Page 18 of Beautiful Dreamer

“Along with Cricket. She hired On the Spot to wax her fleet ofvehicles and asked for Kevin, the twenty-year-old with the abs, to be thewaxer. That’s the God’s honest, absolute truth.”

“Not at all surprised,” KC said. “Devyn likely isn’t any better.”

Elizabeth agreed wholeheartedly with their assessment of youngerDevyn. She’d all but ignored Elizabeth in high school in favor of the moreexciting types. She’d always gotten good grades but never really engaged withstudy groups, nor had she ever traded more than five words with Elizabeth at atime. Yet Elizabeth was hesitant to say anything bad about Devyn, given thedifficult time she was having. Somehow, it just didn’t seem right. “You neverknow. She might be entirely different now. People can change as they grow.”

“Do the other Senior Star cheerleaders seem different toyou?” Dexter asked,scrolling his phone, likely for the most recent Braves score. The aggressivepunching gesture he made silently in the air meant they were winning. “The onlyreason they give me the time of day now is that they’re bored with theirhusbands.”

It was true. The women of Dreamer’s Bay found Dexter easy on theeyes and took turns flirting with him to pass the time—and, okay,propositioning him on the sly, too. Though Dexter had grown up to beridiculously handsome, with a fitness model’s body, he hadn’t always had aneasy time of it. His family had moved to the Bay when he was in the sixth gradeand he was the gangly kid with thick glasses. Elizabeth winced at the memory ofhis reception the day the principal first introduced him to their homeroomclass. “They called you Poindexter.”

“Yeah, and it stuck for the next six years. I was a pointy-headednerd. I can admit that shit, and when we moved to town there were, what? Fiveblack families? I already felt like a fish out of water being the sixth. To belabeled awkward, too?” He shook his head. “Damn, man. Not my favorite years.”

KC leaned over and swung an arm around his broad shoulders.“You’re a total glow-up story, Dex. Just look at you now. Muscly and chiseledand with that little dimple right there.” She touched it with her forefinger.

He pumped his eyebrows. “You’re into me.”

“I’m not. I’m married.”

“If you weren’t.”

She shook her head. “I’d let you down easy.”

“Yeah, well,” he shifted his focus, “Liz would be into me if sheweren’t gay.”

KC laughed. “You don’t know that.”

His face fell, so Elizabeth patted his forearm. “If that’s whatyou want. Sure. You’re very handsome in a cue ball kinda way, and if I were allup in the man business, I’d probably be drooling right now. There. How wasthat?” She stole another milk ball, thought better of it, and stole three more.She was a candy whore on the take and happy about it.

Dex sat a little taller, nodding about his false victory. “Well,so long as there’s a chance.” A pause. “Speaking of gay. Devyn Winters is. Youintoher?”

Elizabeth frowned. “She is not. And just because two people are gay,it doesn’t mean they will automatically be into each other. Look at Linda fromthe movie theater. She’s gay, and I can’t stand her. Then there’s Raven fromthe mini-mall. We barely speak, except in passing. There’s Tammy and Lindsay,who are both very attractive and from what I understand single, but you don’tsee me chasing them down just because. There’s not a secret club.”

“You left Thalia off that list,” Dexter said blandly. Her friendswere not fans.

KC nodded. “That’s because she’s writing love poetry about her inher head as we sit here.”

“I am not,” Elizabeth said. “I’m an awful writer.” A pause. “But Iwould if I thought she’d like them.” She sighed at how pathetic she was.

“I don’t get why the one woman you’re into has to be such a dick.Ironic, man.”

“Listen, she’s got a lot of things going on,” Elizabeth offered,in what felt like a lame defense even to her. Thalia Perkins did have a trackrecord of canceling their plans or ghosting her altogether for weeks at a timeafter flirting with her here and there until she got bored. Somehow, though,Elizabeth couldn’t seem to shake the crush she’d developed. Just when she didsomething to make Elizabeth saynomore, Thalia would toss her dark hair or bat her gorgeous dark eyesand reel her right back in. Then there was the way she sort of half smiled thatwould just make everything okay again. Yep. Elizabeth kept coming back formore. She didn’t really like what that said about her.

KC raised her hand and yanked Elizabeth back from the wonderfuland confusing land of Thalia Perkins into the fold of the conversation. “Ithink Devyn is, though. Gay. I googled her at some point when I was on my‘where are they now’ kick last year. She’s had what looked to be girlfriends.”

Huh. Not only did that surprise Elizabeth, but it rattled her,intrigued her, and turned her mind into a hamster wheel of energy that honestlysurprised her. Why would she care enough to react energetically? Plenty ofpeople were gay. Millions. Beyond that, how the hell had she missed this?

KC leaned in. “I think we only point it out because your pond is alittle small in these parts, and maybe that’s one detail that would be…ofinterest to you.”

Elizabeth balked at the idea. “You think I’d be into DevynWinters? Popular and shallow, and oblivious to my existence for our entireadolescent history? Yes, she seems nicer now, but still.” She left offbeautifulon purpose,but Devyn was definitely that. Even more so these days, in her adultsophistication and the way she carried herself with suchauthority. Theauthority part was really nice and sent a shiver down her back. She shrugged itoff as she chewed her milk ball. “Besides, she’s here because Jill needs her,and the least we can do is make her feel welcome. Senior Stars snobbery or not.Is ‘snobbery’ a word?”

“Yep,” KC said. “But the thesis statement remains. You’re abighearted goober, always have been, and you deserve more in your life thanThalia, for God’s sake.” She stood reluctantly and shrugged. “But I can’t countgay people all afternoon, nor reminisce with you two any longer. My child needsto eat, and that means I have to forage. That’s who I am now,” she said with aheavy sigh and pulled her curly brown hair into a ponytail as if preparing forbattle. “Not sexy and alluring, but a forager.”

“There’s a dreamy blond doctor who thinks you’re sexy and alluring,”Elizabeth pointed out. KC’s husband was a transfer from Charleston. She’dsnagged him within months of his arrival in town, much to the chagrin of everyother single straight woman in a thirty-mile radius, and the two of them stillhad goo-goo eyes for each other—sigh-worthy on many levels.

“That he does,” KC said. “Thanks for that reminder. Now I justmight have sex tonight.” With that, her shoulders went back and her boobs wentup, and she sashayed right out of Elizabeth’s kitchen.

“She just needs a little encouragement,” Elizabeth informed Dexteronce they were alone.

He nodded. “You’re good with encouragement, Liz. You make peoplefeel better about themselves. Your gift.”

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