Welcome to Temptation (11 page)

"My
diamonds
."

"I found them on the dashboard," Wes said. "Seemed like the least we could do to make up for such a lousy welcome."

"You're kidding," Sophie said, as she mopped up the last of her drink. Amy put the glasses on. They were bizarre: thick pink plastic cat's-eye frames studded with rhinestones in the corners. Even the lenses were pink.

"You got pink lenses!" Amy was so delighted she was almost in Wes's lap. He looked pretty delighted, too. "I couldn't tell what color the old ones were," he told her. "But Mindy at the optometrist's said pink would be best."

"Mindy is a genius," Amy said from behind her glasses. "These lenses are
much
better than the old ones."

"Got those turned around pretty fat, didn't you?" Phin said quietly to Wes as Sophie leaned forward to see the glasses better.

"I sent Duane to Cincinnati to one of those one-hour places," Wes said, not taking his eyes off Amy.
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"You sent your deputy to Cincinnati so you could get –
ouch
!" Phin rubbed his shin as Sophie leaned back and smiled at Wes.

"You are obviously one of the good ones," she told him. "We're very impressed here."

"We certainly are," Amy said. "These are
great
." Phin's work as a best friend was done. A smart man would leave. He turned to ask Sophie to scoot over so he could go, and look down her dress again.

On the other hand, if he left too soon, the whole set-up would look as contrived as it was. It wouldn't kill him to stay a couple of minutes longer so Amy wouldn't catch on. "So how's the movie going?" he asked Sophie over the din, and she shot him a suspicious glance.

"Just fine, thank you," she said, and sipped her disgusting drink.

"You never did tell me what it's called."

"
Return to Temptation
."

"Catchy title. I don't suppose I could talk you out of using the name of the town." Sophie shook her head as she looked out over the crowd, and he watched the way her curls bounced on her shoulders. "I don't think so. Who are all these people?"

"People who live in Temptation," Phin said. "What did you think, we bus them in on Fridays?"

"I didn't think there were this many people in Temptation."

"Over two thousand," Phin said. "And every one of them contrary and stubborn as mules."

"And you know them all," Sophie said. "Who's the cute guy in the green windbreaker over there, talking toGeorgia?"

Phin bent closer to her to see where she was pointing, trying to ignore how her hair smelled like lavender. "Pete Alcott. He's part of their theater group. He moves a lot of scenery."

"I can understand that. He looks really strong."

"Not that strong."

"He's built very well."

"He can't play pool worth a damn. No position play at all. Fixates on whatever ball is in front of him." Phin looked down to see her frowning at him. "Sorry. Of course you don't know pool. Amateurs just knock the balls in one at a time. Pros use position play which means they always know not only how they're going to play the ball in front of them, but how they're going to play the next two or three balls, too. That way every shot they take positions them for the next one."

"And Pete Whatsis takes it one ball at a time." Sophie nodded at him, her eyes wide. "That's very
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interesting. Thank you."

She smiled at him, full wattage, and every political instinct he had went on alert. He looked down into her big brown eyes and said, "What are you up to?"

"Nothing." She nodded over to where Frank stood at the bar with his back to his wife and his front to Clea. "How's Frank play?"

"He likes trick shots," Phin said, still wary. "Bank shots, combination shots. Frank plays in the moment. He thinks pool is a performance. And he loses a lot."

"How about Rob?"

Sophie pointed over to the neon blue jukebox where Rob was arguing with Rachel.

"Rob tries to think ahead, but he never practices the basics. So he plans ahead four balls and then miscues on the second one and that throws him off so much that he panics and just starts banging balls around."

"You play with Stephen Garvey?" Sophie asked.

"Why are you so interested?" Phin said.

"Because I never thought about pool like this." She sounded sincere. "It's so smart of you to figure this out. That you could tell what kind of person somebody is by the way he plays pool. I'd never have thought of that."

"That's because you can't," Phin said. "Some people are very sharp, but they never learned to play the game right. So they screw up, but it's not a function of personality."

"But Rob and Frank learned right?"

Phin nodded. "My dad taught all of us. And Ed Yarnell plays us, too. Good training."

"So how does Stephen Garvey play?" Sophie said, smiling at him, lush and warm and round in the dim light, and Phin gave up trying to figure out what she was up to.

"He plays position, but he hits the ball too hard. The harder you hit the ball, the smaller the pocket gets, so it's easier to miss. He thinks it's macho to slam the cue into the ball which is why he loses a lot."

"But not always," Sophie said thoughtfully.

Phin shrugged. "Sometimes you have to hit the ball hard. In those cases, he wins."

"Sophie!"Georgiaslid in beside her and jammed her into Phin.

"Sorry," Sophie said to him. "Easy,Georgia, we're a little clamped here." She shifted to make more room, and Phin could feel the warm length of her thigh against his. Thank you , Georgia. Not that he intended to do anything about it, that would be dumb, but having Sophie pressed up against him even briefly was a pleasure. He let his arm fall along the back of the booth.
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"Amy showed me some of the tape today,"Georgiawas saying as she beamed across the table at Amy.

"I was
so
impressed. There I was, right there on the television. You have to come back from Cincinnati to tape our theater productions from now on."

"I'm not staying in Cincinnati ," Amy said, and Phin winced at the look on Wes's face. "I'm going to drive to L.A. as soon as I have the tape edited." She leaned across the table to Sophie. "I forgot to ask. Can I take the car? To L.A. , I mean?"

"Oh." Sophie looked taken aback. "Sure."

And what are you going to use for transportation?Phin wanted to say, but the last time he'd suggested she think about herself, she'd gotten hostile.

"Well, you have to come back here to visit,"Georgiawas saying to Sophie. "We just really like you a lot."

"That's very sweet of you, Georgia. I like you all a lot, too." Sophie looked up at Phin, imploring instead of hostile:
Get me out of this
. Then she drained her rum and Coke. Phin thought about offering her a ride home and decided to keep her trapped there a while longer. For one thing, she felt really good pressed up against him, which was selfish of him but fortunately, he didn't have a problem with selfish. For another, if she got tanked, maybe she'd come across with more information about the movie. He looked down her dress again. It was a real shame he wasn't in a position to encourage her to come across with some other stuff, too. That was the trouble with dangerous women: They were almost always attractive. "The devil's candy," he remembered. "Women who would ruin you as soon as look at you."

Sophie looked up at him pitifully, but before he could say anything,Georgiabellowed, "Frank!" and Frank turned around from Clea to scowl at her. "Sophie needs a drink, honey."

"No, really," Sophie said, but Frank nodded and came over a minute later with another rum and Coke.

"Clea said this is what you're drinking," he told her, delighted to be reporting that he'd had a conversation with Clea, and Phin thought,
Frank, you're a moron and your wife is going to kill you.

"Thanks," Sophie said. "But really, you shouldn't have."

"Well, we're all so pleased you're here." Frank smiled at Sophie and Amy.

"Yes, we are."Georgiatoasted Sophie with her drink and spilled some of it on the table in the process.

"And that you brought Clea back to us," Frank finished.

Georgiaput her glass down.

Frank looked back at Clea and Rob. "That boy of mine," he said. "He's so starstruck, he doesn't know which end is up."

Phin looked around Frank and saw Rob at the bar being dazzled by Clea, who looked pleased to have him there.

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"If he's not careful, Rachel's going to get jealous," Frank said. "I better go tell him to take care of what he's got."

"Good advice,"Georgiasaid, but Frank was already heading back to the bar. She turned to Sophie, "I'm sorry, but Clea Whipple is a fucking bitch from hell."

Phin winced, but Sophie just said, "Cheers," and drank another slug of rum and Diet Coke.

"She's still trying to get him, that bitch,"Georgiasaid. "She's never gonna learn. She tried to get him in high school, bet she didn't tell you that, did she?"

"Uh, yeah, she did," Sophie said into her drink, butGeorgiawasn't listening, which was about par for Georgia, Phin thought. Center of the universe, at least in her own mind, that wasGeorgia.

"Thought she was going to get him, but she didn't. I fixed that. I fixed that good."Georgiadrank again.

"You gotta keep men in line or they'll just run all over you."

Phinspared a moment of sympathy for Frank until he looked back and saw him at the bar, leaning into Clea's cleavage.
Get a grip, Frank
, he thought, and then he looked down Sophie's dress and thought,
Never mind, Frank
.

"But I got what I wanted,"Georgiasaid. "You can get what you want, too." She squinted at Sophie.

"What do you want?"

"World peace," Sophie said, and tried to move away fromGeorgiaa little. Since that pressed her up even closer to Phin, he tried to think kinder thoughts aboutGeorgia, but it was hard.

"I got everything I wanted,"Georgiasaid. "Except a little girl. I never got my little girl. Boys aren't the same."

"This is true," Sophie said, and shifted on the booth seat again. Very true, Phin thought gratefully, as the lavender in Sophie's hair drifted up to him again. Of course, if he'd been born female, there'd be blood in his brain right now, but a little light-headedness seemed a small price to pay for the rush he was getting every time Sophie moved. He tried not to think about that, but that was hard, too. Everything was hard.

"I really wanted a little girl,"Georgiasaid. "I really did. But we never got one. When that bitch got her big Hollywoodbreak, Frank said we could try, and we tried and tried but I never did get my girl. And I had the cutest clothes already bought for her."

"Oh, God," Sophie said into her drink. WhenGeorgiawent on in detail about the cute little dresses –

"smocked with little tiny roses" – Sophie let her head fall back against Phin's arm, and he started calculating square roots so he wouldn't lunge for her mouth.

"He's still mad because we had to get married,"Georgiasaid, looking back at the bar. "That's why he's doing this. That's why."

"You didn't have to get married," Sophie said.

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Georgiastraightened. "No, we certainly did not."

Phin had heard all aboutGeorgia's eleven-month pregnancy when Diane's rabbit had died. "She's lying just like that Georgia Lutz," his mother had said, but when Ed confirmed it, even Liz had been defeated. Too bad Frank hadn't had a Liz in his corner.

"We did not have to get married,"Georgiarepeated, staring now at Frank and Clea. When she turned back to Sophie, her face was tragic. "You do what you have to do," she told Sophie quietly, not sounding drunk at all. "You fight for what's yours, for your family, for the family you were meant to have. And they never forgive you for it,
they never do
. You just keep paying and paying." Sophie put her drink down. "Are you all right,Georgia?"

Georgialooked back at the bar. "I'm just fine. I've got everything I want. And nobody's going to take it away. I'm Frank's leading lady, he needs me," She straightened. "Did he tell you we're doing Carousel?

I'm the lead, of course, and..."

For the next two hours,Georgiarattled on, and Phin watched Sophie knock back her third and fourth drink. She was pressed up warm against him, her curls brushing soft against his arm, and he'd long ago given up caring about the movie and was now seriously reconsidering his stand on dangerous women. It wasn't just Sophie's cleavage and her mouth; when she tilted her head to talk across the table, her neck curved so beautifully into her shoulder that it made him dizzy. The temptation to lean down and bite into that curve was becoming overwhelming, to lick his way up her throat and take that mouth, and then Wes said something and she laughed and turned her face up to him to share the joke, and he fell into her huge warm, brown eyes and his mind went blank.

"Are you all right?" she said.

"Nope." He caught his breath and drained his beer. "Hot in here." Atmidnight, when Sophie reached the bottom of her fourth glass, she put it down and said, "I didn't need that."

She was drunk, he realized; not obnoxious drunk likeGeorgia, but still too drunk for him to move on. He didn't mind seducing women whom drink had made cheerful, but he drew the line at those whom drink had made stupid.

Amy leaned forward. "You can't drink worth a damn, Soph. You ready to go?"

"I can walk it." Sophie nudged Georgia with her hip. "It's not that far."

"Honey, it's dark out there," Georgia protested, but she moved out of the booth.

"I have Mace," Sophie told her as she slid across the seat. "And I'm not afraid to use it."

"Tell you what." Phin slid right behind her, chasing her heat. "I'll take you home."

"You sure?" Amy said. "I'm almost done here."

Phin smiled at Amy. "No problem. If you'll take Wes home when you're ready to go, I can drop Sophie
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off."

Amy nodded, and Phin steered Sophie to the door. "Give me the Mace," he said. "I don't want any accidents."

"Wimp." She walked away from him toward the door, and she looked as lush from behind as she did from the front.