Ugh. This evening had just gone from bad to worse. She leaned in and gave her mother a quick peck on the cheek. “I’m heading out as we speak.”
Her mother grabbed another champagne glass from a waiter. “It’s probably best that you go anyhow. I can’t drive—I’ve been drinking.”
Like a fish, Beth Ann thought to herself. She headed for the coordinator and made her excuses—of course they didn’t mind if she left early, they just hoped everything was okay. Beth Ann smiled and cited a migraine, even rubbing her temples to add conviction to her lie. How awful was it that her mother was going to send Beth Ann out to hunt down Lucy while she swigged cocktails and mingled with her father? Pretty awful, but not surprising in the slightest.
She was starting to think Lucy had the right idea.
Beth Ann had almost made it to the kitchen door when a hand grabbed one of the spaghetti straps of her dress, halting her in place.
“Bethy-babe,” Allan cooed. He was dressed in a sharp tux, his hair a little longer than it should have been, but he was still handsome. He gave her a warm smile that seemed a little too broad to be sincere. “Been looking everywhere for you, babe.”
She pried his fingers from her dress strap. “Hey, Allan. I have to go—”
“Don’t I get a kiss? I’m wearing your favorite cologne.” He leaned in so she could smell him.
Beth Ann side-stepped him carefully. “I’m sure it’s lovely, Allan. But I really do have to go—”
He frowned back at her, as if realizing just now that she wasn’t thrilled to see him. “You’re not staying? We haven’t had a chance to talk about the Halloween Festival yet.”
“What about it?” Every year, Bluebonnet put on a big Halloween Festival that brought in tourists from several counties over. It was tradition, complete with hay rides, costumes, and everything else you could imagine. It was also still at least six weeks away.
He straightened his tie and proudly informed her, “I signed you up to be on the committee. With me.”
Beth Ann gritted her teeth. “You’re joking.”
“Why would I joke? You love committees!”
“That was before I started running my own business, Allan,” she said in exasperation. “Back when I had nothing to do except be social and wait on you. I have a job now, and it takes up a lot of my free time.”
He nodded sympathetically, and for a moment, she thought she’d finally gotten through to him and he understood. He touched her shoulder, scowled at her dress, and then said in a gentle voice, “We’ll discuss this later.”
She should have known better. Allan didn’t change. He just thought up more schemes to place them both in the same room again, in the hopes that she’d weaken and fall back into his arms. She flicked his hand off her shoulder. “There is no ‘later.’ I’m leaving.”
“But I just got here. I thought we’d do the rounds together.”
So everyone could continue to think they were a couple? Not a chance. She gestured at the kitchen. “Really, really have to go. Was nice seeing you, though—”
He grabbed her wrist when she turned. “Bethy-babe, I want you to know something.”
She sighed. Turned. Waited.
He leaned in close as if sharing a secret. “I didn’t bring a date to this party. Because I knew you would be here.”
That irritated her. He clearly thought that her presence still equaled fiancée. “You should have brought a date, Allan. We’re not together. You can do things like that. I could have brought a date, too.”
“But you didn’t,” he said smugly, and hope lit his handsome features. “Is it because you still care for me?”
She sighed and made a concerted effort not to pinch the bridge of her nose in irritation. “I will always love you as a friend, Allan,” she said, stressing the word friend so he wouldn’t get his hopes up. “But you and me are done. There is no ‘us.’ There is no doing the rounds together, because we aren’t together. Okay?”
He gave her a wounded look of pain. “I…see.”
Great. Now she was the bad guy. Allan had this way of turning everything around to where it seemed like she was the unreasonable one. In the past, she hadn’t realized this. When he’d been upset, she’d apologize all over herself, desperate to make him happy. Now, though, she just felt annoyed. He was clearly trying to manipulate her emotions. She hated that. So she pasted a bright smile on her face and patted his cheek. “Gotta go. Was nice seeing you!”
Then, she turned and swiftly headed for the swinging kitchen doors.
“Wait, Bethy-babe! Please. I just want to talk…”
She did not turn around.
She got into her car and drove out of the city and pulled onto the highway. Her parents had OnStar in their car but Beth Ann’s cute little Volkswagen Beetle didn’t have anything close to that. She didn’t even have GPS, and she couldn’t manage that on her phone while driving. So she did the next best thing—called her friend Miranda.
“Hey, girl. Where are you? It’s late.” Miranda sounded sleepy, and she could hear the sound of a movie being turned down in the background.
“Sorry. Did I interrupt something?”
“Nah. Dane and I are just watching a movie. Spending a little quality time together before he leaves me for the weekend for a bunch of businessmen.” She gave a mock sniff. “Stupid overnight campouts.”
She heard Dane mumble something in the background, and then heard Miranda’s squeal erupt into a giggle.
Beth Ann resisted the urge to toss the phone on the floor in a mixture of jealousy and annoyance. “I need you to do me a favor, Mir. If you have a sec. I’m driving back from the big fund-raiser in Houston and need you to Google something for me.”
Fat raindrops began to splash on her windshield as Miranda typed into the computer on the other side of the phone. “Okay, what am I looking for?”
“QuestMasters. It’s some costume group. They’re having a big campout this weekend and Lucy ran off to go to it. My mother had a fit.”
“Aren’t you a little too old to be Lucy’s watchdog?” Miranda said with amusement.
“Apparently not,” Beth Ann replied dryly. “As long as I live at home, I live to serve.” After she’d left Allan, she hadn’t been able to afford a place of her own and a salon. She’d chosen, and on nights like tonight, well, Jeanette made her regret her choice.