Page 114 of Caught in the Axe
No fires, please.
Fake a medical emergency.
No that’s insane. Take a breath. Let’s just approach this like adults.
Have fun with that. I’ll hitchhike back to town.
Stop. If you want to leave, I’ll make an excuse and meet you in the car.
Damn, I really wanted that scallop risotto.
How about I get our meals to go?
You are my favorite person, Owen Hebert.
I flagged down the server and asked her to box up our meals, paid, and said my goodbyes to my mother and her companions. After hearing that my “friend” had a “work emergency,” they invited me to join them. I declined politely. I’d rather lie on a bed of nails than sit at that table.
Lila and I ate dinner in my car in the parking lot. It was a far cry from the lovely meal I’d envisioned.
Frustration and confusion had overtaken me, so I was terrible company, I was sure. Yes, we’d agreed to keep things quiet. I could understand her concern about what people would say, and I respected her desire to finish her last couple of months in town without stirring up drama.
But this felt an awful lot like rejection. For as much as I honored her wishes and feelings, mine had been tramped and tossed out. Did barriers exist that made our relationship less than ideal? Absolutely. But after all this time together, it was hard not to hope that she’d let go of her paranoia about people finding out.
Because I was totally and fully in love with her. I hadn’t told her that. If I did, she’d think I was insane. But since the night we’d danced at the gala in Boston, I’d known she was it for me. And it was bad enough that our time together was ticking away without having to worry about hiding in bathrooms to avoid being discovered.
I was itching to fight. To let out some of the aggression boiling inside me. Instead, I called Gus and made him conference with Jude and Finn while we drove back to town.
“This better be good. We’re on baby watch over here,” Finn complained.
“Mom is on a date,” I said.
“What the fuck?”
“Are you sure?”
I squeezed the steering wheel until my knuckles were white. “Yes. She’s on a double date with Chief and Mrs. Souza and that guy, Charles Huxley, at the Timber Kitchen in Bangor right now.”
“Fuck,” Finn moaned. “That restaurant is ruined for me now.”
“I don’t like that guy.”
“Neither do I.”
“And what does she need to date for?” Jude said. “Plenty of us don’t date, and we’re just fine.”
“Debatable,” Gus quipped.
“Like you should talk.”
“Focus,” Finn said. “We need a plan of action here.” His voice got muffled for a moment, and another voice, this one more feminine, responded. “Hold on, Adele is making me put this on speaker so she can contribute.”
We all fell silent.
“Boys. I’m a hundred weeks pregnant and do not have time for bullshit. Why are you all shouting at each other on the phone at nine p.m.?”
With a sigh, I explained briefly.
“And why are you all having temper tantrums? Your mom is a grown woman. She can go on a date.”
