Page 53 of The Good Guy on My Porch

Her words startled me, because Carrie didn’t push back. Usually, if I told her everything was great, she accepted it and moved on. Why were all the people in my life suddenly questioning me? “Maybe I was a little lonely. I don’t get to see Jerome that often and Oscar is a good-looking guy. It was a mistake, but it doesn’t mean Jerome’s not the right guy for me.” It was very likely that a fake boyfriend was the perfect guy for me.

“You know you can talk to me about anything, right? I’m your best friend.”

“Of course,” I said. “But right now, I really do have to get to work.”

We hung up, and I showered and ate a quick breakfast. My head was fuzzy, and my throat ached with a weird tightness. I stepped onto my front porch to find Sandra leaning against the railing, dressed for work in a slick suit and heels. “Need to borrow some sugar?” I asked sarcastically.

“I heard you’ve got more than you need.”

I rolled my eyes. “Doesn’t anyone in this town have anything better to talk about than my kiss with Oscar?”

She popped her eyes wide and gasped in pretend shock. “You kissed Oscar?”

I snorted and gave her shoulder a light shove. “Seriously, why does anyone care?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ve been enjoying the soap opera drama I’ve been watching from my front porch. And, I’m tired of seeing you get hurt by assholes.”

That one stung a bit. “You’re not one to talk, Sandra. I haven’t seen you out with anyone since last fall.”

“I’ve been focusing on my career.”

“Uh-huh,” I said. “You want to know all my secrets, but won’t share any of yours?”

She chewed on her lower lip like she was considering. “Um, yep. That’s exactly how I like it. So, give me the dirt. Are you and Oscar a thing now or what?”

“How about you take me out to dinner this week and I’ll tell you all about it?”

She pouted. “Fine.”

I walked with her as far as the law office where she worked as an attorney. She was trying to get ahead, and working a Saturday, in a suit, was how she was planning to do it. After I’d left her, I called my mother. She was short with me, still mad about our fight the night before. After checking in at work, I went right to the second-floor meeting room to get ready for a group of seniors who would be there in an hour for a resume-building class. I’d been surprised by how many seniors had signed up. I wondered if retirement was boring or if finances were tighter than expected.

I froze in the doorway to the meeting room because it wasn’t empty. All the ladies from the book club were seated in chairs they’d arranged in a circle.

“Um, book club is on Monday,” I said.

“We know,” Mary said. “But Norma Jane has family in town next week, Betty has a doctor’s appointment on Monday, and I have a meeting with my tax guy, so we decided to meet this morning.”

“And you didn’t think to tell me?” I asked. “How you’d get in here, anyway?”

“Bruce let us in,” said Leah, smiling like the cat who’d skinned the canary alive. Bruce was my boss and the library manager. “He told us you’d probably come here first, since you have a class here later. What’s it about? Maybe I’ll stick around.”

“Resume-building.” I wondered if Damian’s horrible drink had psychotropic properties with a delayed release. “And I really do need to get ready for it. Maybe we can meet another day next week?”

“Maybe,” Mary said. “We’ll have to check our calendars.” She didn’t get up from her seat. “What happened between you and Oscar last night?”

I should have known. “Nope,” I said. “We are not talking about my personal life. I need to set up ten tablets and a power point for my next class. Text me and we can arrange our book club meeting for another day.”

“I heard it was a steamy kiss,” Betty said, her face pinched in disapproval. “In front of God and the whole town.”

Betty might put on a good front, but I knew what she was trying to do, and I wasn’t getting sucked into it. “I am a loose floozy,” I said. “And I will call security if you don’t carry yourselves out of this room in the next five seconds.” I gave Norma Jane a pointed look. “Richard is working this morning.” Richard had an adorable crush on Norma Jane, but she avoided him like the plague. I think she secretly liked him, but she felt it would be disloyal to her deceased husband to spend any time with him.

Norma Jane paled and stood. “Ladies, it’s clear Dilly doesn’t want us here. We should go.”

The others grumbled, but they were a united front and wouldn’t put Norma Jane in an awkward position. They stood and followed her out. Mary stopped at the door and poked me right in the solar plexus. “This isn’t over, Daffodil Thompkins.”

I bit back a laugh. The situation was horrible and wrong, but also so ridiculous it was funny. I forced a frown and nodded. “I understand.”

She shook her head and puffed air between her lips, like she knew I was laughing at her. “So hardheaded,” she muttered.

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