One by one, all the locals at the table fell silent. "What did I do?" she said as they turned to stare at her. "She told me to call her Emma."
Emma grabbed her wineglass and drained it.
"It's just not done," Shelby Traveler replied, her mouth pinching with disapproval.
Emma's husband shook his head. "Never. Not even by me. At least not as long as she's got her clothes on."
"Bad manners," Torie added with a swish of her long dark hair.
"Disrespectful," her father, Warren, agreed.
Ted kicked back in his chair and regarded her gravely. "I'd have thought by now you'd know better than to insult somebody you barely know."
Emma slowly lowered her head and banged her forehead against the table three times.
Kenny rubbed his wife's back and smiled. Amusement danced in Ted's eyes.
Meg had distinctly heard both Sunny and Spence refer to Kenny's wife as Emma, but she knew it would be useless to point that out. "Deepest apologies, Lady Emma," she drawled. "I hope I get a last meal before the beheading."
Torie sniffed. "No need to be sarcastic."
Emma gazed across the table at Meg. "They can't help themselves. Really."
Her husband planted a satisfied kiss on his wife's lips, then returned to a discussion of Spence's new Callaway irons. Ted tried to join in, but Sunny wanted his full attention, and she knew how to get it. "What's the tank-to-wheel efficiency of your new fuel cell?"
Meg had no idea what that even meant, but Ted was his normal accommodating self. "Thirty-eight, forty-two percent, depending on the load."
Sunny, all rapt attention, moved in closer.
Spence invited Meg to dance, and before she could refuse, two sets of female hands grasped her arms and pushed her to her feet. "She thought you'd never ask," Shelby said sweetly.
"I sure wish Dex was as light on his feet as you are, Spence," Torie cooed.
Across the table, Emma looked as worried as someone in a sunflower-splashed yellow top could look, and Meg swore she caught the shadow of a frown cross Ted's face.
Fortunately, the first song was up-tempo, and Spence made no attempt to engage her in conversation. Too soon, however, Kenny Chesney began to croon "All I Need to Know," and Spence drew her close. He was too old for the cologne he'd chosen, and she felt as though she'd been enveloped by an Abercrombie & Fitch store. "You're making me more than a little crazy, Miz Meg."
"I don't want to make anybody crazy," she said carefully. Except Ted Beaudine.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Birdie, Kayla, and Zoey settle at a table near the bar. Kayla looked sexy in a tight, one-shoulder white top that hugged her breasts without being slutty and a tropical print mini that set off her shapely legs. Birdie and Zoey were more casually dressed, and all three watched Meg closely.
Spence curled his hand around hers and drew it to his chest. "Shelby and Torie told me about you and Ted."
Her internal alarm rang. "What exactly did they say?"
"That you finally found your backbone and accepted the fact that Ted's not the man for you. I'm proud of you."
She lost a step as she silently cursed both women.
He squeezed her fingers, a gesture she assumed was meant to be comforting. "Sunny and I don't have any secrets. She told me about you throwing yourself at him at Shelby's party. I guess the way he rejected you finally woke you up to the truth, and I just want to say that I'm proud of you for facing it. You're going to feel a whole lot better about yourself, now that you've stopped chasing him. Shelby sure thinks so, and Torie said- Well, never mind what Torie said."
"Oh, no. Tell me. I'm sure it'll be good for my . . . personal growth."
"Well . . ." He rubbed her spine. "Torie said that when a woman obsesses over a man who's not interested in her, it kills her soul."
"Quite the philosopher."
"I was surprised myself. She seems a little flaky. She also told me you were planning to get my name tattooed on your ankle, which I don't believe." He hesitated. "It's not true, is it?"
When she shook her head, he looked disappointed. "Some of the people in this town are odd," he said. "Have you noticed that?"
They weren't odd at all. They were wily as foxes and twice as smart. She unlocked her rigid knees. "Now that you mention it."
Torie dragged her husband onto the dance floor and maneuvered as close to Spence and Meg as she could get, undoubtedly hoping to eavesdrop. Meg shot her a death ray and pulled away from Spence. "Excuse me. I need to use the restroom."