"Here's the thing ..." she said. "What happened today ... It's a little more complicated than it might seem."

"It seems pretty straightforward to me," her father said. "The guy's a pompous jerk."

"True. Unfortunately, that's not all he is ..."

She told them everything, starting with the day she'd arrived. Halfway through her story, her father attacked the minibar, and a few minutes later, her mother joined him, but Meg kept going. She told them everything except how deeply she'd fallen in love with Ted. That was her story alone to sort out.

When she got to the end, she was standing by the window, her back to City Hall, while her parents sat side by side on the low couch. She made herself keep her chin up. "So you see, it's because of me that Ted lost his temper for the only time in his adult life and got in that fight. It's because of me that the town is going to lose millions of dollars of revenue and all those jobs."

Her parents exchanged long looks, full of meaning to each other but incomprehensible to her. They'd always communicated like this. Maybe that's why neither she nor her brothers were married. They wanted what their parents had and weren't willing to settle for less.

Ironically, that's what she'd started to believe she had with Ted. They'd gotten really good at reading each other's minds. Too bad she hadn't picked up on what she'd most needed to know about him. How much he loved Lucy.

Her father rose from the couch. "Let me get this straight ... You kept Lucy from potentially destroying her life by marrying the wrong man. You supported yourself in a town full of nutty people h.e.l.l-bent on making you the scapegoat for all their troubles. You weren't really the activities coordinator at that country club, but you worked hard at the job you did have. And you also managed to start your own small business on the side. Do I have that right?"

Her mother lifted one magnificent eyebrow. "You've forgotten to mention how long she was able to hold off that perverted blowhard."

"Yet she's the one who's apologizing?" Her father turned it into a question, and the Glitter Baby's famous gold-flecked eyes bored into her daughter's.

"For what, Meg?" she said. "Exactly what are you apologizing for?"

Their question left her speechless. Hadn't they been listening?

The model and the movie star waited patiently for her response. A lock of blond hair curled along her mother's cheek. Her father rubbed his hip, as if he were checking for one of the pearl-handled Colt revolvers he'd worn in his Bird Dog Caliber films. Meg started to respond. She even opened her mouth. But nothing came out because she couldn't think of a good answer.

Her mother tossed her hair. "Obviously, these Texans have brainwashed you."

They were right. The person she needed to apologize to was herself for not being wise enough to protect her heart.

"You can't stay here," her father said. "This isn't a good place for you."

In some ways, it had been a very good place, but she merely nodded. "My car's already packed. I'm sorry to run out on you after you came all this way, but you're right. I have to leave, and I'm going now."

Her mother switched to her no-nonsense voice. "We want you to come home. Take some time to regroup."

Her father slipped his arm around Meg's shoulders. "We've missed you, baby."

This was what she'd wanted since they'd kicked her out. A little security, a place to hole up while she sorted everything out. Her heart filled with love for them. "You're the best. Both of you. But I have to do this on my own."

They argued with her, but Meg held firm, and after an emotional farewell, she headed back down the rear stairs to her car. She had one more thing to do before she drove away.

The cars in the Roustabout parking lot overflowed onto the highway. Meg parked on the shoulder behind a Honda Civic. As she walked along the road, she didn't bother searching for Ted's Benz or his truck. She knew he wouldn't be here, just as she knew everyone else would have gathered inside to hash over the afternoon's catastrophe.

She took a deep breath and shoved the door open. The smell of fried food, beer, and barbeque rolled over her as she looked around. The big room was jammed. People stood along the walls, between tables, and in the hallway that led to the restrooms. Torie, Dex, and all the Travelers squeezed around a four-top. Kayla, her father, Zoey, and Birdie sat nearby. Meg didn't see either Dallie or Francesca, although Skeet and some of the senior caddies leaned against the wall next to the video games, sipping beer.

It took a while before anyone in the crowd noticed her, and then it started to happen. Small pockets of silence that grew bigger as the seconds ticked by. They spread to the bar first, then encompa.s.sed the rest of the room until the only sounds were the clink of gla.s.sware and the voice of Carrie Underwood coming from the jukebox.

It would have been so much easier to slink away, but these past few months had taught her she wasn't the loser she'd believed herself to be. She was smart, she knew how to work hard, and she finally had a plan, however shaky, for her future. So even though she'd started to feel dizzy, and the food smells were making her nauseated, she forced herself to walk over to Pete Laraman, who always gave her a five-dollar tip for the frozen Milky Ways she carried just for him. "May I borrow your chair?"

He relinquished his seat and even gave her a hand up, a gesture she suspected was motivated by curiosity, not courtesy. Someone pulled the plug on the jukebox, and Carrie broke off midsong. Standing on the chair might not have been her best idea because of her rubbery knees, but if she was going to do this, she had to do it right, and that meant everyone in the place needed to be able to see her.

She spoke into the silence. "I know you all hate me right now, and there's nothing I can do about that."

"You can get the h.e.l.l out of here," one of the bar rats shouted.

Torie shot to her feet. "Shut up, Leroy. Let her have her say."

The brunette Meg recognized from Francesca's luncheon as Hunter Gray's mother piped up next. "Meg's said enough, and now we're all screwed."

The woman next to her came out of her chair. "Our kids are screwed, too. We can kiss those school improvements good-bye."

"The h.e.l.l with the schools," another of the bar rats declared. "What about all those jobs we're not going to have thanks to her?"

"Thanks to Ted," his crony added. "We trusted him, and look what happened."

The dark murmur Ted's name elicited told Meg she was right to do this. Lady Emma tried to spring up to defend their mayor only to have Kenny pull her back into her chair. Meg surveyed the crowd. "That's why I'm here," she said. "To talk about Ted."

"There's nothing you can say about him that we don't already know," the first bar rat declared with a sneer.

"Is that right?" Meg countered. "Well, how about this? Ted Beaudine isn't perfect."

"We sure know that now," his friend shouted, looking around him for confirmation and not having any trouble finding it.

"You should have known it all along," she countered, "but you've always held him to a higher standard than you've held yourselves. He's so good at everything that you lost sight of the fact that he's human like the rest of us, and he can't always work miracles."

"None of this would have happened if it wasn't for you!" someone exclaimed from the back.

"That's exactly right," Meg said. "You stupid rednecks! Don't you get it? From the minute Lucy walked out on him, Ted didn't have a chance." She let that sink in for a moment. "I saw my opportunity and I moved in on him. Right from the beginning, I had him in the palm of my hand." She tried to duplicate the bar rat's sneer. "None of you think a woman can control Ted, but I cut my teeth on movie stars and rockers, so believe me, he was easy. Then, when the game got old, I dumped him. He's not used to that, and he got a little crazy. So blame me all you want. But don't you dare fix the blame on him because he doesn't deserve your c.r.a.p." She felt her swagger slipping. "He's one of yours. The best you have. And if you don't all let him know that, you deserve what you get."

Her legs had started to shake so badly she could barely jump down from the chair. She didn't look around, didn't seek out Torie and the rest of the Travelers to say the only good-byes that meant anything to her. Instead, she made a blind dash for the door.

Her last sight of the town she'd both loved and hated was a distant glimpse of the Pedernales River and the sign in her rearview mirror.

YOU ARE LEAVING.

WYNETTE, TEXAS.

Theodore Beaudine, Mayor She let herself cry, racking sobs that shook her body and tears that blurred her vision. She gave into her grief because her heart was broken and because, once this trip was over, she was never going to cry again.

Chapter Twenty-Two.

A dark cloud had settled over Wynette. A tropical storm blew in from the Gulf, flooding the river and taking out the bridge on Comanche Road. The flu season started too early, and everybody's kids got sick. A kitchen fire closed the Roustabout for three weeks, and the town's only two garbage trucks broke down on the same day. While they were still reeling from all that, Kenny Traveler duck-hooked his drive on the eighteen hole at Whistling Straits and missed the cut in the PGA Championship. Worst of all, Ted Beaudine had resigned as mayor. Right when they needed him the most, he resigned. One week he was in Denver; Albuquerque, the next. Chasing all over the country trying to help cities get off the grid instead of staying in Wynette where he belonged. dark cloud had settled over Wynette. A tropical storm blew in from the Gulf, flooding the river and taking out the bridge on Comanche Road. The flu season started too early, and everybody's kids got sick. A kitchen fire closed the Roustabout for three weeks, and the town's only two garbage trucks broke down on the same day. While they were still reeling from all that, Kenny Traveler duck-hooked his drive on the eighteen hole at Whistling Straits and missed the cut in the PGA Championship. Worst of all, Ted Beaudine had resigned as mayor. Right when they needed him the most, he resigned. One week he was in Denver; Albuquerque, the next. Chasing all over the country trying to help cities get off the grid instead of staying in Wynette where he belonged.

n.o.body was happy. Before Haley Kittle set off for her freshman year at U.T., she sent out a ma.s.s e-mail with a detailed account of what she'd seen the day she'd come on Spencer Skipjack threatening Meg Koranda at the swimming hole behind the old Lutheran church. Once everybody knew the truth about what had taken place, they couldn't in good conscience blame Ted for punching Spence. Sure, they wished it hadn't happened, but Ted could hardly turn his back on the insults Spence was throwing out. One person after another tried to explain that to him on the few occasions he returned to town only to have him nod politely and hop on a plane the next day.

The Roustabout finally reopened, but even when Ted was around, he didn't show up. Instead, a couple of people saw him hanging out at Cracker John's, a shabby bar near the county line.

"He's divorced us," Kayla moaned to Zoey. "He's divorced the whole town."

"It's our own d.a.m.ned fault," Torie said. "We expected too much from him."

Word had spread from various well-placed sources that Spence and Sunny had gone back to Indianapolis, where Sunny had buried herself in work and where Spence got shingles. Much to everyone's shock, Spence had broken off negotiations with San Antonio. Word was, after being courted so vigorously by the people of Wynette, he'd lost interest in being a small fish in a big pond, and he'd given up his plans to build a golf resort anywhere.

With all the upheaval, people had almost forgotten about the Win a Weekend with Ted Beaudine contest until the library rebuilding committee reminded everybody the bidding closed at midnight on September 30.. That night, the committee gathered in Kayla's first-floor home office to commemorate the occasion, as well as to show Kayla their appreciation for the way she'd continued to run the online contest even after her father cut off her bidding.

"We couldn't have done this without you," Zoey said, from the Hepplewhite settee opposite Kayla's desk. "If we ever get the library reopened, we're putting up a plaque in your honor."

Kayla had recently redecorated the office with Liberty print fabric walls and neocla.s.sic furniture, but Torie elected to sit on the floor. "Zoey wanted to hang the plaque in the children's section," she said, "but we voted to put it by the fashion shelves. We figured that's where you'll be spending most of your time."

The others shot her a dirty look for reminding Kayla she'd be reading about fashion instead of setting trends at the boutique she'd always dreamed of owning. Torie hadn't meant to be tactless, so she got up to refill Kayla's mojito and admire the way her skin looked since her chemical peel.

"One minute to midnight," Shelby chirped with false enthusiasm.

The real suspense had ended a month earlier when Sunny Skipjack had stopped bidding. For the past two weeks, the top bidder, at fourteen thousand five hundred dollars, was a TV reality star only the teenagers had ever heard of. The committee made Lady Emma break the news to Ted that it looked as though he'd be spending a weekend in San Francisco with a former stripper who'd specialized in turning over tarot cards with her b.u.t.t cheeks. Ted had merely nodded and said she must have excellent muscle control, but Lady Emma said his eyes were empty, and she'd never seen him look so sad.

"Let's count it down, just like New Year's Eve," Zoey said brightly.

And so they did. Watching the computer screen. Counting backward. At exactly midnight, Kayla hit the refresh b.u.t.ton, and they all started to call out the name of the winner, only to fall silent as they saw that it wasn't the b.u.t.t-talented stripper at all, but...

"Meg Koranda?" A collective gasp went up, and then they all started talking at once. A collective gasp went up, and then they all started talking at once.

"Meg won the contest?"

"Hit the b.u.t.ton again, Kayla. That can't be right."

"Meg? How could it be Meg?"

But it was Meg, all right, and they couldn't have been more shocked.

They talked for an hour, trying to figure it out. Every one of them missed her. Shelby had always admired the way Meg could antic.i.p.ate what each of the women golfers might want to drink on any particular day. Kayla missed the profit Meg's jewelry had brought in, along with Meg's quirky fashion sense and the fact that n.o.body else would touch Torie's castoffs. Zoey missed Meg's sense of humor as well as the gossip she generated. Torie and Lady Emma simply missed her.

Despite the trouble she'd caused, they all agreed Meg had fit perfectly into the town. It was Birdie Kittle, however, who'd turned into Meg's most outspoken advocate. "She could have had Haley arrested the way Ted wanted, but she stood up for her. n.o.body else would have done that."

Haley had told her mother and Birdie's friends everything. "I'm going to keep seeing a counselor at school," she'd said. "I want to learn how to respect myself better so nothing like that ever happens again."

Haley was so honest about what she'd done and so ashamed of her actions that none of them had been able to stay angry with her for long.

Shelby, who'd switched from mojitos to Diet Pepsi, slipped out of her new pewter flats. "It took guts to face down everybody at the Roustabout the way Meg did. Even if n.o.body believed a word she said."

Torie snorted. "If we hadn't all been so depressed, we'd have fallen off our chairs laughing when she talked about how she controlled Ted, then dumped him, like she was some big man-eater."

"Meg has honor, and she has heart," Birdie said. "That's a rare combination. She was also the hardest-working maid I ever had."

"And the worst paid," Torie pointed out.

Birdie immediately got defensive. "You know I'm trying to make up for that. I sent a check in care of her parents, but I haven't heard a word."

Lady Emma looked worried. "None of us have. She should at least have kept her phone number so we could call her. I don't like the way she's disappeared."

Kayla gestured toward the computer screen. "She picked a heck of a way to resurface. This is a desperation move on her part. A last attempt to get Ted back."

Shelby tugged on the waistband of her too-tight jeans. "She must have borrowed the money from her parents."

Torie wasn't buying it. "Meg's too proud to do that. And she's not the kind of woman who'll chase after a man who won't commit."

"I don't believe Meg placed that bid," Zoey said. "I think her parents did it."

They pondered the idea. "You might be right," Birdie finally said. "What parents wouldn't want their daughter to end up with Ted?"

But Lady Emma's quick brain had taken a different path. "You're all wrong," she said firmly. "Meg didn't place that bid, and neither did her parents." She exchanged a long look with Torie.

"What?" Kayla said. "Tell us."

Torie set aside her third mojito. "Ted placed the bid in Meg's name. He wants her back, and this is how he's going to get her."

They all wanted to see his reaction, so the committee members spent the next half hour arguing about who would inform Ted that Meg had won the contest. Would he pretend shock or come clean about his ruse? Eventually Lady Emma pulled rank on them and announced that she would do it herself.

Ted returned to Wynette on a Sunday, and Lady Emma showed up at his house early Monday morning. She wasn't altogether surprised when he didn't answer the door, but it wasn't in her nature to be put off, so she parked her SUV, pulled a lavishly ill.u.s.trated biography of Beatrix Potter from her tote, and prepared to wait him out.

Less than half an hour later, the garage door opened. He took in the way she'd blocked both his truck and his Benz, then approached her car. He was wearing a business suit and aviator sungla.s.ses, and carrying a laptop in a black leather case. He leaned down to address her through the open window. "Move."

She snapped her book closed. "I'm here on official business. Something I would have told you if you'd answered the door."

"I'm not the mayor any longer. I have no official business."

"You're the mayor in absentia. We've all decided. And it's not that kind of business."

He straightened. "Are you going to move your car or am I going to do it for you?"

"Kenny would not approve of you manhandling me."

"Kenny would cheer me on." He pulled off his sungla.s.ses. His eyes looked tired. "What do you want, Emma?"

The fact that he didn't address her as "Lady Emma" alarmed her as much as his pallor, but she concealed how worried she was. "The contest is over," she said, "and we have a winner."

"I'm thrilled," he drawled.

"It's Meg."

"Meg?"

She nodded and waited for his reaction. Would she see satisfaction? Shock? Was her theory right?