Naked Ambition

Susannah quickly shook her head, her heart aching. All these years, she’d suspected him, but now…

“Here you go, ladies!” Delia arrived, setting down two oversize platters. “Eat hearty. Those plates better get so clean that I won’t have to wash them.”

“Ellie!” Susannah exclaimed when Delia was gone and Ellie removed sunglasses and lifted her fork, only to use the tines to toy with her eggs. Where Susannah was tall and willowy with honey hair and brown eyes, Ellie had a square-shouldered, almost boyish build. Her jaw-length, jet-black, wavy hair was pressed right up against her peaches-and-cream skin, making her look like a forties film star. “Your eyes are more red, white and blue than an American flag,” Susannah said. “You’ve been crying.”

“All morning.”

“I’m sorry! I’m so fixated on J.D. that I didn’t notice. What’s wrong?”

“Everything.”

“I thought things were great. Your daddy’s about to announce you’ll be running your family’s company after he retires next week, right?” Ellie was a shoe-in, mostly because she’d come from a family of n’er-do-well brothers—the sort of man Bayou Banner bred like fire ants. Ellie’s brothers weren’t reliable enough to run such an accurate polling service.

“Robby promised me that when Daddy made his announcement, we’d tell him about us. Then we made love all night.”

Susannah slid the charm along the chain around her neck as she did when she felt worried. Ellie had an identical necklace, and both charms had been engraved with the words, Remember the Time. Years ago, on a rainy Saturday in Bayou Blair, they’d asked a jeweler to make them.

“Then what?” Susannah prodded. After Robby had finished graduate school, he’d begun working for Ellie’s father, a man known around town as Daddy Eddie.

“When I woke up, I could tell he’d been staring at me while I slept.”

“And?”

“He said Daddy’s giving him the job.”

Susannah gasped. “Lees have run the company since it started. And that was back in the eighteen-hundreds.”

“Right. So I called Daddy. But he said it’s true. Robby could have told me last night, but before we made love, he sat there listening to me talk about how we’d work it out, once I got promoted and he was reporting to me.”

“Robby accepted the job?”

“This morning he said we should get married, and I should quit work and raise our family.”

“That snake in the grass!” Susannah exploded. She’d set out to be a homemaker, but Ellie had gone to college and graduate school. “You got honors in economics and statistics, and all the while, you were running Lee Polls. Your brothers were in school up North for years, flunking out of their classes, too.” Every single one of Ellie’s life decisions had been made with an eye to running the company, but Robby had just started working for Daddy Eddie this year. “What are you going to do?”

Ellie’s blue eyes turned steely. “Go to New York and start another polling business to compete with Daddy and Robby.”

Ellie was leaving Robby and Lee Polls? It would work out fine, of course. Ellie had traveled more than Susannah, especially since Susannah had come to hate accompanying J.D. when he’d started playing to larger crowds. People had treated her like arm candy, and that had been a blow to her ego, invalidating her many years with J.D.

“Come with me, Susannah.”

“To New York? To do what?” Her résumé consisted of a high-school diploma and the two-day seminar she’d just attended at a hotel near the airport in Bayou Blair. She’d always planned to stay in Bayou Banner and raise a family.

“You could find a man,” said Ellie. “At least you could say you slept with somebody besides J.D.”

“Other guys never got Robby out of your system,” Susannah reminded, still reeling. “But not seeing J.D. on the street would help,” she suddenly added. “I can’t divorce him if he’s nearby.”

“He’d change your mind for sure.”

Yes, he’d start kissing Susannah, delivering those little nibbles which were almost as famous as his music, then he’d take off her clothes, undoing buttons with his teeth, murmuring sweet nothings all the while. He’d trail hopelessly hot, wet butterfly kisses down her neck, the ones he knew drove her crazy, and by the time her panties hit the floor, she’d do whatever J.D. wanted. It had happened every time she’d tried to leave him, which lately, was about once a week. “I hate him,” she whispered.

“Divorce is too good for him.”

“The only thing I want from my marriage is what I brought to it,” Susannah said bravely. “Just Banner Manor. And it would do me good to have sex with somebody else. Anybody, really. Maybe even a few people,” Susannah added, the idea taking hold.

“I’m going to sleep with everybody I can,” Ellie assured her.

Imagining all the hypothetical studs, Susannah said, “They wouldn’t even have to be very cute, would they?”

“No. The whole point would be to get our minds off J.D. and Robby.”

“I can’t watch J.D. pack his bags,” Susannah admitted. “I’d feel too sorry for him and maybe have pity sex. He’s the one who should move into Hodges’ Motor Lodge.” It was where all husbands in Bayou Banner went during separations.

“You have money. You’re still handling J.D.’s finances.”

She could write herself a check for the trouble he’d caused her, but Susannah never would. “I don’t want J.D.’s money.” She’d settle for the ghost of the man she married. She’d been so sure she was marrying a guy who would run a tackle shop his whole life, and who’d be a good daddy to his kids.

“We can share a place until he leaves Banner Manor,” Ellie urged. “I’ll lend you cash until he’s out of the house.”

It would only be for a week or so. “I hate leaving him in Banner Manor, even for ten minutes.” Especially with Sandy there. Fighting tears, she told herself that the other woman was no longer her concern since she was leaving J.D.

“It won’t be for long,” Ellie said. “Your folks left the house to you. J.D. doesn’t need it. Between a lawyer and Sheriff Kemp, all those people will be gone soon.”

By then, Susannah should have racked up some flings and J.D. would be just a memory.

“I just wish he wasn’t such a…” Pausing, she searched for the right words and settled on, “Alpha man.”

“Him and Robby both. Alphas of the Delta.”

Susannah almost smiled at the play on words, but her heart was hurting. Suddenly tires screeched outside. She and Ellie craned their necks to peer through Delia’s window just as a late-model black truck swerved on Palmer and turned down Vine.

“J.D.,” Susannah muttered. “He’s going to kill somebody driving like that. And with my luck, it won’t even be himself.”

“At least he’s not in that new boat,” Ellie muttered.

Named the Alabama, the cabin cruiser was docked at a marina on the river. Given the wild company J.D. was keeping, Susannah had blown a gasket when she’d seen it, knowing that somebody would eventually was going to get hurt. “You’re too cautious,” J.D. had said. “You’ve got to loosen up, Susannah. Have a good time.”

Like he did last night, Susannah thought once more, an image of Sandy’s nude body flashing in her mind. “He’s probably headed to June’s. I told him I was going there, and that you were on a business trip, so he wouldn’t follow me here.” Her voice broke. “Oh, Ellie, what happened to him?”

“Fame. He changed, Susannah. He wasn’t always like this. He used to be one of the best people I know.”

Susannah’s eyes narrowed. Suitcases were piled in the backseat of Ellie’s car. “You packed already?”

“My flight’s in an hour. I came to say goodbye.”

Goodbye? Susannah stared at the corner of Palmer and Vine, from which her husband had just vanished. The intersection had been a landmark as far back as she could remember, but now J.D. was out of sight and Ellie was saying goodbye. Susannah was at the crossroad, too. She loved J.D. Still, she deserved a more stable life with a man who wouldn’t betray her.

“J.D.’s obviously not home now,” she found herself saying. “So…I’ll run in and grab a few things.”

“Really?”

Susannah nodded. “I’ll come with you, Ellie.”

A heartbeat passed, then the two women said in unison what they always had when making a new memory together. It was the phrase that had prompted them to have the charms on their necklaces engraved, one that had started so many sentences of their conversations. “Remember the time.”

Already, both could hear the other saying, “Remember the time we were sitting in Delia’s Diner? You know, the day we left J.D. and Robby?”

In years to come, it might well prove to be their most pivotal decision. “Remember the time,” they whispered, eyes locking. Then they hooked pinkie fingers, shut their eyes and made silent wishes. A moment later, after leaving bills on the table, they headed toward the door.

“Ladies!” Delia called. “You didn’t clean my plates, and now I’m going to have to wash them! You didn’t even eat your dessert. Where are you going in such a hurry?”

“On an adventure,” Susannah called as she opened the door.

And then she and Ellie linked arms and stepped across the threshold, toward their future.

Chapter Two

Eight months later

“SUSANNAH, YOU’RE MORE FAMOUS than J.D.,” Ellie teased, smoothing a hand over her black cocktail dress and looking around Susannah’s restaurant. “And any minute now, you’re going to get the call saying J.D. finally agreed to your terms in the divorce!”

“Don’t forget your polling company has been just as successful. Besides, none of this would have happened without you and Joe,” Susannah said breathlessly, her heart full to bursting as she glanced around the cozy eatery she’d opened six months before, then at Joe O’Grady the man who’d unexpectedly walked into her life. “When the foxhole shuts, the rabbit hutch opens,” her mama had always said. Still, Susannah was nervous about getting the call she expected from her lawyer tonight.

At noon, when she’d spoken to J.D. for the first time in eight months, he’d said, “Susannah, come home. Come tonight. Now. We have to talk.”

“Not after what you did.”

“I didn’t sleep with her.”

“Liar.”

“Listen to me, sweetheart.”

Against her will, she’d felt his voice pulling her heartstrings. “Are your friends still in our house?”

Our house. She’d said the words, knowing Banner Manor would remain hers and J.D.’s even after he was no longer allowed inside. “They’re not my friends.”

“At least you finally realized that.”

“I’ll get everybody out.”

That meant he hadn’t yet. “Promises,” Susannah managed to say. “I can’t see you,” she’d added, then kicked herself for even having considered it.

“Just do it. We’re worth it. What about all the years we’ve spent together? Come to town. Don’t meet me at the house. That way you won’t see any other people. Go to the Alabama,” he’d coaxed, picking up on her vulnerability. “Just you and me. No lawyers. No music people. There’s a direct flight in two hours. I checked. You’ll be at the airport in Bayou Blair by seven this evening, on the Alabama by eight. Just go outside right now and catch a cab to the airport. Don’t pass go. You know we can’t get a divorce.”

It was just like him, spontaneous to a fault, showing he’d never change, but she’d begin to weaken, anyway. “I can’t.”

“You have to, Susannah.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re my wife.”

For a second, it seemed the best argument she’d ever heard.

“Say yes.”

The one word—so simple but so complex when it came to J.D.—came out before she could stop it. “Yes.”

“Eight o’clock on the Alabama,” he’d repeated quickly. Before she could change her mind, she heard a soft click, then the dial tone.

For the next few hours, she’d watched the clock, her eyes fixed on the minute hand until the time of the flight came and went. Then she’d phoned her attorney, Garrison Bedford, and explained that she was being pressured. When Garrison called back moments later he reported that J.D. now understood she wasn’t coming, and had to agree to the terms of the divorce. He’d promised to sign all necessary papers and vacate the house by eight, which was when she’d agreed to meet him. Now Susannah was waiting for Garrison’s final call.

Just a few moments ago, she’d thought it had come. She’d been called to the phone, but then the caller had hung up. Maybe it was J.D. again. Each step in the separation had been messy. For months, J.D. had tried to keep Banner Manor, if only to antagonize Susannah. “He’s saying possession’s ninetenths of the law,” Garrison first reported.

So Susannah had settled into the two-bedroom apartment she and Ellie had rented on the Lower East Side. She’d started scanning personal ads, just like Ellie, looking for hot dates, but then Garrison told her to stop, since it would jeopardize her divorce. She’s also taken the first waitress job she’d been offered.

By the end of her first day at Joe O’Grady’s, she’d realized that sipping sodas while J.D. played music at various venues had taught her reams about the restaurant business and booking acts. Within a week, she’d devised an innovative plan to rearrange Joe’s restaurant, expanding seating capacity and revenue, then she’d doctored the pecan pie on his dessert menu by adding ingredients from her mama’s recipe, which in Bayou Banner, had been as famous as Delia’s strawberry-rhubarb confection.

“She’s amazing,” Joe had bragged to Ellie, not bothering to hide his attraction when both women dined in his restaurant. “Susannah’s got a knack for this industry. She talked to our chef about the menu, and he’s desperate to try all her recipes. She ought to open her own place.”

“That’s a great idea,” Ellie had enthused.

“As soon as J.D. agrees to the terms of the divorce, I’m going home to Banner Manor,” Susannah had reminded.

“You only have to supervise when you first open,” Joe had assured her, having heard about her situation during their interview. “Somebody else can manage the business later.”

“J.D. hired somebody to run his daddy’s tackle shop,” Susannah had admitted, wishing she wasn’t still so fixated on J.D. Unlike Ellie, she’d found something wrong with every potential lover in the personals. They were too tall, too short, too smart or not smart enough, and as much as she’d hated to admit it, their only true flaw was that they weren’t J.D. Not that it mattered, since she couldn’t have a fling till the divorce was finalized.

“Lee Polls is being run by an outsider,” Ellie had reminded, as she and Joe had continued talking.

“I’m a financial partner in other eateries around town,” Joe had continued. “I backed an ex-chef when he opened his own place and hired a manager here, so I can spend more time downtown booking acts in my jazz club, Blue Skies.”

Ellie had shown Susannah an article about the club. “You own Blue Skies, too,” Ellie had murmured, admiring Joe’s entrepreneurial skills.

“Because my favorite part of the job is booking acts, I’m there in the afternoons when people audition,” Joe had explained. “Susannah, if you’ve got more recipes as good as the one for pecan pie, and if you want to open a place, I might agree to be a partner, and even bring in music acts.”

Susannah had started to feel as if she was stepping into a fairy tale. “You’re offering to back me financially?”

“I’d have to sample your menu first,” Joe had said, his tone suggesting he wanted to try more than just food.

“If we can make money, I’m in, too,” Ellie had said.

“Tons,” Joe assured.

Ellie and Joe had continued talking about restaurant leases, health codes and liquor licenses, but Susannah had barely heard. She’d begun mentally riffling through recipes handed down by women in her family for generations. The idea of opening a Southern-style eatery like Delia’s Diner was so exciting that whole minutes passed during which Susannah didn’t even think about J.D. It was the first relief she’d felt, and more than anything else, that had spurred her on.

“I can use Mama’s recipes!” she’d exclaimed. “Why, Ellie, you know how everybody always loved her vinaigrette-mustard coleslaw and barbequed lima beans.”

“Her hot pepper cheese grits were the best,” Ellie had answered. “And nothing beats her cardamom-sassafras tea and home-churned ice cream with fresh-crushed mint.”

And so, Oh Susannah’s was born in a hole-in-the-wall near the famous Katz deli on New York’s Lower East Side, on Attorney Street, close to the apartment they were renting. Even the street’s name had seemed fitting, given Susannah’s ongoing long-distance legal battle with J.D. Putting her energy into the restaurant had helped her escape negative emotions, and she’d wound up using the butter-yellow and cherry-red color scheme she’d spent so much time devising for the kitchen at Banner Manor. The white eyelet curtains she’d dreamed about covered the windows, and mismatched rugs adorned hardwood floors. Short-stemmed flowers were bunched on rustic tables in mason jars.

A month after the opening, The New York Times had run a picture of Susannah, Joe and Ellie, their arms slung around one another’s shoulders. The dining experience had been called “down-home elegance,” and ever since, there had been a line outside the door. Delia’s recipe for strawberry-rhubarb pie had arrived with a note that read,

The article’s pinned to the bulletin board at the diner. You and Ellie have done Bayou Banner proud, and your folks would be tickled pink. Seeing as my competition (you) has moved out of state, I’m hoping you won’t hurt me with my own recipe. Just promise not to franchise anytime soon!

P.S., J.D. got even crazier after you left town, if that can be imagined. Of course, since Sheriff Kemp finally asked me out on a date (and I’m going), I’ll do whatever I can to keep your soon-to-be-ex-husband from getting arrested. But you must know: Mama Ambrosia came in for coffee, and she says trouble is brewing in J.D.’s future.

Later that day, Susannah’s emotions had tangled into knots. Since the New York Times article was on Delia’s bulletin board, J.D. must have seen it, which would serve him right. He wasn’t the only one who make a name for themselves. She didn’t want to rub his nose in her success, she told herself now, glancing around Oh Susannah’s, but the man deserved some comeuppance. Yes…revenge was a dish best served cold, she decided with satisfaction, studying a slice of Delia’s pie as a waiter passed.

Still, what had Delia meant when she’d said J.D. was worse than before? Was the gorgeous Sandy Smithers gone? And was there more trouble on the horizon, as Mama Ambrosia claimed.

Kicking herself for caring, Susannah reminded herself of all the holidays, birthdays and anniversaries J.D. had missed. Before he’d gotten famous, holidays had been fun. On Valentine’s Day, J.D. had licked chocolate syrup from all her erogenous zones, and now, as she recalled the event, an unwanted shiver of longing sizzled along her veins, then ka-boomed at her nerve endings in a grand finale.

No matter how much she fought it, desire for him felt like a rope uncoiling inside her. Her hands were burning to grab that rope and climb, but it wound around and around her making her dizzy as it spun.

Now she was coming undone, imagining J.D.’s hands grabbing the backs of her thighs, pulling her close. His hips connected, rocking with hers, and his erection was hot and hard, searing her belly. Sensation suddenly somersaulted into her limbs, racing to all her choicest places, and tiny jolts of electricity shot to her toes like lightning.

She could almost taste J.D.’s mouth, too, which was always as sweet as cotton candy. Realizing she’d been swept away again by her own imagination, she thanked God she hadn’t gone to meet him on the Alabama and groaned inwardly, reminding herself to think of her soon-to-be-ex-husband as poison. And as soon as Garrison called tonight to say her divorce was final, she was going to take an antidote called “sex with Joe O’Grady.”

“I can’t wait to hear Tara Jones sing,” Ellie was saying, nodding toward the stage.

This was the first time live music was being offered. “Me, neither,” Susannah managed, but in reality, she just wished she could shake off the aftershocks of her fantasy about J.D. The backs of her knees felt weak and her pulse uneven.

Clearing her throat, Susannah added, “She wants a low-key place to play on weekends, but I’m not sure I can stand to hear country-western,” The last thing she needed was to hear Willie Nelson singing “Angel Flying Too Close To the Ground,” or Johnny Cash and June Carter’s snappy version of “Walk The Line,” or Patsy Cline belting out “Crazy.”

New York wasn’t agreeing with her, either. Even without Sandy Smithers in the picture, Susannah might have run away with Ellie just to escape J.D.’s big-city friends. All their hustle, bustle and hype had been worrying her every last nerve. Now that she’d traded places and was living in their world, she missed Banner Manor even more. A new part-time manager at the restaurant was working out well, so technically Susannah could have toured the city some, but she just wasn’t interested.

Ellie was taking to the place like a fish to water, but Susannah was still pretending she was sleeping in her big brass bed in Banner Manor. Oh, it was fanciful, but she’d strain her ears until she could hear willow branches brushing against the windows in tandem with J.D.’s breathing. A chime made out of sterling silver spoons that she’d hung outside would sound, then she’d hear a gurgle from a dam he’d built in the creek to create a nearby waterfall.

Sometimes, if she imagined extra hard, she could almost hear the familiar creaks of the old house settling down for the night, then the whir of crickets and splashes of gators and fish in the wetlands. Music of the swamp, her daddy used to call it. New York’s sirens and blaring horns would fade away, drowned out by her own hoot-owls. More than once, she’d cried herself to sleep.

Realizing she’d been staring across the room at Joe, she blinked just as he glanced up from Tara, seemingly oblivious to the charms of the singer’s enhanced curves and flaming red hair. After saying goodbye, he strode toward Susannah and Ellie.

“Don’t forget,” Ellie sang. “Tonight, you and Joe are going to celebrate the call. Cha-cha-cha.”

“So much for my plan to have sex with tall, dark, handsome strangers,” Susannah said nervously. Joe’s hair was blond, and he was no taller than J.D.’s five-ten.

“The longer you put off sleeping with him,” Ellie said, “the more attracted he gets. He’s practically salivating! I wish somebody was that hot for me! Even Tara Jones isn’t fazing him, and she’s stunning.”

“If it wasn’t for Garrison making me wait, I’d have slept with Joe already,” Susannah assured, not feeling nearly as confident as she sounded. Of course, Joe had insisted on doing everything but sleep together. He was kinky and inventive and made up silly love games, so Susannah figured it would be easy to turn herself into a real hellcat for him. It just hadn’t happened yet.

“As soon as J.D. says he’s out of Banner Manor,” Susannah vowed, “I’m going to wrap myself around Joe O’Grady like corn kernels around a cob, so he can nibble all night.”

“Make a corncob pipe and you two can really smoke.”

Susannah chuckled. Joe had kissed her and fondled her thighs under her skirt while they’d been eating hot fudge sundaes at a soda shop. He’d role played too, pretending to be a cop arresting her, and a fireman checking for intruders, which had made her laugh. She felt something, too, just not the sparks she’d experienced with J.D. But that was just because Garrison hadn’t given her the go-ahead, she reminded herself.

“Oh, don’t look so anxious,” Ellie chided. “All men come with the same basic equipment, right? How hard can it be to have sex with a stud like Joe?”

It would be easier if J.D. hadn’t been her only lover so far, Susannah thought. “Sex is pure mechanics,” she agreed, determined to be her own best cheerleader. “It’s just a matter of knowing what to touch, for how long, and when.” Still…what if J.D. had ruined her for somebody else? Maybe she could forgive him for being a lousy husband, but for ruining her sex life, she’d have to kill him.