Read Online Call Me Irresistible by Susan Elizabeth Phillips - Free Book Online

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.
    Kayla readjusted her bikini top. “Make sure your cash drawer is locked up tight, Birdie. Drug addicts will steal you blind.”
    “I’m not worried,” Birdie said smugly. “Arlis Hoover’s keeping an eye on her.”
    Shelby made the sign of the cross, and they all laughed.
    “Perhaps you’ll get lucky and Arlis will take a job at the new golf resort.”
    Emma had meant to be funny, but a silence fell over the group as each of them pondered how the proposed golf resort and condo complex could change her life for the better. Birdie would have her tearoom and bookstore, Kayla would be able to open the upscale fashion boutique she dreamed of, and the school system would get the extra revenue Zoey yearned for.
    Emma exchanged a look with Shelby. Her young mother-in-law would no longer have to watch her husband deal with the stress of being the only large employer in a town where too many were jobless. As for Emma herself . . . She and Kenny had enough money to live comfortably, regardless of what happened with the golf resort, but so many of the people they cared about didn’t, and the well-being of their hometown meant everything to them.
    Emma, however, didn’t believe in moping. “Golf resort or not,” she said briskly, “we need to discuss how we’re going to find the money to get our library repaired and back in operation. Even with the insurance check, we’re still miserably short of what we need.”
    Kayla refastened her blond topknot. “I can’t stand having another stupid bake sale. Zoey and I did enough of that in junior high.”
    “Or a silent auction,” Shelby said.
    “Or a car wash or a raffle.” Zoey swatted at a fly.
    “We need something big,” Birdie said. “Something that will attract everybody’s attention.”
    They talked for another hour, but no one could come up with a single idea about what that might be.
    Arlis Hoover pointed a stubby finger toward the bathtub Meg had just scrubbed for the second time. “You call that clean, Miss Movie Star? I don’t call that clean.”
    Meg no longer bothered pointing out she wasn’t a movie star. Arlis knew that very well. Exactly why she kept repeating it.
    Arlis had dyed black hair and a body like gnawed gristle. She fed off a