Free Small Town Girl by Lavyrle Spencer Page B

wryly. "Seems I need a new napkin."
    As she returned with one, Renee began aping the fan Delores, using a pronounced Southern drawl. "Mah Gawd, it's Mac McPhail, and damned if she don't eat and use napkins just like othuh human bein's. Wha, Ah thought all she did was sing them country songs and get on awards shows and go to the bank with her money." Dropping the accent she added, "Lord-a-frighty, are they all like that?"
    "Thank God, no. Some of them have brains in their heads."
    "How often do you meet this kind?"
    "Too often."
    Renee started laughing behind her napkin. "I thought she was going to knock you right off your chair when she patted your back."
    "That's better than the ones who want to hug you."
    "Eek."
    "Yeah. Eek."
    "Mom told me about the one you found in your dressing room."
    "That was scary."
    "How'd he get in there?"
    "Nobody knows for sure. There's always security when we're at a concert site, but somehow he got past it. I opened the door and there he was, smelling a bottle of my perfume. It was creepy."
    "Momma was really spooked when she told me. She worries about you a lot when she knows you're out on the road."
    "It's a lot safer now that we don't use the bus anymore, plus I'm usually with the guys from the band, and like I said, there's always security at the venue. There's really nothing to worry about."
    "Till you find a man in your dressing room sniffing your perfume."
    They exchanged sober looks, and Tess suggested. "Let's change the subject."
    Throughout the entire cafeteria scene Judy had said nothing. She'd sat by as if the fans, the autographing and the story about the intruder had never happened. Her silent antipathy was a felt thing that colored the feelings among the three sisters as they ate their breakfasts.
    Renee had ordered oatmeal.
    Tess was eating a half a grapefruit and a toasted English muffin, dry.
    Judy ate two doughnuts and a cup of hot chocolate.
    Watching her, Tess thought,
Don't you have any more respect for your body than that? Three hundred calories apiece and you're pushing them down your fat neck in pairs
. Apparently Judy did not, for she polished off the first two doughnuts and went away to get a third.
    Tess's eyes followed her to the counter.
    "She should go on a diet."
    "But as long as you're tinier than she is, she can disdain you for that as well as for your success, can't she?"
    "You noticed."
    "I've always noticed."
    "Does she have to treat me like I'm some egomaniacal fan seeker? It's part of my business—an important part—and there are times when I hate it, but fans are my life-blood. She should know that."
    "Deep down inside, I'm sure she does."
    With a sad expression Tess studied her obese sister across the room. "You know something? She's never said one nice thing about what I do. It's like I don't even do it. She's never told me she bought a tape, or listened to a song on the radio—much less liked anything. Would it hurt her, for God's sake?"
    "Judy's not a happy woman, Tess. Shh, here she comes."
    Judy returned with an oversized cinnamon roll laced with sticky caramel and pecans. She set the plate down and used a two-handed tabletop press to lower her bulk to the chair.
    Lifting the caramel roll, she looked up at the wall clock. "Well, Mom's about half done by now," she said, diverting attention from her addiction. And with that remark she also managed to continue her long-standing emotional embargo on her younger sister.

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CHAPTER FOUR

     
    Tess found it difficult to stay awake when they returned to the family lounge. Her coyote's timeclock was definitely wound down after she rose at moonset. She was on the davenport nodding off when a male voice said, "Ladies? I'm Doctor Palmer."
    She stretched to her feet as he entered the lounge and shook hands all around. He was wearing blue scrubs on all but his head, which sported a crop of wavy nickel-gray hair. He had minimal lips, a forthright chin and nose, and he wore silver-rimmed glasses.
    "Our local