Card Sharks by Liz Maverick Read Free Book Online Page A

bowing and apologizing all at once, they backed out of the room as twelve pairs of eyes stared at them.
    â€œLet’s try to regain our focus. . . . Imagine a stream . . . and some willows . . . and a pretty fawn. . . .”
    Bijoux and Marianne just barely got out the door and into the changing room before bursting into peals of laughter.
    â€œI . . . can’t . . . breathe! Too . . . funny.”
    The changing room attendant took a call on the house line watching them as she spoke. She hung up and started toward them.
    â€œUh-oh,” Marianne said.
    â€œI second that. You want me to drop you at home or do you want to go for a walk?”
    â€œA walk? I thought you said you were exhausted.”
    â€œI just had this idea I haven’t tried yet. When I go over to pet the cat, I’ll borrow the Keegans’ dog and walk it around in some really upscale neighborhoods. You know what people are always saying about dog people attracting other dog people. And this way it will be dog people attracting other wealthy dog people.”
    Marianne arched an eyebrow. “Well, you’ll have to let me know how that works out for you.”
    Bijoux looked both ways and then hobbled across the street, which wasn’t a very long hobble, and then up the arched driveway, which was.
    She rang the doorbell and waited. Rosa answered the door.
    â€œHola, Rosa. ¿Cómo estas?”
    â€œBien. Muy bien, Señorita Sterling.”
    â€œUm, ¿Señora Keegan está?”
    â€œNoooo. Señora Keegan no está.” Rosa waited, a brightsmile on her face that probably hid what she was really thinking; that Bijoux’s Spanish was a total embarrassment.
    Bijoux peeked behind Rosa into the house. “El perro está?”
    â€œEl perro? No. El perro no está. El gato está.” She thought Bijoux had mixed up the animal word.
    â€œRight. I was getting to the cat part. I just thought . . .” And then it hit her. The cat would work. She’d promised to spend time with the cat anyway. “Right. El gato. ” Bijoux chewed her lower lip. “Okay. Estoy toma el gato a mi casa para . . . para . . . pet it. Estoy pet el gato. ”
    Rosa frowned, put her hands on her hips, and slipped right out of her Spanish. “You’re going to take the cat and pet it? Is that really what you meant to say?”
    Bijoux nodded. “Señora Keegan asked me to, and I just figured I might as well do it over at my house to, you know, help it acclimate to other areas of the neighborhood better.”
    Rosa’s eyebrow went up, but she swallowed the smile that was forming and stepped away from the door to reveal an enormous gray Persian cat clouded by more cat hair than seemed possible for just one animal to have all on its own. It sat in the middle of a formerly pristine white shag carpet, which had taken on a dingy gray quality in the section where the cat was sitting.
    Bijoux bent over and stuck her hand out. “Here, sweetie. Here, precious. Here, gorgeous . . . here—”
    â€œSkippy,” Rosa said matter-of-factly.
    Bijoux stood upright and looked over her shoulder. “Skippy?”
    Rosa shrugged. “Don’t ask me. I think Peter may have had something to do with it. It was supposed to be a joke, but it stuck.”
    â€œOkay.” She turned back to the cat. “Here, Skippy. I’m Bijoux.”
    The cat stared at Bijoux with clear blue eyes. Eyes that said, You’re an imbecile and we both know it.
    But Bijoux was too quick. In a flash she was stuffing the cat into her tote bag, giving Rosa a more confident adiós smile than she actually felt, and then hightailing it back down the driveway.
    Though displeased, Skippy took the jostling fairly well.
    She’d intended to take the dog, but with his unexpected absence, she’d figured the cat