"Hello, darling." Marlena, his lovely, black-haired sis ter, breezed into the office. A cloud of sultry perfume seemed to settle about her as she came to a halt and leaned down to kiss her musing brother. Not a hair was out of place. Her makeup was pearly and exact. The suit hug ging her slender body was cut to fit only her. She moved with the confidence of a woman who had gone to the best schools, had been the belle of her debutante ball and had name recognition at all the most expensive shops in town.
"I hope you haven't been waiting for too long," she told her brother. "I had to check with the printers on some ads we're running."
Ross looked up with narrowed eyes. "What do you think of when I mention Charity Ames of the La Mer ?" he asked softly.
Marlena shrugged. "Isn't that the one holdout from implementing your grand plan for the Dos Pueblos Port Pier development?" she asked. "I know all the other res taurants and shops out there joined your Commercial Growth Organization, and you were so furious that the Ames woman wouldn't even consider your offers."
"Exactly."
Marlena sank onto the corner of her desk, her pretty face puckered with worry. "Oh, Ross, what does it matter if one restaurant holds out? Just ignore the crazy woman. Remember how everything turned out with the Ojai proje ct? It's a masterpiece. All the business and architectural magazines have written it up. Dos Pueblos will be the same. Once your plan gets rolling, she'll be begging to be involved."
"Maybe," he said slowly, but he wasn't really listening. He was thinking over his list of options as though he were flipping through the cards in a Rolodex.
He knew he could go forward with the Dos Pueblos project without Charity Ames, but he was a man who didn't like to lose. La Mer would always be a flaw in his scheme if she didn't come around. He wanted her in, and he was ready to do what he had to do to make sure she joined.
For a moment Marlena watched the process she knew so well, and then she leaned forward and waved a hand in front of his face. "Hello, anyone home?" she called.
He looked up in surprise. "What?"
"Remember me? I thought I was the one you came to see."
His frown told her he didn't appreciate having his thoughts interrupted, which was just what she'd expected. Slipping off the desk, she took the face of her younger brother between her two hands and smiled sadly down into it.
"When was the last time you spent an entire day without thinking about business?" she asked. "Ross Carrington, you're almost forty and you might as well be eighty- two. You never have any fun. You never do anything silly just for the hell of it. You take life much too seriously, darling, and you're not even listening to me now, are you?"