They looked up as Kayla Garvin hurried around the corner of the house, the top of her two-piece swimsuit generously displaying the implants her father had bought her several years ago in hopes she could lure Ted into joining the Garvin family. "Sorry I'm late. New arrivals at the shop." She wrinkled her nose, showing her distaste for the clothing resale shop she ran part-time to keep herself busy, but her expression brightened when she saw that Torie hadn't shown up. Even though Torie was a close friend, Kayla didn't like being around anyone whose body was as good as her own, not when she was wearing a swimsuit.
Today, Kayla had piled her blond hair into a fashionably unkempt knot on top of her head and wrapped a white lace sarong low on her hips. As usual, she wore full makeup and her new pavé diamond star necklace. She settled on the chaise next to Emma. "I swear, if one more woman tries to pawn off another old lady Christmas sweater on me, I'm going to lock up that resale shop and go to work for you, Birdie."
"Thanks again for helping me out last week. That's the second time this month Mary Alice has called in sick." Birdie moved her freckled legs out of the sun. "Even though I need the business, I'm glad the press has finally left town. They were like a bunch of crows, poking around in our business and making fun of the town. They dogged Ted everywhere."
Kayla reached for her favorite MAC lip gloss. "I should be thankin' you for letting me help out that day. I wish y'all had been there when Miss Hollywood started scrambling to pay her bill. 'Do you know who I am?' she says, like I'm supposed to start bowing." Kayla slicked the wand over her lips.
"She's got more attitude than anybody I've ever met." Zoey Daniels wore a conservative one-piece nut brown bathing suit a few shades darker than her skin. Believing that African American women needed to be just as vigilant against sun damage as their pale sisters, she'd chosen to sit under one of the striped umbrellas.
At thirty-two, Zoey and Kayla were the youngest members of the group. Despite their differences-one was a fashion-obsessed blond beauty queen; the other the studious young principal of Sybil Chandler Elementary School-they'd been best friends since childhood. Barely five feet tall and slender, Zoey had short, natural hair, large golden-brown eyes, and an air of worry that had become more pronounced as class sizes had grown and budgets had been cut.
She tugged on a brightly colored stretchy bracelet strung with what seemed to be lumps of dried Play-Doh. "Just the sight of that girl depresses me. I can't wait for her to leave town. Poor Ted."
Shelby Traveler rubbed sunblock on the tops of her feet. "He's being so brave about what happened. It just about breaks my heart."
Ted was special to each of them. Birdie adored him, and he'd been in and out of Shelby's house ever since she'd married Kenny's father, Warren. Kayla and Zoey had both been in love with him, a serious test of their friendship. All Kayla would say about it these days was that those were the best six months of her life. Zoey just sighed and got depressed, so they'd stopped talking about it.
"Maybe it was jealousy that made her do it." Zoey retrieved a copy of Social Studies in Elementary School that had fallen out of her book bag and stuffed it back in. "Either she didn't want Lucy to have him, or she took one look at him and wanted him for herself."
"We all know women who've gotten more than a little obsessive about Ted." Shelby didn't look at either Zoey or Kayla, but she didn't have to. "I sure would like to know what she said to Lucy to convince her to call off the wedding."
Kayla fiddled with her star necklace. "Y'all know how Ted is. Sweet to everybody. But not to Miss I've-Got-Famous-Parents." Kayla shivered. "Who knew Ted Beaudine had a dark side."
"It only makes him hotter." Zoey gave another of her poignant sighs.
Birdie smirked. "Jake Koranda's daughter is scrubbin' my toilets . . ."
Emma pulled on her sun hat, a perky straw number. "It's difficult for me to understand why her parents aren't helping her."
"They've cut her off," Kayla said firmly. "And it's not hard to figure out why. Meg Koranda is on drugs."
"We don't know that for sure," Zoey said.
"You always want to think the best of everybody," Kayla retorted. "But it's clear as anything. I'll bet her family finally decided they'd had enough."
This was exactly the kind of gossip Emma most disliked. "Best not to start rumors we can't prove," she said, even though she knew she was wasting her breath.