Call Me Irresistible by Susan Elizabeth Phillips Read Free Book Online

down there?”
    “Nothing good. Dyl, I need a loan.”
    “Mom said this would happen. The answer’s no.”
    “Dyl, I’m not kidding. I’m in a jam. They took my credit card, and—”
    “Grow up, Meg. You’re thirty years old. It’s sink-or-swim time.”
    “I know. And I’m going to make some changes. But—”
    “Whatever you’ve gotten yourself into, you can get yourself out of. You’re a lot smarter than you think. I have faith in you, even if you don’t.”
    “I appreciate that, but I need help now. Really. You have to help me.”
    “Jesus, Meg. Don’t you have any pride?”
    “That’s a shitty thing to say.”
    “Then don’t make me say it. You’re capable of handling your own life. Get a job. You know what that is, right?”
    “Dyl—”
    “You’re my sister, and I love you, and because I love you, I’m hanging up now.”
    She stared at the dead phone, angry but not surprised at this evidence of a family conspiracy. Her parents were in China, and they’d made it blazingly clear they wouldn’t rescue her again. Her creepy grandmother Belinda didn’t give out freebies. She’d force Meg to enroll in acting classes or something equally insidious. As for her uncle Michel . . . The last time they’d visited, he’d delivered a biting lecture on personal responsibility. With Lucy on the run, that left Meg’s three other close friends, all of whom were rich and any one of whom would lend her money.
    Or would they? That was the thing about them. Georgie, April, and Sasha were all independent, unpredictable women who’d been telling Meg for years that she needed to stop screwing around and commit to something. Still, if she explained how desperate she was . . .
    Don’t you have any pride?
    Did she really want to give her accomplished friends more evidence of her worthlessness? On the other hand, what were her options? She had barely a hundred dollars in her wallet, no credit cards, an empty checking account, less than half a tank of gas, and a car that could break down at any moment. Dylan was right. However much she might hate it, she needed to get a job . . . and fast.
    She thought it over. As the town bad guy, she could never get a job here, but both San Antonio and Austin were less than two hours away, just about reachable on half a tank of gas. Surely she could find work in one of those places. It would mean skipping out on her bill, something she’d never done in her life, but she’d run out of options.
    Her palms were sweaty on the steering wheel as she pulled slowly out of the parking lot. The roar of the bad muffler made her long for the hybrid Nissan Ultima she’d had to give up when her father stopped making the payments. She had only the clothes on her back and the contents of her purse. Leaving her suitcase behind made her crazy, but since she owed the Wynette Country Inn for three nights, well over four hundred dollars, there wasn’t much she could do about it. She’d pay them back with interest as soon as she found a job. What that job would be, she had no idea. Something temporary and, hopefully, well paying, until she figured out what to do next.
    A woman pushing a stroller stopped to stare at the brown Buick as it belched a cloud of oily smoke. That, combined with her bellowing muffler, hardly made the Rustmobile an ideal getaway car, and she tried to sink lower in the seat. She passed the limestone courthouse and the fenced-off public library as she edged toward the town’s outskirts. Finally, she spotted the city limits sign.
    YOU ARE LEAVING
    WYNETTE, TEXAS
    Theodore Beaudine, Mayor

    She hadn’t seen Ted since their awful encounter in the church parking lot, and now she wouldn’t have to. She’d bet anything that women all over the country had already lined up to take Lucy’s place.
    A siren shrieked behind her. Her eyes shot to the rearview mirror, and she saw the flashing red light of a police cruiser. Her fingers clenched the steering wheel. She pulled to