“Busy day today?” Mac asked.

“What? Oh.” Jeremy grinned as he glanced up from his magazine. Mac got a glimpse of the cover: it was that rag, You. “Morning, Mac. No, today shouldn’t be too busy. Just an early meeting with a client.”

Not something Jeremy would plan for himself, Mac realized, but occasionally such compromises were unavoidable. Despite his casual attitude toward life and work, Jeremy was, in Mac’s opinion, a fine attorney. His father, Allan Carruthers, was prone to think otherwise, but that was a father’s prerogative— and God only knew Allan, good friend that he was, was a hard man to please. Mac had known him for thirty years. Together, he and Allan had founded Carruthers and Stevens, and today it was a prominent Southern California law firm. They made an interesting team—diligent, solid. Allan was a native Californian, educated on the G.I. Bill, a compulsive worker. Mac came from Philadelphia money. He had attended Choate and Yale, but the sun and opportunities of the West Coast had lured him to San Diego...and the possibility, the slim hope, that there he would be able to forget.

At fifty-seven, he was straight backed and gray eyed, a tall man, his hair gone completely gray. He retained much of the formality and reserve of his Main Line upbringing, though he hadn’t been back home in years. If his family wanted to see him, they had to travel to San Diego.

“You look engrossed,” he said with a wry smile. “Anything interesting?”

Jeremy grinned. “Beautiful and crazy mystery heiress.”

“Sounds like your type.”

“Not a chance, Mac. The lady’s completely nuts. I couldn’t keep up with her.”

“All the better. She wouldn’t bore you.”

It was Mac’s opinion, shared by the other cofounder of Carruthers and Stevens, that Jeremy had set his sights on a woman who simply didn’t exist. He’d been married, once, to one of the La Jolla heiresses he often fancied, usually with disastrous results. The marriage had ended five years ago. Susie had remarried and now had two toddlers, whom she was suffocating with attention and affection the same way she had Jeremy. There was no not pleasing the woman, and that had been a problem. At the very least, Jeremy needed a woman who’d go head-to-head with him.

“Here,” Jeremy said, shoving the magazine across his desk. “Have a look.”

Putting on his reading glasses, Mac walked over and examined the cover photo. “Very pretty, I must say.”

Jeremy laughed. “Hell of an understatement, Mac. Do you think anyone has eyes that blue?”

“They can work miracles with photography these days,” Mac agreed. “She rescues dolphins?”

“And flies her own plane. Quite the hot shit, apparently.”

“What makes her a mystery heiress?”

“She and her brother were named beneficiaries of a Liechtenstein trust.”

“My, my.” Intrigued, Mac flipped open to the brief article and photographs splashed across three inside pages.

“I like the one in Newport myself,” Jeremy said.

Mac’s eyebrows arched. “I can see why.”