Page 10 of Midnight Surrounds Us

But maybe she needed a littlemoreconvincing.

When I turned back to him, Red was staring at me with a dubious look in his eye. “What aren’t you tellin’ me, Rye?”

“Nothin’. It’s nothin’ at all.”

As our waitress approached, pen and pad in hand, ready to take our order, he said, “Well, kid, when you’re ready to talk, I’m here. You hear me?”

“Yes, sir. I hear ya.”

CHAPTER FOUR

AUBREY

The roarin the library’s back room sounded garbled to my slightly inebriated ears.In the middle of a workday? Nice, Aubrey.

I chugged a second hard lemonade and sat back while my book-club friends all talked about my life like I wasn’t even there. Nobody else had touched the stuff, so not only was I drinking before noon, but I was also doing it alone.

“If she needs a break,” Carly said, “I could work part time at the shop, as long as I can bring baby Donnie with me and Buckey doesn’t mind watchin’ our older kids.”

Right, like hiring an employee would solve my financial woes. Pretty sure that was the opposite of saving money.

“And,” our local librarian, Sam, added, “if they really liked a book, I could push library patrons to Your Local Bookie to buy the pretty editions. I mean, I guess I kind of do that already.” She winced.

I rolled my eyes. “Guys.”

“I don’t know why she didn’t ask me to make her an online store,” Billie chimed in. “She does know that’s like cake for me, right? E-commerce is my bitch. And I can hack all the good plug-ins. She wouldn’t even have to pay.”

What the hell’s a plug-in?

I tried again. “Guys.”

“Let’s get a meal train goin’,” Philomena Beasley said. As the mother hen of our group, Phil looked determined to solve my problems. “I call Saturdays and Tuesdays. Then at least we’ll know she’s not existin’ on oatmeal.”

Shit. I shouldn’t have mentioned how tired I was of oatmeal.

I stood up. “Ladies! I love you but shutup!”

The room went silent, and ten heads turned in my direction.

I sat slowly and set my almost empty can on the floor by my feet. “Thank you. I know you’re all tryin’ to help, but I was just bitchin’ to bitch. There’s nothin’ any of you can do. Billie, I’ve already thought about an online shop. If and when I’m ready, you’ll be my only call. But it wouldn’t do me any good right now, andright nowis the problem. I will figure it out. And Phil, I’ll never say no to your pies, but y’all don’t have to feed me. I was bein’ dramatic. I have food.”

“You know,” Daisy said, smirking, “I’ve heard that if you’re stuck in life, it’s good to get out of your comfort zone. It opens up unused parts of your brain and then ideas flow like waterfalls.” She was grinning now, but I knew exactly where she was headed with the bohemian life advice.

I knew what every single woman in the room was thinking. No one had mentioned him yet, but it was only a matter of time before someone said the name of the man-child they all wanted me to ask on a date. All because he’d smiled at me at the town dance last fall. They all swooned and giggled and demanded that I hook up with the guy. Probably so they could live vicariously through my sexual exploits.

I had neglected to mention how Rye had come into the store a week before that and asked me to coffee. Telling them that juicy little nugget of information would’ve been like dressing myself inside a bloody elk carcass in the middle of a hungry packof wolves and then standing there while they devoured it, hoping not to get bitten or clawed.

Finally, none other than the deputy sheriff of Wisper, Abey Lee, spoke up. “Devo says Rye asks about you all the time. They talk on the phone like two teenage girls before prom.”

And there it was.

Forget “protect and serve.” Abey was just as big a gossip as the rest of them. Her style was understated, but she could gab with the best of them.

“Don’t,” I warned and glared at her.

“Oh my God,” Roxi squealed. “Did y’all see him in town today? That ass.” With her hands up in front of her chest, she flexed her fingers like she was getting ready to grab two handfuls of said ass or maybe testing the density of a couple oversized dinner rolls. “I swear to all that’s holy, the man must need Crisco to get his jeans up those thick thighs.” She purred like a horny cheetah, and I clasped my hands and locked my fingers together so I wouldn’t smack her.

“He does have a nice butt,” Cal said.

---