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“I knew you were seeing somebody. Didn’t I tell you she was seeing somebody?”
“You sure did,” Daisy said in a placating sort of way. “Are you okay?”
“Ugh.” I crawled into my unmade bed. “Fine, no thanks to Jo.”
“I can’t believe you’ve been keeping this from us,” Jo went on, standing now and occasionally pacing. “Who is he?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I inspected my scuffed-up knee and sighed. The bruise was gonna be nasty.
“Oh, don’t you gimme that. Spill it.”
“Nope.”
“You really think you can get out of this without telling me?”
“You really think I can’t outlast you?”
“I know you can’t.”
“Game on.”
Daisy had been lost in thought. “It’s not one of Keaton’s brothers, is it?”
“Guessing won’t bypass the whole not telling you thing. Now can y’all get out of my room so I can shower and change?”
Neither of them made to go.
“Was it Evan?” Jo’s face lit up. “Oh my God, did you bag the uncatchable Evan Banks?”
I rolled my eyes. “No.”
Stumped, Jo paced again. “You didn’t take a vehicle, so either you went somewhere close by or someone picked you up. But by the look of you, you slept outside. Which means he’s not somebody you can bring around. He either doesn’t have a place of his own or is somebody you can’t be seen wi—” She stopped dead, her face flattening. “You didn’t.”
I popped off my bed to dig through my drawers so I wouldn’t have to look at her. “Didn’t what?”
Daisy gasped. “Poppy, tell me you didn’t—”
“Jesus, I said I wasn’t telling you. Can’t y’all respect that?”
“She didn’t say no,” Jo noted to Daisy.
I slammed the drawer shut hard enough to rattle everything on top. “I’m taking a shower.”
Jo blocked the door, her arms folded. “You slept with Duke, didn’t you?”
“No! Okay?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Liar. How long’s it been going on?
“How did it happen?” Daisy asked. “When did it happen?”
“No wonder you’ve been getting along. Truce, huh?” Jo said, furious. “Truce with his dick, maybe.”
“Iris Jo,” Daisy chided.
“Let me go, Jo, or you’re gonna get it,” I warned.
“Oh, please. You’re gonna admit it if I have to wrestle it out of you—ow!”
She bent to grab the shin I’d just kicked, but as I was gloating, she launched herself at me and we fell, squealing, onto my bed, rolling around and slapping at each other. I had a handful of hair in my fist when Daisy grabbed my arm.
“Stop that! You’re acting like children.”
“She started it,” I said, pinning Jo down, but she got loose and twisted my arm.
“Admit it!” Jo yelled as we wrestled.
“Shut up!” I yelled back. “Mama’s gonna hear!”
“No she won’t, because she snuck out too,” Jo said, her face all red.
I paused. “She what?”
“She didn’t come home.” Jo took the opening to wriggle out from under me. “I think she’s with Allen.”
My mouth hung open. “No way. I said goodnight to her right freaking there last night.”
“And then you snuck out. Can’t really judge her for doing the same,” Daisy noted.
“I’m not judging, just… Mama! Sleeping with somebody!”
“It’s both exciting and disturbing,” Jo said, fixing her skewed ponytail. “But this isn’t about Mama. You met Duke last night, didn’t you? And it wasn’t the first time.”
I calculated my possible answers and their consequences, trying to work out the shitty math for a little too long. Because Jo said, “I’ll tell Mama you are even if you’re not, if you don’t admit it.”
I sagged. “I should be thankful it took you this long to figure it out, but mostly I hate you a little right now.”
They both started talking at the same time, Jo half yelling and Daisy smiling. I looked up at the ceiling while they exhausted themselves.
“But I just don’t understand how,” Daisy said. “How in the world did you go from wanting to shove him out of a moving vehicle to sleeping with him?”
“Well,” I started, “the first time it was sort of an accident.”
“You accidentally slipped and fell onto his dick?” Jo hung her hands on her hips.
“Kinda. The second time, I don’t really know what happened. He was upset about Nash and then we were kissing and then we were… you know.”
Jo shook her head. “Did he initiate? Because—”
“Nope. It was me. All the times after that—”
“All the times? How many times?” Jo’s voice climbed to the point of shrill.
“Orgasms or nights?”
She pulled my hair, and I pinched her arm.
“Every night since. Almost two weeks.”
Again, they burst into screamy monologues.
“Listen, I know. I know,” I yelled so they’d hear me and pipe down. “It’s stupid, the whole thing. But we had to get it out of our systems.”
“Yeah, it looks real out of your system,” Jo said. “The election is in two days, and you’re out in the woods boning your opponent. Who abandoned you and curb stomped your heart.”
