Welcome to Temptation/Bet Me Read online

  “What did you bring?” Min said, dreading the answer.

  “Raspberry Swirl Dove Bars,” Liza said, as she sat down.

  “Rot in hell,” Min said, pulling out her own chair. “Why can’t you ever bring fruit?”

  “Because fruit is not dessert,” Liza said. “Now explain to us why you left the bar with Calvin Morrisey last night.”

  Min shoved the bread box Liza’s way. “David bet him ten bucks he couldn’t get me into bed in a month.” She watched them freeze in place, Bonnie with a platter of chicken and vegetables in her hands, Liza opening the bread.

  “You are kidding me,” Liza said, her face dangerous with anger.

  “I let him pick me up because I had a plan to get a date to the wedding, and then I realized I couldn’t put up with that smarmy charm for three weeks, so I ate an excellent dinner and left.”

  Bonnie’s face crumpled. “Oh, honey, that’s awful.”

  “No,” Min said. “Let’s forget Cal Morrisey and eat. I want to talk about Diana. She’s not happy.”

  “Wet and Worse.” Liza gave Min a look that said they’d be talking about Cal again soon. “They’d bring anybody down.”

  Min closed her eyes. “Do not call them that. I almost called Susie Wet this afternoon at the fitting. She looked like she was about to sob through the whole thing.”

  “Well, that’s understandable,” Bonnie said, sympathy in her voice. She put the platter in the middle of the table and sat down, too.

  Liza dumped the bread into a bowl. “Maybe Di shouldn’t have asked Wet to be a bridesmaid. That’s almost cruel.”

  “It would be worse not to be asked,” Bonnie said. “Is that why she’s upset, Min?”

  “I think it’s Greg,” Min said, starting on her salad, “but she won’t admit it. He’s the one who forgot to order the wedding cake.”

  “Whoa,” Liza said. “This is a man who’s resisting his own wedding. And let’s face it, your mother and Diana railroaded him into it.”

  “He proposed on his own,” Bonnie said.

  “I think he wanted a longer engagement,” Min said. “But he said yes when they set the date. He’s not incapable of speech. He could have said ‘No.’ ”

  “To Nanette and Diana?” Liza said as she started on her salad. “Fat chance. Worse will do a kind deed before Greg will grow a spine. Now you talk about Calvin Morrisey and this damn bet. We want to know everything.”

  Half an hour later, the salad was gone, the leftover chicken was in the refrigerator, and Bonnie was unwrapping a Dove Bar as Min finished her recap of the evening.

  “At least he walked you home,” Bonnie said. “That was nice.” She sounded doubtful.

  “Yes. And then he hit me in the head, said, ‘Have a nice life,’ and left me,” Min said. “I didn’t like him, you guys don’t like him, and he didn’t like me. I think that’s a perfect score.”

  “I think that whole good-bye thing is a trick,” Liza said around a mouthful of Dove Bar. “I think he’s putting you off guard, and he’ll be back. If you’re not careful, he’ll charm you into bed and break your heart.”

  Min frowned at her in exasperation. “How naïve do I look? I know about the bet. Anyway, I have a new plan.”

  “Oh, good,” Liza said. “Because you don’t have enough plans.”

  Min ignored her. “I was listening to Elvis singing ‘Love Me Tender’ last night, and it occurred to me that if he’d been reincarnated, he’d be about twenty-seven now, and I’m open to younger men. Statistically, the most successful marriages are those in which the woman is eight years older than the man. So I’ve decided to wait for Elvis to find me.”

  “You’d only be six years older,” Bonnie said.

  “Yes, but it would be Elvis, so I’d try harder,” Min said.

  “Why Elvis?” Liza said.

  “Because he always tells the truth when he sings. Elvis is the only man in my life I can trust.”

  “So let me get this straight,” Lisa said, pointing with her half-eaten Dove Bar. “Bonnie is waiting for a fairy tale character to make her life complete, and you’re holding out for the reincarnation of a guy who ate fried banana sandwiches.”

  “Yep,” Min said, and Liza shook her head.

  “I might have found my prince,” Bonnie said. “Roger’s good.”

  “Roger?” Min asked, trying not to watch Liza consume her Dove Bar.

  “We picked up the beast’s friends last night,” Liza said around her ice cream. “Bonnie got the one that walks upright.”

  “Roger is a sweetheart,” Bonnie said. “I’m thinking of breaking my date Saturday night and going out with him instead. I’ll wait and see how Friday night with him works out.”

  “He asked you out?” Min said, relieved to be off the subject of Cal. “Tell all.”

  “He asked her out for every night for the rest of her life,” Liza said. “He’s blind for her.”

  “That’s nice.” Min picked a last salad leaf out of her bowl to compensate for her lack of sugar. “So he has potential, Bon?”

  “Maybe.” Bonnie came as close to frowning as she ever did. “I think if I keep seeing him for a couple of weeks and it’s working, I’ll take him home to Mama and let her scope him out.”

  Min raised her eyebrows. “You think he’ll cross three states to meet your mother after two weeks?”

  “He would cross the Andes to get her a toothpick,” Liza said. “It’s pathetic.”

  “No, it’s not.” Bonnie frowned over her ice cream stick. “It’s sweet. And he thinks Cal is great, which is confusing.”

  “So Bonnie met a good one,” Min said to Liza, ignoring the Cal reference. “Who’d you get?”

  “The village idiot,” Liza said. “He also thinks Cal is the man. They’re like the Three Stooges. Only not funny.”

  “The Three Stooges aren’t funny,” Bonnie said.

  “Too true,” Min said. “Are you seeing the idiot again?”

  “Yes.” Liza licked the last of her ice cream off the stick. “I think your beast is coming back, and my idiot babbles nicely when I ask him questions. Plus, there is a bartender who lives next door to the beast with whom I must bond.”

  “Well, don’t ask questions for me,” Min said. “Calvin Morrisey is not part of my future.”

  “He will be tomorrow night,” Bonnie said. “He’ll be at The Long Shot with Roger and Tony.”

  Min shook her head. “Then I’ll stay home.”

  “No,” Bonnie said, stricken. “We don’t have to go there. We’ll go somewhere else so you can come, too.”

  “And make you miss Roger?” Min reconsidered. “No. Not even I am selfish enough to cross True Love. I’ll go. I want to see this Roger up close anyway.”

  “Are you sure Cal made that bet?” Bonnie said.

  “I was standing right there,” Min said. “I heard it. With my own ears. He said, ‘Piece of cake.’ ” That rankled more than anything.

  “Because Roger thinks the world of him,” Bonnie said. “He told me all about him, about the three of them. It’s kind of sad. They met in summer school when they were in the third grade. Roger said he was a slow thinker, and Tony didn’t care about school, and Cal was dyslexic, so everybody thought they were dumb.”

  “Cal’s dyslexic?” Min said, surprised.

  “Tony is dumb,” Liza said at the same time.

  “No,” Bonnie said, with the heavy patience that meant “back off.” “Tony is not dumb. When he cares, he’s very smart. And Roger isn’t dumb, either, he’s just very methodical, you can’t hurry him. He’s like my uncle Julian.”

  “Oh, God,” Liza said to the ceiling. “He’s like family. I will bet you anything that Roger is her If this week.”

  “I don’t bet,” Min said. “Bonnie? What’s your If?”

  Bonnie stuck her chin out. “If Roger turns out to be as sweet as I think he is, I’m going to marry him.”

  “Oh, good grief,” Liza said.

  “Leave h