“I think so.” I noticed Stu had set the camera on the wood floor and was perspiring heavily. He, too, had chosen to wear blue jeans. I offered him water.

“Oh, me too,” Chelsea said. “What brand do you have?”

“T-A-P,” I spelled.

“Funny,” she said. “No bottled?”

“I have Dr Pepper in a bottle, Diet Coke in a can and water from the fridge door. Take your pick.”

“Just water, thanks.” Bitchy edge in her voice. Clearly my Hollywood producer didn’t like the beverage selection in my home.

I caught Stu’s eye-roll as I left to get them their water. He had her number, too.

The trip to the kitchen gave me time to wrack my brain regarding Reality Check, the television show she’d mentioned. As I held glasses under the icemaker, I remembered they did home makeovers and cosmetic surgeries, gave scholarships, sent people on luxury vacations. Then I could hear the commercial’s voiceover in my head: Reality Check-the lifestyle makeover show. Turning American dreams into the real thing.

What the hell did a show like that want with me?

When I returned and handed them their glasses, Stu was sitting cross-legged on the Oriental rug with my cat, Diva, in his lap.

Chelsea had apparently rediscovered her “California Dreamin’ ” attitude, because her tone was pleasant when she said, “Our research assistant learned about you through the local media, Abby. She said you arranged this wonderful reunion for a college basketball player. He was adopted and hired you to locate his birth family, right?”

“Yes.” I sat in one of the armchairs, thinking, That’s how these people found me. Several years ago, after learning that my daddy had illegally adopted Kate and me when we were infants, I’d taken a new path in life. Rather than spend all my time at the family computer business, which ran itself anyway, I chose to work as a PI and help adopted people locate their birth families. One of my clients, a college athlete with celebrity status, had recently appeared on a local morning program and, though I had asked him not to mention my name, the perky, way-too-eager host managed to get it out of him anyway.