Page 9 of New Day at the Beach House

Willie gestured with her half-eaten cookie. “Whatever you want is fine with me. You have great taste, my girl. I already know it’ll be beautiful. You just tell me when it’s time to pay and I’ll be right there.”

Trina laughed. “Okay, Mimi.”

As Willie sat there watching them, she noticed Ethan rest his hand briefly on the small of Roxie’s back. He moved it almost as quickly as it had come to rest, but Roxie hadn’t said anything to him. Maybe he thought it was too soon for that sort of public display of affection. Or maybe he realized Willie was watching.

She’d have to find a subtle way to let him know she approved. She did, too. She worried that if things went wrong, it could affect their working relationship, but they were adults. Hopefully, they’d handle it with that same sort of attitude.

Of course, if things continued to go well, then more to the benefit.

Willie’s stomach started to vibrate, and she realized it was her phone in her fanny pack. She put her cup down, shoved the last bite of cookie in her mouth, and dug her phone out from in between the travel pack of tissues and the little bottle of jasmine-scented hand sanitizer.

It wasn’t a number she recognized, but she answered anyway. She was a businesswoman now. She had to take calls. “Hello?”

“Is this Wilhelmina Pasternak?”

“Yes. Who’s this?”

“This is Ernest Lasalle, attorney at law. I represent Zane Klausen, who I believe you know.”

Willie frowned. “Can’t say that I—oh, Zippy’s son.”

“Yes, ma’am, that’s correct.”

Willie straightened. Calls from lawyers were rarely good news. Especially when that lawyer was representing the son of the man she’d just inherited millions of dollars from. “What’s this about?”

“My client believes you may have been privy to the creation process of two tricks his father invented during the time you were married, specifically, The Vanishing Waterfall and Electra’s Revenge.”

The lawyer could have linked any combination of words and it would have made as much sense as those did. Willie frowned as he went on.

“Zane is a magician himself, you see. You may have heard of him. He goes by the stage name of Zane Steele, Illusionist. He’s about to launch his own show.”

“Good for him. His father would be proud. Can’t say that I’ve heard of him, but I haven’t been out to Vegas since Zippy and I split up.”

“Be that as it may, Zane would like for you to sign an NDA concerning—”

“An indie what?”

“An NDA. A non-disclosure agreement.”

“I see.” She really didn’t. “Go on.”

“He’d like you to sign this NDA stating that you will not reveal the secrets of those tricks, share information about how they’re done, or what creates the illusions involved or, furthermore, disclose the mechanics of how they work. He’d like for you to disavow all knowledge of them.”

She already had no idea what he was talking about. But a new idea occurred to her. “Zane was pretty well taken care of when his father passed, wasn’t he?”

“If this is about money—”

“It’s not, so keep your britches on. But he’s fixed all right, isn’t he?” She hated to think that she’d got the bulk of Zippy’s estate.

“He’s very well off, yes.”

“Do you know how much I got?”

The lawyer cleared his throat softly. “I do, yes.”

“Did Zane get more?”

“He did. But that’s all I can say.”

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