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“Yes!” I replied. “Did you read it, Sutton? She all but claimed I’m sleeping with Mason!”
“I didn’t get that out of it,” Harlee said. “I think she simply means you look happier. Which, I hate to say, I agree with her. She was making an observation.”
Addie nodded. “I’m with Harlee on this one. I don’t think she meant it like that, Palmer. The woman likes to gossip, but I don’t think she’d take it to that level. Everything she writes is true and has actually happened. She may allude to things sometimes, but that’s what makes the column fun.”
My mother also nodded in agreement.
“Fun? Fun? Was it fun when she was writing about you and Gannon? If I recall, you were pissed. Wait. Hold on a second here. Are you all taking her side?” I stammered.
“There are no sides,” my mother sighed.
My jaw fell open. “There most certainly are sides, Mom.”
The conversation paused for a moment, and then Sutton finally answered my question from a few moments ago. “I find it funny that now you’re bothered by the column. You used to laugh when she picked on Brax.”
A look of pretend-hurt crossed my brother’s face. “I’m offended, Palmer.”
This time, I stuck my tongue out. “You’ll get over it. Now, we need to put our ears to the ground and find out who’s writing this damn column.” I turned to Harlee, who had taken a bite of her bagel. “I need to know everything you know about this person.”
Her eyes went wide, and she chewed faster before swallowing. “I’ve told you a million times, only my dad knows who the author of the column is. I don’t have any new information to give you.”
“How does she get her articles to the paper?” Brax asked.
“Someone delivers them to my dad’s office,” Harlee answered. “But that guy doesn’t know either. I’ve already questioned him.”
“Did you ask him where he picks up the article?” Brax asked.
Harlee nodded. “Yep.”
We all sat there and waited for her reply. “And?” I prompted.
“It changes each week. He gets a text from a number that changes every week as well, and the text tells him where he’s supposed to pick up that week’s column. He gets it on Wednesday mornings. Oh, and if she has a special edition, he also gets the text the day before it runs.”
“So, Wednesday is the day we need to be watching,” I stated.
“Wednesdays,” Harlee repeated, then picked up her bagel once again. Before she took another bite, she added, “But I’m telling you, you won’t find her. Many people have tried.”
I looked at Brax and smiled. “We haven’t tried yet.”
He nodded. “We’re gonna find her, I can feel it in my bones!”
Harlee and Sutton both rolled their eyes while my mother smiled.
“Good luck, kids. You can do it if you try hard enough, I just know it,” Mom said as she slipped out of the booth and gave Brax and me an encouraging smile. Leave it to our mother to attempt to cheer on our attempt at spying.
Addie covered her mouth to hide her giggle. Then she dropped her hand as she turned white.
“Shit,” I mumbled as I slid out of the booth so Addie could run to the restroom. Her morning sickness seemed to be getting worse.
As she hurried off, I called out, “You laugh now, but you won’t think it’s funny when I find out the real person behind this Ms. Seaside.”
It was only then that I noticed the entire restaurant staring at me. With an awkward smile, I slipped back into the booth, where I found Brax shooting me a dirty look.
“You might as well announce it in the paper that we’re going to try and find her,” he growled.
With a shrug, I picked up my fork and started to eat my breakfast. I was going to find this person and expose her, once and for all!
Mason
The gossip column had been on the back of my mind for the last two days, especially since Palmer kept avoiding talking to me about this Deacon guy whenever I brought him up.
I felt Charlie pull on my coat. “Daddy? Where’s Palmer? She promised she’d be here.”
Charlie and I were standing on the pier as we waited for the Seaside Noel Boat Parade to start.
I glanced back down the pier, looking for Palmer. “She’ll be here, bud. I know Palmer, and she wouldn’t break a promise.”
A few people stopped to say hello, and some even introduced me to their family and friends. That was one of the things I loved about Seaside—the small-town feel it still had. I wasn’t the only doctor in town, but there were only two others, and both were near retiring age. My practice was growing faster than I’d original thought it would. So much so that I was thinking of hiring a physician assistant.
