Never Sit Down in a Hoopskirt and Other Things I Learned in Southern Belle Hell by Crickett Rumley

Author:Crickett Rumley
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: eBook ISBN: 9781606842553
Publisher: EgmontUSA
Published: 2011-09-18T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

I will say this: Jay and Felicia Alexander, the king and queen of satellite communications, do not skimp. There was no corner cut, no luxury not appointed to the nouveau French chateau they constructed on an entire acre of prime property in the Country Club District. It was evident even in the fancy cars lining the driveway that semicircled through their front yard: a Ferrari, a Mercedes SUV, Zara’s little Porsche roadster, a few Cadillacs, a Lexus or three.

A housekeeper answered the door and ushered me through the foyer into a living room so expansive and freshly decorated it could have been the lobby of a five-star hotel. “Miss Zara, you’ve got company,” the housekeeper announced into an intercom.

“Who’s that?” a voice boomed out from deep inside the grand hall, where I spotted a dining table packed with dressed-down business execs. That explained the huge number of fancy cars out front. They barely glanced up from their work as a tall, imposing, linebacker of a man got up from the head of the table and approached me.

“You must be the famous Jay Alexander,” I said.

“I don’t know about the famous part, but I am Jay Alexander.” He shook my hand but regarded me suspiciously. “And who are you?”

“Jane Fontaine Ventouras, pleased to meet you, sir.”

“And you know Zara how?” Okay. A little imposing, this guy.

“Uh, through the Magnolia Maids. We’re on the Court together.”

“Humph.” What did that mean? “Hmmph”? Luckily, Zara arrived at that moment. “You got a friend here, Z,” he said.

“I see, Daddy. Hey, Jane.”

“Hey, Zara.”

“Is Daddy giving you a hard time?”

“No, I checked all my weapons at the door. We’re good now.”

Zara’s mom, Felicia, glided over. “We’re so happy to meet you, Jane. Z’s told us a lot about you.” I could see where Zara got her height, grace, and beauty from. Mrs. Alexander looked picture perfect, totally dressed to the nines even on a Saturday at home. She turned to her husband. “Cosmo Ventouras is Jane’s father, Jay.”

“Cosmo Ventouras? No kidding!” Oh, now a smile breaks through the sullen suspicion on Mr. Alexander’s face? Mentioning Cosmo gets me out of suspicion jail? Apparently. “We put the satellites on a good half dozen of his ships. We just set a meeting with him in a couple of weeks, Felicia, did you know that?”

“Great! Terrific. You think he’d be interested in the new XZ-17 technology, Jay?”

As Jay answered Felicia’s question, I raged inside my head. So that was the reason old Cosmo was willing to travel a bazillion miles to Bienville from wherever he was. Not to play cheerleader to my fabulous debut at the Magnolia Maids, but because he had a high-powered meeting with the biggest entrepreneur in the state. Of course. “Great, terrific” was right.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Alexander was beaming at me. “We’re glad you’re here, Jane. We’re so happy to see Zara making friends. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to move in your junior year.”

Mr. Alexander threw his arm around Zara and pulled her to his side.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.