“Oh, I know.” My smile was rueful. “You’re here because of Brody.”
“Well, at least you finally figured it out,” she said darkly. “I was starting to think you were as dumb as that crap you write.”
I let the insult regarding my books slide off my shoulders. Now was so not the time. “We should talk about Brody.” I imagined the cops coming down the road with muted sirens and lights, which allowed me to maintain control of the situation. “You’re in love with him, right?”
Blair rolled her eyes. “I’m not in love with him.”
Uh-oh.That was the assumption I’d been operating under.What am I supposed to do here?
“I don’t know him well enough to love him,” she continued. “I just know he shouldn’t be in love with you.”
I blinked, then I blinked again. When I smiled, it was forced. “Why don’t you think we should be together?”
“Because he’s too good for you.”
“Hey!” Mom planted her hands on her hips and glared at Blair. “My kid is better than anybody. If anybody isn’t good enough for somebody else, it’s Brody who needs to step up his game.”
Weirdly, I’d been waiting for my mother to stand up for me my entire life. It wasn’t lost on me that she’d finally decided to do it now, at the exact wrong time. A humorless laugh escaped me before I could contain it.
“You think this is funny?” Blair challenged, raising an eyebrow that was more eye pencil than hair.
“I think this situation touches on surreal,” I replied honestly. “There are a lot of moving parts here, some you can’t be privy to unfortunately.”
“You don’t want to share with the class?”
“I don’t think you’re going to care about my relationship with my mother, who has been dating Brody’s father.” The goal here was to get Blair to think about something other than herself.
“See!” Blair jabbed the index finger of the hand I could see into the air. I still had no idea what was in that sleeve, and it bothered me. “You can’t date the son of the guy your mother is dating. That’s just weird.”
“What’s weird about it?” Mom shot back. “It’s not as if they’re blood relatives. We could be one big happy family.”
Now was not the time to break apart Mom’s delusions, so I didn’t respond to the statement.
“Oh, please.” Blair rolled her eyes at Mom. “Everybody knows Rufus Bates dates society bimbos. You’re too old, and you’re from a lower class than the pool he usually fishes in. That man is not sticking with you.”
Mom pouted. “You don’t know.”
Blair ignored her and focused on me. “I warned you to stay away from Brody. You’re not the type of woman he needs.”
“You warned me?”
“The tires.” She offered up a “well, duh” look. “Why wasn’t that enough for you?”
Even though I’d sort of figured she was responsible for the tires, part of me had still believed it was Joey. Or maybe I justwanted to believe it. But Joey was innocent. Well, maybe not innocent. The guy had purposely gone out of his way to make me uncomfortable. He was not a dirty tire slasher, though.
“Did you warn Brody too?” I asked, my mind going to the vandalism.
“Of course. I saw the way you two were looking at each other at the event. You tried to hide it, but it was obvious. I wanted him to see the trash in his yard and associate it with you.”
“I’m not sure that translated,” I replied dryly.
“Why do you think I’m here?” There was no sign of Blair’s smile, the one I’d gotten used to at the events. She was like a completely different person. “You guys can’t take a hint.”
“You followed us on the hearse tour.” It wasn’t a question. “It wasn’t an accident that you showed up at the Mexican restaurant.”
She just blinked.
“You put the video of Brody and me up on TikTok,” I continued.
