I couldn’t disagree with that one. “Why do you think that is?”
“I don’t know.” Brady sounded upset. “But we tricked her into coming out here, took away her tech, and took her completely out of her element.”
“All she ever would’ve had to do was to make a full, public apology,” Gideon commented. “We’ve always agreed on that.”
“But we set it up so she’d accept the challenge to save face,” Brady reminded him.
“Look, she’s here now. If that’s stressing her out, let’s figure out how to fix it,” I said.
“If only we knew why she’s stressed,” Brady said.
Stressed. A few days ago, I’d thought of her as sassy. But, yeah, stressed seemed more apt now.
Brady was still trying to figure out why. “It can’t all be because we took away her sex toys.”
Gideon snorted. “It’s not.”
Brady took offense at that. “What makes you the expert? You’ve spent the least time with her.”
“But I’ve watched her online. I’ve seen what makes her tick.”
Okay, his superior tone was getting to me, too. “Care to enlighten us?”
“Her career, hell, her whole life involves talking to people.”
I said what Brady must’ve been thinking, too. “So? Don’t we all talk to people?”
Gideon shook his head. “Not like that. We’re talking to each other here. But Lila only talks to people, it’s not a conversation. Perhaps I should’ve said she talksatpeople. As in, she’s the only one talking.”
“Okay, so she spends her days in podcast mode,” Brady said. “But I don’t get why you think that affects what’s going on here.”
“She lives alone. She talks at people, not to them. She never connects with anyone.”
“There’s Penny.”
“I’m guessing that’s one of the few people she has in-depth conversations with.”
Brady clenched his jaw. “Are you saying she’s lonely?”
“I’m saying she spends a lot of her life alone,” Gideon responded. “And now she’s here, staying with us, and connecting with us every day. It’s a lot different than what she’s used to.”
This was starting to make sense. “I guess it could be a form of culture shock for her. It’s likely every bit as strange to her as it was going from a city of three million people to Donovan’s Mill.”
Everyone was silent for a moment as we thought that over.
“So that may be the problem, but I have no clue what to do about it. Does anyone?” I didn’t expect anyone to have an answer, but apparently, Brady did.
“We get rid of Penny,” he said.
Silence greeted that, and then Gideon turned to sarcasm—naturally. “Should we stash her in the storm cellar or feed her to the fish in the lake?”
Brady rolled his eyes. “Get rid of her for one night,” he clarified.
“Why?” I asked. “If the problem is that Lila’s not used to connecting with people, why take away the one person she has a strong bond with?”
“So that we can focus on Lila,” Brady said. “Get to know her better and see if we can help whatever’s bothering her.”
“That’s a lot to fit into one night,” Gideon said. “And how are we going to lure Penny away?”