Although she could make a case that shopping in the fancy places was really nice. Especially when champagne was involved.

She took another sip of the bubbly liquid and settled more comfortably in the very cushy love seat on the bride side of the store. In front of her was a platform and a half circle of eight mirrors. The platform was big enough for a bride in the most ridiculously huge dress and half her family. Larissa supposed the mirrors were there to reflect the magnificence of it all.

Taryn walked around in a robe and bare feet. She was pale and shaking.

“This is totally ridiculous,” she announced, picking up her champagne glass, draining it, then putting it down again. “Why am I even here? I could be at work. Being productive.”

Isabel, a beautiful blonde with a curvy figure, rolled her eyes. “I knew you were going to be difficult, but this is completely over-the-top.” She glanced at Madeline, her assistant. “It’s time.”

Madeline grinned. “Really?”

“What?” Taryn demanded. “I hate this. I’m going to punish all of you later.” Her gaze landed on Larissa. “Not you. You’re here for moral support.”

“And to help the men in white coats with the restraints,” Larissa murmured.

Taryn glared at her. “Funny,” she said, her tone icy. “Very funny.”

Madeline nodded. “You’re right. It’s necessary.” She walked to the front of the store and locked the front door, then turned the sign to show the store was “closed for a private event.”

“Better?” Isabel asked. “No one will come in or out. I’ve closed the door between the two sides of the store, so you have complete privacy.”

The normally unflappable Taryn sniffed twice, then covered her face with her hands. “I’m a wreck.”

“Yes, you are,” Larissa said cheerfully. “But impressively so.”

Taryn straightened. “Fine. Mock me all you want. This is really hard for me.” She drew in a breath. “All right. Go get them.”

Isabel nodded at Madeline who disappeared into the back of the store. Isabel then led Taryn to a straight-backed chair in front of a small dresser.

“Let’s get you ready,” she said gently.

“I’m ready,” Taryn told her, obviously reluctant to sit. “What? I’m wearing makeup.”

“Just sit.”

Taryn did as she was told. Isabel opened a couple of drawers and pulled out a brush, a few pins and a sort of knit-crocheted thing with beautiful ivory roses along one side.

“What is it?” Taryn asked.

“A snood. It’s to hold your hair up while you’re trying on dresses.”

As she spoke, Isabel ran a brush through Taryn’s dark hair. She loosely braided it for about three inches, then picked up the snood and slipped it around the ends. A few pins later, it was secure, with the row of lace roses acting as a decoration.

The snood captured all her hair, but in a soft, almost old-fashioned kind of way. Taryn suddenly looked younger and more approachable.

Madeline returned with a rolling rack filled with wedding gowns. Larissa stared at the confections of lace and silk and knew this was going to be a fashion show like no other.

“These are samples,” Isabel said, walking toward the dresses. “That means they’re around a size ten, so they’ll be falling off your bony butt. Something I find intensely annoying.”

Taryn looked away from her reflection and studied the dresses. “You got the ones I mentioned to you?”

“Yes, and a few others. I also have two couture dresses. They are literally one of a kind, so I practically had to give them a kidney to get them. You will notice a significant charge on your credit card for the privilege of trying them on.” Isabel grinned. “The charge will be refunded if you don’t want the dresses, of course.”

“You know you don’t have to pay a deposit when you buy retail, like a normal person,” Larissa teased.

Madeline walked over and sat next to her. “It was really tough to get them.” She lowered her voice. “I didn’t know credit cards could have a limit that high.”

“Taryn has a unique relationship with clothes,” Larissa said. “I think it’s fun to look at it like a show or something. You know—Broadway. But without the singing.”

Taryn walked over to the dresses and touched the first one. Her mouth twisted and Larissa knew her friend was fighting tears. Because weddings were always complicated, she thought. She’d been through two with her sisters.

Always a bridesmaid, she thought as she sipped her champagne.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to get married, she thought wistfully. Of course she did. And have a family and all that went with it. It was just there wasn’t anyone who made her believe that forever was possible.

She had a feeling Taryn would tell her that was because she didn’t put herself out there. She was too busy saving the world to save herself.

Her friend might have a point, Larissa admitted to herself. Her causes were a distraction and sometimes that was a good thing.

Taryn dropped her robe, revealing a perfectly toned body in a flesh-colored thong and strapless bra. “Let’s do this,” she said.

Madeline stood and walked over to the rack. Together she and Isabel removed the dress from its hanger and carried it over to the platform.

“For some of them, stepping in is easier than trying to pull it over your head,” Isabel told Taryn.

The pile of lace and silk pooled on the carpeted platform. Taryn carefully stepped into the middle and the two women drew it up around her.

Larissa hadn’t gone dress shopping with her sisters. She’d shown up for her fittings and had been in both weddings. But the whole bride-marriage thing hadn’t been that interesting to her. Now she wondered if she’d missed out on more than she’d realized. If her mother were here, the woman would be crying. It wouldn’t matter that Taryn wasn’t her daughter. Nancy Owens loved a wedding.

Probably because she hadn’t had a big one of her own, Larissa thought, feeling the familiar guilt. At least not the first time. Larissa’s mother had gotten pregnant and then married in haste. Larissa had been born five months later.

She knew that she wasn’t responsible for what had happened to her parents. That they’d made the decision to sleep together and then had suffered the consequences. But she also knew that if her mother hadn’t gotten pregnant, her parents wouldn’t have married each other. They wouldn’t have suffered through a failing relationship for years before finally admitting what everyone else already knew. That they would be better off apart.

Their subsequent remarriages were happy ones. The extended family often spent holidays together. Some of Larissa’s friends in high school had lamented how their own parents were so mean during their divorces. That Larissa was lucky with what she’d been through.

She understood how they’d meant the comments and had never admitted that in her heart, she felt responsible. She was the reason her parents had to get married. And although they never blamed her, she couldn’t escape the sense of having messed up both of their lives.

* * *

PERCY STRUTTED INTO Jack’s office. Jack took one look at him and groaned. Once Larissa saw what had happened, there would be hell to pay.

“Quit being so happy,” he grumbled.

Percy grinned. “We won.”

“Yeah, like that’s going to matter when Larissa kills us both.”

“She’s only going to kill you. And maybe Consuelo.”

Jack didn’t think Larissa could take on Consuelo and win, but if Percy’s words were true, he wouldn’t be around to see it, anyway.

He studied the teen, taking in the swollen right eye and the growing bruise.

Their morning basketball sessions could be intense. Percy had been telling the truth—he had game. But he was also young and easily distracted. He’d made the mistake of watching Consuelo’s ass instead of the rest of her and had ended up with an elbow in the face. Of course, each of them had suffered the same fate at one time or another in the past six or eight months, but that was little consolation when the pain exploded in your face. Still, Percy had reacted well and play had continued.

He stood and walked toward the door. “Come on,” he told the kid.

“Where are we going?” Percy asked, following him.

“You’ll see.”

Jack led him to the side of the building where the actual campaign work was done. The graphics area had several offices, along with a big open layout room with massive printers that could handle poster-size paper. Behind that were a series of smaller offices.

Jack went to the end of the hall and pushed open a door. Inside was a small desk, a bookcase and not much else. There weren’t any windows and the walls were bare. He was pretty sure this room was usually used by interns. He’d checked with Taryn before claiming it for Percy.

On the desk was a laptop. A small printer stand held an all-in-one, with plenty of paper and printer cartridges below. There was a desk chair and a second less-comfortable chair for visitors. Jack sat in that one and motioned for Percy to sit behind the desk.

The teen did so and looked at him.

“So here’s the thing,” Jack began. “You need to learn to read to succeed in life. So that’s where we start.” He pointed to the laptop. “You know how to work one of those?”

“Sure. We used them in school.”

“Good. We’re going to go online and you’ll do a reading assessment. Then we’ll download the appropriate software to get you to the next level. Once your reading skills are at a tenth-grade level, we’ll move on to other topics. Kenny, Sam and I are going to divide up the subjects. You’ll meet with us an hour or so a day for tutoring, then you’ll be responsible for handling the study part on your own.”

He held Percy’s gaze. “I’m not going to kid you. This will be a lot of work. You’ll get frustrated. You’ll want to quit. None of us can make you do this. You have to want it. You have to be willing to do the work.”

Percy’s eyes filled with tears, but the teen didn’t look away. “I don’t understand. Why you doing this? You’re some famous rich guy. I’m a kid from South Central L.A. You owe me nothing.”

Jack leaned back in his chair. “Why aren’t you in a gang?”

“I told you before. My mom would have killed me. She worked hard so that would never happen.”

“Did you go to class?”

“Sure. But it was tough, you know. When I was little, I just couldn’t get the letters and stuff. But they kept sending me to the next grade. When I was nine, I had this great teacher. She had me stay after and I was starting to get it. She said there was nothing wrong with my brain, that it had just taken longer for me to figure out what was what. Only she moved on and the next teacher didn’t care as much.”

Pushed through the system, Jack thought. He was sure it happened more than it should. Especially in inner-city schools where resources were limited.

“At some of the foster homes they cared about school and stuff. So I would learn a little. I got my reading back a few times, but then it was hard to keep up.”

“How’d you find out about the summer camp?”

“There was a flier in my neighborhood. I went to see the guy who put it together and he got me enrolled.”

Jack was sure there were thousands of kids who had lived a variation of Percy’s story. While he and Larissa couldn’t save them all, they could do something with this one.

“You up for this?” he asked.

“Getting my GED?” Percy nodded vigorously. “I’ll do whatever it takes. You’ll see. I can get my work done here, then do my schoolwork before we go home.”

“Oh, you’ll be working at home, too,” Jack told him. Then he understood what the teen was missing. “Percy, this is your laptop to take back and forth with you.”

Percy swallowed hard. He put his hands on the computer. “I’ll take real good care of it. You’ll see.”

“I know you will.” Jack tapped the laptop. “Start the assessment. We’ll see where you are and move forward from there. It takes about an hour. Come get me when you’re done.”

His cell buzzed. He glanced at the screen and sighed. “Okay. I have to go help Taryn with something. If I’m not back by the time you’re done, go see Kenny or Sam. They’ll get the right software loaded.”

“Sure thing.” Percy was already booting up the laptop.

Jack got up and started out of the office. He paused, then glanced back. “Remember to eat lunch.”

Percy grinned. “Promise.”

* * *

JACK STARED AT the sign on the door. Closed for a Private Event. He thought about taking that as proof he should hightail it out of there but knew that running wasn’t an option. Instead, he knocked.

A couple of seconds later Larissa opened the door of Paper Moon and grinned at him.

“I wondered if you’d come,” she said by way of greeting. “I should have known better.” She handed him a glass of champagne. “This is way more fun than I thought it would be.”

She swayed just a little as she spoke. Her blue eyes were wide and a bit unfocused.

“Are you drunk?”

She smiled. “Maybe. Wow. I’ve never been drunk in the morning before.”

“You’ve probably never had anything to drink before noon before.”

“That’s true.”

He stepped into the store and put his free arm around her waist. To steady her, he told himself. The touching was purely medicinal. She rested her hand on top of his and leaned against him.