Blue Blood: A Debutante Dropout Mystery (32 page)
Read Blue Blood: A Debutante Dropout Mystery Online
Authors: Susan McBride
Oh, yes. Someone had.
Me.
Or, at least, I wished I were dead. Better than to be here amongst a host of Mother’s friends who would no doubt chat about me behind my back, reminding each other that I was the debutante dropout. The daughter of a Blevins and a Kendricks who was a no-show at her own coming out.
I started to cringe, until I caught myself.
So what?
Who cares if they did yap about me?
At least I’d give them something more interesting to discuss than which Thomas, Richard, or Harriet had faces lifted, tummies tucked, or noses bobbed since the last Symphony gala.
I held my head high, relieved to find my sense of humor intact. I’d need it for the next several hours, because there was no backing out.
This was my repayment to Mother for her allowing David to stay at her house and for keeping him out of the hands of social services. Oh, and for the snooping she’d done, for which she seemed inordinately pleased with herself.
One night, I told myself.
“An Evening at the Symphony” to benefit Children’s Medical Center. One thousand smackeroos per ticket. With Cristal and dancing in the foyer prior to the night’s performance of Handel and Beethoven.
I had survived blind dates far worse than this.
“Oh, look, Andrea, there’s a friend of yours.” Cissy nudged me, and I scanned the gaggle of glitterati to find the familiar face.
“Mother,” I said under my breath.
Brian Malone walked toward us. “Go on,” she hissed in my ear, giving me a less-than-gentle shove.
I stumbled forward, nearly falling from the heights of my unsensible shoes, though I steadied myself and smoothed down the front of my blue raw silk dress. Another item Mother had insisted on. It clung to my skin in a way that made me feel more naked than the hot pants at Jugs.
Malone tugged at the cuffs of his tuxedo as he approached, looking strangely grateful to see me. But not at all surprised.
“Wow, Kendricks,” he said and took me in with wide eyes. “Is it really you?”
Mother had made me go with her to José Eber’s in the afternoon to have my hair and makeup done, and I felt like a complete fraud, certainly not like the Andrea Kendricks who’d defied her mother and Dallas society in one fell swoop.
“You look great, too,” I told him, and he blushed.
He bent closer so I could hear him over the pianist and the schmoozing. “You want to dance?”
I stared at him. “Do you?”
“As a matter of fact, I do.” He took my hand in his and led me over to the area where couples gracefully swirled, twirled, and dipped. I only hoped I wouldn’t step on his toes. I doubtless could maim him pretty good with my spiked heels.
He pulled me close, and I inhaled the smell of him, the scent of soap on his skin beneath his lime-tinged aftershave.
“What a coincidence that you’re here,” I got out.
“It’s no coincidence, Andy.”
I wrinkled my brow. “Oh?”
“Cissy invited me,” he said.
“She did?”
“I’m surprised you didn’t know.”
“Mother’s full of surprises.”
My eyes narrowed, I peered over his shoulder and spied her across the foyer.
She was watching us.
Beaming.
I hadn’t seen her look that pleased in years, since she’d found the pear-shaped gold Judith Leiber bag at Neimans. On sale.
“Is everything all right, Andy?”
“Never better,” I snapped.
“I thought it was pretty generous of her,” Malone remarked. “She picked up my tab.”
“For the ticket?”
“Yes, that, too. And for Molly’s defense.”
My feet stopped moving, and Malone bumped into me. “I told you I’d handle your fee,” I said, caught between disbelief that Cissy would’ve helped out “that scholarship girl” and miffed that she’d done it without telling me.
“Well, don’t worry, your mother took care of everything.”
She certainly had, I thought, amazed at how quickly Mother worked. I swear, if she’d been as good at science as she was at manipulation, she would’ve been making nuclear weapons with her Little Miss Chemistry set while the other kids were concocting stink bombs.
“Cissy arranged for us to sit together during the program,” he said, his breath tickling my ear. He held me so near I could feel his heart beat against mine. “And then, afterward, she suggested drinks at the Mansion in the Library.”
“Mother is too thoughtful,” I replied, dripping sarcasm, but he seemed oblivious.
I gazed up at his smiling face and wondered if he had the slightest idea what he’d gotten himself into.
He bent over to whisper, “I say we lose your mom at intermission and go find a burger joint that’ll serve a gorgeous brunette and a lawyer in a monkey suit.”
Then again, maybe he did.
SUSAN McBRIDE
is the author of
The Truth About Love & Lightning, Little Black Dress
, and
The Cougar Club
, all Target Recommended Reads. She also penned the award-winning Debutante Dropout Mysteries, including
Blue Blood
and
Too Pretty to Die
. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri, with her husband and daughter.
Visit Susan’s website at www.SusanMcBride.com for more info.
Visit
www.AuthorTracker.com
for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.
Blue Blood
IT’S A GALA COMING-OUT PARTY FOR
ANDREA KENDRICKS
AND
SUSAN McBRIDE—
WITH RESOUNDING PRAISE FOR
BLUE BLOOD
“Susan McBride creates a wonderfully determined and clever sleuth who is willing to peel off the white gloves and don a Wonderbra in pursuit of the bad guys.”
Jerrilyn Farmer
“Refreshing . . . Susan McBride has an engaging new heroine in Andrea Kendricks, a young woman whose approach to crime-solving is asking herself WWND? (What Would Nancy [Drew] Do?)”
Thomas Perry
“Debutantes, murder, and big boobs—this book has it all! Susan McBride kept me laughing all the way through.”
Tess Gerritsen
“BLUE BLOOD is a wry, dead-on social commentary masquerading as a can’t-put-it-down mystery. Highly recommended for those who love to laugh.”
John Westermann
“Andrea Kendricks . . . is a treasure.”
Charlaine Harris
“BLUE BLOOD is delightful, witty, and oh-so-proper (not!). Susan McBride has Dallas society on its designer-clad toes.”
Carolyn Tillery, Society Editor,
Park Cities People
(Dallas)
T
HE
T
RUTH
A
BOUT
L
OVE AND
L
IGHTNING
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
BLUE BLOOD. Copyright © 2004 by Susan McBride. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition DECEMBER 2013 ISBN: 9780062319913
Print Edition ISBN: 978-0-06-056389-9
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