around with a watery gaze. In a town the size of Clifton Creek, everyone knew everyone. They might never have spoken, but Crystal had seen pictures in the paper, or passed them in a store, or stood behind them in line at the bank. Strangers were people with out-of-state license plates, the women before her were home folks.
'Shelby's been in an accident!' Crystal said to no one in particular. She ran a thumb beneath the stretchy material of her watermelon-colored body suit that fit her curves like a second skin and tried to pull the garment lower over her hips. 'He may be dead already, and they're not telling me. I've a right to know. I'm his wife.'
'We understand.' A tall, silver-haired woman's low voice seemed to fill every inch of the room. 'Our husbands were also in the accident. We're all waiting to hear something from the doctors.'
'Only one survived,' added a woman a few years older than Crystal. 'I'm Meredith Allen, Kevin's wife, and this is Helena Whitworth. J. D. Whitworth and my Kevin were at the oil rig when it exploded.'
When Crystal just stared the woman continued, 'Helen's husband, J.D. planned to invest in the rig. For some reason, my Kevin went along for the ride this morning.'
Crystal looked down at Meredith's offered hand. People in Clifton Creek were never friendly to her when Shelby wasn't around. She knew what they said about her, marrying a man thirty years her senior. She'd been a waitress with nothing to her name, and he was a rich engineer, newly widowed. No one would believe they married for love even if Shelby had been willing to shout it from the courthouse roof.
Crystal took the hand. Meredith Allen did not look like the type to listen to gossip, much less spread it. She probably hadn't heard any of the colorful stories about her and Shelby. Crystal found it hard to imagine this woman walking into Frankie's Bar, wearing an ABC sweater, and sitting down to have a drink.
'I'm Mrs. Shelby Howard,' Crystal said, daring anyone to comment. She'd been married five years, had her hair bleached blonde at a fancy salon and bought her clothes in Dallas. She had endured three surgeries to mold her body to perfection, but she still felt like street trash. She was prepared to fight every time she met someone new.
'I know your husband.' The silver-haired lady stepped forward. 'Though he was a few years younger, I went to school with him. He's friends with my husband, J.D. I'm Helena Whitworth.'
Crystal tried to pull her jersey jacket closed across her workout clothes. She suddenly wished she'd had time to change. The gym fashion didn't belong here. She swiped a palm across her cheek and stared at the makeup on her hand. Not only was she dressed improperly, if she didn't stop crying she would be without makeup. Shelby was sure to yell at her.
A third woman, Crystal hadn't noticed before, moved away from the shadows. She was tall, but then everyone towered over her five-foot-two-inch frame.
The woman pulled a cloth handkerchief trimmed in lace from the velvet folds of what looked to be an English- style riding jacket. She held the linen square out to Crystal.
Refusing the offer, Crystal added, 'Oh, no. I couldn't.'
The woman didn't lower the handkerchief. When Crystal met her gaze, she was struck by the natural beauty before her. Huge dark eyes. Long black hair. Breeding that came with generations of old money.
Crystal took the handkerchief and stood up straighter, wishing she had her four-inch heels. 'You're not from around here, are you?' The question was out before she knew she'd spoken, but no one looking like this woman ever grew up in Clifton Creek. She reminded Crystal of a picture of Snow White she had seen in an old children's book.
'I-I am Anna,' the woman said in a way that made the words sound foreign. 'I-I am the wife of D-Davis Montano. The oil rig was being built on our land. I-I have been told Davis was there when the accident happened.' Her words stumbled over each other. 'A-a nurse said they found his wallet in the pile of burned clothes collected from the emergency room floor.'
Crystal nodded, trying not to say anything else to the foreigner. Everyone in the county knew Davis went all the way to Italy for a wife, but few people had ever seen her. Several of the single girls around town were upset when he married. Davis raised racehorses on the good pasture land he inherited. He had traveled to Europe for a new bloodline and had come back with a stallion and a woman.
Wiping her face with the linen of Anna Montano's handkerchief, Crystal decided she might be little better than white trash, but at least she was from around here. Pretty Snow White Anna wouldn't belong here if she lived to be a hundred. In fact, when she died and was buried in the Montano plot, she'd still be the foreign wife Davis had brought home.
Pacing to the door, Crystal crossed her arms over her ample chest. 'My Shelby's still alive. Isn't he? They didn't tell me he was dead. They just said to come to the hospital. They wouldn't have said that unless he was still alive.' She looked at the older woman she'd seen in the paper a hundred times. Shelby had always pointed her out and called her 'one fine lady.'
'Isn't he, Mrs. Whitworth? My Shelby's still alive? Don't you figure?'
Helena visibly softened, as if responding to a child. 'We don't know. All we've found out so far is there were five men on the rig when it exploded. Four are dead. One is badly burned, and I don't think his chances are good.'
Crystal looked around. 'You mean all of us are widows except one?'
'That's right, baby doll,' came a husky voice from the doorway as a fifth woman entered the room.
Randi Howard closed the door to the tiny room and leaned against it with all the drama of a breathless heroine in a B movie. 'The newspaper and a TV station from Wichita Falls were pulling in when I parked. They say it's hailing between here and the city, but those folks are like roaches, they can live through anything.'
When no one commented, she continued, 'There's also more cowhands and oil field workers than I could count hanging around in the lobby. It's busier than Frankie's Bar on payday. I had to fight my way through, then convince some nitwit girl dressed like a peppermint that I'd been told to show up here.' She brushed raindrops from her westerncut jacket. 'We're in for one hell of a storm, gals. This hospital is probably a good place to wait it out.'
She scanned her audience of four and shrugged off any acting she might have planned. 'I guess folks dying in this county from anything other than old age is big news.'
'What are you doing here, Randi?' Crystal's tone held an edge that was not entirely unfriendly. 'I thought you were working the day shift now.'
'Didn't anyone tell you? My Jimmy was with your Shelby on the rig.' Randi twisted her dyed, gypsy-red hair into a braid.
Crystal frowned. 'I should've guessed he'd be there. He's always shadowed his uncle Shelby. Jimmy knows more about Howard Drilling than either of Shelby's kids. If there were problems on the rig, Shelby would have wanted Jimmy right there with him, learning all he could.' She glanced at the others. 'Shelby says Jimmy's been at his side since he was a boy.'
Randi nodded and took a seat, propping her red Roper hoots on an empty chair. She pulled out a pack of Marlboros, looked around and reconsidered. So, she thought, these are the newly widowed. An old woman, a foreigner, a Pollyanna who had to be a schoolteacher and darling Crystal who was almost thirty and her husband still called her baby doll.
In truth, she envied Crystal more than disliked her. They had been friends in their single days, sharing everything including boyfriends. The bubbly bleached blonde snagged the rich old Howard while Randi only caught the poor nephew. Oh, old man Shelby always made sure Jimmy was paid well, but Shelby's kids treated her and Jimmy worse than hired help. Which, she had to admit, was better than the way they treated their daddy's second wife, Crystal.
Randi looked directly at Crystal, catching only a glimpse of the girl she had once thought of as a sister. 'I might as well tell you, you'll find out soon enough in this town. I was packing to leave Jimmy when the sheriff stopped by our trailer. I quit my job and sold everything I couldn't fit in the back of my Jeep. I've got to get out of here while I can still breathe. I was meant for something more than singing a few songs once a week during talent night. There's a whole world out there that thinks of more than oil and cows. There's got to be. What was it we used to say, `so many men, so little time'?'
Crystal smiled with lips a little fuller than they used to be. 'I thought it was so many margaritas, so little
