"Are you interested in Stanley Caldwell?" he asked, then shoved the last of his cookie into his mouth.
"Just as a friend. He's only six years older than I am." She took a drink of her own punch and added, "We have a lot in common."
Rob drained his cup and set it on the table. "Gotta go," he said as he shrugged into his coat, but before he could take even one step toward the door, Regina blocked his escape.
"Has your mother had a chance to talk to you about Tiffer?" she asked him.
"Yes," Grace answered in a lowered voice. "I talked to him."
Rob frowned and glanced behind him to see if anyone had heard Regina. "I'm not gay."
For several long moments she stared at him through those thick glasses that magnified her blue eyes. "Are you sure?"
He folded his arms across his chest. Was he sure? "Yeah," he answered. "I'm real sure."
Regina's shoulders sagged under the weight of her disappointment. "I'm sorry to hear that. You would have been a good match for Tiffer."
A good match for a drag queen? This was getting out of hand, and it was beginning to annoy him now.
"Regina, do you know who started this horrible rumor?" Grace asked.
"I'm not sure. Iona told me, but I don't know where she heard it." She turned to the knot of people standing a few feet behind them. "Iona," she called out, "where'd you hear the rumor about Grace's boy being gay?"
As one, the cluster of people surrounding Stanley turned and looked at Rob. He felt like there was a spotlight on him, and for the first time since hearing the gossip, his temper flared. At this point, he didn't particularly care who'd started the rumor. He just wanted it to stop before it got out of hand. Before he got jumped by a bunch of rednecks out to prove something-not that he couldn't take care of himself.
"I heard it the day when I was getting my hair done at the Curl Up and Dye. Ada told me. I don't know where she heard it, though."
Ada put a bony finger to her thin lips, and after a few moments of thought, she announced, "Stanley's granddaughter said you was gay."
All eyes turned to Kate. She didn't seem to notice until she set down her empty punch cup and glanced up. "What?"
"It was you."
Kate licked the punch from her lips and looked at everyone looking at her. They were staring as if she'd done something evil. Yeah, she'd had a few glasses of punch. So what? She needed it after suffering though a night of bad poetry and Rob Sutter. He'd tricked her into smiling at him, and he was so big and took up so much room that she'd had to hunch her shoulders to keep from rubbing against him. Now her neck hurt. That was worth a glass or two of punch.
"What?" she asked again as everyone continued to stare at her. What was everyone's problem? She'd left some punch in the bowl. "What did I do?"
"You're the one who first said Grace's son was gay."
"Me?" She sucked in a breath. "I did not!"
"Yes you did. You were ringing up my cling peaches and you said he doesn't like women."
Kate thought back and barely remembered a conversation she'd had with Ada about the owner of the sporting goods store across the parking lot from the M &S. "Wait a minute here." She held up one hand. "I didn't know who you were talking about. I'd never met Mr. Sutter."
The lift of his brow called her a liar.
"I swear," she swore. "I didn't know she was talking about you." The look in his green eyes told her that he didn't believe her.
"That's not right starting a rumor about someone you don't know," Iona admonished, as if Kate had broken some gossiping rule. Which was just insane. Everyone knew there was only one rule to gossiping, and that was if you weren't in the room, you were fair game.
"Katie," her grandfather said while he shook his head, "you shouldn't start rumors."
"I didn't!" She knew she hadn't started anything, but by the look on everyone's face, no one believed her. "Fine. Think what you want," she said as she stuck her arms into her coat. She was innocent. If anything, she thought Rob was impotent, not gay.
This was crazy. She was being chastised for being a gossipmonger in a town that thrived on gossip. She didn't understand these people.
Her gaze moved from Rob, who looked as if he'd like to strangle her, to the rest of those in the grange. They might look somewhat normal, but they weren't. If she wasn't careful, she might become one of them.