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“—we’d wait for a night when Sugar Beth could talk Diddie into letting us have a sleepover.”
“Preferably during the summer so we could sleep outside on the veranda,” Heidi added.
“Once Diddie and Griffin fell asleep,” Amy went on, “we’d strip down, and all of us would run naked around the house.”
“I never heard a word about this,” Wi
“It was our best secret.”
“Our only secret,” Leea
“Even the guys don’t know.”
“It’s barely dark,” Wi
Sugar Beth gri
A debate over terms and conditions followed, but in the end, they only made one concession to maturity. They agreed they could keep their shoes on.
“I knew I should have thrown out these ratty panties,” Leea
“Somebody make sure all the lights are off.”
“I’m savin’ up for liposuction. I really am.”
“I liked it better when we hated Sugar Beth. Look at her legs.”
“Ohmygod, Wi
Naked and giggling, they clustered at the back door. “Y’all ready?” Meryli
“Ready!” they declared.
Sugar Beth grabbed the knob and threw it open. “Seawillows forever!” she cried.
And then they flew.
Ryan and Gigi’s impulsive late-night walk took them to the end of Mockingbird Lane. As they reached the drive that led to Frenchman’s Bride, they came to a dead stop at the exact same moment.
Gigi found her voice first. “Do you think they went crazy or something?”
“Sure does look like it.”
They didn’t say anything for a few moments, but Gigi finally grew so horrified she couldn’t stay quiet. “You shouldn’t watch.”
“Honey, I wouldn’t miss this for anything.”
High-pitched giggles drifted toward them, a curse, a shush. The women disappeared around the side of the house.
Gigi scowled. “If the kids at school find out about this, I’m not going back. I mean it.”
“We’ll leave town together.”
“Nothing like this ever happened before Sugar Beth came back.”
“If she stays, it’ll only get worse.”
“Still, I don’t want her to leave.”
He squeezed her shoulder. “Neither do I.”
Gigi sucked in her breath as the women reappeared from the other side of the house, this time with her own mother in the lead. “This is so embarrassing.”
“The sad thing is, I doubt they’ve had a drop of liquor.”
“I used to think Mom was perfect.”
“She can’t help it, honey. Southern women are born with the insanity gene.”
“Not me.”
He sighed. “Sooner or later, you’ll go the way of the rest.”
With a hissing noise, the automatic lawn sprinklers came on, and all of them began to shriek.
“I can’t look anymore.”
Ryan buried his daughter’s face in his chest and smiled. “In the morning, we’ll pretend it was all a bad dream.”
Sugar Beth shut off her alarm. It was Tuesday, the day she’d pla
She managed to pull herself out of bed—not an easy task these days—and get dressed before she headed for the bookstore.
“I thought you’d be packing now,” Jewel said as Sugar Beth handed over the blueberry danish she’d intended to eat but couldn’t quite stomach.
“A temporary change of plans. I’m hanging around a little longer.”
Jewel’s tiny face brightened. “For real?”
She nodded and filled her in on what had happened with Colin.
“He left? Just like that?”
“Just like that,” Sugar Beth replied, warmed by Jewel’s expression of outrage.
“What are you going to do now?”
“Keep trying to get hold of him.”
Jewel regarded her sympathetically. “From what you’ve said, that could take a while. He doesn’t seem to want to be found.”
“I’m calling his editor. Somebody has to know where he is.”
“You’d better come up with a more believable story than that Oprah thing you told me about.”
“I will.”
Colin’s editor answered on the second ring. “Neil Kirkpatrick.”
“Lady Francis Posh-Wicket here calling from London.”
“Who?”
“I’m the director of Her Majesty’s Royal Office of the Garter. Her Majesty has some rather exciting news for one of your authors. Sir Colin Byrne. Ah, but what a stupid cow I am. He’s not Sir Colin yet. Which is why I need to ring him up. But he doesn’t seem to be answering his bloody phone.”
“I’m afraid I don’t know where he is.”
“Bollocks, sir. Am I to believe you’ve lost one of your most important authors?”
“Excuse me?”
“Perhaps you would like to be the one to tell Her Majesty that Sir Colin has disappeared because I’m sure I don’t want to.”
“Who is this?”
“I must insist you locate Sir Colin im-me-jetly.”
“I don’t know who you are, but I have work to do here.”
“Not until you tell me where the hell he is, you wanker!”
There was a long pause. “Sugar Beth, is that you?”
This time she was the one who hung up.
“They’re all mad, every one of ’em,” said Rupert with conviction.
G
EORGETTE
H
EYER
,
Devil’s Cub
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Blazes of azalea and dogwood a
Two weeks after Colin had driven away, Ryan appeared at her door with the news that he’d finally called. “He’s rented a house—he didn’t mention where. He says he’s working round-the-clock to finish his book.”
“What about me? What did he say about me?”
Ryan made a business of examining his car keys. “I’m sorry, Sugar Beth. He said he didn’t want to talk to you yet—maybe when his book is done. And he said to stop harassing his publisher. Oh . . . he asked about Gordon.”
Bloody wanker.
He was manipulating her! A flood of righteous indignation drove away the tears that were so close to the surface these days. She pushed past Ryan, headed for the Lakehouse, and spent the evening dancing with Cubby Bowmar.
Her anger carried her through the next two weeks. And then Reflections hit the stores . . .
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Jewel crowed. “The book hasn’t been out a full week, and I’ve already sold three hundred copies.”
“Hoo-ray,” Sugar Beth said glumly.
Sue Covner regarded Sugar Beth smugly from behind Jewel’s shoulder. “Look on the bright side, Valentine, honey. Not everybody gets to be immortalized in great literature.”
Marge Dailey poked her head out from the inspirationals. “I think you’re holdin’ up pretty well. If it was me, I swear I’d move to Mexico. Although I suppose that’s not really far enough away, still bein’ in North America and all.”
The whole town was laughing its collective ass off.
The book immediately shot to the top of the New York Times best-seller list, and a reporter from USA Today showed up. Although stories about Colin’s mysterious disappearance had begun to appear in the press, the reporter was more interested in searching out the real-life characters from Reflections. The diabolical Valentine was at the top of his Most Wanted list.