My face flamed tomato red and I considered my options: grabbing Max and leaving town, grabbing Max, going home to the trailer and never coming out again. Grabbing Max and heading to Mexico. “That’s the most ridiculous story I have ever heard. I wasn’t even there… for long.”
Just long enough to dance all over Ajax for hours and then make out with Levi by the bathrooms.
Apparently, I was there long enough.
Shit.
Becky shrugged casually, but her eyes sparkled with interest. “Does Levi have it bad for you?”
I frowned at my hands. “I didn’t know any of that until just now.”
“He hasn’t said anything to you?”
He had said plenty to me, but I wasn’t going to share that with Becky. “He said he wants to be friends. We weren’t really, er, friends, in high school. I was a brat.”
“I also heard he went home with Kelly Fink that night.” She shrugged again, the light dimming in her eyes. “So maybe it’s not what everyone’s saying it is.”
A foreign feeling burned beneath my skin, clawing at my bones and upsetting my stomach. Kelly Fink? Really? Levi couldn’t see through that shallow hag?
To Becky I said, “Bet Kristen loved that.”
Becky gave me a look. “Kelly better hire private security or something.”
Despite the icky feeling inside me, I smiled. Becky made a good point. “If Kelly disappears, we know what to tell the sheriff.”
Becky laughed and grabbed some nearby papers to shuffle. “I’m kind of bummed, Ruby. I was hoping he had a thing for you.”
I laughed, unable to stop the bitter sound from falling out of my mouth. “Why?”
She spread her hands helplessly. “Because you’re one of us, a girl on the fringe. The haves have been mating the haves since the beginning of time. What about all us have-nots? You are like… Cinderella.”
I looked down at my too short, striped waitress dress and stained Chucks. “I’m pretty much the opposite of Cinderella.” Not even Cinderella came from Clark City, Nebraska. And she definitely didn’t have an illegitimate child with the prince’s brother.
“You know what I mean,” Becky insisted. “I’m rooting for your happily ever after. That’s all.”
I rolled my eyes. “Trailer Park Princess. It does have a kind of ring to it, yeah?”
“Stop,” she groaned. “Don’t be crazy.”
I wasn’t being crazy. I was just keeping it real.
Tapping the ledge with my right hand, I took a step back. “All right, Becks, I need to get in there before Jamie has a conniption.”
She made a face. “Good luck to you. I heard your decorations turned out awesome though.”
Was nothing private in this town? “How do you know so much?” I asked her.
Gesturing at the space around her, she leaned forward and whispered, “This is the main hub of communication. If you want to know anything about anybody, you just come talk to me. I hear it all.”
I would have to remember that. “Good to know. See you this weekend at the Halloween extravaganza?”
“Literally would not miss it for anything.”
I wished I could have felt that much enthusiasm, but I would buck up for Max. He was super excited about trick-or-treating around town. I’d sent him to school in a version of his costume this morning, but he would get to paint his face this Saturday night for the final Supper in the Square and go all out.
Jamie greeted me when I stepped inside the first-grade classroom. There were two other moms already there, helping string crepe paper streamers from one side of the classroom to the other. Just like at her house, this room looked like Halloween had thrown up everywhere.
But I was starting to realize that’s just how Jamie worked. She was contained chaos. I liked that about her.
