An elegant dinner to celebrate their success held a certain appeal—and gave Sherry an unexpected chance to wear her new finery—but charging it to the room didn’t seem fair to Cody. “I don’t know, Heather…”

“Dad won’t mind,” Heather said. “He’s grateful you’re willing to shop with me, and he’ll be even happier now that I have bras that fit me. So, come on—what do you think?”

“I think dinner’s a marvelous idea.” They could work out the finances later.

Heather rummaged through the bags stacked on Sherry’s bed until she found what she was looking for. “We should do our nails first, though, shouldn’t we?”

They’d discovered the hottest shade of pink nail polish Sherry had ever seen. Heather had fallen in love with it and convinced Sherry her life wouldn’t be complete without it.

“Our hair, too.”

“Why not?” If they were going to dress up, there was no point in half measures. Heather was filled with such boundless enthusiasm Sherry couldn’t help being infected with it, too.

Using jasmine-scented bubble bath, Sherry soaked in the tub, washed her hair and piled it high on her head, wrapping it in a white towel. Putting on a thick terry-cloth robe supplied by the hotel, she met Heather, who’d made use of the second bathroom, back in the living room.

Heather, also in a thick terry-cloth robe, eagerly set the bottle of hot-pink polish on the table.

“Only for our toes, not our fingers,” Sherry instructed.

Heather was clearly disappointed, but she nodded. She balanced one foot, then the other against the edge of the coffee table, and Sherry painted the girl’s toenails, then had Heather paint hers. They were halfway through this ritual, with Heather’s nail polish almost dry, when the key turned in the lock. They both looked up to see Cody stroll casually into the room.

“Dad!” Heather bounded to her feet and raced over to her father. “We had a fabulous day. Wait’ll you see what we bought.”

Cody set down his briefcase and hugged his daughter. “I take it you had a fun afternoon.”

“It was wild. I spent oodles of money. Sherry did, too. She bought this snazzy black dress. It wasn’t on sale, but she said she had to have it. When you see her in it, you’ll know why.”

Cody didn’t comment on that. His eyes narrowed when he saw his daughter’s feet. “What have you done to your toes?”

“Isn’t it great?” Heather said rhapsodically, wiggling her toes for his inspection.

“Will they make your feet glow in the dark?”

“No, silly!”

Sherry finished painting the last of her own toenails and screwed the top back on the bottle of polish. “We were going to dress up in our new outfits and go downstairs and have dinner in the dining room,” she said. “That’s all right, isn’t it?”

“Anything you want. Dinner’s on me.”

“Even lobster?” Heather asked, as though she wasn’t entirely sure how far his generosity would stretch.

“Even lobster. I just sold off the main part of my herd for the best price I’ve gotten in years.”