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Riverside Drive
Laura Van Wormer
At New York's most-sought-after address, passions and secrets collide, and love is destroyed, then found again in the most unlikely placeMichael and Cassie Cochran are television's perfect couple, but the veneer of their enviable marriage is starting to crack. And only one of them is trying to salvage it.Sam and Harriet Wyatt have spent a lifetime getting to where they are, but they could lose it all in the blink of an eye after Sam stumbles upon a corporate secret.Howard Stewart has the perfect job and the perfect wife–both of which are a perfect lie.Amanda Miller has wealth, fame and a lifetime of heartache. She's given up on men–until she meets the one she can't resist.Step onto Riverside Drive, where friends and neighbors determine each other's destinies.
Praise for LAURA VAN WORMER and RIVERSIDE DRIVE
“SHE IS A BORN STORYTELLER!”
—Esther Shapiro, cocreator of Dynasty
“STEAMY…You’ll never watch the TV evening news with such indifference again!”
—Los Angeles Times
“AMBITIOUS!”
—Newsday
“REALISTIC…from cocktail party to block party, through marital and job strife…her realistic characters…combined with occasional blasts of sensational sex, will keep her readers turning the pages.”
—Publishers Weekly
“LIVELY AND CONSISTENTLY ENTERTAINING…
With laugh-out-loud humor and fine appreciation for surprise, Van Wormer moves her characters’ stories briskly…. Well-drawn scenes, deft juggling of plots and subplots, and an ample supply of energetic and well-documented sex…Characters to care about and root for, long after the author’s last word.”
—Stamford Advocate
“SEXY!”
—Kirkus Reviews
“UNIQUE!”
—The Beacon (Macon, MS)
Also by LAURA VAN WORMER
WEST END* (#litres_trial_promo)
BENEDICT CANYON ANY GIVEN MOMENT* (#litres_trial_promo)
JURY DUTY TALK* (#litres_trial_promo)
JUST FOR THE SUMMER
The Sally Harrington Novels
EXPOSÉ* (#litres_trial_promo)
THE LAST LOVER* (#litres_trial_promo)
TROUBLE BECOMES HER* (#litres_trial_promo)
THE BAD WITNESS* (#litres_trial_promo)
THE KILL FEE* (#litres_trial_promo)
MR. MURDER* (#litres_trial_promo)
And look for RIVERSIDE PARK* (#litres_trial_promo),
Riverside Drive
Laura Van Wormer
www.mirabooks.co.uk (http://www.mirabooks.co.uk)
In Memory of My Mother
Margaret Garner Van Wormer
And for My Father
Benjamin Francis Van Wormer
And My “New” Mother
Marjorie Law Ault Van Wormer
I would still be talking rather than writing had it not been for two extraordinary individuals named Loretta Barrett and Ann Douglas. Their wisdom, generosity and powers of reassurance are awe-inspiring. Their spirit is, too. I can only wonder at my good fortune in having met them in this life and say, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for all you have taught me.
CONTENTS
PART I (#uf8f45b15-0a1f-56eb-8d07-ca941f44faab)
CHAPTER 1 (#u3beef354-c50c-5b4c-8395-3e81bc764c01)
CHAPTER 2 (#u7e0c8062-a5a5-574b-b52f-d9a7f20ace4d)
CHAPTER 3 (#ub0bd6bcd-e972-5143-bc22-9a703dfa9dd0)
CHAPTER 4 (#u2014ea0d-5196-5812-833a-6548edc32c8f)
CHAPTER 5 (#ubccf3730-7723-5e89-9201-9603ac1690f7)
CHAPTER 6 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 7 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 8 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 9 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 10 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 11 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 12 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 13 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 14 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 15 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 16 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 17 (#litres_trial_promo)
PART II (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 18 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 19 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 20 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 21 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 22 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 23 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 24 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 25 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 26 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 27 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 28 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 29 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 30 (#litres_trial_promo)
PART III (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 31 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 32 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 33 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 34 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 35 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 36 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 37 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 38 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 39 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 40 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 41 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 42 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 43 (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER 44 (#litres_trial_promo)
PART I
1
The Cochrans have a party
Cassy Cochran was upset.
Michael, her husband, had gone to pick up ice four hours ago and hadn’t been seen since; Henry, her son, was supposed to be back from Shea Stadium but wasn’t; and Rosanne, the cleaning woman, was currently threatening the new bartender in the kitchen with deportation proceedings if he didn’t see her way of doing things.
Not a terrific beginning for a party that Cassy absolutely did not want to have.
“Hey, Mrs. C?” It was Rosanne, standing in the doorway to the living room.
Cassy turned.
“If Mr. C comes back, he’s gonna be pretty upset about how this guy’s settin’ up the bar. Could you—” She frowned suddenly and leaned her head back into the kitchen. “What?” she said. “Well, it’s about time.” Rosanne swung back around the doorway, waving her hand. “Never mind, Mrs. C, Mr. Moscow here suddenly understands English.”
Cassy smiled, shaking her head slightly, and then surveyed the living room. It was a very large, very airy room that, in truth, almost anything would look marvelous in. And Cassy’s taste for antiques (or “early attic,” as Michael described her preference) was especially fitting, seeing as every floorboard in the apartment creaked. But then, the apartment was really much more like a house, a big old country farmhouse, only with high ceilings. And windows. The three largest rooms—the living room, the master bedroom and Henry’s room—all had huge windows facing out on the Hudson River.
The windows had been washed this week. Before, shrouded in a misty gray, the view from the twelfth floor had been eerily reminiscent of London on what Henry called a Sherlock Holmes kind of day. But no, this was New York; and the winter’s soot had all been washed away and the late afternoon April sun, setting across the river in New Jersey, was, at this moment, flooding the living room with gentle light.
