Page 139 of Don't Go Faking My Heart

Lottie and I have had an on-again, off-again friendship since Rusty and I made it official. Fortunately, she's gone totally gaga for Sonny's nephew, Felix, so I'm hoping we'll be able to put this behind us for real this time.

Rusty and I walk across the Sugar Maple High School football field and say hi to almost everyone we see. The anticipation in the air is so thick, it's making me dizzy. After Lou's identity got spilled, she decided to hold a free concert for Sugar Maple residents and guests. We've had it in the works for a couple of weeks, but the rest of Sugar Maple didn't find out until this morning.

It turns out that a fair number of people suspected Lou was Lucy Jane. When your legal name is Lucy and all your friends share a middle name, and when you have the kind of voice that could narrate audiobooks or sing the National Anthem at the Superbowl, well, people start to put two and two together.

Also, when we had Lou narrate one of the Sugar Maple tourism videos, we forgot that half the town knows her.

Dead giveaway.

Unless you're an idiot like Philip. Ha!

Fortunately, the people of Sugar Maple have grown up around the likes of the Carville family and the top quarterback in the NFL. They don't care as much about her fame because they care so much about her person.

They've willingly protected Lou's identity because that's what good neighbors do.

"But if I'd known there was money to be made off the secret, I'd have sold you out so fast and bought the diner outright," Tia said when we walked by the diner this morning to tell her about the concert.

"Because Tripp is such a terrible business partner?" Jane asked.

Bill was so eager to sell the diner and get out of town that he offered to sell it to Tripp on the spot.

Tripp brought Tia into the discussion and offered to be a silent investor for her. She doesn't have to run anything by him, although she did have to promise that there will always be real meat on the menu.

"He tried to veto a meatless salad," she told Jane. "It's salad."

"Tell him if he gives you any grief, you'll start offering green eggs and ham."

"Beg your pardon?" Tia asked.

"He has this whole Dr. Seuss thing," Jane said. "But it'll work. I promise."

Tia helped spread the word about the concert, and now, with the sun setting, Lou is only a few minutes out from taking the stage. She's putting on a one-woman acoustic show, although she did finally choose her band for the tour. All female, so she won't run the risk of falling for any of them, like her mom did.

We run into the Chicks and their wives sitting in chairs along the sidelines. The Hens, as Rusty calls them, are only a yard or two away. Granny Belle's husband died years ago, and Mr. Beaty and Tia's grandfather are talking about football.

"My granddaughter told me you two aren't a real couple till you have a 'power name,’" Chick Hanks says, puffing out his chest. "So we've come up with one for you."

Rusty and I swap eager looks. "Lay it on us," I say.

Chick Hanks spreads his hands as if he's bestowing a blessing on the land. "Rasty. Get it? Perfect blend of Rusty and Ash."

"Rasty?" I repeat.

"I thought we decided on Ashty," Chick Parkinson says.

"Ashty?" Rusty looks shocked, like they said a foul word. Because it sounds like one!

"No, it was Rash," Chick Allen says.

I double over laughing, but I manage to make it look like a vicious coughing fit. Rusty ducks his face and pats my back, not willing to let them see how hard he's laughing.

"Do y'all hear yourselves?" Granny Belle asks. "It's Rush. Rusty plus Ash. It takes the same number of letters from both names and it does not sound like some troubling medical condition that we don't talk about in polite company." She looks skyward. "Heaven help me before I say somethin' nasty."

"You mean somethin' rasty," Mrs. Beaty says, and the Hens crack up.

Rusty clears his throat as I bring my face upright with a flip of my hair. "We'll take it under consideration, won't we, Gorgeous?"

"Sure will, Farm Boy."

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