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"I've got a better question for you. So what's this I hear you opened the door for a sexy man in just a skimpy shirt?" Bee, the owner of the diner, asked. I quickly looked at Lucien but he was engrossed with his phone and not paying us a lick of attention. "Oh don't worry. That boy is too occupied with his game to give this old biddy any attention. And it's the only time I'll let him get away with such nonsense."
I didn't know what to say to any of that. Normally I wouldn't allow phones at the dinner table either, but I hadn't wanted my son to hear me whine to Lyla again about my humiliating day. I couldn't manage to stop thinking about it.
"Wait?" I whipped my head to Bee. "Who told you I opened my door to a man today?"
The one major downside of living in a small town was that everyone was all up in everyone else's business. Growing up, I couldn't get away with anything because by the time I got home, the Willow Creek ladies had started the phone tree and called my mother.
That's when it hit me. "Ms. Daisy." The name was like a curse on my tongue. I loved my old neighbor, but damn was she nosy.
"Of course it was Ms. Daisy. You know darn well her parlor faces your front door and she's got nothing better to do during the day than watch the street."
I did know this. I'd known it my entire life, unfortunately. Nothing got past Ms. Daisy. Except whoever was trashing my mailbox in the middle of the night, it would seem.
"And just how many people did Ms. Daisy tell?"
I knew I wouldn't like the answer even before Bee scrunched up her face to think about it.
"Well, let's see. I know she called Shirley over at Until the End of Time. Shirley's always talking to Tim and Barney. And I'm sure Edela was called by someone. Not to mention Valerie and Dr. Norman."
I dropped my head to the table with a loud thunk, not the least bit concerned with who heard me at this point. "So basically everyone on Main Street knows, and therefore, probably the whole town." The words were muffled against the table but I was pretty sure the old bitty, as she liked to call herself, still heard what I had to say. She only pretended to be hard of hearing when it suited her.
"Cheer up, dear. There will be another scandal in a few days and your hussy ways will be a thing of the past."
My hussy ways? I looked up at the diner owner appalled. "You sure know how to make a woman feel better about herself, Bee."
"I know." Bee smiled. "Now what can I get for you?"
I ordered a water and the club special for myself as well as Lucien. Thankfully my son wasn't a picky eater and would put whatever I set in front of him in his mouth. Lyla ordered her typical salad, which Bee scoffed at before walking away. It was always the same. Bee complained that Lyla ate like a bird and Lyla purposely ordered the salad just to screw with the old woman. It was basically their love language.
"Are you going to hire the security company or what?" Lyla pierced me with a glare.
I groaned. "I don't know. I don't really have any other options at this point. The fancy security system alone would be worth it."
"You could let me handle it." Lucien's statement startled me.
I squinted at him when I realized he still wore his earbuds. "How long have you been listening to us?"
"Long enough to know that you ordered me the special of the day and that you answered the door for some stranger in nothing but a shirt."
So this was what mortification felt like. "And you didn't think to clue us in that you were listening?"
"I was curious if you finally found someone after all these years,” he answered bluntly. “We all know it's been a while since a man has gone anywhere near you. Pretty sure they say a healthy sex life is normal. I don't think they meant with the vibrator you hide in your dresser."
I was wrong. This was what mortification felt like.
"You're fourteen years old. You shouldn't know anything about a healthy sex life! And how the hell do you know what's in my dresser?"
There was no way this was my life right now. Having a sex talk with my son in the middle of a diner that everyone and their brother frequented couldn't possibly be happening. Not to mention him knowing about my stupid vibrator.
"I never said I was having one, although plenty of my friends have started, and isn't that where every woman hides their vibrator?"
Oh God. We were going to talk about this right now. Not the vibrator, I couldn't handle that, but apparently we were talking about everything else.
"I think you just took ten years off your mother's life," Lyla snickered.
"More like twenty," I clarified. "And I'm glad to know you don’t have a sex life. Maybe wait a few more years. Teen pregnancy is no joke, so I hope these so-called friends of yours are being sure to use protection. And that goes for you as well. You better wrap it up when you decide to start having sex."
I knew most of Lucien's friends and I couldn't imagine any of them having sex. I'd known them all since they were babies. When had they grown up so much?
