“Two is enough.” Wendy spared Lola that mellow, no-worries smile. “Thank you for helping with my play.”
“My pleasure.” And it was. She needed to spend more time with kids like Becky, who didn’t care where she was from or what she did for a living. Lola tried to catch the eye of one of the last of Wendy’s disappointed customers but the man’s glance flicked to her cupcakes, and he spun away.
Wendy accepted someone else’s regrets. Rather than feeling sorry, she actually seemed to be happy about it.
Lola was beginning to wonder whether Wendy planned to run out so she could receive accolades.
“Dat’s a letty neckface,” Avery said around a mouthful of cupcake. “I used to hap one dust mike it.”
Lola took a moment to translate frosting-mouth into English, and even then she couldn’t quite believe it. “You used to have a necklace like this one?”
Avery nodded.
The room turned cold. So cold Lola’s lips froze shut, her neck hardened in place, and the cogs in her brain ground to a halt.
Avery was Randy’s mistress?
No. But it was a weak no.
“Waler?” Avery asked.
With effort, Lola pried her lips apart. “Water? Mims is selling it on the stage.” Lola glanced down at the pendant, trying to think clearly as Avery hurried off.
Avery. It’s Avery.
No.
Just because Avery had once owned a necklace like this one didn’t mean she was Randy’s mistress. Avery didn’t wear delicate floral perfume. And she’d dated at least six men in town or in Greeley in the two years since Lola had moved here. Avery didn’t need Randy.
Needing is different than wanting.
Plus she’d encouraged Lola to drop her search for Randy’s mistress.
Avery. Avery. Avery.
Lola didn’t want Randy’s lover to be her best friend. She shivered, still cold as ice.
The attractive man who’d bought Avery at the Widows Club auction approached her in the water line and said something.
Brows drawing down, Avery held her hand over her mouth and said something back.
“Did you chill the coconut milk?” Bitsy was too classy to declare her disappointment in Lola but it was there in her repeated questioning of Lola’s methods.
“I didn’t have time to chill anything. I had to stay through the entire viewing.” Lola tried to discreetly see whether the chocolate still covered Bitsy’s teeth, but Bitsy’s lips were closed.
Across the gym, the man with Avery gave her a strained smile. He didn’t look like he was dead set on trashing Avery’s life. He looked like an ex-boyfriend trying to get back in his woman’s good graces. And Avery didn’t look like a home-wrecker. She looked like an annoyed, thirsty woman.
But Lola had been deceived by looks before. Most notably, Randy’s.
A man in a brown-and-tan uniform entered the gym and was immediately swallowed up by the crowd.
Drew.
He was back. He’d know what to do. He’d tell Lola to stick to the facts, which leaned toward Avery’s innocence. He’d ask whether Avery had been with Lola on those nights when Randy attended spin class or played basketball in Greeley. (She often had been.) He’d get her through this just by standing near.
But the man in tan wasn’t the sheriff. It was his deputy Gary, a man so young he wasn’t old enough to drink beer at Shaw’s. In his first week on the job, he’d set up a speed trap just outside city limits and ticketed the mayor. A few weeks ago, he’d tried to arrest one of the Bodine twins for texting during a movie. His was not a stabilizing presence, but it was a popular one. People slapped him on the back as if he was a hometown hero.
“You didn’t refrigerate the cream cheese or the butter for hours?” Bitsy’s gaze had sharpened. “Not even when you got home?”
Hadn’t she tried to tell Bitsy she wasn’t good in the kitchen? Not that it mattered. Her continued questioning had thawed Lola out from top to bottom. It wasn’t Avery. It couldn’t be.
“Lola?” Bitsy asked.
“No fridge. Sorry.” Every time Lola had thought about getting the keys to the office, where the refrigerator was located, something at the viewing had required her attention. “By the time I got home, I had to start baking.” And then what good was refrigeration? There was a point of diminishing returns in the kitchen, wasn’t there? A place where the damage was done. Like now with Bitsy’s food-covered tooth. If Lola didn’t say anything, Bitsy would know she could have said something but didn’t. The time to point out this embarrassment was now. “Really, I’m sorry, but you have—”
“We should leave.” Avery stomped back with two bottles of water, handing one to Lola. “Frank is trying to talk me out of passing out flyers. Can you believe he thinks tearing down town history and destroying jobs, even temporarily, is a good thing?”
Avery stared at Lola. At the necklace.
Avery. Avery. Avery.
Lola teetered on her heels. She shouldn’t have skipped dinner. She shouldn’t have ventured out of the realm of the retirement home and the mortuary. She shouldn’t have agreed to bake. She didn’t fit in. And if Avery was Randy’s mistress, she’d have no friends in Sunshine. Not now. Not ever.
Not Avery.
But the truth hung in the air like too much hair spray. Lola teetered on her heels once more. Where was her fight? Where was her anger? Her gaze swept the floor, looking for a soft spot to land if she passed out.
Avery drew a slow breath. “Where did you get that necklace? My grandmother gave me one just like it.” Avery glared at Frank, her auction date, who was approaching. “It was engraved on the back, but I lost it in high school.”
The hair stood up on the back of Lola’s neck. “What did it say?”
“Dream big.”
Avery. It was Avery.
The air rushed out of Lola’s lungs. She leaned on the table, trying to tell herself it didn’t mean anything. There were other necklaces out there. Ricky had said as much at the thrift store.
“Dream big. That’s what my grandmother always told me.” Avery speared her fingers through her hair. “My dad wants to sell the theater to Frank instead of me. Can you believe it? It’s hard to keep dreaming when reality keeps body-slamming me.”
Lola could relate. “This is yours. I found it in Randy’s love shack.” She fumbled with the pendant and turned it around to show Avery the engraving. “Dream big. It was you. Randy’s lover. All this time.”
Color flared high in Avery’s cheeks. “Lola…”
Lola couldn’t look at Avery. She couldn’t not look at Avery. Her gaze bounced on her and away. “I thought you were my friend. I thought…but you…”
“Don’t say it,” Avery warned, not even trying to deny it. She was staring at her auction date.
Betrayal wasn’t cold. It was as hot as a tighty-whitie blaze. “You were sleeping with my husband!” Lola shouted as loud as any cheerleader ever had in this gymnasium. And she’d been so certain Randy’s lover had been a blond. “You knew about blow-up dolls.”
A crowd began to form.
“I’m not having this conversation here.” Avery thrust out her hand. “Give me my necklace back.”
“No.” Swaying, Lola held her ground. She’d picked the wrong occasion to wear super-high heels. “First, tell me. Did he love—”
“Give it to me.” Lola’s soon-to-be former best friend lunged for the necklace.
Lola stumbled back. Her slender heel gave way, and she reached for the table for balance. Her hand squashed several cupcakes and tipped over the tiered tray but she stayed upright. “You can have it when I have my grandmother’s ring back.”
“I don’t have your ring.” Avery latched on to the pendant. She yanked on the chain, sawing it into the back of Lola’s neck.
Gasping, Lola clasped her hands around Avery’s. She’d been unable to hold on to her husband. She wasn’t going to lose her hold on the necklace.
Her hand was coated in melting
coconut icing. It dripped to the floor between them. They slipped and slid and lost their footing. The clasp gave way, and the necklace flew into the air. The momentum carried them in the other direction—on top of the red-velvet chocolate snowballs. The folding table collapsed beneath them, and they crashed to the floor.
For a moment, Lola heard nothing but the rasp of her own breathing. And then people started to laugh.
Coconut gloop was everywhere. In their hair. Up the back of Lola’s dress. There was a stripe of frosting war paint on Avery’s face.
“Back it up! Back it up!” Deputy Gary swaggered onto the scene, smiling at the gathered crowd as if they were going to be happy with the upcoming show. His gaze lit on Lola and Avery. “Put your hands in the air.”
Lola complied. Avery did not.
Unflustered by the melee, Bitsy was using her tablecloth like a mop, trying to clear a safe path to Lola and Avery. She glanced up at Gary. “Is that necessary?”
“I’m sure this is all a misunderstanding.” Wendy handed Lola a small flowery napkin when what she really needed was a large towel. Maybe two.
The young deputy snorted. “Both of you put your hands up and come with me.”
“Gary,” Mims said in a commanding voice that made the deputy waver, “we’ve never had anyone arrested at one of our functions, and we aren’t going to start now.”
Avery got to her feet, slipping by increments but staying upright. She glared at Gary. “If you arrest me, I’m going to tell your mother what you and Sheree did at the midnight showing of Dirty Harry last summer.”
It must have been bad, because the young deputy faced Lola. “Ms. Williams, I’m taking you in.”
“No thanks.” Lola got to her knees and picked up the necklace. There was cupcake mush on her tights, on her dress, and in her pumps.
Bitsy had barely wiped the floor clean when Edith appeared. She held her pantsuit hems high and waded to Lola’s side to help her stand. “So, Avery’s your Jezebel.”
Lola couldn’t bring herself to say yes. Through the lingering audience, she spotted Avery’s cake-stained, retreating back. Her betrayal hurt almost as much as the day she’d found the box of condoms. But there was nothing to purge, nothing to burn.
“That’s the way it always is.” Edith led her to dry ground near Gary. “Best friends have the sharpest knife and the deadliest aim.”
“Oh, please.” Mims gestured for Lola to come toward her, away from the deputy.
“Not so fast.” Gary grabbed onto Lola’s arm. “I said, you’re coming with me.”
Chapter Fifteen
Gary, we need to talk.” Drew was so close to firing his cousin that he could already hear the lecture his mother would give him when he picked up Becky later.
“Before you start on me, you need to know that Lola was disturbing the peace.” Gary rocked back in his desk chair. “And she might have thought about resisting arrest.”
“Gary, you’re family.” And his mother had encouraged Drew to hire him despite Gary’s low rank in the academy and the fact that he still had acne. “But this isn’t the big city. When you arrest people in Sunshine, it’s like dropping a boulder in a fishing pond. People get upset. And not just the people you arrest. I’ve already had a call from the mayor, Mims, and your mother.” Not to mention Flo had given him an earful about how power was corrupting Gary.
“I know one way to keep the peace, Drew. One way.” Gary laced his fingers over his chest and continued rocking as if it were Sunday and he were sitting on his front porch. “Uphold the law and show no favoritism.”
“So it wasn’t favoritism when you let Avery walk?” Drew had the strongest urge to strip Gary of his badge, his weapon, and his duty belt. Instead, he planted his hands on Gary’s desk and leaned forward. “You better find another way to keep the peace, or you’re going to have to find another job.” Family or not. “Your mother gave me her blessing to fire you. I guess she still holds a grudge from the safety citation you gave her last month.” The one for a burned-out taillight.
Gary had paled at the mention of Avery’s name but he went white when he heard about his mother’s blessing.
“Lucky you, I believe in second chances.” Or maybe fifth chances. Drew had lost count.
Gary gave a small, almost imperceptible nod.
Still fuming, Drew grabbed the jail-cell key ring off its hook and made his way back to Lola. From what he’d heard, Lola didn’t deserve to be locked up. If he’d been there, he would’ve given both parties a chance to tell their sides and then given both women a warning.
Drew stopped when he reached her jail cell. Lola’s legs were propped against the back wall. She still wore black tights and the zebra dress. Her black pumps were on the floor next to the bench. She had frosting in her brown hair and chocolate smudges on her cheek, and she wouldn’t meet his gaze. She was deep in Woe-Is-Me mode. A little levity was called for, but Drew needed another minute to swallow back his anger at Gary.
Like last time, Lola’s feet moved over the wall in intricate dance steps to a rhythm only she could hear. If it’d been Wendy in the cell, she’d have been sitting primly, staring at the wall in quiet contemplation. Not that Wendy would ever find herself in his jail cell. And that was what he liked about her.
“Congratulations.” He blew out a breath. “There aren’t many people who’ve been in my jail two times in the span of a week.”
“There’s an honor I didn’t aspire to.” Lola’s feet kept moving.
Drew opened the cell door, thinking her feet might stop when he did so.
She kept dancing. That was the thing about Lola. She was never predictable. The only thing you could count on her doing was the unexpected, which was why she was on his Watch-Over list. Who knew she’d need watching over at a bake sale?
For two years, he’d thought he knew Lola. He’d thought she was a polite, too-proud woman who didn’t care if she never fit in in Sunshine. He hadn’t realized until this week—until this moment—that she was more than polite. She was caring. He’d seen it at the mortuary and the Saddle Horn. Pearl liked her, and Pearl didn’t like anyone.
Lola didn’t keep her head up because she thought she was above people here. She kept her head up because of the way people in Sunshine treated her. She deserved better from Sunshine. She deserved better from him.
Drew moved to stand next to Lola, which made it impossible to look at her long legs without getting caught. “You can go home now.”
“I’m not cooled down.” She sniffed and swiped a hand at her nose, which was possibly the cleanest feature on her face. “My best friend…”
“It can’t be Avery.”
“It was her necklace in Randy’s box.” Her words spilled out too quickly. But those feet…those feet kept moving slowly. “She tried to take it back.”
“If Avery was the other woman, at least now you know who all those things belonged to. You can move on.”
“No husband. No best friend. No pearl ring.” Her feet stilled. “I’m at a dead end.”
He’d been staring at her legs again. Drew took a step back. “Time to end this sad song. You’ve got a lot going for you. You’re employed. You own property.” He moved toward the door, keeping his gaze on the keys in his hand. “You should go home, shower, order a pizza, and count your blessings.” Drew silently cursed Gary because, from this point on, every time he looked at the jail cell, he’d see Lola’s dancing feet. Once, he could forget. Twice, and it was imprinted on his memory. “Besides, you could still be wrong. I’ve never seen Avery with a married man.” He looked at her.
“That must be Avery’s secret talent.” Lola’s feet slowed even more, and she glanced up at him with watery blue eyes. “Everyone has a secret talent. At least that’s what my grandmother used to say.”
“And Avery’s talent would be…”
“Invisibility. You didn’t see her with Randy, and I didn’t see this coming.” Lola pressed the backs of her hands over her eyes.
&nb
sp; Drew wanted to ask Lola what her secret talent was and what she thought his might be, but therein lay danger. Of what sort, he wasn’t sure. “Come on. I’ll get you a towel and a ride home.”
“You mean…” Lola sat up. “Avery didn’t…?”
“She didn’t press charges.” And Gary didn’t have enough to book Lola on. “Ms. Everly will be happy tomorrow when you deflate those dolls.” Ramona Everly’s secret talent was disapproval. Although that wasn’t so secret.
“I guess.” Lola sighed, still not making her way to the door. “What happened to Marvin?”
“Who?” He’d been pondering secret powers again.
“Marvin.” She gestured toward the end of the bench. “The rooster.”
“Oh, Marvin. He made bail and relocated outside city limits.” Tom Bodine had taken him to his ranch.
If Lola relocated, she could put whatever she wanted in her front window, and Drew wouldn’t worry about her. What with Jane coming and spring thaw in full swing, he could use a break.
Lola stood, shedding a fine layer of cake crumbs. “I don’t suppose you have a hose.”
“Not even ones for riots.” Drew fought a smile. Lola was more resilient than his sisters. Or maybe more accustomed to adversity. “No shower either.”
“If I’m free to go, I’ll just walk home.”
“I could call for pizza,” Drew said, thinking she shouldn’t be alone, belatedly realizing she shouldn’t be alone with him. “I mean, it’d be there when you get home.”
She bent to pick up her heels without so much as a wide-eyed blink of surprise, as if Drew offered to feed her every day. “I think I’ll just raid my chocolate stash.” Her first few steps were stiffer than a professional football player on Monday morning.
Drew could almost hear her joints creaking. “Heard you and Avery took out a table, just like professional wrestlers.”
“Not on purpose.” Lola had her back to Drew but it sounded as if she was smiling.
Suddenly, Drew couldn’t resist asking, “What’s your secret talent?”
Her steps slowed. “Nana would say I love too deeply.” There was a melancholy quality to her words that reached out to Drew and squeezed his heart. “My mom would say it’s my naivete, which isn’t really a talent.”
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