Mink Too, All the Riches in the World Can't Buy Love Page 3

  The third building contained a weight room, indoor pool, tennis and swimming locker rooms, saunas, steam rooms, and massage areas. Trainers for each sport kept their offices there. Club members arranged for one-on-one training sessions. Seven tennis courts were to the right of the offices. The country club named for the beautiful lake glistening like blue gold in the setting sun was a marvelous place to be a member.

  Susan reflected on the many enjoyable hours she’d spent at Blue Lake. She learned tennis, golf, and squash at the club. Her father arranged her cotillion there when she turned sixteen. If she’d only learned to swim, she wouldn’t be in this self-created situation, she mused, thinking about the arrogant sergeant as she turned the keys over to a valet. She sashayed into the dining room to search for her girlfriends.

  “Suzie, we’re over here!” Delta waved and then shouted when she spotted Susan at the entrance.

  Susan smiled when she noticed the chubby woman enthusiastically waving at her.

  “Christ, Delta! Sit back down and shut up! You’re making a spectacle of yourself. Everyone’s watching you,” Maryellen fussed as her eyes darted around the private dining hall.

  Delta frowned at her friend. “Oh, be quiet, ME. I just wanted to make sure Suzie saw us.”

  Always the mediator, Carolyn Parson stared at two of her three best friends and smiled. “No arguments tonight, all right? We’re here to have a nice dinner and ogle all the good-looking men or women, whichever the case may be.”

  Susan strode over to the table. They were her three dearest friends. She’d known them for eons.

  “What happened to you?” Carolyn was a pretty brunette with clear blue eyes and a “peaches n’ cream” complexion. She glanced at her Tourneau watch and then looked at Susan. She grinned. “You’re late, Kiddo.”

  “Yeah, I know.” Susan nodded, and then bussed each woman’s cheek. “You’ll never guess what I just did.”

  Maryellen studied her friend and rolled her eyes to the ceiling. Oh God, not another story about how Susan Drummond conquered some woman, then broke her heart when she deserted her. She tired of hearing Suzie’s latest trials and tribulations in the world of women. One of these days, she was going to get her tail kicked and her heart broken. When it happened, and Maryellen was certain it would, she wanted to be there. She didn’t wish the spoiled heifer ill will, but it would be nice to see her comeuppance just once in this lifetime. Suzie had the luck of the Irish when it came to women. Hell, Suzie was just lucky with people period. Her father worshiped her. While he supported her emotionally and financially, he was beginning to grow tired of bailing her out with the police department. He was also making noises as though he expected her to find a job in his company, but he hadn’t put his foot down yet.

  Then there was Johnny Flint, the second richest man in town and heir apparent to the Flint Industries fortune. He was handsome, eligible, and had been in love with Suzie since they were children. Why Suzie didn’t see the possibilities in marrying Johnny, Maryellen would never understand. Johnny knew that she preferred women, but he was willing to live with her orientation if she’d just say yes. How lucky could one woman get? Maryellen mused. The last thing she needed to hear tonight was another Susan-conquers-the-world story.

  Delta encouraged Susan to continue with her story as she always did. “Tell us, Suzie. I know this one is gonna be good. You have that look in your eye.”

  Delta had always been a little in love with Susan from the time she met the young woman with the gorgeous hazel eyes and friendly ways. It was Delta’s first year in the private school. All the kids knew each other. They paired off instantly, or at least it seemed that way to Delta. She watched with envy as several girls her age walked together down the corridor and chatted on the way to the next class. Nobody in the private school her father insisted that she attend would break rank and speak to her as the new kid. When she waited for the chauffeur to drive her to school, she used to see kids happily chatting and playing with each other as they waited for the school bus to pick them up and take them to the public school. Delta wished she could make friends that easily.

  One day in gym class, she was struggling to hit the volleyball over the net when a voice behind her spoke. “Hold the ball like this.”

  A light-skinned Black girl with amazing hazel eyes demonstrated how to hold the ball in one hand and serve with the other hand. The girl was taller than she was and well built. She tossed the ball to Delta, then watched her unsuccessfully try to mimic what she’d just seen. Delta was all thumbs as she tried to hit the ball.

  Susan resorted to standing behind Delta and reaching around her to hold her hands in the proper position. Delta remembered that time like it was yesterday. How Susan’s breasts pressed against her back. How her breath tickled the back of Delta’s neck and turned her on. Over the years, she’d often wondered if Susan was aware of her excitement that day. She also wondered what they might have done had Susan known about her feelings back then. She sighed. They became good friends after that, with the emphasis on friendship and not sex. She was willing to live vicariously through Susan’s bawdy stories that she was certain Susan embellished for her benefit. She watched Susan settle into the chair.

  Susan signaled the waiter. “I’ll have iced tea please, George.”

  Carolyn, Maryellen, and Delta looked at each other, then at Susan.

  “Iced tea, Susan?” Maryellen remarked.

  “But you always have a margarita or a daiquiri,” Delta added.

  Maryellen studied Susan with narrowed eyes. “The only time you don’t have a drink with us is when you’re in trouble with the cops. Like a sip of alcohol is going to show up on their Breathalyzer test anyway. What did you do this time? Burn down the stationhouse with the sheriff and his cops in it?” she asked sarcastically.

  Maryellen knew Susan liked to speed in the low slung, super-charged sports car with the vanity plates. The car was a birthday gift she’d gotten from her daddy three years ago. Since Susan discovered the true pleasures of speeding down country roads, she’d given most of the cops at the stationhouse a run for their money. Her favorite remark about the topic of Susan’s speeding tickets was “Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.”

  Delta, however, always took Susan’s side. She felt the cops who issued the tickets had nerve. She was glad that Susan’s daddy made the cops pay. She remembered hearing a rumor that two officers were on report for stopping the daughter of one of the town’s wealthiest residents. She heard another cop lost his job for pushing Susan’s traffic ticket too strongly with the local judge. After a cajoling phone call from Susan’s father to the judge, who was an old friend and colleague, he dismissed the case. According to town gossip, the cop’s firing cast a pallor on the stationhouse. The sheriff ordered his men to issue warnings to Susan. There would be no more tickets. Sheriff Reeves hoped Susan would tire of her new toy and move on to some other excitement or she’d go work for her father. Then she wouldn’t have as much time on her hands to make trouble for him and his cops.

  Maryellen couldn’t imagine Susan growing tired of her cat and mouse games with the cops or going to work for her father. She was having far too much fun playing the rich bitch role. She and Delta understood exactly how the game worked since they’d played it a few times too.

  Carolyn elbowed Maryellen in the side and reminded her, “ME, be nice. Let Susan tell us why she’s late. Come on, Sistah, tell us.”

  “You remember me telling you about this arrogant female cop who stopped me for speeding?” Susan asked as she studied her three friends.

  The three women nodded. Susan spoiled their last three dinners with her tale of woe about the cop with the mirrored sunglasses who stopped her for speeding. According to Susan, the cop was always polite, tipping her Stetson before issuing a stern warning. Susan tried to bait the officer several times, but the cop ignored her little digs, instead choosing to explain how dangerous speeding was for her. The women found it hard to decide which
angered Susan more: the cop ignoring her nasty remarks and obvious beauty to continue performing her duties or that the cop stopped her at all.

  There was one thing all three women knew about Susan Drummond. One never ignored her, not if they expected to have a long life. She had a wicked sense of humor and her paybacks were a bitch. If Susan liked you, she’d take you under her wing and share everything with you as she had with Delta. If she disliked you, watch out!

  “The cop stopped me today for speeding on the road between Route 2 and I-45.”

  “That’s about five miles from your dad’s construction site. Right?” Carolyn asked, confirming the location.

  Susan shook her head in disapproval. “No, it’s about ten miles away.”

  Carolyn frowned as she tried to picture the location in her mind. “Oh, I know that road. It’s loaded with trees and bushes. Nobody uses it.”

  Susan nodded. “Yes, that’s the one.”

  “Why there? Hardly anybody uses the old road. Who cares if you speed there?” Delta asked. “It’s practically deserted in the afternoon.”

  Susan shrugged. “It was deserted today too,” she continued with her story. “After the cop stops me, she tells me to take my sunglasses off.”

  “Why take your sunglasses off?” Delta asked.

  “She wanted to see who she was speaking to. As if the overbearing bitch didn’t know who I was! She’s stopped me three times before today!” Susan snorted loudly.

  Maryellen leaned forward with interest. Hah! It looked as though Suzie got back some of the trouble she caused. The cop was checking her eyes for evidence of drugs or alcohol.

  “So what did you do, Suzie?” Delta asked, getting involved in Susan’s story.

  “I refused to remove them. The cop said if I didn’t remove my glasses, she’d call for backup and remove them for me!” Susan blurted out indignantly as she relived the event in her mind.

  “Whoa, that cop sounds like a real hard ass to me.” Carolyn stirred her drink as she eyed Susan.

  “Wait a minute, Carol. It gets better.” Susan’s eyes lit up with a mischievous glow. “I took my glasses off and told her to remove hers, but she ignored me. Then she demanded to search my car.”

  “What did you say, Suzie? I hope you told her to get a warrant like they do on TV,” Delta remarked.

  Susan raised a hand to quiet her friend. “Hold on a minute, Delta, and I’ll tell you. I shrugged, but she said I needed to give my permission in words. I told her she could search the damned car, but she needed to hurry the hell up with whatever she was going to do. She made a big production out of finding a cigarette butt and some aspirin behind the front seat. She examined them, sniffed them, and then threw them out.”

  Maryellen searched Delta’s glowing face. God, Delta was getting into Susan’s story. She grinned when Delta asked another question in that breathless voice she used when excited.

  “What happened then?”

  “While she was searching my car, she made me stand in front of it where she could keep an eye on me like I was a criminal or something! She even told me to keep my hands where she could see them.”

  “Did she frisk you too, Suzie? You know, just to make sure you weren’t carrying concealed weapons or anything?” Delta imagined her hands gliding over Susan’s body, touching everything. She shifted in her seat as she felt something tingling between her legs.

  Susan glanced at Delta and winked. “No, she didn’t frisk me, but she did open my trunk. She emptied everything out and searched it. She piled all my stuff against the rear fender. She took my spare tire out and sat it up against the bumper too.”

  “Did she find anything, Suzie?” Maryellen wanted to annoy Susan.

  “Course not, ME! What’s there to find?” Susan sighed. Maryellen knew she didn’t do anything illegal. She just wanted to interrupt her story. “The point is when I politely asked her to put all the stuff back in the trunk, she gave me this bull crap about how the law doesn’t require an officer to put items back during a drug search. She tipped her hat and left me standing there on a scorching afternoon with the stuff piled up and sitting in the middle of the highway!”

  “A drug search; it was a drug search?” the women chorused together.

  Susan nodded. “So she said.”

  “Doesn’t that cop know you don’t do drugs? As far as drinking goes, you have a beer sometimes and an occasional margarita with us at dinner, but that’s it,” Delta remarked, defending her friend.

  “She didn’t care. She did it to teach me a lesson. I just know the lesson backfired on the teacher.” Susan grinned smugly. She sat back to study the unmelted ice in her tea.

  “Spill it, Woman! I know you did something to her. Don’t keep us in suspense. Tell us, Suzie,” Carolyn begged, enjoying the story almost as much as Delta did.

  “What did you do? Get her suspended?” Delta asked.

  “Let me guess,” Maryellen added. “You had her fired. Right, Suzie?”

  Susan held up a hand to halt the questions. “First, I had to put all the stuff back in the trunk.”

  “Including the spare tire?” Delta asked.

  Susan scowled, remembering how nasty she felt after all the heavy-duty work in the hot midday sun. “Yes, that too!”

  “How awful, Suzie,” Delta said sympathetically. “You musta have been all sweaty and dirty when you finished.”

  “I was too filthy to make Daddy’s groundbreaking ceremony at the mall site.”

  “I bet you pissed him off, didn’t you?” Maryellen remarked, looking at her and smiling.

  “Yes, he was until he found out what the sergeant did to me.”

  “Why didn’t you call Johnny to come help you?” Carolyn asked. She was curious what Susan would say.

  Susan looked embarrassed and then sighed. “I forgot to recharge my damned cell phone, so I couldn’t call anybody until I got home. Johnny told me to get her fired, so I called the sheriff.”

  “Good for you, Suzie.” Delta patted her hand. “We don’t need bossy little dictators to protect us on our roads. After all, they’re supposed to be public servants, with the emphasis on serving the public. She needed to be taken down a peg or two.”

  Maryellen frowned. “I disagree, Delta. She sounds like she was just doing her job.”

  “You’re just jealous, ME. You wish somebody would frisk you.”

  “Humph!” Maryellen’s eyes narrowed and she shot daggers at Delta. “You little…”

  “Ladies, remember where we are,” Carolyn scolded Maryellen and Delta. “Go on with your story, Suzie. I assume you’re not finished yet.”

  “You’re always the mediator, aren’t you, Carol?” Susan stroked her friend’s hand and smiled. Carol was straight as a steel rod and that was a shame. All that beauty and brains to go with it wasted on a man. Her fiancé was a nice, quiet man in a nearby town. She met him once and dismissed him easily. He blended so well with the wallpaper. She couldn’t even remember the man’s name. If Carolyn had shown the slightest interest in experimenting with her years ago, she was sure they’d still be lovers. Carolyn had the gift of being able to soothe her in a way that neither Maryellen nor Delta could do. Unlike Carolyn, Maryellen was in constant competition with her for everything from the little blue sports car she bought after seeing Susan’s car to carrying on an affair with Helen Nelson, a former lover of hers. And Delta was still in love with her. Anything she did was all right with Delta.

  Susan took another sip of her iced tea, then played with the condensation on the tall, frosted glass before she continued the story. “After I called my father and explained what happened, Daddy wanted her name to make sure he fired the right cop. Daddy called back thirty minutes later to tell me the sheriff wouldn’t budge on this one because to quote him ‘she was a damn good cop and his goddaughter to boot!’ He said if I wanted her ass, I should call the sheriff personally. When I did, the sheriff still wouldn’t budge about firing her. He agreed that she owed me an apology. He order
ed her to come to the house and apologize. He said she had to do anything else I wanted too.”

  “Anything, Suzie? She had to do anything you wanted?” Delta’s eyes widened as she imagined the possibilities of anything.

  Susan nodded. “Oh yes. He said anything within reason.”

  “What did you ask for, Suzie?”

  Hazel eyes gleamed at the three women. Even Maryellen wanted to know what Susan had done. “Well, let’s see. First, I made myself comfortable on the pool deck while Becky greeted the arrogant bitch at the door.”

  “You mean Blabbermouth Becky, your housekeeper?”

  Susan nodded. “I knew Becky overheard my conversation with Daddy. I figured she’d mention it to the sergeant before she brought her to see me poolside. I can’t confirm it, but I’m sure she did. I wanted to make the cop think things were cool.” She chuckled when she recalled the arrogant cop’s sunglasses floating to the bottom of the pool.

  “When the sergeant marched over to me, I pretended to be asleep in one of the lounge chairs. I was wearing one of those thong suits I bought for that cruise trip early this year. She showed plenty of interest in my swim attire. I noticed how hard she was studying me.” Susan paused to allow her words to sink in and then smirked. “One good turn deserves another. I decided to play her. I asked her to take her glasses off so I could see her eyes.” Susan grinned. “I waited as long as I could for her to remove the sunglasses. When she refused, I snatched ‘em off her nose and threw them into the pool.”

  “No, you didn’t. Not to an officer of the law!” Carolyn laughed delightedly.

  Delta’s eyes grew as large as the silver coasters protecting the linen tablecloth underneath their drinks. “What did the cop do then? Did she bust you?”

  Susan smiled as she thought about the sergeant’s hot eyes roaming all over her when she thought she was asleep. “She looked mad enough to shoot me. I told her all the stuff I uncovered about her. I knew information like her first name, what her nickname was, and what she did at night. She expressed concern I could find out about so much of her personal business in an afternoon. Then I threw a thong at her and ordered her to give me swimming lessons for the next month. She looked worried when she saw how brief the suit was. That was when she realized I was serious about the lessons. At first, she told me to call the Y for the lessons, but I held firm. She left to change into a suit.”