Page 75 of Playing for Keeps

“She used to hate the phone. Now she’s always on it,” Kerrie says while standing behind me while I work at the diner and Val rides around with Duke. “Who is she texting at all hours?”

“She’s made friends with Roxie and a few girls she met through the homestead. None of them are obsessed with dating.”

Kerrie glances at my grandma at the front counter before lowering her voice and asking, “Is your sister gay?”

“I don’t think so,” I whisper back and then flip the burger patties. “Why wouldn’t she tell us? It’s not like we’d hassle her.”

“No, I guess not, but she’s nineteen. How can shenotbe interested in guys?”

“She’s been saying for years how she wants to buy a house and fill it with pets. At no point has she ever shown interest in guys, girls, or babies. I think we should embrace her quirkiness.”

Kerrie nods, haphazardly cuts a head of lettuce, nearly slices her finger, and puts the knife down.

“What’s wrong with Duke?” Kerrie asks as she twirls her long hair. “Is it his medical issue?”

“He doesn’t have a medical issue.”

“He was in the hospital.”

“It was a false alarm. He’s perfectly fine.”

“No, he’s cranky like he’d get when Dallas pissed him off. Is he upset that his brother isn’t coming up for the wedding?”

“No, I called Dallas and asked him not to come. When he got offended, I insisted he knew what he did to upset me. Then, I hung up.”

“What did he do?”

“Nothing, but I want him to feel guilty. That way, he won’t try to make a scene by coming here.”

“Does Val not want Dallas around?”

“Val has never met Dallas, so he can’t possibly know how much he won’t like him.”

“Well, Val seems very agreeable.”

Smiling at the thought of Val goofing around with Moo this morning, I sigh. “He is.”

“Duke used to be agreeable,” Kerrie says and sways to the music playing in the diner. “He’s gotten grumpy. I think single life isn’t working for him.”

“He’s just focused on the wedding and the clubs aligning.”

“And his stripper girlfriend,” Kerrie says and twirls her hair again while shaking her head. “I’ve heard of this before.”

“What?” I ask, humoring her while I set two plates on the order ledge to go out.

“My friend Patsy divorced her husband after he went insane from a midlife crisis. He ended up marrying an eighteen-year-old high school senior and buying his child bride new boobs.”

“Well, Duke’s stripper friend is older than me.”

“Gold diggers aren’t all teenagers, Lola.”

“What do you care?”

Kerrie shrugs. “I don’t want him bringing home a trampy woman with troublemaking ideas about raising my girls.”

I snicker at the idea of anyone raising Clover and me at this point. Kerrie is full of shit, too. She knows Duke would never marry a dingbat just because he turned forty.

But she’s restless over being away from home without Merv. No one is around to entertain her, and she was never all that good at entertaining herself.

---