Best Kept Secrets(70)

almost every instance the paintings featured an obligatory

windmill, looking lonesome and stark against the sun-streaked

horizon. Alex was Texan enough to find it comfortable

and endearing. She was sophisticated enough to recognize

its gaucheness.

"White wine," she told the bartender, who was unabashedly

giving her a once-over.

"Lucky son of a bitch," he muttered to Junior as he served

them their drinks. The grin beneath the lavish mustache was

lecherous.

Junior saluted him with his scotch and water. "Ain't I

just?" He propped his elbow on the bar and turned to face

Alex, who was seated on the stool. "The music's a little too

country and western for my taste, but if you want to dance,

I'm game."

She shook her head. "Thanks, but no. I'd rather watch."

A few songs later, Junior leaned close and whispered,

"Most of them learned to dance in a pasture. They still look

like they're trying to avoid stepping in a pile of cow shit."

The wine had taken effect. Her eyes were bright, her cheeks

flushed. Feeling a pleasant buzz, she tossed her hair over her

shoulder and laughed.



"Come on," he said, placing his hand beneath her elbow

and helping her off the stool. "Mother and Dad are at their

table."

Alex moved with him along the perimeter of the dance

floor to the cluster of tables set up for dining. Sarah Jo and

Angus were seated at one. He was puffing on a cigar. Sarah

Jo was idly waving the offensive smoke away from her face.

Alex had been apprehensive about wearing the russet

leather skirt and matching, leather-trimmed sweater, but she

felt more comfortable in them than she would have wearing

Sarah Jo's burgundy satin dress and looking out of place in

a room where people were stamping out "Cotton-Eyed Joe,"

yelling "bullshit" in the appropriate places, and drinking

beer straight from opaque amber bottles.

"Hello, Alex," Angus said around his cigar.

"Hello. Junior was hospitable enough to invite me," she

said as she sat down in the chair Junior was holding out for

her.

"I had to do some arm-twisting," he told his parents,

taking the chair next to her. "She plays hard to get."

"Her mother certainly didn't."

Sarah Jo's cool, catty remark momentarily stifled the conversation.

It served to counteract the potency of Alex's glass

of wine. Her giddiness fizzled and went flat as day-old soda.

She nodded toward Sarah Jo and said, "Hello, Mrs. Minton.

( You look lovely tonight."

Even though her dress was inappropriate, she did look

lovely in it. Not vibrant, Alex thought. Sarah Jo could never

look vivacious and animated. Her beauty had an ethereal

quality, as though her visitation on earth was temporary and

tenuous. She gave Alex one of her vague, secretive smiles

and murmured a thank-you as she took a sip of wine.

"Heard you were the one who discovered Pasty's body."

"Dad, this is a party," Junior said. "Alex won't want to

talk about something nasty like that."

"No, it's all right, Junior. I would have brought it up

myself, sooner or later."

"I don't reckon it was coincidence that you met him at



that honky-tonk and climbed into his pickup with him," Angus

said, rolling the cigar from one corner of his lips to the

other.

"No." She paraphrased for them her telephone conversations

with Pasty.

"That cowboy was a liar, a fornicator, and, worse than

all his other vices put together, he cheated at poker," Angus

said with some vehemence. "In the last few years he'd gone

plumb goofy and irresponsible. That's why I had to let him

go. I figure you've got better sense than to put any stock in

what he told you."

In the middle of his monologue, Angus signaled the waiter

to bring another round of drinks. "Oh, sure, Pasty might've

seen who went into that stable with Celina, but the one he

saw was Gooney Bud."

Having said his piece, and giving Alex no opportunity to

dispute it, he launched into a glowing review of a jockey

from Ruidoso that he wanted to ride for them. Since the

Mintons were her hosts, Alex graciously let the topic of Pasty

Hickam die for the moment.

When they'd finished their drinks, Angus and Junior offered

to go through the barbecue buffet for the ladies. Alex

would just as soon have gone through the line herself. She

found it difficult to make small talk with Sarah Jo, but after

the men withdrew, she valiantly made an attempt.

"Have you been members of the club for a long time?"

"Angus was one of the charter members," Sarah Jo supplied

distractedly. She kept her eyes on the couples doing the