“I bet you hate having your friends see you like this,” commiserated Richard’s assistant, she of the fluffy bangs and ever-present clipboard, as she pulled Shay’s mousse-saturated tresses into points that stuck straight out, all over her head.

Shay only rolled her eyes, telling herself that the girl was young.

“I’d die,” insisted the little helper.

“If you keep working for Richard,” Shay replied, “your life will probably be short.”

“Huh?”

“Here but for the grace of God go you.”

“I still don’t get it.”

“Never mind,” Shay said with a sigh. The mousse was drying and her scalp itched. The bodysuit was riding up in all the wrong places. She told herself that that was why she suddenly felt so uncharitable.

The door of the RV squeaked open and made the hollow sound typical of all motor homes when it closed behind Richard. He looked at Shay as though he’d just beaten her at some game and his mouth twitched. “I,” he said with quiet pomposity, “am a genius.”

“Don’t press your luck, Richard,” Shay snarled. Her body was no longer vibrating, and there was a headache unfolding behind her right temple.

“I said I’d die if I had to dress like that and she said my life might be short if I went on working for you,” broke in the assistant in a breathless babble. “What’d she mean by that, Richard? She won’t tell me what she meant!”

“Wait outside, Chrissie,” Richard said, all but patting the girl on the head.

Reluctantly, Chrissie obeyed.

“Does your wife know about her?” Shay asked, just to be mean.

Richard cleared his throat and pressed at his hopelessly old-fashioned glasses with one index finger. Despite this display of nervousness, he was not an easy opponent. “You have an audience outside,” he said. “It seems your fame is spreading.”

Shay stood up with a sigh, and when they entered the showroom moments later, she was even more annoyed to find that she did indeed have an audience. All of the salesmen were there, along with their wives and even a few children. It was the presence of the children that kept Shay from showing them that she was Rosamond Dallas’s daughter by making a scene.

“Stand right there on your X, darlin’,” Richard drawled. “This’ll be over before you can say—”

“Oh, shut up!” Shay grumbled, taking her mark.

The lights were blaring in her face. She drew a deep breath and tried to be professional, which wasn’t easy in a thunderbolt bodysuit and outrageous makeup. Mentally she went over her line. Oh, to do this in one take and have it behind her!

The clapboard snapped in her face and Shay smiled broadly, trying not to think of how her hair was standing out from her head in mousse-crusted points. She knew she looked as though she had just stuck her finger into a light socket, and that, of course, was the whole idea. “Come out and see for yourselves, folks,” she crowed winningly. “Our prices here at Reese Motors, 6832 Discount Way, are so low that they’ll shock you!”