The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires - Grady Hendrix Page 0,93

won’t believe it, but we’re rich again,” Horse said, putting one hand on Carter’s shoulder to steady himself. “Next time we go to the club, drinks are on me.”

“Don’t forget, we’ve got four more who want to go to college,” Kitty said, stepping into the circle and giving Patricia a one-armed hug.

“Don’t be cheap, woman!” Horse bellowed.

“We signed the papers today,” Kitty explained.

“When I see Jimmy H. I’m gonna kiss him,” Horse said. “Right on the lips!”

Patricia smiled. James Harris had totally transformed Kitty and Horse’s lives. He’d straightened out the management of Seewee Farms, hired them a young man to run things, and convinced Horse to sell 110 acres to a developer. That was what had finally come through today.

It wasn’t just them. All of them, including Patricia and Carter, had invested more and more money in Gracious Cay, and as outside investors kept coming in they’d all taken out credit lines against their shares. It felt like money just kept falling out of the sky.

“You got to come with me Saturday,” Horse told Carter. “Do some boat shopping.”

“How are the children?” Patricia asked Kitty, because that was the kind of thing you said.

“We finally convinced Pony to look at the Citadel,” Kitty said. “I can’t stand the idea of him up at Carolina or Wake Forest. He’d be so far away.”

“It’s better when they stay local,” Marjorie nodded.

“And Horse wants another Citadel man in the family,” Kitty said.

“That class ring opens doors,” Marjorie said. “It really does.”

As Marjorie and Kitty talked, the room began to close in around Patricia. She didn’t know why everyone’s voices sounded so loud, or why the small of her back felt cold and greasy with sweat, or why her underarms itched. Then she smelled the Swedish meatballs bubbling away in the silver chafing dish on the buffet table beside her.

Carter and Horse laughed uproariously over something and Horse put his beer down on the buffet table and he already had another one in his hand and Kitty said something about Korey, and the familiar reek of boiling ketchup filled Patricia’s skull and coated her throat.

She forced herself to stop thinking about it. It was better not to think about it. Her life was back to normal now. Her life was better than normal.

“Did you see on the news about that school in New York?” Kitty asked. “The children have to get there at five a.m. because it takes them two and a half hours to go through the metal detectors.”

“But you can’t put a price on safety,” Marjorie said.

“Excuse me,” Patricia said.

She pushed her way past shoulders and backs, needing to get away from that smell, twisting her hips to the side, terrified she’d knock someone’s drink out of their hands, forcing her way through scraps of conversation.

“…taking him up to tour the campus…”

“…have you lost weight…”

“…divest into Netscape…”

“…the president’s just a Bubba, it’s his wife…”

Kitty hadn’t visited her in the hospital.

She didn’t want to keep score like this but for the first time in years it just popped into her mind.

“You were in and out so quickly,” Kitty had told Patricia over the phone. “I was going to come just as soon as I got organized but by the time that happened, you were already home.”

She remembered Kitty begging for reassurance. “With all those pills, you just mixed up your prescription, didn’t you?”

That was what had happened, she agreed, and Kitty had been so grateful it didn’t have to go any further or get any messier and she had been so grateful that everyone had let it drop and never talked about it again that she hadn’t realized how much it hurt that none of them came by the hospital. At the time, she was just grateful. She was grateful no one called her a suicide and treated her different. She was grateful it had been so easy to slip back into her old life. She was grateful for the new dock and the trip to London and