the stink-eye.
“Okay.”
“It would be a shame,” she said, chewing on a strip of bacon. “If you were to break the trust of your parents, and your whole family, your pack, the people who have sheltered you and fed you for your entire life, by lying to them.”
I tried not to respond, with facial expressions or words. What did she know? Had she seen Alex running through the woods, pizza bacon dog in hand? Had she smelled him on the property? On me?
“That would be a shame,” I said, sipping my coffee. Daddy was watching the conversation bounce between us like a very angry tennis fan.
“If you want to go on a date with a boy, he needs to come seek your family’s approval,” Lurlene said. “He needs to talk to your daddy. If he’s not willing to do that, he’s not worth having.”
“Tylene knows that,” Mama said quietly.
“She damn well better,” Daddy muttered.
Indignation burned through me—far more indignation than probably deserved by someone who was actually lying to her family and dating someone who would not be approved by her family. Even if Lurlene did know something, what right did she have to walk into my home, and question me in front of my parents? For the first time in a long time, the anger I felt being treated this way far outweighed the fear of getting into trouble.
“I promise not to date any boys you haven’t met yet,” I said through an insincere smile.
Six hundred year old vampires didn’t count as boys, right?
Lurlene must have picked up on my very specific wording because she seemed unconvinced.
“You just need to be careful who you throw your lot in with, Tylene.” She wiped her mouth and stood, leaving her plate for Mama to clear. “Tyler, we need to talk sometime soon.”
With that last comment hanging in the air, she swanned out of the trailer, leaving me to deal with the fallout.
“What did you do?” Daddy demanded.
I scoffed. “I have no idea what she’s talking about.”
Which was true. I had no idea what she was referring to. She could have gotten a phone call from someone who saw me at the drive-in. She could have seen me sitting out in the field and eating ill-gotten deep-fried food. She could have inferred some random scenario that had no connection with reality as I knew it. The worst part was I didn’t know what she planned to do with that information or how to get ahead of it.
Daddy sneered at me.
“Look, last year, Lurlene was convinced cousin Shaylene was pregnant by that cook from the Coffee Spot. Remember? Shaylene was keeping ‘odd hours’ and Lurlene ‘thought maybe’ she saw Shaylene’s car in the parking lot of the diner once or twice? Lurlene got all the aunties riled up about the new baby and planned a baby shower? But it turned out Shaylene was keeping ‘odd hours’ because she got her mechanic’s certification and was working at a garage in Monkey’s Eyebrow.”
“And why did she feel like she couldn’t tell her family about her new job?” Daddy snorted. “Working for some stranger instead of your cousin Nate’s towing business?”
“Because she didn’t want to work for her brother, who drives her crazy?” I guessed. “My point is Aunt Lurlene sometimes—”
I paused while Daddy glared at me again. “Misinterprets information.”
“You need to watch yourself,” he warned me. He stood up from the table and threw himself into his recliner. He picked up the remote and began flipping through channels. I watched Mama clear the table, knowing that I would get no help from her.
Just last night, I’d been lying under the stars, eating my favorite food, obtained at great peril by my gentleman caller—only to come crashing back to reality this morning. And all I could think of was getting back to Alex.
And possibly getting more pizza bacon dogs.
With the specter of Lurlene’s “dangerous information” hanging over my head, I was only too happy to take the kids to music class the next week. Alex’s intermediate class was a demonstration their musical skills for the local Junior League. And the Junior League was delighted to host them at the fancy old house where they held their meetings, sipping tea from painted china cups in an honest-to-God parlor while the twins and their classmates played simple chamber music pieces. The ladies who lunched—sure, they lunched at the Coffee Spot, but it still counted—were not only impressed by the kids’ playing, but the idea that the Hollow had attracted