Her scowl disappears as she stares in shock, her jaw slacked. “Excuse me?”
“I just find it strange you’d compliment a man’s sexual prowess while simultaneously talking badly about him to a woman you know next to nothing about. Rhett Dillon is a decent guy, and he deserves better than what you’ve put him through. You hurt a friendship and caused a rift between brothers.Twins. Now, I’m not one to judge, but I think you might want to re-evaluate how you talk about Rhett and to whom. Namely me.”
Turning on her heel, Honor huffs and stomps away.
“Does that mean we’re not going to be best friends?” I call. “Shoot!”
I walk into the store and grab my cart, giggling to myself. Confrontation isn’t my favorite thing, but her comments made my blood boil. Rhett doesn’t deserve any of that, and Honor should have never had him. It’s beyond cruel letting someone fall for you knowing you have every intention of walking away. I’ve seen it too many times, and I’ll never understand using people.
Probably because I watched Mama use countless men. Or how often I saw it in the circles I ran in. It’s never something I’ve enjoyed or wanted to do.
The first aisle has snacks Mama never let me eat because they’d make me fat. But crackers are on sale, and I imagine bringing a cheese plate with crackers as a snack to Rhett. In bed. With him naked. Plus, it’s quick and easy.
I place the box in my cart, but I freeze the moment I hear my name in the next aisle. “What kind of name is Brynlee, anyway?”
“You know she’s from Chicago, right? Her grandparents may have been Kathleen and Jensen, but she doesn’t belong here. And that accent! Midwestern accents are just gross. I can’t figure out why all the guys fall at her feet.”
Midwestern? I had a college friend from Wisconsin, and I know I don’t talk like her. Just because I don’t have a drawl like everyone else, I have a Midwestern accent?
“She has to be runnin’ from the mob, right? I mean, from what I heard Carter tellin’ Darla, she just packed up and left Chicago in the middle of the night. You don’t move from a city like that to a small town without a stoplight if you’re not runnin’ away from somethin’.”
Some of the voices sound familiar, and I know I talked with them the other night. Even though we shared little more than introductory platitudes, I thought we were at least cordial.
“I think she was a stripper. I mean, have you seen her when she wears heels? No one walks that well unless they’ve danced in them before. And they’re not normal heels. They’re stripper heels.”
Looking down at my feet, I lift a foot to inspect my shoes. They’re designer heels, but I don’t think they’d constitute being called stripper heels. I’ve never gone to strip club, but I doubt exotic dancers wear them on stage.
“Maybe she’s a prostitute. Probably a stripper-turned-prostitute. I mean, that would explain how she ended up beddin’ dangerous men she’s clearly runnin’ from. No one would look for a street walker here.”
“Did you hear her braggin’ about bein’ a model? She’s far too tacky to be a real one, so I think that was just a lie to hide the fact she used to get naked for money. Either on a pole oron a pole.”
“And there’s no way she was Miss Ohio. I call bullshit.”
People think I look tacky? Tacky enough to be a call girl?
“How much work do you think she’s had done?”
“A lot! You can see the botched job on her nose when she turns her head, and the light hits it just right.”
My hand touches my nose absentmindedly. Something’s wrong with my nose? They think I had work done? No, not just work. Botched work.
“And her tits. God, did she go to some third-world country just to save a buck? Those things are far too perky to be real, but I bet the moment she gets naked, her nipples turn in opposite directions like those googly eyes my kid sticks on everythin’.”
Again, I glance down at myself. My chest isn’t that perky. Gravity and age have already started to show, but who would get fake boobs this small?
“How old do you think she is? I heard she told people she was twenty-six, but I’d put money on her bein’ at least forty. Get enough work done, and you can pass for younger. For a while.”
They all laugh, and I can only imagine how Mama is having a fit in the afterlife right now. Forty? They think I could be forty?
“And she’s just usin’ poor Rhett. Just like Honor did. He’s too blindsided by her fake, over-the-top beauty to see she’s only lookin’ for someone to take care of her. And he’s so desperate that he’ll fall for anyone who gives him a second glance. I mean, she’s obviously a gold digger. Ran out of money in Chicago, assumin’ that’s where she really came from.”
“Yeah, her sugar daddy probably saw her in decent light and realized she’s too old to pay her lifestyle any longer. Honor talks about how well-hung Rhett is, but I suspect with Brynlee, it’ll be like a hot dog down a hallway.”
That one hurts, and I swallow back the lump in my throat.Don’t cry. Don’t cry.
“She’s probably the only person with more experience than Honor when it comes to sex. At least Brynlee’s name isn’t ironic.”
“Oh! I bet I know how she’s a model. She probably sells those feet pics on the internet. Or maybe she does those porn sites you have to pay for. What are they called? Cam girls?”
