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Cole raises a finger, his lips twitching. “Marburg.”
“That’s right.” Rex pounds his fist on the table at me. “You beat the crap out of him for bullying Brooks. You were almost kicked out of Bay Sands Private for that.”
“Dad had to build and furnish a school computer room, I think,” Cole adds.
I splay my hands. “What, I was supposed to just let Brooks get his ass kicked? I don’t think so.”
Cole laughs. “What about Mr. Lassiter? That college professor you almost had a fistfight with?”
“And of course, we can’t forget when that lady. What was her name? She worked for your first law firm out of school?” Rex is barely able to contain his laughter. “You walked out of work and managed to take a few poor, stupid souls with you.”
I glare at them both. “Her name was Mrs. Klebbe. And she held every first and second year in fear of their jobs. Now she was a bully.”
“You see?” Cole kicks back and grabs his iced tea. “You have a thing about bullies.”
“That has nothing to do with my relationship with Pearl.” I wave the thought away.
“Uh huh.” Rex elbows Cole. “Hey, everybody has a kink. You happen to get massive justice boners.”
Cole looks gleeful. “He really does.”
“Fuck off, both of you. Now either we change the subject or I get a to-go container and head back to the office.”
“So touchy!” Rex jests. He rolls his neck. “In other news, have y’all seen Sarah’s new car? It’s got a driverless mode. And she is freaking out.”
As the conversation shifts away from me and my possible kinks, I am left with one thought. Is it possible that I revealed just a little more of my feelings about Pearl than I meant to?
Twelve
Pearl
I’ve just gotten back to my Airstream from a long shift and put on my fuzzy UFO slippers when there is an insistent banging on my trailer door. “Pearl Brown! You open this door right now!”
I open the door to find Aunt Delta. Her hands are on her hips and the expression she levels at me is angry.
Uh oh.
“Hi Aunt Delta.” I step back, inviting her inside.
She struggles to climb up the steps; now that she’s seventy-three, her aging hips bother her regularly. I hurry forward and grab her elbow to steady her as I guide her into the kitchen.
She shuffles over to the dinette and sits down heavily. Then she looks at me with a stern expression. “Is there anything you want to tell me?”
My heart starts to pound. I slide into the booth across from her. I look at her proud, chestnut-brown face and quaver. “Can you be more specific?” I try to keep my tone light.
She scrunches her face into a scowl and pulls out her phone. Before she even pulls up the Instagram app, I already know what she’s about to show me.
Whoever CapeSimonAroundTown is, they were present at the charity gala. Or maybe they got the video secondhand, I guess. Either way, they posted River’s surprise relationship announcement for all their followers to see.
I stop her hand, putting my fingers over her phone screen. “I’m sorry. River wasn’t supposed to spill the beans like that. He just got caught up in the moment.”
Her lips thin. “This is not how I expect my grand-niece to behave. That young man said that you two have been sneaking around for almost two years! I can’t believe that you didn’t once bring him around to introduce him to your family.” She clucks her tongue. “Your mom and your aunt Glory called me in a panic.”
“Awww, shoot.” I fidget, my face heating. “Mom knows too?”
“Yes indeed.” Aunt Delta rocks back in her seat, pinning me with her brown-black gaze. “She is very hurt by the news. This does not make us look good, Pearl.”
I bury my face in my hands. This was not the agreement that River and I settled on. I guess I didn’t give a lot of thought as to how I would keep the news from my family. But it’s too late for any attempts to save it now. “I wanted to talk to the family later. I didn’t mean for y’all to find out this way.”
