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 harmless 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 own 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 jacket—”
Jeanette grabbed Beth Ann’s arm and steered her toward the kitchen. “I’ll get your jacket. 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.#p#分页标题#e#