Ain’t She Sweet?

“I’m on sabbatical.”

“That’s what they all say right before the closet door bangs them in the ass.”

“Go home, Sugar Beth. You’ve already shown them what you’re made of. You don’t have anything left to prove.”

“Now why would I leave a party just when it’s getting fun?”

“Because this particular party is ripping your heart out.”

“You couldn’t be more wrong, bucko. I’ve buried two parents and a pair of husbands. This isn’t bothering me at all.” She pushed past him and headed for the door. This time he didn’t try to stop her.

Colin hadn’t thought things could get worse, but he was wrong. Sugar Beth refused to back down. With the mask of polite detachment fixed on her face, she continued fetching drinks and passing hors d’oeuvre trays. When he couldn’t stand watching her any longer, he grabbed the last tray away from her and earned a syrupy smile and a laser-hot put-down for his efforts.

As she’d stood in his closet, her white bra stained with wine, even his desire for her couldn’t mask his self- disgust. He began moving around the room, trying to concentrate on his duties as a host. Everyone here had helped him with Reflections in one way or the other-the librarians, the historians. Winnie had critiqued his manuscript when he’d needed a fresh perspective. Jewel and Aaron Leary had given him entree to the town’s African American population and made him understand the mind-set of its older members. The Seawillows had helped him sort out fact from gossip.

Colin saw Winnie standing next to one of the small tables that had been set up in the sunroom. She was gazing out into the darkness beyond the windows. On the other side of the peninsula that divided off the kitchen, Sugar Beth and the caterer were adding the final touches to the serving platters. Ryan and the Seawillows had drifted into the sunroom, along with a few of the other guests, but Winnie had separated herself from all of them. She looked small in comparison to Sugar Beth, but not as defenseless.

“A memorable party,” she said as Colin approached her.

He made a futile attempt to distance himself from the cruelty he’d set in motion. “I planned it before she came back to Parrish.”

“I know.”

Unlike so many other women, Winnie wasn’t afraid of conversational lulls, but tonight her silence made him edgy, and he was the one who finally broke it. “Merylinn shouldn’t have dumped the wine on her.”

“You’re right. But I loved it, Colin. I’d be lying if I pretended I didn’t enjoy every drop.”

He understood, and he only felt angrier with himself.

His editor had drifted into the sunroom. The goodwill of a publishing house wasn’t to be taken lightly, even by one of its mega authors, and Colin should go over and talk with him. Instead, he watched Sugar Beth carry a salad bowl toward the dining room. “It happened such a long time ago,” he said. “When it comes right down to it, we were all kids. Do you ever think about just letting it go?”

He knew he’d botched it even before he heard her quiet intake of breath.

“She’s getting to you, isn’t she? Just like she gets to every other man who flies too close to her web.”

“Of course not.”

Her look of betrayal said she didn’t believe him. He didn’t believe it himself. He remembered the rush of heat he’d felt as he’d buttoned the shirt Sugar Beth had taken from his closet.

“I always thought you were the one person who’d be immune,” she said.

“We all have a lot of rubbish in our pasts. Having her here has simply made me realize that, at some point, we need to step over the piles and get on with it.”

She fingered the diamond solitaire at her throat. “You think I haven’t gotten on with it?”

“I’m only talking about myself,” he said carefully.

“More power to you, then, if you’re ready to step over being accused of sexual assault. Me, I’m not that evolved.”

“Winnie…”

“She made my life a nightmare, Colin. Do you know I used to throw up before school, then stuff myself with junk food to try to feel better? She never passed up a chance to humiliate me. In junior high I plotted which hallways to walk down so I wouldn’t run into her. All she had to do was look at me, and I’d start tripping over my feet. If one of the other girls showed any signs of seeking me out, she’d zero right in on her and tell her only losers hung out with Winnie Davis. She was vicious, Colin, and that kind of viciousness doesn’t go away. It’s part of a person’s character. So if you think she’s changed, then I feel sorry for you. Now, excuse me. I haven’t had a chance to speak with Charise.”

He suppressed the urge to go after her. On Monday, he’d stop by her shop and smooth the waters. By then he’d have gotten over his urge to defend Sugar Beth. By then, he wouldn’t be tempted to point out that it couldn’t have been easy for her either, being forced to go to school with her father’s illegitimate child and having someone like Diddie as her role model. Maybe Sugar Beth had fought back in the only way she’d known how.

More of his guests drifted into the sunroom, drawn by the smell of food. The Seawillows cornered Neil, and he overheard them asking if he knew any good diet books, and was he personally acquainted with Reese Witherspoon? Sugar Beth came up to him, but he wasn’t fooled for a moment by her deference. “Excuse me for interrupting, Mr. Byrne, but dinner’s ready. Your guests can help themselves to the buffet.”

She’d emphasized her servitude by wrapping one of the caterer’s aprons around her waist, and he wanted to rip it off her, wanted to rip everything off and carry her back into his closet. “You’ve worked hard enough. Get a plate and join us.”

The Seawillows heard. Their heads circled like vultures. Winnie’s back stiffened, and Ryan headed for the bar. But the wintry bonfires that blazed in Sugar Beth’s eyes told him not to expect a thank-you note anytime soon. “Now aren’t you the dearest thing takin’ such good care of the hired help, but I’ve about stuffed myself already on those hors d’oeuvres. I swan, I couldn’t eat another bite.”

Dear God, he’d exhumed Diddie.

“Is there anything else you need?” she cooed, her eyes daring him to take this any further. “I’ll be more than happy to get it for you.”

She was dismissing him like one of her ex-husbands, and the Irish stubbornness he’d inherited from his father rose up to bite him. “You can get rid of that bloody apron and join us for dinner.”

The out-of-town guests who overheard looked puzzled, but the Seawillows understood, and hisses of displeasure came from their beaks. By tomorrow, his betrayal would be all over Parrish. Hell, sooner than that. Their fingers were itching to whip out their cell phones so they could be the first to pass the word that Colin Byrne had crossed over to the dark side.

Sugar Beth had the gall to pat his arm. “You got your medications mixed up again, didn’t you, bless your heart. We’ll call your shrink tomorrow and straighten it out.” She reached for Aaron Leary’s empty wineglass. “Let me take that, Mr. Mayor, so you have both hands free for the buffet.” And off she went, little drops of Colin’s blood trickling from her sparkly fangs.

Neil came up next to him. “The ongoing drama of life in a small Southern town. You should write a book.”

“Smashing idea.”

Neil gazed toward the dining room. “She’s just like you described her. Why didn’t you tell me she’d come back?”

“It’s been complicated.”

“Maybe we could get a trilogy out of the Parrish books after all.”

Colin had no trouble interpreting his hopeful expression. Last Whistle-stop had been the most successful book in Neil’s editorial career, and Reflections would do even better. Neal wanted a third book about Parrish instead of a lengthy generational novel about Irish and English families.

Neil balked as Colin began to steer him toward the buffet table in the dining room. “Not yet. The Seawillows just went in. They’re very scary women.”

“Imagine what they were like when Sugar Beth led them.”

“I don’t have to,” Neil said. “I’ve read Reflections.”

But no one else had, and once again, Colin found himself wondering how the citizens of Parrish were going to react to the second book about their town when so many of its featured players were still around. He gazed toward