Excerpt
Kaitlin arrived at the banquet hall at around seven thirty. She needed to check some of the graphics for Grace’s keynote speech. She’d planned on having David, her assistant, do the last minute checks, but since she was there she decided to do it herself. By the time she’d completed the checks and left the program to David, it was eight o’clock. She made her way down to the main floor. Despite preparing all evening for what she was likely to see, the sight of Grace, arm in arm with Tim Vasser, tore her apart.
Tim was an old friend but she knew he was after Grace and longed to be the one she came home to. There were times in the past when Kaitlin wasn’t sure he hadn’t succeeded in getting exactly what he wanted. Tonight though, Tim was in heaven. He walked around a little bit taller and a whole lot cockier.
Grace looked absolutely radiant in an ankle length evening dress. The rose colored sheath caressed Grace’s soft curves—curves that Kaitlin knew by heart. But instead of her hand resting on Grace’s bare lower back, Tim’s was there; gently guiding her around the room, his thumb tracing small circles along her spine. Grace either should have become an actress or she didn’t mind the contact which, to Kaitlin, seemed overly intimate and suspiciously familiar. She wasn’t going to make it through the night if she continued watching them. So, she made her way to the small bar in the corner.
Adrianne had noticed Kaitlin arrive on the floor and watched inconspicuously from the far side of the room. She watched the pain etching its way across the shadows of Kaitlin’s face. If she didn’t know the score before, she did now. However, she didn’t know what Grace was thinking. All her years of dealing with inconsistency in words and action couldn’t help her make sense of the way Grace treated Kaitlin. Of course she knew Grace was using Tim as a beard but what she couldn’t fathom was why. Why Grace would choose this man over the beautiful woman in the wings who’d probably do anything for her. She followed Kaitlin’s track through the crowd with her eyes. Her mind was made up.