If I—if anyone—had only listened.
A hand touched my shoulder, and I turned, opening my eyes to see my mother’s face, the sadness in her eyes reflecting mine.
“Come, Andrea,” she said softly. “Beth has made arrangements for Kendall. You have to let go.”
I saw Dr. Taylor approaching the stage with a bespectacled man, and I knew that they would take Kendall somewhere she’d be safe, where she could heal her mind and soul. I only hoped the courts would let her seek the treatment she needed instead of punishing her. I think she’d punished herself enough.
“Sweetie?”
Cissy reached for my hand, and I held on.
“Yes,” I said and leaned on her. “Please, take me home.”
Epilogue
Two Weeks Later
“You sure Cissy actually included me in this invitation?”
“Yeah, sure,” I lied and brushed invisible lint off the shoulder of Brian’s crisp button-down shirt. We stood between the terra cotta lions that guarded Mother’s door, putting off ringing the bell for a minute. “Besides,” I said and caught my thumbs beneath his collar, looking spot-on at him, “I told her I wouldn’t come to dinner tonight without you.”
He swallowed. “So you forced her to invite me? Is that it?”
I shrugged. “It was either that or risk her hooking me up with some rich cattle rancher’s unmarried son who probably suffers from halitosis as well as serious issues with commitment.”
“Wow,” he said, adding dryly, “You sure know how to make a guy feel special, Andy.”
“You are.” I smiled and went up on my tiptoes to plant a soft kiss on his lips. “Special, I mean.”
Malone had gone out of his way to help Kendall, arranging for that colleague of his, Allie whatever her name was, to work with him on a deal with the D.A.’s office so that Kendall wouldn’t have to go through a trial. What she needed was psychiatric help, years of it, and Brian assured me he was doing everything in his power—and the power of Abramawitz, Reynolds, Goldberg, and Hunt—to get the job done.
Somehow, I believed he would.
“Who else did you say was coming?” he asked, his eyes so blue behind the preppy glasses. “Anyone I know?”
“Renata Taylor,” I told him.
“Marilee’s daughter? The one who ended up getting everything?”
“Yes, that one. And a friend of hers, Carson Caruthers. He was the food editor for The Sweet Life. They’re actually working on a new show for Twinkle Productions called The Bald Chef. I think it has ‘hit’ written all over it.”
They’d asked me to design a Web site, but I’d declined. I aimed to stick to nonprofits from now on. So much less drama. And never a murder as yet.
“Oh, and Dr. Taylor and her husband.”
“The couple in the newspaper article?”
“Yes.” I sighed. “But don’t bring it up, okay? I don’t know how they feel, but Mother was hugely embarrassed about it.”
“Understandably,” Brian murmured.
Unfortunately, he’d seen the copy of Kevin Snodgrass’s piece, as had the rest of Dallas and the world, since MSNBC picked up on it and posted it on their Web site, basically to poke fun at it. But it had made Beth and Richard Taylor local celebrities. They’d been on every morning talk show in the Metroplex.
Isn’t it ironic, don’t you think?
“Ready?”
He nodded.
“Brace yourself.” I pressed a finger to the doorbell.
Malone shifted behind me, listening to the muted chimes before the door groaned open, revealing Mother in all her glory. This time, in pink Chanel and gray pearls.
“Darling,” she said, and I stepped up for her air kisses. She turned to Brian. “Mr. Malone, what a surprise. I wish I’d known you were coming.” Her eyes narrowed on me. “I’ll tell Sandy to set an extra place.”
“But Andy said . . .”—he swallowed and looked at me frantically, as in “what have you done?”
“Hey, Mother”—I took Brian’s hand and twined his fingers in mine—“guess who’s coming to dinner?”
As we slipped inside past her, I heard her murmur, “Obviously, it’s not Sidney Poitier.”
About the Author
SUSAN McBRIDE is the author of The Truth About Love & Lightning, Little Black Dress, and The Cougar Club, all Target Recommended Reads. She also penned the award-winning Debutante Dropout Mysteries, including Blue Blood and Too Pretty to Die. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri, with her husband and daughter.
Visit Susan's website at www.SusanMcBride.com for more info.
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Books by Susan McBride
THE TRUTH ABOUT LOVE AND LIGHTNING
LITTLE BLACK DRESS
THE COUGAR CLUB
TOO PRETTY TO DIE
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEB
THE LONE STAR LONELY HEARTS CLUB
THE GOOD GIRL’S GUIDE TO MURDER
BLUE BLOOD
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
THE GOOD GIRL’S GUIDE TO MURDER. Copyright © 2005 by Susan McBride. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, wh
ether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition DECEMBER 2013 ISBN: 9780062326010
Print Edition ISBN: 978-0-06-232602-7
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The Good Girl's Guide to Murder: A Debutante Dropout Mystery Page 28
