Read Online The Ugly Truth by Cheryel Hutton - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Cheryel Hutton
Tags: Fantasy, Paranormal
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planned for tonight, but she wouldn’t tell me what. What were the odds I could get out of going? Slim to none, probably.
I took a deep breath and pulled open the door to The Café. So my spread was interesting, huh. Great. What was that saying? May you live in interesting times. Wasn’t that a Chinese curse?
Chapter 6
I never in a gazillion years would have thought I’d attend a beauty pageant. But that’s not the weirdest part. See, the kicker is that I was enjoying myself. How’s that for about as strange as it gets? Of course, it helped a lot that most of the contestants only came up to my waist and none of them were old enough to drive.
The Little Miss Ugly Creek Pageant was held two days before the official Miss Ugly Creek Pageant. You know, the kind with the eye scratching, hair pulling young women putting their half-naked bodies out there to win fame, fortune, and college scholarships.
Whatever .
Tonight, though, was about little girls. Ranging from three to twelve years old, they were adorable. Yes, there was some eye scratching and hair pulling going on behind the scenes, but for the most part it wasn’t the contestants—it was the mothers who behaved badly. I pointedly ignored that crap and took some awesome pictures of the most beautiful little girls in the world.
One of them had long, blonde hair and was dressed in a pink and purple fairy princess dress. She reminded me a lot of the pictures I’d seen of Maddie when she was a child.
I couldn’t believe a pageant could actually be so much fun. I shot pics and enjoyed myself immensely. The event took place in the high school auditorium, and a couple of nearby classrooms were set aside as prep areas for the smaller girls and their parents. The older girls used the actual dressing rooms for privacy. I was heading toward the second of the classrooms when I heard a voice.
“Hello, Buffy .”
Hearing my real name was bad enough. Hearing it in that voice made my skin crawl. Maybe he was talking to someone else. Yeah, someone else, that was the explanation. I’d ignore him and he’d go away.
And then Butch was in my face. “It’s no use pretending that isn’t your name,” he said, leaning close enough I could smell his expensive aftershave. “I’m not stupid, you know. I know how to use the Internet. Your name is Buffy and you’re from Alabama. Crooked Tree Hollow, Alabama, to be exact.”
I stared into washed-out brown eyes. Eyes that held scorn, annoyance, and lust. His lips pulled into a smile that sent my insides rolling around with revulsion.
I wanted to run to the nearest airport and fly back to D.C. as fast as the first flight out could take me. But that would only be playing into his hands, as would denying the truth. I gave him the glare I used to aim at my stepfather. “So. What about it?”
A bit of his arrogance seemed to slip. “You’re pretending to be some big old famous Yankee, when you’re just as Southern as the rest of us. I’ll bet you grew up in a trailer park, didn’t you?”
I physically felt the power shift toward my side of the equation. “Buying into stereotypes only makes you look dumb. For your information, I may be Southern, but I was never poor. Ever.”
I flashed my biggest, brightest smile, spun on my heel, and headed down the hall to take pictures of a gorgeous little girl with obvious Asian genes. She had on a lacy lavender dress embellished with tiny embroidered pink roses. The child was absolutely adorable. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Butch glaring. Then he turned and stomped out of the room. I took a big sigh of relief and focused on my shots.
While I worked I wondered what had crawled up and died in his pocket, and why I seemed to be the focus of his vexation.
I wondered what his next move would be. Because I knew for sure, this was far from over.
Two hours later, the pageant was in full swing, and I had all but forgotten Butch and his weird obsession with me. The little girls were
I took a deep breath and pulled open the door to The Café. So my spread was interesting, huh. Great. What was that saying? May you live in interesting times. Wasn’t that a Chinese curse?
Chapter 6
I never in a gazillion years would have thought I’d attend a beauty pageant. But that’s not the weirdest part. See, the kicker is that I was enjoying myself. How’s that for about as strange as it gets? Of course, it helped a lot that most of the contestants only came up to my waist and none of them were old enough to drive.
The Little Miss Ugly Creek Pageant was held two days before the official Miss Ugly Creek Pageant. You know, the kind with the eye scratching, hair pulling young women putting their half-naked bodies out there to win fame, fortune, and college scholarships.
Whatever .
Tonight, though, was about little girls. Ranging from three to twelve years old, they were adorable. Yes, there was some eye scratching and hair pulling going on behind the scenes, but for the most part it wasn’t the contestants—it was the mothers who behaved badly. I pointedly ignored that crap and took some awesome pictures of the most beautiful little girls in the world.
One of them had long, blonde hair and was dressed in a pink and purple fairy princess dress. She reminded me a lot of the pictures I’d seen of Maddie when she was a child.
I couldn’t believe a pageant could actually be so much fun. I shot pics and enjoyed myself immensely. The event took place in the high school auditorium, and a couple of nearby classrooms were set aside as prep areas for the smaller girls and their parents. The older girls used the actual dressing rooms for privacy. I was heading toward the second of the classrooms when I heard a voice.
“Hello, Buffy .”
Hearing my real name was bad enough. Hearing it in that voice made my skin crawl. Maybe he was talking to someone else. Yeah, someone else, that was the explanation. I’d ignore him and he’d go away.
And then Butch was in my face. “It’s no use pretending that isn’t your name,” he said, leaning close enough I could smell his expensive aftershave. “I’m not stupid, you know. I know how to use the Internet. Your name is Buffy and you’re from Alabama. Crooked Tree Hollow, Alabama, to be exact.”
I stared into washed-out brown eyes. Eyes that held scorn, annoyance, and lust. His lips pulled into a smile that sent my insides rolling around with revulsion.
I wanted to run to the nearest airport and fly back to D.C. as fast as the first flight out could take me. But that would only be playing into his hands, as would denying the truth. I gave him the glare I used to aim at my stepfather. “So. What about it?”
A bit of his arrogance seemed to slip. “You’re pretending to be some big old famous Yankee, when you’re just as Southern as the rest of us. I’ll bet you grew up in a trailer park, didn’t you?”
I physically felt the power shift toward my side of the equation. “Buying into stereotypes only makes you look dumb. For your information, I may be Southern, but I was never poor. Ever.”
I flashed my biggest, brightest smile, spun on my heel, and headed down the hall to take pictures of a gorgeous little girl with obvious Asian genes. She had on a lacy lavender dress embellished with tiny embroidered pink roses. The child was absolutely adorable. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Butch glaring. Then he turned and stomped out of the room. I took a big sigh of relief and focused on my shots.
While I worked I wondered what had crawled up and died in his pocket, and why I seemed to be the focus of his vexation.
I wondered what his next move would be. Because I knew for sure, this was far from over.
Two hours later, the pageant was in full swing, and I had all but forgotten Butch and his weird obsession with me. The little girls were
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