Page 31 of The Run Home
Lydia cringed, but then shrugged it off. “I was eavesdropping, so I didn’t think it was my place to gossip, nor did I fully understand your history. And besides, he wanted to remain anonymous, so that’s his fault.”
“Can I ask a favor?” I said into the quiet as all of us absorbed this new information. “Can we stop talking about Boon? At least for tonight? I need a Boon break.”
Hattie smiled sympathetically, Rosemary nodded, Fife looked bummed out, and Lydia clapped her hands together, successfully moving us onto another topic.
“I found a new dating app I think we should all join.”
That made all of us groan and roll our eyes. As a collective whole, we had not had good luck with dating apps. However, we lived in a small town and there were only so many single men around.
Lydia held her hands up to quiet us down. “This one is different.” At my crossed eyes she glared at me, but continued. “It’s specifically geared toward women’s safety, but also for people not looking for long-term relationships. More like a nice fuck buddy.”
She held up her phone and showed us the app icon. It vaguely looked like a vagina-shaped flower.
“Oh! Isn’t that the one where their tagline isgood clean, dirty fun?” Hattie asked, pulling out her own phone.
“Yes,” Lydia confirmed. “I downloaded it last night and already have a potential match. I think you should all join.”
I was the oldest of the bunch which is probably why I was the only one a bit cautious about the new app. While they all quickly downloaded and giggled over setting up their profiles, I held off. Lydia, that little beyotch, noticed almost immediately.
“What’s your issue? Don’t want to download the app? Waiting for Boon Wolfe to scratch the itch?”
I glared at her. “We just agreed to be on a Boon break!”
Lydia put her hands on her slim hips. “Best way to get over a guy is to get under another one. Download the app, Shae.” She held my gaze like a personal challenge.
“Fine.” I pulled out my phone and downloaded the app, already promising myself I’d delete it once I got home tonight. A hookup app seemed like a recipe for disaster.
Lydia snatched the phone out of my hands.
“Hey!”
“What username should we give Shae?” she asked the group, clearly having read my mind about deleting the damn thing. Sometimes I hated having a best friend.
The girls tossed out ideas, each more ridiculous than the last. Somehow, when all was said and done and Lydia handed me back my phone, my username was Bugeyedbeauty and the tagline below my picture wasI’m a teacher, which means I’m in to spanking.
“Oh my God!”
The girls howled with laughter, and as terrible as this profile was, it was also a little bit funny. I laughed, pocketed the phone, and made a mental note to delete tonight. No way in h-e-double-hocky-sticks was I going out with a mystery man who wanted to spank me.
“Somehow I think my toys would be better than any man who comes from that app,” I muttered.
There was heated debate about the merits of toy usage versus the real-life feel of a man pressing you into the mattress or giving your inner thighs beard burn. I explained I’d lived fourteen years without a man and my toys got me by just fine. The girls all looked at me with pity. By the time the night was over and we all needed to get home to be ready for work the next day, we were still on different pages about the toy-versus-man debate.
“Remember next week is toy week, so make sure you find some fun ones to gift,” Rosemary reminded us as we filed out the door.
Finally, a topic I had extensive knowledge on.
Monday morning came way too early considering I’d had a glass of wine the night before. I guessed this was what middle age did to a woman. You have one glass and suddenly need a whole day to recover. I soldiered on, curling my hair and pairing a lavender sweater with my black pants and ballet flats. I went with my thick black-framed glasses today to hide the bags under my tired eyes.
I gave myself a pep talk about Boon. I was going to ignore his flirting as it was surely just a knee-jerk response and meant nothing. However, I’d try to inject just a sliver of politeness to our interactions considering his money had paid for the gymnasium and weight room I benefited from every day with myvolleyball team. Plus, if he really had done what he said he did with Grady Summerlin, then I really should do a bit more than a sliver.
However, the universe decided to give me a case of the Mondays. As soon as I stepped out of my car in the school parking lot, Kinsley was walking by. She waved and came over, bubbling with excitement about her purchases from the mall. We walked around the administration building together and would have parted ways at the outdoor stairwell as we both went to our first period classrooms, but we stopped short.
Boon stood in the middle of the baseball diamond, reporters and cameramen surrounding him like the local hotshot celebrity he was. His team was clustered behind him, wanting in on the spotlight he brought to Blueball High.
“Ugh,” Kinsley moaned. “He’s doing that thing with his voice.”
I couldn’t rip my gaze away from Boon. He had the body of a professional athlete, all right. He also had this ethereal glow around him that us regular humans didn’t possess. If he was in a toothpaste commercial, the sparkles would be coming off his white teeth like fireworks.
