That must have been the night Meg had seen them together. She was getting more than a little curious about Dexter O’Connor. “So your husband knew you were alone in a room at the inn with Ted?” She grabbed the sunblock. “You must have a very understanding husband.”
The toilet flushed. “What do you mean alone? Dex was in the shower. It was our room. Ted just stopped by.”
“Your room? I thought you lived in Wynette.”
Torie came out of the stall and regarded her with faint pity. “We have kids, Meg. K-i-d-s. Two fabulous little girls I love with all my heart, but they definitely take after me, which means Dex and I try to get away, just the two of us, every couple of months.” She washed her hands. “Sometimes we manage a long weekend in Dallas or New Orleans. Usually, though, it’s a night at the inn.”
Meg had more questions, but she needed to put away Ted’s clubs and collect her tip money.
She found him by the pro shop, talking to Kenny. He reached into his pocket as she approached. She held her breath. True, she’d lost his last two head covers, but she hadn’t cost him a single hole, and if that cheapskate . . .
“Here you go, Meg.”
The full one hundred dollars. “Wow,” she whispered. “I thought I needed to buy a bedroom dresser before I could make this kind of money.”
“Don’t get used to it,” he said. “Your days caddying for me are over.”
Just then, Spence emerged from the pro shop along with a young woman dressed for business in a sleeveless black shift, pearls, and a dark green Birkin bag. She was tall and full figured, although not even close to fat. She had strong features—a long face with well-defined, dark eyebrows, an important nose, and a full, sensuous mouth. Subtle highlights brightened the dark brown hair that curved in long, straight layers around her face. Although she looked to be in her late twenties, she carried herself with the confidence of an older woman combined with the sexy assurance of a younger one used to getting her own way.
Skipjack slipped his arm around her. “Ted, you’ve already met Sunny, but I don’t think the rest of you know my beautiful daughter.”
Sunny shook hands briskly, repeating each name and locking it in her memory, starting with Kenny, then Torie—assessing Meg—and pausing when she reached Ted. “It’s great to see you again, Ted.” She studied him as if he were a prized piece of horseflesh, which offended Meg.
“You, too, Sunny.”
Spence squeezed her arm. “Torie here invited us both to a little Fourth of July shindig. A good chance to meet more of the locals and get the lay of the land.”
Sunny smiled at Ted. “Sounds great.”
“Do you want us to pick you up, Meg?” Spence asked. “Torie invited you, too. Sunny and I’ll be happy to stop on our way.”
Meg pulled a long face. “Sorry, I have to work.”
Ted thumped her on the back. Extra hard. “I wish all the club’s employees were so dedicated.” He slipped his thumb under her shoulder blade, finding what just might be one of those lethal pressure points only assassins knew about. “Fortunately, Shelby’s party doesn’t start until late afternoon. You can come over as soon as you get off work.”
She managed a weak smile, then decided that a free meal, her curiosity about Sunny Skipjack, and the opportunity to irritate Ted outweighed spending another night alone. “All right. But I’ll drive myself.”
Sunny, in the meantime, was having a hard time tearing her eyes away from Ted. “You’re quite the public servant.”
“I do my best.”
Her teeth were large and perfect as she smiled. “I suppose the least I can do is put in my own bid.”
Ted cocked his head. “Beg pardon?”
“The auction,” she said. “I’ll definitely put in a bid.”
“You’ve got me at a disadvantage, Sunny.”
She snapped open her Birkin and extracted a bright red flyer. “I found this under the windshield of my rental car after I stopped in town.”
Ted glanced down at the flyer. It might have been Meg’s imagination, but she thought he flinched.
Kenny, Torie, and Spence moved closer to read over his shoulder. Spence shot Meg a speculative look. Kenny shook his head. “This is Shelby’s big idea. I heard her talking about it to Lady E., but I never thought it would get this far.”
Torie let out a hoot. “I’m definitely bidding. I don’t care what Dex says.”
Kenny arched a dark brow. “Lady E. sure isn’t bidding.”
“That’s what you think,” his sister retorted. She extended the flyer toward Meg. “Take a look at this. Too bad you’re poor.”
The flyer was simply printed in bold black letters:
WIN A WEEKEND WITH TED BEAUDINE
Join Wynette’s favorite bachelor
for a romantic weekend in San Francisco.
Sightseeing, fine dining,
romantic nighttime boat cruise,
and more. Much more . . .
Ladies, place your bids.
($100.00 minimum)
Married! Single! Old! Young!
Everyone welcome.
The weekend can be as friendly (or intimate) as you like.
www.weekendwithted.com
All proceeds benefit the
Wynette Public Library
rebuilding effort.
Ted snatched the flyer from her, studied it, then crumpled it in his fist. “Of all the stupid, asinine . . . !”
Meg tapped him on the shoulder and whispered, “I’d buy a dresser, if I were you.”
Torie threw back her head and laughed. “I love this town!”
Chapter Ten
On her way home from work that evening, Meg passed the town’s resale shop. She loved good vintage stores and decided to stop. Another of the red flyers hung in the window advertising the Win a Weekend with Ted Beaudine contest. She opened the heavy, old-fashioned wooden door. The sunny yellow interior smelled faintly musty, the way most resale shops did, but the merchandise was well organized, with antique tables and chests serving both as display areas and section dividers. Meg recognized the clerk as Birdie’s friend Kayla, the blonde who’d been behind the front desk at the inn the day of Meg’s humiliation.
Kayla’s sleeveless pink and gray camouflage-print dress definitely wasn’t resale. She wore it with stilettos and a set of tasseled black enamel bangles. Even though it was nearly closing time, her makeup was still flawless—eyeliner, contoured cheekbones, glossy mocha mouth, the personification of a Texas beauty queen. She didn’t pretend not to know who Meg was, and like everybody else in this stupid town, she had no regard for tact. “I hear Spencer Skipjack’s got a thing for you,” she said as she stepped away from the jewelry rack.
“I don’t have a thing for him.” A quick glance at the merchandise revealed boring preppy sportswear, pastel church suits, and grandma sweatshirts decorated with Halloween pumpkins and cartoon characters—all of it hard to reconcile with this stylish creature.
“That doesn’t mean you can’t be nice to him,” Kayla said.
“I am nice to him.”
Kayla planted a hand on her hip. “Do you have any idea how many jobs that golf resort will give people in this town? Or the new businesses that will spring up?”
Useless to mention the ecosystems it would also destroy. “Quite a few, I imagine.”
Kayla retrieved a belt that had fallen off a rack. “I know people around here haven’t exactly put out the welcome mat for you, but I’m sure everybody would appreciate it if you didn’t use that as an excuse to screw us over with Spencer Skipjack. Some things are more important than holding on to petty grudges.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” Just as Meg turned to leave, a display caught her eye—a gray menswear shirt with a matching bandeau top and short shorts with a paper-bag waist. The pieces were edgy updates of 1950s summer fashion, and she walked over to examine them more closely. When she found the label, she couldn’t believe what she saw. “This is Zac Posen.”
“I know.”
She blinked at the price tag. Forty dollars? For a three-piece Zac Posen? She didn’t have forty dollars to spare at the moment, not even with Ted’s tip, but still, an incredible bargain. Hanging nearby was an avant-garde dress with a beautifully constructed green and melon corset top, at least two thousand dollars new, but now priced at one hundred. The label bore her uncle’s name, Michel Savagar. She examined the other clothes on the rack and found a silky chartreuse tank dress printed with the elongated head of a Modigliani female, a startling origami jacket with steel gray pencil pants, and a black-and-white Miu Miu miniskirt. She pulled a girly fuchsia cardigan with crocheted roses off the rack, imagining it with a T-shirt, jeans, and Chuck Taylors.
“Nice pieces, aren’t they?” Kayla said.
“Very nice.” Meg put the sweater back and fingered a Narciso Rodriguez jacket.
Kayla regarded her almost slyly. “Most women don’t have the body to wear these clothes. You have to be really tall and thin.”
Thank you, Mom! Meg did a quick mental calculation, and ten minutes later, she walked out of the store with the Miu Miu mini and the Modigliani tank dress.
The next day was Sunday. Most of the employees grabbed a quick lunch in the caddy room or a corner of the kitchen, but she didn’t like either place. Instead, she headed toward the swimming pool with the peanut butter sandwich she’d made that morning. As she passed the dining patio, she spotted Spence, Sunny, and Ted seated at one of the umbrella-shaded tables. Sunny had her hand on Ted’s arm, and Ted seemed perfectly content to leave it there. He was doing all the talking as Spence listened intently. None of them noticed her.
The pool was crowded with families enjoying the long holiday weekend. Conscious of her lowly employee status, she found a spot in the grass around the corner from the snack shop and away from the members. As she sat cross-legged on the ground Haley appeared, carrying a drink cup printed with the green country-club logo. “I brought you a Coke.”
“Thanks.”
Haley freed her hair from the ponytail her job required and settled next to Meg. She’d unfastened all the buttons on her yellow employees’ polo, but it still pulled over her breasts. “Mr. Clements and his sons are playing at one o’clock. Dr Pepper and Bud Light.”
“I saw.” Meg checked tee times each morning in hopes of improving her tips by memorizing names, faces, and the members’ drink preferences. She hadn’t exactly received a warm welcome, but no one except Kayla’s father, Bruce, had mentioned getting rid of her, something she attributed to Spencer Skipjack’s interest rather than the quality of her service.
Haley gazed at the short pendant nestled inside the open collar of Meg’s detestable polo. “You have the best jewelry.”
“Thanks. I made it last night.” She’d assembled a small, quirky necklace from bits of the rescued costume jewelry: the mother-of-pearl face of a broken Hello Kitty watch, some tiny pink glass beads she’d taken off a lone earring, and a silver fish that looked as though it might have been part of a key chain. With a little glue and wire, she’d pulled together an interesting piece, perfect for the silky black cord she’d shortened.
“You’re so creative,” Haley said.
“I love jewelry. Buying it, making it, wearing it. When I travel, I find local artisans and watch them work. I’ve learned a lot.” She impulsively unclipped the cord. “Here. Enjoy.”
“You’re giving it to me?”
“Why not?” She fastened the pendant around Haley’s neck. Its funky charm helped downplay her overly made-up face.
“That’s so cool. Thanks.”
The gift unlocked some of Haley’s natural reticence, and while Meg ate, she talked about attending the county community college in the fall. “My mom wants me to go to U.T. instead. She’s being a real rag about it, but I’m not going.”
“I’m surprised you don’t want to head off to the big city,” Meg said.
“It’s not so bad here. Zoey and Kayla are always talking about how much they’d like to move to Austin or San Antonio, but they never do anything about it.” She took a sip of her Coke. “Everybody’s saying Mr. Skipjack’s obsessed with you.”
“He’s obsessed with my celebrity connections, and he’s really persistent. Just between us, I’ve been trying to get him to back off by telling him I’m in love with Ted.”
Haley’s big eyes grew even larger. “You’re in love with Ted?”
“God, no. I have more sense. That was the best I could come up with on short notice.”
Haley pulled at a tuft of grass by her ankle. Finally, she said, “Have you ever been in love?”
“I thought I was a couple of times, but I wasn’t. What about you?”
“For a while, I had this thing for this guy I graduated with. Kyle Bascom. He’s going to County Community next year, too.” She glanced up at the clock on the snack shop wall. “I have to get back to work. Thanks for the necklace.”
Meg finished her sandwich, grabbed an empty golf cart, and drove back to the fourteenth tee. By four o’clock, the course had begun to empty, leaving her with nothing to do except obsess over her failures.
That evening when she pulled the Rustmobile up to the church, she found an unfamiliar car parked by the steps. As she got out, Sunny Skipjack came around the corner from the graveyard. She’d traded in the marigold yellow number she’d been wearing at lunch for shorts, a white top, and a pair of cherry red sunglasses. “Doesn’t it bother you, living out here alone?” she asked.
Meg tilted her head toward the cemetery. “They’re fairly harmless. Although a couple of those black markers give me chills.”
Sunny came closer, moving with a sinuous rhythm that emphasized her round hips and full breasts. She wasn’t a woman who obsessed over not being a size zero, and Meg liked that about her. What she didn’t like was an aggressive attitude that signified she’d mow down anyone who had the audacity to oppose her.
“I wouldn’t object to a cold beer,” Sunny said. “I’ve spent the last two hours with my father and Ted. We’ve been trudging around the land Spence is considering buying.”
“No beer, but I have iced tea.”
Sunny wasn’t someone who’d settle for less than exactly what she wanted, and she declined. Since Meg was anxious to go for a swim, she decided to speed things along. “What can I do for you?” As if she didn’t know . . . Sunny was going to warn her away from Daddy.
Sunny waited a moment too long to reply. “The . . . dress code for the party tomorrow? I thought you’d know.”
It was a lame excuse. Meg took a seat on the step. “It’s Texas. The women tend to dress up.”
Sunny barely paid attention. “How did Jake Koranda’s daughter end up in a hick town like this?”
Meg had good reason to ridicule this hick town, but Sunny was merely being a snob. “I’m taking a break from L.A.”
“Quite a change,” Sunny said.
“Sometimes change is what we need. I guess it lets us look at our lives in a new way.” And hadn’t she turned into the wise philosopher?
“There’s nothing I’d want to change about my life.” Sunny slipped her bright red sunglasses to the top of her head, where the stems pushed the long layers of dark brown hair away from her face and highlighted her resemblance to Spence. They had the same strong nose, full lips, and air of entitlement. “I like things just the way they are. I sit on the board of my father’s company. I design products. It’s a great life.”
“Impressive.”
“I have a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering and an MBA,” she added, even though Meg hadn’t asked.
“Nice.” Meg thought of the degree she didn’t have in anything.
Sunny sat on the step above her. “You seem to have stirred up the town since you got here.”
“It’s a small town. Easy to stir up.”
Sunny rubbed a smudge from her ankle that she must have picked up during the land survey. “My father has quite a lot to say about you. He e
njoys younger women.”
She’d finally gotten to the point of today’s visit, and Meg couldn’t have been happier.
“They obviously enjoy him, too,” Sunny went on. “He’s successful, outgoing, and he likes to have a good time. He keeps talking about you, so I know you’ve caught his interest. I’m happy for you both.”
“You are?” Meg hadn’t expected this. She wanted an ally, not a matchmaker. She stalled for time by untying her sneakers. “I guess I’m surprised. Don’t you worry about . . . gold diggers? You might have heard that I’m broke.”
Sunny shrugged. “My father’s a big boy. He can take care of himself. The fact that you’re a challenge makes you even more intriguing to him.”
The last thing Meg wanted was to be intriguing. She slipped out of her sneakers, pulled off her socks, and said carefully, “I don’t really go for older men.”
“Maybe you should give one of them a try.” Sunny rose from the step and came down to Meg’s level. “I’m going to be straight with you. My father has been divorced from my mother for nearly ten years. He’s worked hard all his life, and he deserves to enjoy himself. So don’t worry about me getting in your way. I have no problem with the two of you having fun together. And who knows where it might lead? He’s never been stingy with the women he dates.”
“But . . .”
“I’ll see you tomorrow at the party.” Her business accomplished, she headed for her rental car.
As she drove off, Meg put the pieces together. Sunny had obviously heard about Meg’s professed interest in Ted, and she didn’t like it. She wanted to keep Meg occupied with her father so she’d have a clear field to stake out St. Sexy for herself. If she only knew the truth, she wouldn’t have wasted her time.
Meg had no trouble finding the Moorish mansion where Shelby and Warren Traveler lived. According to gossip, Kenny and Torie hadn’t been happy when their father had married a woman thirty years his junior who also happened to be Torie’s sorority sister. Even the birth of a half brother hadn’t appeased them, but eleven years had passed since then, Kenny and Torie were both married, and all seemed to be forgiven.