“Yes, she does, and I’m incredibly lucky to have her. Margaret’s an amazing woman.”
“And she’s Maddie’s mother.”
His eyes clouded, just before he looked away. “Yes.”
“And you don’t feel guilty about that?”
Dark anger flared in his eyes when he looked dead into mine. “I have no reason, at all, to feel the tiniest bit guilty.”
I held his gaze, and he didn’t flinch. For a long, searing moment, I felt what seemed to be pent up rage. Then he looked away.
“What happened?” I could barely hear my own voice.
His gaze met mine again, but his expression was more guarded this time. “Didn’t she tell you?”
“Maddie rarely talks about what happened when her father died.” I put a little extra emphasis on the last two words, and I saw him flinch. He didn’t look away though.
“It was hard for me too,” he whispered, then turned and moved to the far end of the counter. He poked through papers and moved things around a moment before he finally looked my way. “You’ll have to ask her why she did what she did. I’ve tried to figure it out for ten years, and I keep coming up blank.”
I stood and put my cup on the counter. “I need to go. I’m meeting Maddie.”
“See you around.” He didn’t meet my gaze.
I headed out, more confused than before. And wondering what the heck I was going to do for the next two hours.
I wandered the streets for a while, getting a handle on the layout of the town. The thing is, the downtowns of most small Southern towns look alike. The same sort of buildings, the same narrow streets, the same sidewalks. But I had to admit, Ugly Creek had a different kind of feel to it, sort of a tingle. Or maybe the heat’s cooking my brain. Maybe I should find some cool before I fry something I need.
I saw the sign, and I just had to check it out. Who could resist a place called the Arcane Restaurant and Magical Supply Shop?
Instead of the normal bell announcing my arrival, the opening door greeted me with the sound of tinkling wind chimes.
“Welcome,” a male voice said, holding out his hand. “I’m Roy, I recognize you from the reunion. You’re a friend of Madison’s aren’t you?”
“I’m Stephie. Wow, you have a good memory.” And a nice, strong handshake.
“To be honest, I might not have remembered if you hadn’t been with Madison. She’s kinda the unofficial star of our shindig this year.”
“Because of her dad.” Emotion filled my throat, and I had to swallow. “So you know Maddie?”
“Kind of.” Roy looked at his shoes. “Back in high school, I didn’t exactly run in the same crowd she did.”
“Cheerleaders weren’t exactly the kind of kids I ran with either.”
He looked at me, and we shared a not-a-popular-kid bonding moment.
“We have some really great fried chicken today. And we have a special on incense, if you’d prefer to shop.”
And once again I was in a store I wasn’t planning on buying anything in. At this rate, I’ll probably be reincarnated as a cheerleader. “I’m actually just looking around town, sightseeing basically.”
“You aren’t the first Yankee to poke around our little town. You’re welcome to look around, and of course you must get your free Tarot reading from Connie.”
“Oh, I didn’t bring my nametag.” How’s that for a quick excuse?
“You don’t need that. I saw you there.” He took a couple of steps toward the counter in what was apparently the mystical supply section of the place. “Connie, got a minute?”
“Absolutely.” The young woman came toward us, her brilliant red hair brushing her shoulders as she walked.
“This is Stephie,” Roy said. “She’s a friend of a classmate of mine.”
Connie smiled at me. “So you’d like a Tarot reading.”
“I…I’m not sure.”
“Trust me, you’ll enjoy the experience.”
Oh, what the hell? I followed Connie, and I couldn’t help thinking she didn’t look anything like a psychic. Thin, pretty, wearing jeans and a light blue top, she looked more like a college student than an expert in the occult.
She sat me down at a small, round table, and took the seat across from me.
“I have to tell you, I don’t believe in this Tarot stuff.”
Connie spread a red velvet cloth on the table and laid a deck of cards in the middle of it. “Honestly, I didn’t believe in Tarot either until I started reading them.”
Maybe the sun really had cooked some of my brain cells. “Why would you start reading cards if you didn’t believe in their power, or whatever?”
The young woman’s gentle, tinkling laugh was relaxing. “I was a bit of a rebel back in high school,” she said. “Whatever would upset my parents appealed to me. I dressed in black clothes, dyed my hair a different color every week, bought pentacles and anything else that would freak them out. One day, I saw a gorgeous set of Tarot cards on the Internet and I bought them. It was supposed to be one more poke at my folks. Turned out, I was the one freaked by the things. The cards felt good under my fingers, like they were supposed to be mine. I did the spread like it said in the little booklet that came with them. And when I turned the cards over, I saw my life laid out before me. I’ve been working with Tarot ever since.”
“Are the cards ever wrong?”
“No. But my interpretation is sometimes.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“I’m going to shuffle until you tell me to stop.” She smiled as she worked. “The cards give us the information; it’s up to us to interpret it.”
“Now.”
She nodded, then spread out the cards, facedown, in an odd pattern. When she finished she turned over one card. “This is your past. The card is—”
“Don’t tell me the names of the cards and all that, please. I’d prefer to just hear the weird news straight.”
“Okay.” Instead of being insulted, like I was afraid of, she chuckled. Then she turned over more cards, and her smile vanished. “Your past shows pain and betrayal; also the leaving behind of something important.” She continued turning over cards. “Your present includes hard work, skill, and success.”
All right, the woman seemed to hitting the right notes, but she might have been reading my expression, or even just guessing. I’m not a believer, okay, Aunt Octavia notwithstanding.
The way Connie tipped her head to the side and frowned slightly had me wondering if she was trying to come up with something believable—or seeing something weird. Wait a minute, crap! “Is that the death card?”
“That’s the common name for it, but it usually doesn’t mean death. In fact, in this case it definitely means change.”
“Change?”
“Change, decisions, the ability to see hidden truths—and the potential for love.” She grinned. “You have a very interesting spread.”
“Um, thanks, I guess.” Decisions again?
“It’s good, I promise.”
Apparently the “spreading” was over, so I stood.
“I’m really interested in how things turn out. Do me a favor and let me know.” She handed me a business card.
“I’ll do that.” I turned to go.
“I’m serious,” she said. “Your life is about to change.”
“Hopefully for the better.”
“That’s up to you,” she said, then turned her attention to picking up her cards.
As I headed out to meet Maddie, my head spun with the weird psychic stuff. First Octavia, now Connie. I was looking forward to hearing how the brunch went. How weird was that?
Maybe after lunch I could talk Maddie into going back to her mom’s and relaxing for a while. I knew there was something planned for tonight, but she wouldn’t tell me what. What were the odds I could get out of going? Slim to none, probably.
I took a deep breath and pulled open the door to The Café. So my spread was interesting, huh. Great. What wa
s that saying? May you live in interesting times. Wasn’t that a Chinese curse?
Chapter 6
I never in a gazillion years would have thought I’d attend a beauty pageant. But that’s not the weirdest part. See, the kicker is that I was enjoying myself. How’s that for about as strange as it gets? Of course, it helped a lot that most of the contestants only came up to my waist and none of them were old enough to drive.
The Little Miss Ugly Creek Pageant was held two days before the official Miss Ugly Creek Pageant. You know, the kind with the eye scratching, hair pulling young women putting their half-naked bodies out there to win fame, fortune, and college scholarships.
Whatever.
Tonight, though, was about little girls. Ranging from three to twelve years old, they were adorable. Yes, there was some eye scratching and hair pulling going on behind the scenes, but for the most part it wasn’t the contestants—it was the mothers who behaved badly. I pointedly ignored that crap and took some awesome pictures of the most beautiful little girls in the world.
One of them had long, blonde hair and was dressed in a pink and purple fairy princess dress. She reminded me a lot of the pictures I’d seen of Maddie when she was a child.
I couldn’t believe a pageant could actually be so much fun. I shot pics and enjoyed myself immensely. The event took place in the high school auditorium, and a couple of nearby classrooms were set aside as prep areas for the smaller girls and their parents. The older girls used the actual dressing rooms for privacy. I was heading toward the second of the classrooms when I heard a voice.
“Hello, Buffy.”
Hearing my real name was bad enough. Hearing it in that voice made my skin crawl. Maybe he was talking to someone else. Yeah, someone else, that was the explanation. I’d ignore him and he’d go away.
And then Butch was in my face. “It’s no use pretending that isn’t your name,” he said, leaning close enough I could smell his expensive aftershave. “I’m not stupid, you know. I know how to use the Internet. Your name is Buffy and you’re from Alabama. Crooked Tree Hollow, Alabama, to be exact.”
I stared into washed-out brown eyes. Eyes that held scorn, annoyance, and lust. His lips pulled into a smile that sent my insides rolling around with revulsion.
I wanted to run to the nearest airport and fly back to D.C. as fast as the first flight out could take me. But that would only be playing into his hands, as would denying the truth. I gave him the glare I used to aim at my stepfather. “So. What about it?”
A bit of his arrogance seemed to slip. “You’re pretending to be some big old famous Yankee, when you’re just as Southern as the rest of us. I’ll bet you grew up in a trailer park, didn’t you?”
I physically felt the power shift toward my side of the equation. “Buying into stereotypes only makes you look dumb. For your information, I may be Southern, but I was never poor. Ever.”
I flashed my biggest, brightest smile, spun on my heel, and headed down the hall to take pictures of a gorgeous little girl with obvious Asian genes. She had on a lacy lavender dress embellished with tiny embroidered pink roses. The child was absolutely adorable. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Butch glaring. Then he turned and stomped out of the room. I took a big sigh of relief and focused on my shots.
While I worked I wondered what had crawled up and died in his pocket, and why I seemed to be the focus of his vexation.
I wondered what his next move would be. Because I knew for sure, this was far from over.
Two hours later, the pageant was in full swing, and I had all but forgotten Butch and his weird obsession with me. The little girls were cute, their talent segments were amazing, and I couldn’t wait to see who won.
“Isn’t this just the most fun in the world?”
Maddie’s enthusiastic smile was contagious, but I managed to hold mine back. “It’s not so bad.”
She turned up her perfect little nose. “You just don’t want to admit how much you’re enjoying yourself.”
Actually, there was some truth to that, but I’d be damned if I was about to admit to it. “This beauty stuff is more your thing than mine.”
She wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “It’s okay, I won’t make you admit how great a time you’re having.”
Giggling, the little rat wondered off to do her bit helping with the miniature beauty queens. I allowed my smile to emerge as I turned back to picture taking. She knew me far too well.
The time passed faster than I would have believed, and soon it was time for the climatic naming of the little winners. I noticed most of the kids got some sort of award, and all of the contestants got a ribbon and a certificate of participation. Whoever put this thing together seemed to have a real interest in making everybody happy.
Once the queen, cute little dark-haired Jodie Alonzo, was crowned, the crowd immediately went into a frenzy. Most of the parents and grandparents told the kids how well they’d done, but there were a few exceptions. A particularly harsh voice bellowed his kid would have won if she’d sang a little louder and had a better dress. The voice sounded familiar, so I peeked around the corner of the backstage area. Sure enough, it was my old friend Butch T. Jerk.
“She sings fine, and I could have got her a better dress if you would’ve given me more money, you stingy bastard.” The woman, probably his wife, stood a foot from Butch’s face and screamed right back at him.
“I ain’t made of money, you know.”
“Well, if people didn’t know what you did, you might get a better job.”
Butch’s face went blood red. “I didn’t have anything to do with that.”
“Why do so many people think you do, then?”
“How the hell should I know?”
I turned off the flash and clicked a couple of stealth photographs. I had no idea what I’d do with them, but it seemed advisable to take advantage of the opportunity.
I caught both adults’ angry expressions, and the teary-eyed face of the little girl who was begging them to stop. My heart went out to her, and I wanted so badly to comfort her, to take away her pain, that I took a step in their direction.
Realizing what I’d done, I quickly retreated around a corner where I wouldn’t be seen.
The sound of footsteps shot a quick burst of apprehension through my chest. But it was the little girl who stomped around the corner, her lacy pink dress bouncing with each hard step. Her head was down, her tiny fists where clenched, and every few steps she’d swipe at the tears dripping off her cheeks.
“Are you all right?”
She stopped and stared at me. “Who are you?”
“My name’s Stephie. I’m taking pictures of the pageant for an article my friend is writing.”
She leaned her head to one side as if she was considering my words.
I gave her my best smile. “What’s your name?”
“Lexie.” She scrunched up her little face. “I hate my mom and dad.”
“No, you don’t.”
She could glare hard for a little girl. “Yes I do.”
“Okay. Why do you hate them?”
“Because they argue all the time.” Tears began to flow again, and she swiped at her face with one fist.
“I’m sorry, Lexie. Sometimes adults yell.” Boy, wasn’t that the truth. “Just try to ignore them.”
“They’re yelling because I didn’t win the pageant. I’m glad I didn’t win. I hate the stupid pageant stuff.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s silly.”
I sat on my heels and wiped a tear streaking down her face—and taking makeup with it. Foundation on a six-year-old. Freaky. “Your mommy and daddy want people to see how pretty you are.”
“I don’t want to be pretty. I want to be an astronaut.”
I bit back my smile. I doubted she would understand it was because I understood her. “You can be both.”
She blinked. “Mommy says I can’t.”
A flash of anger all but cooked my stomach. “D
id she say why?”
“She said pretty girls should use what they have and not try to be smart too.”
“You should meet my friend Madison, she’s beautiful, and an award-winning journalist.”
“Really?”
I made an X on my chest. “Cross my heart.”
She leaned her head to one side again, as if contemplating my words. “You’re pretty. And you’re a picture taker.”
I gotta admit a tear or two burned in my eyes. “Thank you.”
“What are you doing with my kid?”
Uh oh, the jig was up. I stood and stared right into Butch’s washed out, not-too-bright, anger-filled eyes. “I was talking to Lexie about being an astronaut.”
He made a scoffing snort sound. “Girls can’t be astronauts.”
“Tell that to Sally Ride,” I said.
I saw his frown of confusion as I walked away. Stupid idiot. I hoped with all my heart Lexie managed to ignore the backward thinking of her parents and live the life she was meant to live.
Twenty minutes later, everything was pretty much over. Contestants and their families were leaving and some of the staff began to take down the decorations and such. I clicked a few quick shots as I wondered where Madison was. I knew she’d be wired for hours, but I was ready to go sit on the back porch, sip tea, and look for furry critters.
Remembering what I’d seen sent a wave of the jitters through me, but I was curious as hell anyway. Especially after the way Henry had reacted. What in the world was going on in this strange little town?
“I would have never pictured you at a kid’s beauty pageant.”
I spun, caught my foot on a thick black electrical cord, and almost fell on my butt. Jake’s rock-hard arms caught me, and I stared up into his handsome face. I probably looked like an idiot, but I didn’t so much care at the moment.
“Are you all right?”
I shook off the lingering stupidity and managed a smile. “I’m fine, thanks for catching me.”
He grinned, and I all but swooned. “My pleasure.”
We stood centimeters apart, our bodies aligned, our gazes locked. My heart beat faster, my breath came more quickly. I wanted to grab him and pull him closer. I wanted him to kiss me until I melted in his arms.
The Ugly Truth Page 6
