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safe territory. “Well, of course to me she’s the most glorious child in the world.”
    Eric paused. “I understand that Katie’s father died before she was born.”
    “Yes he did.” Of course Eric Googled me, Lane thought. I Googled everything about him and his family. Especially his daddy dearest.
    She knew that Parker Bennett had been born Joseph Bennett but at twenty-one had legally changed his first name to Parker. She knew that he had gone to the City College of New York for two years
and from there had received a scholarship to Harvard, then gotten an MBA from Yale. She knew that his rise in a Wall Street brokerage firm had been steady and swift. By the time he married Anne
Nelson, a twenty-two-year-old secretary in the firm, he was, at twenty-seven, well on his way up the corporate ladder.
    When they reached the restaurant, Mario, the owner, said, “Welcome home,” his usual warm greeting to longtime customers. But then, smiling at Lane, he added, “Mrs. Kurner, it
has been too long.”
    “I know it has, Mario,” Lane said, “and I’m happy to be here again.”
    Mario escorted them to a table. When they were seated Eric said, “He called you Mrs. Kurner. I would guess that you used to come here with your husband.”
    “Yes I did. But that was over five years ago. Harmon is my maiden name. I kept it for business.”
    The waiter was approaching their table. “Would you like a drink or do you prefer wine?” Eric asked.
    “Wine.”
    “White or red?”
    “Red if that’s all right with you.”
    “It’s exactly right.”
    Lane watched as Eric examined the wine list. When he ordered she knew it was one of the most expensive vintages on the list. Her stepfather was a wine connoisseur. When she was in Washington and
went out to dinner with him and her mother, he always ordered one of the fine wines.
    So much for everything being clawed back, she thought.
    As though he could read her mind Eric said, “Considering my situation, I’d like to get something out of the way. I never worked for or with my father. He wanted me to make it on my
own, just as he did. Maybe he intentionally kept me away from his firm because he knew how things were going to end. Looking back, if he did steal that money, he didn’t want any suggestion
that I was involved.” He looked directly across the table. “I wasn’t,” he said. “I hope that you can believe that.”
    “I wouldn’t be here if I thought you were involved in that situation,” Lane said.
    Over dinner they talked the way people who are beginning to know each other converse. Lane told him that she had gone to Sacred Heart Academy in Washington from kindergarten through high school
and then to NYU. “The minute I started living in New York I knew that this is where I wanted to be,” she explained, “but then when I graduated I realized that I didn’t want
to be a teacher.”
    “And you went to the Fashion Institute,” Eric said.
    “You did Google me thoroughly.”
    “Yes, I did. I hope you don’t mind but I wanted to know more about you.”
    Lane turned the implied compliment away with a laugh. “Fortunately, I have nothing to hide.” Realizing the implication of her words, she wanted to bite her tongue.
    “And fortunately, despite the general perception, neither do I,” Eric replied with a smile. Then he changed the subject. “What’s it like working for Glady? When she was
working on the Greenwich house, I thought she was the most impossible bully I’d ever met. The poor workmen cringed when she walked into the room.”
    She is an impossible bully, Lane thought, but I’m not going to admit it to you. “I love working for Glady,” she said honestly. “I know what you mean, but believe it or
not, she does have the proverbial heart of gold.”
    “I know she does, at least on some levels. She is redecorating my mother’s town house in Montclair without charge.”
    “See what I mean?”
    Over dessert Eric talked about his father.