Winnie balled her fist in her lap, but she kept her voice calm. “Exactly how do you expect me to stop her?”
He sighed. “Sorry. Frustration. I keep thinkin’ she’s going to snap out of it, and we’ll have our daughter back.”
She and Ryan hardly ever spoke harshly to each other. They disagreed, but in more than thirteen years of marriage, they’d never done more than exchange a few chilly silences. She didn’t know how couples like Merylinn and Deke could stand it. During one of their fights, Deke had punched a hole in the garage wall, and they’d actually told people about it.
“I couldn’t punch her,” Deke had said, and Merylinn had laughed.
Winnie didn’t think she could tolerate that kind of strain.
Ryan leaned back in his chair. “She looks like a street kid in those clothes.”
Something else that was her fault. Today Gigi’d worn that awful shirt she’d insisted on getting at the Salvation Army Thrift Shop. Winnie should have known Gigi’s pricey wardrobe would eventually make her a target and backed off, but she’d wanted her daughter to feel good about herself, and she’d waited too long.
Winnie tossed her napkin on the table. “You’ll have to talk to her about it this time. She hates me enough as it is.”
How had it come to this? Winnie wondered. She’d been so determined to be the kind of mother to Gigi that she’d wanted so badly for herself when she was growing up. Sabrina had done her best, Winnie supposed, but her mother’s economic survival had depended on Griffin Carey’s goodwill, and Sabrina had devoted all her energy to his comfort, leaving nothing for an emotionally needy daughter. Sabrina had hated Diddie Carey with a passion, and knowing that Diddie had given birth to the dazzling Sugar Beth, while Sabrina had born such an unimpressive child, galled her. Even the fact that Griffin doted on Winnie hadn’t eased her anxiety. Sabrina understood her lover’s fundamentally ruthless nature and kept waiting for him to transfer his affections to his legitimate daughter. But he never had, and Winnie missed him to this day.
“Gigi doesn’t hate you,” Ryan said. “She’s just being a teenager.”
“It’s more than that. I’d like to smack those girls for turning against her last summer. It was simple jealousy.”
“Gigi played into their hands. She’ll work through it.”
Despite his words, Winnie knew he was as worried as she. She rose and began carrying the dishes to the sink. “I only have ice cream for dessert.”
“Maybe later.” Ryan wasn’t particular about food. Half the time he didn’t remember to eat, which was why he stayed so lean, while she had to watch every bite.
She needed to tell him about Sugar Beth coming into the shop. Otherwise, she’d be giving it too much importance. But as she tried to frame the words, the wineglass she’d been rinsing slipped in her fingers and broke in the sink.
“You okay?” He rose and came toward her. She wanted him to wrap his arms around her, but he studied the mess instead.
“I’m fine. Why don’t you make coffee while I clean this up?”
As she tossed the bigger pieces of glass in the trash, she wondered why she didn’t feel more satisfaction about today. The years had taken their toll on Sugar Beth, and for the first time in their lives, Winnie had come out ahead.
She’d begun to bloom her senior year in high school after Sugar Beth and Ryan had left for college. She’d stopped overeating and found the courage to have her hair cut. Inside, she might have been the same awkward teenager, but outside she began to move with a new assurance that only grew more pronounced after Griffin and Sabrina’s marriage. Suddenly, she was the rich girl who lived at Frenchman’s Bride.
Winnie’s fingers crept to the pearls on her throat. The stricken expression on Sugar Beth’s face had been the culmination of every revenge fantasy she’d ever entertained. She should have enjoyed it more.
The past wove its way through the sound of the furnace clicking on and the smell of the coffee beans Ryan was grinding. She was sixteen again, taking a shortcut through the gym when she’d tripped and her algebra notebook had fallen open at Sugar Beth’s feet.
“Give it back!” Winnie’s voice, high and shrill, had bounced off the gym rafters. But Sugar Beth had only stepped higher on the bleachers, the algebra notebook open in her hands. Tall and willowy, blond and beautiful, Sugar Beth had been evil all the way to the bottom of her heart.
“Listen up, y’all. Winnie’s been doin’ a lot more than solving problems in advanced algebra.”
The Seawillows abandoned their chatter. Winnie’s heart was pounding so fast she was afraid it would burst. “Sugar Beth, I’m warning you . . .”
But Sugar Beth just smiled and took another step up into the bleachers. Winnie started after her, but her sneaker caught on the seat. She winced as she stumbled. “Give it to me.”
Sugar Beth smirked. “I don’t know why you’re getting so uptight. It’s just girls.”
Amy touched the gold cross at her neck. “Maybe you shouldn’t read it if Winnie doesn’t want you to.”
Sugar Beth ignored her. “Y’all aren’t going to believe this.”
Winnie blinked furiously against her tears. Just once she’d like to be able to defend herself, but Sugar Beth was too powerful. “That’s private. Give it back right now.”
“Oh, don’t be so immature.” The gold hoops at Sugar Beth’s ears flashed as she flipped her perfect mane of hair. Then she began to read. “He looked at my naked nipples.”
The girls laughed, even Amy, although she touched her cross again. Sweat soaked through the underarms of Winnie’s blouse. She’d started writing her fantasies a few months earlier in a special notebook that she kept hidden in the back of her closet, but today in study hall she’d gotten careless. “Stop it, Sugar Beth.”
“No, don’t stop!” Leeann blasted her bangs with the Aqua Net she kept in her purse, but her eyes stayed glued to Sugar Beth.
Sugar Beth propped one of her metallic flats on the bleacher in front of her. “Next, he slipped his broad, strong hand into my tiny lace panties.” The way Sugar Beth emphasized the word tiny served as a not so subtle reminder that Winnie’s panties weren’t all that small. “I moved my legs farther apart.”
Winnie could never come back to Parrish High.
“He slid his other hand up the inside of my leg . . .” Sugar Beth’s blue eyes widened in fake shock. “Why, Winnie Davis, this is pornography.”
“I like it.” Leeann popped a bubble.
Sugar Beth turned the page. “ ‘I love you, Winnie, with all my abid-ing passion.’ “ She paused, and her eyes raced down over the words, looking for more ammunition to destroy Winnie. It didn’t take her long to find it.
“Ohmigod, y’all listen to this. ‘I spread my legs even farther as his strong fingers started to tiddle me. I gasped out his name . . . ‘ “
Winnie’s ears rang, and the gym began to spin. She made a soft, helpless sound.
“ ‘Oh, my darling, darling—‘ Ryan!”
Winnie’s blood froze.
“Hey, Sugar Beth. What’re you guys doin’?”
Ryan Galantine was coming toward them from the back of the gym, with Deke Jasper and Bobby Jarrow, the three of them in their letter jackets because there was a game that night. Winnie only saw Ryan—tall, blond, and golden, the object of all her fantasies. Horrified, she watched him climb the bleachers.
“Hey, Sugar, I thought you had a meeting.”
“I’m gettin’ there. I’ve been reading something Winnie wrote. It’s really good.”
“Yeah?” He kissed her, ignoring the school’s policy on P.D.A., then looked down at Winnie and gave her the leftover crumbs of his smile. “I want to hear, too.”
Winnie would have to run away from Parrish forever, but as she stepped back, her foot slipped on the bleachers and she fell in an awkward tangle, her hips wedged between the rows of seats.
“Stop it,” Amy said, but like the others, she was a little afraid of Sugar Beth, and she didn’t speak with much authority.