honey, if I had a body like yours, I guess I wouldn’t be too worried.”
Jess elbowed her. “Easy for you to say.”
“I know. I’m the one who’s about to be happily married off. I don’t have to be worried about all of this flirting and stuff anymore, right?”
“Something like that.”
Hayley turned to her. “I don’t know why you’re worried. You always had the flirting thing covered, even when you weren’t trying. Remember when you first got to college and you had that sweet southern drawl that all the guys loved, but you tried so hard to cover it up?”
“Yes. Yes, I do.” Jess swallowed, but couldn’t quite get the sudden lump out of her throat. She’d tried to lose it, all right.
Because that sweet southern drawl—as Hayley put it—had the unfortunate side effect of attracting all the wrong kinds of men.
—
“C’mere, honey. Gimme some sugar.” Mama’s manager was at the trailer again, drinking on the couch again. He was six-foot-two and probably weighed two-fifty under his designer shirt. The women who rented chairs at his salon all did their best to get his attention, but it was Mama who’d captured it.
She wrinkled her nose, assaulted by his drugstore aftershave. “Sorry, Mel. No can do. Sadie and her mama are picking me up in a second to go to the mall.”
He raised his eyebrows. “You ain’t got time for one little kiss on the cheek? I give your mama her job and I can’t get a little thanks?”
“I think you get quite enough thanks from her.”
She froze. Once again, her sixteen-year old mouth was one step ahead of her brain.
“That so?” He rose up off the couch, way more graceful than a drunk man should be at two o’clock in the afternoon. “You gettin’ a little sass on your mouth, honey, and that mouth’s way too pretty to be talking like that.”
She looked out the window, desperate for her Sadie story to be true. Desperate for there to even be a Sadie in her life, one with a mama who might be on her way to pick her up right now.
“Sorry, Mel.”
Apologize early—that was the best strategy. Then flee.
She headed for the door, but before she got there, his hand was on her wrist. Around it, like a steel handcuff.
Where the hell was her own mama, anyway?
“Mama will be here any minute. Want me to get you a beer or something?” Anything to get away from his huge body, that aftershave.
His other hand came up, touched her cheek. “You’re a pretty little thing, you know that? Way prettier than your mama, and she’s not bad to look at, either. Come on. Sit with me on the couch. Talk to me with that pretty southern voice of yours.”
She flinched. No way was she going to let him pull her to that couch.
“Your mama’s at work, honey. I’m here to see you.” He touched her lip with his thumb, and suddenly she could see where this was going to end. There was nobody here to save her. She had to do it herself.
She counted to three and closed her eyes tightly.
And then she bit him.
—
“Do you remember how you used to listen to Kyla’s old Robin Williams CD, trying to learn how to talk fast like him?”
Hayley’s voice popped Jess out of her flashback. Jess struggled to find her way back to what they’d been talking about. “Umm, I don’t know.”
Hayley stopped walking, stepping in front of Jess. “Are you all right?”
“No. I mean, yes. I’m fine. Tired, maybe. Sorry.” Jess took a deep breath. She needed to get a grip. Luanne’s call and the envelope from Grampy’s attorney were kicking off a whole set of hideous memories she thought she’d buried long ago, but in the past twelve hours, it had become abundantly clear that those memories were sitting just below the surface, bubbling, ready to pop out and send her back down very dark roads.
“You sure?” Hayley’s eyebrows drew together.
“I’m sure.” Jess pasted on a smile. It was Hayley’s wedding week, for God’s sake. She needed to get a grip and focus on the present. And the present included beautiful Montana, a glorious outdoor wedding, and her two best friends in the world. Later, when she was alone, she’d try to figure out what to do about the past that was trying to become her present.
She linked arms with Hayley and pulled her toward the main lodge, taking a deep breath to refocus herself.
“Come on,” she said. “I’m starving.”
They climbed the