“Remember how scared we used to be of him in high school,” Leeann said.

“Except for Sugar Beth,” Amy pointed out. “And Winnie, of course, because she was teacher’s pet.” They grinned at her.

“God, I wanted him,” Heidi said. “He might have been weird, but he sure was hot. Not as hot as he is now, though.”

This was a familiar topic. Five years had passed since Colin had come back to Parrish, and they’d only just gotten used to having a man who’d once been the teacher they most feared as part of their adult peer group.

“We all wanted him. Except for Winnie.”

“I wanted him a little,” Winnie said, to redeem herself. But it wasn’t really true. She might have sighed over Colin’s brooding romantic aloofness, but she’d never really fantasized about him like the other girls. For her, it had always been Ryan. Ryan Galantine, the boy who’d loved Sugar Beth Carey with all his heart.

“What did I do with the oven mitts?”

Winnie handed them over. “Colin knows she’s back. He saw lights at the carriage house.”

“I wonder what he’ll do?”

Amy stuck a serving fork on the ham platter. “Well, I for one don’t intend to speak to her.”

“If you get the chance, you know you will,” Leeann retorted. “We all will because we’re dying of curiosity. I wonder how she looks.”

Blond and perfect, Winnie thought. She fought the urge to run to the mirror so she could remind herself that she was no longer lumpy, awkward Winnie Davis. Although her cheeks would never lose their roundness, and she couldn’t do anything about the small stature she’d inherited from her father, she was slim and toned by five grueling sessions a week at Workouts. Like the other women’s, her makeup was skillfully applied and her jewelry tasteful, although more expensive than theirs. Her dark hair shone in a short, fashionable bob, the work of the best stylist in Memphis. Tonight she wore a beaded T, a pair of periwinkle pants, and matching slides. Everything she owned was fashionable, so different from her high school days when she’d plodded down the hallway in baggy clothes, terrified someone would speak to her.