Page 56 of Blame it on the Kiss
“And tell him he must let me repay him for sending a plumber over yesterday to put a snake in my drain.”
Mrs. L. got a gleam in her eye and pressed her hands together. “Tell us again how long his snake was, Betty.”
“Long. And when he bent over—”
“Whoa,” Honor and Dylan said at the same time. “I’m gonna grab some water. Be right back. You ladies stay put,” Dylan said, disappearing down the street and leaving Honor alone with four sets of eyes narrowed on her like they wanted all the details of her sex life.
“Now that he’s gone, we need the scoop,” Mrs. L said with a wink, “Betty told us what a hottie your boyfriend is.”
Honor bit the inside of her cheek. Leave it to the four busiest bodies in White Strand to get her alone first thing in the morning after the best weekend of her life. “He’s not my—”
“You should have seen his muscles straining through his wet shirt,” Mrs. J. said.
The team nodded like they wished they had.
“He’s not my boyfriend. And what are you doing checking out someone young enough to be your grandson?
“I may beolder, but I’m not dead.”
Honor sucked in her bottom lip to keep from laughing.
“He’s also very charming,” Midge said, ignoring Honor’s boyfriend rebuttal and reminding her Bryce had been into the Happy Harpoon several times.
He wasn’t a stranger in her town anymore.
“You ladies are impossible. We’re just… friends.”
“Friends with benefits.” Mrs. L. said like she’d just coined the term. The rest of the group grinned. At leasttheywere enjoying this.
“It’s not like that, either.” Could she rewind the morning and take a different route please?
“What is it like?” Midge asked. Her grandmotherly voice was inquisitive and sweet, a combination that usually got her the answers she wanted.
“Umm…”
Shirley’s hip hummed and she jumped. “Oh, that’s my cell,” she announced. She lifted her tutu and retrieved the phone. “It’s a text from Frannie. She wants to know what’s this she hears about Honor and some hotshot agent with tight buns.”
Oh. My. God.
And how did the mayor’s wife find out about her and Bryce?
“What are you texting back?” Honor asked, watching Shirley text faster than she did.
“That he’s your sex slave.”
“What?” This was a bad dream and any minute now Honor would wake up and go straight to work. Do not walk down Main Street. Do not stop for coffee. Run in the opposite direction if she ever saw the Street Team again.
Shirley looked up. “Kidding, sweetie.”
Midge put her hand on Honor’s arm. “We love you. And we’re happy you’re finally moving on with such a nice young man.”
What did that mean? Moving on. No one knew what was inside her head. How could they? “You ladies need to find something else to talk about.” She stepped around them and waved an arm over her head. “Something more age appropriate,” she added over her shoulder, “like adding fiber to your diets.”
“She’s definitely in love,” Mrs. Landry said, prompting Honor to hurry her steps.
Love? That was crazy talk. And damn it all. She’d be the talk of the town now. Everyone would speculate and whisper and watch her every move. She knew no one meant any harm, but she hated being under a microscope.
Love, she mentally repeated, and her heart did a wheelie. She rubbed a few fingers across her chest to banish the uncool display from the stupid organ.
