Page 48 of The Lost Heiress
Bah, humbug,Ana thought.
“Surely there must be something about birthday parties that you enjoy?” she said.
Ransom gave a noncommittal grunt. “Personally, I find birthday parties a little self-indulgent and unnecessary,” he said.
Jesus,Ana thought.
“I don’t think that’s fair at all,” Ana said. “Birthdays are some of my favorite memories as a kid. I mean, I never had my very ownbirthday party. Growing up, we always had these parties in the summer to celebrate all of us in the family who had a summer birthday. My uncle threw them at his ranch. There’d be a mariachi band, and my aunt would hang a piñata from the old oak in the backyard, and all of my uncles would take a swing at it, blindfolded, after they’d been drinking Tecates all day. Me and my cousins would stand back under the old string lights and watch them and just laugh so hard we cried.”
For dessert, her grandmother would make her famous rice pudding and sopaipillas, dusted with sugar. Ana’s mouth watered now at just the thought of them.
“You didn’t mind sharing it?” Ransom asked. “Your birthday party, I mean?”
Ana shrugged. “I guess I never really thought about it like that.”
There was so little in her life that she hadn’t shared, she supposed it was just second nature.
Ransom looked at her for a moment. He opened his mouth to say something, but just then, Saoirse came out of her dressing room in her first selection: a strapless Calvin Klein dress, dark as night, with boning in the bodice and a taffeta skirt.
“I feel like Princess Barbie,” Saoirse said, her mouth in a dour line. She stood on the pedestal, turning this way and that in front of the mirror, surveying her appearance at every angle.
“No, you’re a vision,” Jacqueline said, emerging from her own room clutching the large skirt of a red floral-lace Valentino with a flowy tulle overlay. It had a high neck and was belted at the waist. She looked stunning.
“It’s too dark and constrictive,” Saoirse said, still looking at her own reflection. She tugged at the top of the dress, pulling it up.
“Beauty is pain,” Jacqueline said as she stepped onto the mirrored pedestal next to Saoirse. “I can’t breathe at all in this one, but I never want to take it off. Ransom, what do you think of my dress?”
“It’s loud and over the top,” Ransom said.
“Perfect,” Jacqueline said. “I’m getting it.”
While Jacqueline changed back into her clothes, Saoirse tried on another dress: a sleeveless silver silk concoction by Halston. The dress had a plunging neckline, a fitted waist, and a flowing skirt. Saoirse looked like a Greek goddess in it with her tall, slim figure and dark hair.
“Now, this is more like it,” Saoirse said, glowing.
“You’re like a glimmer of moonshine,” Jacqueline told her. “Like a streak of starlight.”
“I don’t recall seeing that one before,” Ransom said, the disapproval heavy in his voice as he glanced over the top of his magazine.
“I may have added one or two things to the selection at the last minute,” Jacqueline said nonchalantly. “She’s turning eighteen, not eighty. Let her live a little.”
“It’s very low cut,” Ransom said.
“Hardly,” Saoirse said. “I saw Bianca Jagger wearing something twice as low at her birthday party, and everybody couldn’t stop talking about how stunning she looked.”
“Bianca Jagger?” Ransom said. “That’s hardly the argument to win me over.”
Saoirse sighed. “Fine. We could put in a few stitches here and there and some strategically placed fashion tape. At that point, I could practically wear it to church.”
“For God’s sake, it’s a Halston, Ransom,” Jacqueline said. “Jackie O. wears Halston. It’s not exactly scandalous.”
Ransom was quiet for a moment. “Miss Rojas, what do you think?” he asked.
Ana was a little caught off guard that he was asking her opinion about anything, let alone a decision that he had flown all the way across the country to make himself in person.
“Honestly? I think it’s very pretty,” Ana said. She lowered her voice so only he could hear. “And in the interest of making our dinner reservation, it may be the best compromise you’re going to get today.”
Ransom thought a moment and then sighed heavily. “Fine,” he said, barely placated. “I can see I’m outnumbered.”
