing to do with this and he was going to blow things up rather than help them die down. “This isn’t like the Blueberry Springs Greatest Couple competition. They’ll get the wrong impression.”

“They won as couple of the year, but were disqualified for not being a real couple,” Mary Alice interjected for the benefit of the reporter. “On Valentine’s Day.”

“We were goofing around!” Amber insisted. “He was just trying to make me feel better.”

“About Russell not being there,” Mary Alice added. “He wasn’t a very good boyfriend.”

The reporter had placed her microphone in Amber’s face again. “Is the rumor true that you destroyed author Russell Peaks’s mobile writing office after you discovered he had left you for his editor?”

“I think we’re done here,” Scott said, suddenly dropping his playful demeanor and pushing the camera so it was aimed at the ground.

He led Amber away with a hand at the base of her spine as Mary Alice chanted, “Nothing to see here, move along. Nothing to see here. At least not any longer.”

Liz had joined the small crowd that had gathered, and was trying to help, muttering things about Amber to the reporter that Amber wasn’t so sure would be helpful.

“It is said you are looking for your long-lost father, Amber,” called the reporter a few moments later.

Amber jerked to a stop, heart thundering in her chest. Her mother would never forgive her if her secrets got tied up in the Russell problem.

“Is there anything you’d like to say to him?” the reporter added softly, her hand over the microphone as Amber glanced back. “You could ask for information on air. Maybe we could help.”

Liz gave her a hopeful look and Amber tried to stay calm. The woman meant well. It really wouldn’t be worth going to jail over murdering her.

As Amber tried to think of a reply that would convince the reporter to drop the story, Scott whispered in her ear, his warm breath sending shivers down her spine, “Don’t do it. I’ll help you search from now until the end of time, just please don’t do this.”

Amber turned to the reporter, Scott’s grip on her elbow tightening. “This is a private matter that has already been resolved. Thank you.”

It was a partial lie, but she figured it was okay, seeing as, technically, on one level ithadbeen resolved. Her mother wasn’t going to tell her and Amber was still looking--without media assistance. Issue resolved.

As Amber climbed into her golf cart, Mary Alice whispered, “I guess you don’t want to hear the old rumor about why your mother went away to hairdressing school?”

Amber processed the comment as she started the cart. It was a well-known fact that her mom had gone, but had never become a stylist?an odd little bump in her history that Amber had thought nothing of. Her mother had simply changed her mind after finding she didn’t have an aptitude for styling hair. But the way Mary Alice was throwing out the hint, Amber knew there was more to the story.

Another family secret.

3

Amber waited outside Benny’s for her mother to be done her shift. She nursed a cup of take-out decaf coffee, going over her plan once again. Could she really woo her mom into revealing the hairdressing secret--assuming there was one? Amber wasn’t certain, but she thought it was likely unrelated to her father, seeing as there were several years separating her mother going to hairdressing school and Amber being conceived.

Then again, with her mother? Who knew what the truth was. And if there even was a secret, it could be anything. An elopement. A baby. She could have accidentally burned someone’s hair off and been sued. It could be anything. Or nothing at all.

And it was driving Amber crazy.

She sighed and continued to pace. It was late, after ten, by the time her mother came out, looking fatigued but happy.

“Amber! What are you doing here?”

“Just thought I’d walk you home.”

Her mom gave her a suspicious look. “Why?”

“I was in town.”

“And?”

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