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Haley was so honest about what she’d done and so ashamed of her actions that none of them had been able to stay angry with her for long.
Shelby, who’d switched from mojitos to Diet Pepsi, slipped out of her new pewter flats. “It took guts to face down everybody at the Roustabout the way Meg did. Even if nobody believed a word she said.”
Torie snorted. “If we hadn’t all been so depressed, we’d have fallen off our chairs laughing when she talked about how she controlled Ted, then dumped him, like she was some big man-eater.”
“Meg has honor, and she has heart,” Birdie said. “That’s a rare combination. She was also the hardest-working maid I ever had.”
“And the worst paid,” Torie pointed out.
Birdie immediately got defensive. “You know I’m trying to make up for that. I sent a check in care of her parents, but I haven’t heard a word.”
Lady Emma looked worried. “None of us have. She should at least have kept her phone number so we could call her. I don’t like the way she’s disappeared.”
Kayla gestured toward the computer screen. “She picked a heck of a way to resurface. This is a desperation move on her part. A last attempt to get Ted back.”
Shelby tugged on the waistband of her too-tight jeans. “She must have borrowed the money from her parents.”
Torie wasn’t buying it. “Meg’s too proud to do that. And she’s not the kind of woman who’ll chase after a man who won’t commit.”
“I don’t believe Meg placed that bid,” Zoey said. “I think her parents did it.”
They pondered the idea. “You might be right,” Birdie finally said. “What parents wouldn’t want their daughter to end up with Ted?”
But Lady Emma’s quick brain had taken a different path. “You’re all wrong,” she said firmly. “Meg didn’t place that bid, and neither did her parents.” She exchanged a long look with Torie.
“What?” Kayla said. “Tell us.”
Torie set aside her third mojito. “Ted placed the bid in Meg’s name. He wants her back, and this is how he’s going to get her.”
They all wanted to see his reaction, so the committee members spent the next half hour arguing about who would inform Ted that Meg had won the contest. Would he pretend shock or come clean about his ruse? Eventually Lady Emma pulled rank on them and announced that she would do it herself.
Ted returned to Wynette on a Sunday, and Lady Emma showed up at his house early Monday morning. She wasn’t altogether surprised when he didn’t answer the door, but it wasn’t in her nature to be put off, so she parked her SUV, pulled a lavishly illustrated biography of Beatrix Potter from her tote, and prepared to wait him out.
Less than half an hour later, the garage door opened. He took in the way she’d blocked both his truck and his Benz, then approached her car. He was wearing a business suit and aviator sunglasses, and carrying a laptop in a black leather case. He leaned down to address her through the open window. “Move.”
She snapped her book closed. “I’m here on official business. Something I would have told you if you’d answered the door.”
“I’m not the mayor any longer. I have no official business.”
“You’re the mayor in absentia. We’ve all decided. And it’s not that kind of business.”
He straightened. “Are you going to move your car or am I going to do it for you?”
“Kenny would not approve of you manhandling me.”
“Kenny would cheer me on.” He pulled off his sunglasses. His eyes looked tired. “What do you want, Emma?”
The fact that he didn’t address her as “Lady Emma” alarmed her as much as his pallor, but she concealed how worried she was. “The contest is over,” she said, “and we have a winner.”
“I’m thrilled,” he drawled.
“It’s Meg.”
“Meg?”
She nodded and waited for his reaction. Would she see satisfaction? Shock? Was her theory right?
He slipped on his sunglasses and told her she had thirty seconds to move her damn car.
