Cat in a hot pink Pursuit

getting a confession.”
    “Gross. But what’s the big secret about tonight?” Mariah was finally coming down from her performance afterglow and tuning into her mother’s strange comment.
    “You’ll find out soon,” Molina said. “If Hollywood doesn’t come calling right away, we can leave.”
    “Oh, Mom. I knew I wasn’t gonna win. But who needs to?”
    “That’s a very mature attitude, Mariah.”
    “Who needs to be a stupid ‘Tween Queen? I’m going for American Idol next.”
    Molina speechless was a sight to behold. “We’ll see,” Was all she could come up with.
    Temple tried to slip away. “Stay,” Molina said. “Sit,” Molina said next.
    They were commands you gave to a dog, but Temple decided she would be magnanimous and not ruin Mariah’s big night. Poor kid. She was about to learn the bodyguard at the competition was her daddy.
    Molina had more guts than Temple gave her credit for. Larry winked as he moved over to give Temple his seat, as if guessing every turn of her internal debate.
    After the closing hoopla was over, Kit came running up to them.
    “Fabulous job, girls! Of course you both earned my top honors and should have won your divisions but that cretin Dexter was fixated on boob size and that tipped the balance, excuse the expression. I am so disgusted. The other judges and I are making protests but frankly without Elvis—I mean just by the numbers—we’re not likely to make anybody listen. The cameramen and producers are fixated on boob size too.”
    Her effusions stopped as she regarded Temple. “Ah, a limo service has arrived to convey me back to my hotel, but the vehicle seems rather crowded by individuals and accessories of purely Italian manufacture. Am I going to get ‘taken for a ride’ out into the desert, or what?” Temple grinned. “I see the fabulous Fontana Brothers have arrived. You may recall my mentioning them to you.”
    “Yes, I do. And they are as collectively cute as a silencer on a Beretta, but is going with them safe?”
    “I don’t know, Aunt. Do you particularly care?”
    “You’re so right. I’ll take two aspirin and call you in the morning.” She was off on her high-heeled Blahnik slides. Off to see the Wizards of Las Vegas. Wicked!
    “I don’t get it,” Mariah said. “They sent her multiple limousine drivers?”
    “It’s a very long stretch limo. Let’s blow this crooked contest, kid.”
    Mariah and Temple/Xoe left in turn as the crowd shuffled out. No easy way for Rafi Nadir to fight the flow and reach them, though Temple knew he could if he wanted to.
    But she never saw him again, not even when she and Mariah stood under the porte cochere and waited for Larry and whatever kind of car he was driving.
    “Good job,” she told Mariah again. “Your mother nearly flipped when you sang that song.”
    “She liked it? I couldn’t see with all those lights.”
    “She loved it. And I did too.”
    “It didn’t win me anything though.”
    “How about your mother’s confidence? That’s a hard thing to get when you’re thirteen to nineteen. Trust me. Been there, haven’t done that yet.”
    “Your mother doesn’t have faith in you?”
    “Yeah, sure, in a general way. But mothers have a hard time trusting that you’ll hang with a decent crowd at school, or wear non-slutty makeup and clothes, or lock your car doors when you’re driving alone at night.”
    “I don’t have to worry about that driving thing for three years, remember. You’re the one who harped on it.”
    “Right.”
    “So your mother still doesn’t really trust you. And you’re... ancient.”
    “That’s true. My mother doesn’t entirely trust my judgment and I’m ancient.”
    “It’s not us then, it’s our ‘judgment.’”
    “Right. They think any hunky guy can send it out the window.”
    “My mom thinks your hunky guy should go out the window. I know that.”
    “She’s not my mom, thank goodness. The one I have already is enough.”
    “What do you think of that Larry guy?”
    “Too soon to tell. What do you think of him?”
    “I can’t believe she’s, like, dating him. I’ve never seen her date anyone. Is that what she wants to tell me, the secret, do you suppose?”
    “Too soon to tell.” Temple felt like a skunk for ducking the issue, but this really was just between mother and daughter.
    A black Jeep Cherokee pulled up. Larry’s angular face caught the wall-mounted torch light as he leaned over to open the passenger