Call Me Irresistible (36 page)

“You’re wrong.”

“Am I?” He came toward the riverbank. “Your parents brought you up soft. It was a mistake I didn’t make with Sunny. She worked at the plant from the time she was fourteen, so she learned early on where a dollar came from. But that’s not the way it was with you. You had all the advantages and none of the responsibility.”

There was enough truth in his words to sting.

He stopped at the riverbank. A raven called out. The water rushed around her. She shivered from the chill and from her vulnerability.

His hands dropped to his belt buckle. She sucked in her breath as he pulled it open. “Stop right there,” she said.

“I’m hot and that water looks real good.”

“I mean it, Spence. I don’t want you here.”

“You just think you don’t.” He pulled off his pants, tossed them aside, and stood in front of her. His hairy belly hung over white boxers, pasty legs protruding beneath.

“Spence, I don’t like this.”

“You brought it on yourself, Miz Meg. If you’d gone to Dallas with me like I wanted yesterday, we could have had this discussion on my plane.” He dove in. The splash hit her in the eyes. She blinked, and within seconds, he’d surfaced beside her, his hair plastered to his head, rivulets of water running through his blue-black beard. “What’s the real problem, Meg? You think I won’t take care of you?”

“I don’t want you to take care of me.” She didn’t know if he intended to rape her or if he merely wanted to make her submit to his authority. She only knew she had to get away, but as she backed toward the riverbank, his arm shot out and he grabbed her wrist. “Come here.”

“Let me go.”

His thumbs dug into her upper arms. He was strong, and he lifted her off the rocky bottom, exposing her breasts. She saw his lips coming toward her, those big square teeth aiming for her mouth.

“Meg!”

A figure shot out of the trees. Slim, dark-haired, dressed in hip-hugging shorts and a retro Haight-Ashbury T-shirt.

“Haley!” Meg cried.

Spence jumped back as if he’d been hit. Haley came closer, then stopped. She hugged herself, crossing her arms over her chest and clutching her elbows, unsure what to do next.

Meg didn’t know why she’d shown up, but she’d never been so glad to see anyone. Spence’s heavy, drawn eyebrows jutted ominously over his small eyes. Meg made herself look at him. “Spence was just leaving, weren’t you, Spence?”

The fury in his expression told her that their love affair was over. By puncturing his ego, she’d moved to the top of his enemies list.

He pulled himself out of the water. His white briefs clung to his buttocks, and she looked away. Haley stood frozen in the shade, and he didn’t spare her a glance as he jerked on his pants and shoved his feet into his shoes without his socks. “You think you got the best of me, but you haven’t.” His voice was almost a growl as he snatched up his shirt. “Nothing happened here, and don’t either of you try to say otherwise.”

He disappeared up the path.

Meg’s teeth were chattering, and her knees had locked so she couldn’t move.

Haley finally found her tongue. “I’ve—I’ve got to go.”

“Not yet. Help me out. I’m a little shaky.”

Haley came toward the bank. “You shouldn’t swim here by yourself.”

“Believe me, I won’t be doing it again. It was stupid.” A sharp stone bit into the ball of her foot, and she winced. “Here, give me your hand.”

With Haley’s help, she made it up onto the riverbank. She was dripping and naked except for her panties, and her teeth wouldn’t stop chattering. She grabbed the towel she’d brought with her and sank down onto the sun-heated rock. “I don’t know what I’d have done if you hadn’t shown up.”

Haley looked toward the path. “Are you going to call the police?”

“Do you really think anybody wants to take Spence on right now?”

Haley rubbed her elbow. “What about Ted? Are you going to tell him?”

Meg imagined the consequences of doing just that and didn’t like what she saw. But she also wasn’t keeping this to herself. She rubbed her hair with the towel, then balled it up. “I’ll call in sick at work for the next few days and make sure Spence can’t find me. But as soon as that bastard’s down payment is in the bank, I’m telling Ted exactly what happened. A few other people, too. They need to know how ruthless Spence can be.” She clutched the towel. “For now, keep it to yourself, okay?”

“I wonder what Spence would have done if I hadn’t shown up?”

“I don’t want to think about it.” Meg grabbed her T-shirt from the ground and pulled it on, but she couldn’t make herself touch the bra he’d held. “I don’t know what stroke of luck brought you here today, but I sure am glad. What did you want?”

Haley twitched, as if the question startled her. “I was— I don’t know.” Color flooded her face beneath her makeup. “I was driving, and I thought you might want to . . . go get burgers or something.”

Meg’s hands stalled on the hem of her T-shirt. “Everybody knows I’m staying at Skeet’s. How did you find me here?”

“What difference does it make?” She spun around and headed for the path.

“Wait!”

But Haley didn’t wait, and her reaction was so extreme, so out of proportion to their conversation, that Meg was taken aback. Then everything clicked into place.

Her chest constricted. She shoved her feet into her flip-flops and ran after her. She took the shortcut through the cemetery instead of following the path. Her flip-flops slapped her heels, and weeds grabbed her still-damp legs. She reached the front of the church just as Haley ran around from the back, and she blocked her path. “Stop right there! I want to talk to you.”

“Get out of my way!”

Haley tried to get past her, but Meg wouldn’t let her. “You knew I was here because you followed me. Just like Spence did.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about. Let me go!”

Meg tightened her grip. “It was you.”

“Stop it!”

Haley tried to free her arm, but Meg held fast as water dripped icy fingers down the back of her neck. “All this time. You’re the one who broke into the church. You’re the one who sent that letter and threw the rock at my car. All along. It was you.”

Haley’s chest heaved. “I don’t— I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Meg’s damp T-shirt clung to her skin, and goose bumps broke out on her arms. She felt sick. “I thought we were friends.”

Her words cut something loose inside Haley. She jerked her arm away, and her sneer distorted her mouth. “Friends! Yeah, you were a friend, all right.”

The wind picked up. An animal scuttled in the brush. Meg finally understood. “This is because of Ted . . .”

Haley’s face crumpled with fury. “You told me you weren’t in love with him. You told me you were just saying that to get rid of Spence. And I believed you. I was so stupid. I believed you until that night I saw you together.”

The night Meg and Ted had made love at the church and Meg had seen those headlights. Her stomach twisted. “You spied on us.”

“I didn’t spy!” Haley cried. “It wasn’t like that! I was driving around, and I saw Ted’s truck go by. He’d been out of town, and I wanted to talk to him.”

“So you followed him here.”

She shook her head, the movement jerky. “I didn’t know where he was going. I just wanted to talk to him.”

“And you accomplished that by spying on us through the window.”

Tears of rage spilled over her lids. “You lied to me! You told me it was all fake!”

“I didn’t lie. That’s the way it started out. But things changed, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to make a big announcement about it.” Meg regarded her with disgust. “I can’t believe you did those things to me. Do you have any idea how it felt?”

Haley swiped at her nose with the back of her hand. “I didn’t hurt you. I only wanted you to
go away.
”

“What about Kyle? That’s what I don’t understand. I thought you were crazy about him. I’ve seen you together.”

“I told him to leave me alone, but he kept showing up at work.” Dirty mascara tears smeared her cheeks. “Last year, when I liked him, he wouldn’t even talk to me. Then, when I stopped liking him, all of a sudden he wanted to go out.”

The pieces came together. “You didn’t change your mind about going to U.T. because of Kyle. All along, it was because of Ted. Because he and Lucy weren’t getting married.”

“So what?” Her nose was red, her skin blotchy.

“Did you do this kind of thing to her? Harass her like you’ve harassed me?”

“Lucy was different.”

“She was going to marry him! But you left her alone and went after me. Why? I don’t get that.”

“I didn’t love him then,” she said fiercely. “Not the way I do now. Everything changed after she ran out on him. Before then—I had a crush on him like everybody else, but it was a kid thing. After she left, it was like I could see all the pain in his heart, and I wanted to make it go away. Like I understood him when nobody else did.”

One more woman who thought she understood Ted Beaudine.

Haley’s eyes were fierce. “I knew then that I’d never love anybody like I love him. And if you love somebody that much, they have to feel it back, don’t they? I had to make him see me for who I am. It was working, too. I only needed more time. And then you went after him.”

Haley was long overdue for a reality check, and Meg was angry enough to deliver it. “It was only working in your fantasies. Ted was never going to fall in love with you. You’re too young, and he’s too difficult.”

“He’s not difficult! How can you say that about him?”

“Because it’s true.” Meg stepped away from her in disgust. “You’re a baby. Eighteen going on twelve. Real love makes you a better person. It doesn’t turn you into a sneak and a vandal. Do you really think Ted could love someone who’s been hurting another person the way you have?”

Her words hit home, and Haley’s face crumpled. “I didn’t want to hurt you. I just wanted you to leave.”

“Obviously. What were you planning to do to me today?”

“Nothing.”

“Don’t lie to me!”

“I don’t know!” she cried. “I— When I saw you swimming, I guess I was going to take your clothes. Maybe burn them.”

“Real mature.” Meg paused and rubbed her wrist where Spence had grabbed her. “Instead, you came out of hiding to protect me.”

“I wanted you to go away, not get raped!”

Meg didn’t think Spence would have raped her, but she tended to be an optimist.

The sound of tires on gravel interrupted their drama. They turned together and saw a powder blue pickup racing down the lane.

M
eg had forgotten the security camera, and Haley didn’t know about it. Her head shot up in panic. “You’re going to tell him what I’ve done, aren’t you?”

“No. You’re going to tell him.” Haley had been spiteful and destructive, but she’d also protected Meg from Spence today, and Meg owed her something for that. She grabbed her by the shoulders. “Listen to me, Haley. Right now you have a chance to change the course of your life. To stop being a sneaky, destructive, love-struck child and start being a woman with a little character.” Haley winced as Meg dug her fingers into her arms, but Meg didn’t let go. “If you don’t stand up right now and face the consequences of what you’ve done, you’re going to be living your life in the shadows—always ashamed, always knowing you’re a mean little rat who betrayed a friend.”

Haley’s face crumpled. “I can’t do it.”

“You can do whatever you set your mind to. Life doesn’t give you many moments like this, and you know what I think? I think that how you act in the next few minutes will dictate the person you’re going to be from now on.”

“No, I—”

Ted jumped out of his truck and rushed toward Meg. “The security people called. They said Spence showed up. I got here as fast as I could.”

“Spence is gone,” Meg said. “He left when he saw Haley.”

With one sweep of his eyes, he took in Meg’s bare legs and the damp T-shirt that didn’t quite cover her wet panties. “What happened? He gave you trouble, didn’t he?”

“Let’s just say he wasn’t pleasant. But I haven’t blown your big deal, if that’s what you want to know.” Of course it was what he wanted to know. “At least I don’t think I have,” she added.

Was the relief she saw on his face a reflection of his concern for her or for the town? She wanted more than anything to tell him what had happened, but that would put him in an impossible situation. No matter how hard it would be, she was going to bide her time, just for a few days.

He finally noticed Haley’s red eyes and blotchy face. “What happened to you?”

Haley looked at Meg, waiting for Meg to bust her, but Meg stared right back. Haley dipped her head. “I—got a bee sting.”

“A bee sting?” Ted said.

Haley gazed at Meg again, daring her to say something. Or maybe begging her to do what Haley couldn’t manage for herself. Seconds ticked by, and when Meg didn’t say anything, Haley began to pull at her bottom lip. “I’ve got to go,” she finally mumbled in a small, coward’s voice.