“There’s a book club?” He looked a little green around the gills. Poor Parker. He wasn’t ready for this subdivision.
“Oh, yes.”
“Well, then,” Dawn was saying in spite of a smile so tight her lips threatened to split. “That’s your slate of officers for next year. Voting willstart tomorrow, so check your email for the survey. Unless someone else has a matter we need to discuss, we are adjourned.”
“Well, that was educational,” Parker said as we left the clubhouse.
“Mr. Ford? A word about your flower bed?”
We both turned around to see Dawn Crawford, who was desperately trying to keep it together.
“I’ll just run along,” I said.
Parker shot me a how-dare-you-leave-me-with-this-woman look, and I returned a you’re-a-big-boy-you-can-handle-it look.
Little did he know I left him behind due to more than a hint of self-preservation. I liked him. I liked him a lot, but I also knew that I was in no position to like him for about a million different reasons.
So I walked up the hill alone.
Chapter 16
I couldn’t figure out a good way to make a video about getting my Homeowners’ Association Badge, so I resurrected my blog and wrote about it. Then I made a video about my blog, which had to be the most twenty-first-century thing to ever twenty-first century.
When my phone rang, I almost ignored it but picked up when I saw that it was Dylan wanting to FaceTime.
“A bit late, isn’t it, Buddy Bear?”
“Do you have to call me that?” he asked. His scowl was half smile, so I could tell he didn’t really mind.
“As that great philosopher Mariah Carey once said, you will ‘Always Be My Baby.’ Are you doing better?”
“I was going to ask about you, Mom.”
“Don’t worry about me. Let me worry about you.”
He paused, a longer pause, the kind of pause that preceded something very bad or very good.
“I got a B plus on my last paper,” he said with a small smile.
“Good work! See, you’re going to do it.”
“And I might have asked a cute girl out on a date.”
His announcement had the same effect as a ball-peen hammer to the sternum. I bit my tongue to keep from saying things like,Run! Don’t believe in true love! Don’t be an ass like your father!Instead, I said, “That’s great!”
“Mom, come on.”
“No, really, Dylan. And you have to believe me, or I’ll talk to you about the birds and the bees.”
“Please don’t.”
“Okay, then I’ll have to trust you to be very careful with your heart. And other things.”
“Mom!”
“Always use a condom. Check the date, too.”
“Mom!”
