Chapter 16
Square off – to assume the position of someone about to fight off a whole bunch of gossiping ladies
“Yeah! She’s here,” Petal screams when I enter Fall Into A Good Book for the monthly book club.
Nope. I can’t do this. I whirl around, intent on making a quick exit, but Moon shoves me into the bookstore. She follows me in and closes the door behind us.
“What are you doing?” I hiss. “You don’t read.”
“I read.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Anything other than the back of a cereal box?”
She gasps and places a hand over her heart. “As if I’d ever buy cereal in a box!”
Aspen arrives and drags me away. “Stop gabbing and get your butt over here.”
She helps me to a solitary seat facing the rest of the group of chairs. “What’s going on? Why am I being seated in front like I’m about to give a lecture?”
“You seriously didn’t think you could come out of the closet about your audiobook narrating and we wouldn’t want to hear all about it.”
“I think you’re confused about what coming out of the closet means,” I grumble to her.
“Yeah, Ashlyn. We want to hear all about how you get in the mood to narrate porn,” Feather says.
“Do you use anyone for inspiration?” Petal waggles her eyebrows.
Moon’s hand shoots into the air. “I know who she uses for inspiration.” I glare at my former best friend. She snickers. “Please, I’m not revealing secrets when the whole world knows about your crush on Rowan.”
“I want to hear why Ashlyn tried to keep this a secret from her family,” Mom asks.
Crap. Mom’s here. And we’re going to talk about me narrating erotic romances. This won’t be embarrassing. Not at all.
Sage rolls her eyes. “As if you can keep a secret in this town. She should have known better.”
I cross my arms over my chest. “How did everyone find out anyway?” I glare at Juniper.
She lifts her palms up. “I swear I didn’t tell anyone.”
“How did everyone find out?”
“It wasn’t hard,” Sage claims.
I’m beginning to wonder why Lyric employs her as the police dispatcher. Aren’t police supposed to use discretion? And not tell everyone in town who’s getting in trouble? Can I lodge some type of complaint?
“You probably shouldn’t have used the name of your first cat for the first name of your stage name,” Cayenne says.
Traitor. It’ll be a cold day in hell before I attend one of her yoga classes again.
“What were you doing? Going through all the names of audiobook narrators? You have too much time on your hands.”
“Are we going to continue this charade or tell her how we figured it out?” Lilac asks. Ellery slaps her arm. “What? No one warned me there would be lying this evening.”
“It’s not lying,” Ellery hisses. “We’re teasing her is all.”
Lilac’s brow wrinkles. “I don’t understand. Is this similar to sarcasm?”
Having an older sister who doesn’t understand basic human emotions can be annoying sometimes but not now.