Free Burning Up by Susan Andersen Page A

you, Macy. You never sugarcoat stuff or try to placate me with false promises.”
    She shrugged and climbed from the car, circling the hood to help Janna out. “Not much pointin promising you something I have zero experience with. But I’m hoping for the best for you, Janny.”
    She was thinking about her cousin ten minutes later when she strode into the Shop and Save and headed for the paper-goods aisle, her flip-flops slapping against the linoleum floor. Between her rat-bastard ex and the accident, Janna’d had an extremely rough six months, and Macy hoped like crazy the therapy would at least start her on the road to regaining her health.
    It likely helped that Sean and his barely legal new squeeze had recently moved to Spokane. No longer having to risk running into him whenever Janna went out had to make things a little easier. She still had to deal with his parents, but the elder Purcells, who wanted a relationship with their only grandson and were embarrassed by their son’s actions, treated her with scrupulous politeness.
    Macy was hunkered down in front of the multiroll packages on the bottom shelf when a voice she could have gone the rest of her life without hearing drawled from behind her, “Toilet paper, Macy? How appropriate. You always did turn everything to shit.”
    Swallowing a sigh, she selected a twelve-pack, rose to her feet and tossed it in the basket. Stooping, she grabbed another and added it, as well. Then she turned to face her old high school nemesis.
    From their first encounter Liz Picket had disliked her, but in the beginning it hadn’t been personal. As the school beauty, a cheerleader dating Macy’s crush,football star Andrew Mayfield, and the only child of one of the wealthiest men in town, Liz had been the undisputed female leader of the most popular group in school. Her sense of entitlement made her an equal-opportunity bitch to anyone she felt was her social inferior, which since Sugarville was largely a farming community, had pretty much meant all but a select few. What surprised Macy was how everyone had kept their heads down and let her get away with it.
    Being the new kid in school too many times to count had taught her that allowing people to walk all over you simply invited them to trample you some more. So when Liz pushed her, she’d pushed back. But not nearly as hard as she would have if she hadn’t been trying so hard to fit in in Sugarville.
    Apparently no one had ever returned any of the crap the princess of Sugarville dished out, however, so when Macy did Liz went ballistic and what had been generic trash talk became personal. Then Andrew asked Macy out, after telling her he’d broken up with Liz. That turned out to be as true as the tales he wove of Macy’s easiness, but had Liz blamed him?
    Hell, no. She’d declared all-out war on her.
    So here they were ten years later, apparently about to play out the same ol’, same ol’.
    Or not. Maybe, just this once, she’d take the high road and refuse to engage.
    “Liz Picket. Long time, no see.”
    “Not long enough.” Liz tilted her chin and shot Macy a supercilious smile. “And it’s Picket- Smith now. I’m married to the mayor, you know.”
    Her good intentions dissolved. “Of course you are. You always were one for riding on a man’s coattails instead of carving out a place for yourself on your own merits.” She raised an eyebrow. “But then, I forget myself. You don’t have any of those.”
    Liz flipped her expensively cut, exquisitely colored long-layered bob away from her face. “Unlike you, you mean, who makes her living in sex videos?”
    She couldn’t help it, she cracked up. And every time she attempted to regain her composure the ridiculousness of Liz’s statement made her howl all over again. When she finally got herself together, she said, “Oh, God, thanks for the laugh.” Swallowing a couple of snickers that still wanted to escape, she dabbed beneath her eyes with the sides of her fingers