Beyond Blonde by Teresa Toten Page A

extraordinaire and she blocked my view. It was at least twenty minutes before I could extricate myself from her, and I only did that when Madison ran back for a courage hug. “What courage hug ?” But she was off again.
    I couldn’t wait to tell Kit and Sarah that our assistant coach was mercilessly assaulting two girls at the same time. Where were they, anyway? They didn’t usually hang out in the backroom. I started looking for them down the hall and under the stairway nook. Nope. In the front dining room. Nope. I chatted to a couple of football players in the library, including Paul Wexler, who tended to light up whenever he saw me, if I do say so myself. My beer was bathwater warm by the time I got to the family room.
    Oh dear.
    Kit was on top of a coffee table shaking her booty to “Shake, Shake, Shake, Shake Your Booty.” Rick Metcalfe, who had never gotten over her, was alternately egging her on and trying to get her off to be with him. Now, Kit was a spirited kind of kid, but this was beyond exuberance. I searched for potential reinforcements and spotted Sarah in a corner slow dancing with George, Mike’s nephew. Not only was it not a slow song, but Sarah was in a take-no-oxygen lip-lock with the boy.
    What in Moses’ name …?
    I marched over and tapped Sarah on her back.
    “Sophie, baby! How’s it hanging, shnookums?” She giggled. Then George giggled.
    Guys don’t giggle. Shnookums? She swayed and smiled dreamily. “Sarah, you’re wasted! How could you do that? We haven’t even been here an hour.” I glared at George, who grinned back at me.
    “Not poshible,” she slurred. “Just had the one Southern ’n’ Sheven, not even.”
    “It’s true.” George could not stop giggling. “I got it for herand she hasn’t had another one. We’ve been dancing.”
    “You’ve been groping, you mean.” I looked back at the coffee table. Kit was still putting on an energetic floor show. Madison was nowhere to be found. Our platinum reputation would take a hit if these two kept going at the rate they were going. Rick was joined by Stewart Allen and Ben Wheeler in cheering on Kit. I grabbed Sarah’s hand and started walking to Kit. “Help me get her off.”
    “Sure, shnookums. Hey, Kit!” Sarah waved at her like Kit was on the other side of the street. “Sophie thinks you gotta get your butt down, girl!”
    Kit waved back and blew me a kiss.
    “Need some help with your team, shnookums?” Oh get me a gun, it was David. He smiled at me. He’d never smiled at me before. Alert the press! He was amused all right. David kept smiling, even though he was bimbo free.
    “No thank you, coach!” I retorted. I’ve been working on my retorts since the second practice. I just didn’t think I’d be retorting at a party.
    David leaned into me. “If you girls can’t handle your liquor, you shouldn’t be at the big boys’ party. Things happen at Anita’s. Go away, little girl.” He leaned in even closer. “You don’t belong here, Sophie.”
    I got a little woozy when he said my name. Then I came to. What the hell! How dare he? “First of all, coach, we’ve been to plenty of Anita’s parties!” Which technically wasn’t the God’s honest truth. We’d only been to a couple over the years. The rumours, come to think of it, were that the parties had cranked up lately, but Madison had arranged to meetBilly here and the rest of us were dead keen to see and be seen.
    “Second of all, coach, I don’t drink!” I waved my bottle. “I just pretend to.” Why was I telling him this? Shut up, shut up! “And third, coach, they are NOT drunk. They haven’t had enough time to get drunk!”
    Kit chose that moment to belt out a rollicking rendition of Captain and Tennille’s “Love Will Keep Us Together” mixed into the Canadian national anthem. Rick was seething with unrequited love, or something.
    I had to get that girl out of here. Sarah boogied up beside me.
    David grabbed my arm. “They’re