The Care and Feeding of an Alpha Male (2 page)

Beth Ann had picked it for that exact reason.

“Your sister,” Jeanette said, and tilted her glass to get the last sip of champagne.

Beth Ann frowned. “What’s Lucy done this time?”

“I knew that when she begged to stay home it was a mistake. I just knew it.” Jeanette put the champagne glass down on the
counter and threw her hands up in the air. “I called home and she’s not there. She’s off with those DwarfQuester people—”

“QuestMasters,” Beth Ann corrected.

“All I know is that they dress up in costumes and pretend to be elves and dragons. And your sister is hanging out with them again.”

“She’s seventeen, Mom. It’s a harmless group.” Maybe a little on the geeky side, but pretty benign as far as friends went. “Besides, how do you know Lucy is with them? I thought she had a headache?”

“She
said
she had a headache,” her mother accused. “But she told me a week ago that they were having a big campout and all of the DwarfQuesters in the area—”

“QuestMasters.”

“That’s what I said. She said they were all going to a big campout where they could all dress up and frolic all weekend with the fairies.”

Er, okay. That sounded a little strange. “So it’s like a big slumber party?”

“Yes, and I forbid her to go. There will be boys there. I don’t want her getting into a compromising situation. The last thing your father needs for his reelection next year is an unwed teenage daughter with a baby on her hip. You saw what it did to Sarah Palin.”

Beth Ann rolled her eyes. “Mom, she’s hanging out with friends. She’s not getting pregnant.”

“I don’t want her with them. You saw her new boyfriend, didn’t you?”

She’d seen him. He was short, scrawny, and had a goatee
that was so long that he’d braided it and tied it back with a red rubber band. “I think so.”

Her mother leaned in. “She calls him ‘Colossus.’ Now what do you think that is for?”

Oh gawd. She did not want to have this conversation with her mother, who was currently tipsy in a fund-raiser bathroom. “I’m sure she’s fine—”

“Not if she is with Colossus. She asked me last week if I could get her birth control.” Her brows went up. “What do you think of that?”

Beth Ann winced. “At least she’s asking?”

Jeanette gave her a scathing look.

“Okay, okay.” She threw her hands up. “What do you want me to do?”

“I want you to find that campground and bring your sister home.”

“But I can’t leave right now. The auction isn’t done and—”

Someone knocked at the bathroom door.

Jeanette dusted off her clothing with precise fingers and examined her conservative dress in the mirror. “Your father doesn’t know anything about this, of course. He’s meeting with Senator Brown to discuss how he launched himself.” She gave Beth Ann a pointed look. “You know that’s his dream.”

Beth Ann wisely did not point out that her father would need to do a bit more than be mayor for a town with a population of two thousand people before he would have a senatorial seat handed to him. “Fine.”

They slipped out of the bathroom with a smile and a nod at the woman waiting.

“You’re going to go now?” her mother insisted, smiling cheerfully at one of her friends nearby.

“Do I have any choice? It’s either that or let Lucy get impregnated by the Colossus, right?” Her mother gave her a scathing look, warning her to keep her tone down. “Just let me grab my purse—”

Jeanette grabbed Beth Ann’s arm and steered her toward the kitchen. “I’ll get your purse. I suggest you go out that way.”

Puzzled, Beth Ann looked at the kitchen, and then back at her mother. “Why?”

“Because I just saw Allan enter.”

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.

“Think you’ll move out soon?”

“Lord, I hope so.” She didn’t think she’d be able to stand another few months living under her parents’ roof. “Any luck with the search?”

She heard Miranda clicking around on the other side of the computer, and then a stifled giggle. “Does it involve guys that dress up like hobbits?”

“That’s probably it,” Beth Ann said with a sigh. The rain didn’t appear to be letting up. Just her luck. “Does it say anything about camping?”

“Ooo, there’s a Tournament of Knights this weekend in Arcane Forest.”

“Arcane Forest?”

“Apparently it’s some privately owned property not far from the Daughtry Ranch.”

Masculine murmuring rumbled in the background. Miranda laughed again. “Dane says to tell you that he’s run into them before on the ranch property. They get pissy if you don’t address them properly when they are in costume.” She paused, then chuckled. “He just told me he was berated by a man in a fur loincloth while scouting a trail.”

“A fur loincloth?” Man, she hoped his name was not Colossus. She steered toward the next exit. “Never mind about the loincloth, honey. I don’t think I want to know. What exit do I need to take?”

Miranda walked her through the directions until Beth Ann had them memorized. “Thanks for your help, Mir.”

“Call me back if you meet a handsome, dashing wizard.”

“Very funny.”

“Do you need help?”

“No, I’ve got this covered.” Surely it wouldn’t be too hard to find Lucy. She’d just look for the most normal girl there.

“It’s no trouble. Dane says we can send maybe Colt or Grant your way—”

Beth Ann groaned. Miranda frequently mentioned Grant in Beth Ann’s presence, and she was starting to wonder if it was because Grant was wealthy, good-looking, and single. It smelled of a hookup. And Colt? Miranda knew better. Colt was a jerk. “Do not even think about sending anyone my way. You are not setting me up with one of Dane’s friends.”

“It’s not a hookup! I promise. But it sounds like you could use a hero—”

“I don’t, I promise. Now, I’ve got to go. Talk to you later.” She clicked off the phone just as the rain began to pour down in torrents. She made a left at a colorful wooden sign stuck in the side of the road—almost missed it, actually—and started to go down a dirt road that was quickly turning to mud. Yuck. Not that she had a choice.

The woods were dark and, around these parts, there were no lights to see by. It was made all the more dark and creepy by the fact that she was driving down some deserted road late at night, and she had no clue where she was going.

Definitely time to move back out again,
she thought to herself. Ever since she’d been forced to move back in, she’d been pulled between her headstrong mother and equally headstrong younger sister. An apartment next month, she decided. Didn’t matter how small it was. As it was, when things at home got a little hairy, she retreated to her salon. She had an air mattress on the floor in the back room, next to where she kept the tanning bed. It served as a getaway well enough, though it was time for something more permanent.

A line of cars appeared in the distance, and her little Volkswagen skidded in the mud as she turned into an equally sludgy dirt parking lot. Stumps lined the edges of the parking lot, and a veritable fleet of vehicles of all makes and shapes were parked haphazardly. She noticed a row of Porta-Potties off to one side, and a small, lit cloth pavilion across from it. Well. This must be the place.

Beth Ann parked her car between two pickups that looked as if they’d seen better days. She searched vainly for an umbrella in the backseat. Finding none, she sighed and tucked her keys in her purse, then got out of the car.

Rain pounded on her head, immediately turning her elegant updo into a flat mess. The splatters hit her bare arms and she looked down at her sequined, strappy heels and winced. They were already starting to stick in the mud of the parking lot. Ugh. She picked her way carefully across the sea of cars, heading toward the tent. She could hear people laughing, and someone was playing a flute of some kind. Her shoe skidded in the mud once, and she nearly fell facefirst.