Страница 77 из 85
Wi
She grabbed the dish towel in disgust. She knew how much Sugar Beth had missed the Seawillows, and she should be happy that she’d brought them back together. But they were her friends, too, and Wi
Unless Sugar Beth left Parrish.
The possibility brought Wi
“. . . and remember when we were doing the moonwalk in Heidi’s living room and we broke her mother’s lamp?”
“. . . and when Amy’s dad caught us smoking?”
“What about that night we were out at the point and Ryan’s car wouldn’t start?”
“Remember how we all—”
“No, I don’t!” Wi
An awkward silence fell over the group. Meryli
“We never thought of it,” Leea
Meryli
“That’s right, I did.” Sugar Beth turned her attention to Wi
“Vote?”
Sugar Beth regarded her haughtily. “Do you want to be a Seawillow or not?”
Wi
No, they didn’t.
Wi
They bundled her off to the living room. Where she waited.
And waited.
The minutes ticked by. Finally, she got fed up and stormed back to the sunroom. “Do you mind telling me what’s taking so darned long?”
Meryli
That got Wi
Sugar Beth sniffed. “Touchy.”
“Always was,” Meryli
Leea
Wi
That was all it took to set off a big debate, because nobody could remember exactly how the initiation ceremony went, except they all agreed on one thing. They needed a photograph of George Michael.
“For what?” Wi
Leea
“That is so not going to happen.”
“You have to,” Meryli
“Except we don’t have a photo,” Heidi pointed out.
Amy reached inside her purse and pulled out her Bible. “I’ve got an idea.”
“We are not using a picture of Jesus!” Meryli
Amy looked disappointed but gracefully gave in to group pressure. The discussion continued, but went nowhere. Finally, Leea
Heidi studied the album. “It just doesn’t seem the same.”
Sugar Beth passed the album over to Wi
Wi
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of it. Apparently they had a secret handshake, but nobody could remember what it was. They also used to sit in a circle and pass around some kind of necklace, but it had been lost years before.
“I remember one thing for sure,” Meryli
“Gosh, I’ll have to think about it,” Wi
“She’s not displaying proper Seawillow spirit,” Heidi pointed out.
“She also has to tell a sex secret,” Leea
“Sex secret?” Wi
“Quite a few. Meryli
Wi
“Like who hasn’t?” Heidi said, unimpressed. “We need a better secret than that.”
Wi
“Uh-huh.”
“There wasn’t a conference in Miami. We took a hotel room in Memphis and spent the weekend playing sex slaves.”
It was a lie, but their reactions more than satisfied her.
“You slut!”
“Sex slaves?”
“Did you use handcuffs and everything?”
“Everything,” Wi
Sugar Beth wasn’t buying it, but she stayed loyal and kept her mouth shut, which made Wi
“She’s getting tears in her eyes,” Meryli
Wi
Sugar Beth returned the smile. “Even I can’t top an entire weekend playing sex slaves.”
Wi
“Not quite.” Sugar Beth lifted an eyebrow in calculation. “There’s one more thing . . .”
Amy shot up from her chair. “No. We are not doing that.”
“We have to,” Sugar Beth said, “or Wi
“Oh, God . . .” Meryli
Leea
“If we do, we can’t tell anybody,” Heidi said. “You know how my mother-in-law hates me. If she finds out, I’ll never hear the end of it.”
“Do what?” Wi
A few moments of silence fell over the group. They looked at one another. Finally, Amy spoke in a hushed voice. “We have to strip down naked and run around Frenchman’s Bride three times.”
Wi
Leea
Amy shook her head. “It’s true. Whenever anybody new came into the Seawillows—”
“Which thankfully wasn’t too often,” Meryli