Page 26 of Hearts and Hidden Secrets

“Oh my God! Oh my God!” Claire shrieks and then slaps a hand over her mouth.

Millie looks at her like she’s sprouted a second head. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“We totally cockblocked you and Buck’s dad, didn’t we?” Claire looks horrified.

“Yes, honey, you did, but that’s not the point I’m trying to make.”

Millie wrinkles her nose. “Thinking about parents doing it is weird.”

“Mr. Butterson is hot,” Claire says.

Millie looks scandalized. “Ew. He’s old .”

“Careful throwing that word around unless you want to walk the rest of the way home,” I threaten. I don’t mean it, obviously. I wouldn’t make teen girls walk home at night in the dark.

“I’m sorry. I don’t think you’re old,” Millie backtracks. “You look like maybe you’re thirty, but then that would mean you had your daughter at fourteen and that’s really, really young.”

“I’m thirty-seven. I had my daughter when I was twenty-one, which is still young to have a kid, especially when the dad ends up being a waste of air.

” I wave a hand around. “Back to the point, though, ten minutes is not a long time, and you are doing yourself and the guy you’re with a huge disservice if you don’t help him help you get there.

And do not, I repeat, do not ever fake an orgasm. No one wins. Especially not you.”

The GPS tells me to turn right in half a mile.

“Wait! Go straight! Don’t go right.” Claire grabs the back of the passenger seat.

“I’m not ready to go home yet. Can we take you out for coffee or ice cream or something?

There’s a really awesome café a couple miles down the road and I have so many questions.

Unless you’re planning to meet up with Mr. Butterson after you drop us off? ”

Claire is way too curious for her own good.

And while the idea of rendezvousing with Sidney is intriguing, it’s almost better that this happened.

It means prolonging the anticipation. And forcing us to see each other again before we get naked together.

Which wouldn’t have been entirely gratifying since his son may have come home in the middle. It was a terribly thought-out plan.

“I have to pick my daughter up in an hour. We can hit the café.”

Forty minutes and a decaf almond milk latte later, I drop the girls off at Millie’s house, armed with all sorts of girl power, and drive to Michael’s house. I have messages from Sidney, asking if I made it home more than half an hour ago.

Skye: Just dropped them off and I’m picking up my daughter, I’ll fill you in once I’m home. Hope the chat with the boys went okay. Dinner was lovely. X

I message Violet next to let her know I’m in the driveway.

Thirty seconds later she comes tripping down the front steps. She basically throws herself into the passenger seat. Michael is standing at the front window, waving.

“Everything okay?”

“Yup. Everything’s fine.” Her voice is high and reedy.

“Are you sure?”

“I did something stupid, and we need to leave, so I don’t have to keep looking at my mistake. I might have to quit Mathletes.”

I back out of the driveway and head for home.

“Can we stop at McDonalds? I need a milkshake and fries,” Violet says while wringing her hands.

“Uh oh, you’re willing to risk a case of the moops? Whatever happened must have been bad.”

“Michael kissed me.”

“With or without your permission?”

“With. Sort of. Ugh.” She bangs her head against the seat. “So stupid.”

“He sort of had your permission? What does that mean?” I point to the glove compartment. “The lactose pills are in there. Take two, so tomorrow isn’t another day of mistakes and regrets.”

She pops the glove compartment open and rummages around until she finds the bottle, then does some rummaging around in her backpack for her water bottle.

She downs two pills, spills water down her chest and huffs dramatically.

“Ali, Kiernan and Toby left half an hour ago because Ali finally got his license, and he offered to drive me home too, but Toby ate a pile of raw onions at dinner and I think Kiernan forgot his deodorant this morning and there was no way I was sitting in the car with two stinky boys, plus you were coming to get me and I wanted to hear all about your date, which I still want to hear about. How did that go?”

“Deflector deflecting. Tell me what happened, Violet.”

She huffs again and pushes her glasses up her nose.

“Michael has a date with Abby Hobbersmith next week and he’s had a crush on her for like, forever, and he’s never kissed a girl and he was sort of freaking out about it and I don’t know what I was thinking, but I told him I could give him some pointers if he wanted them, because I went out with Jordan last year for like, two months, and I got some decent kissing experience from that.

But the pointers turned into actual kissing, which surprisingly wasn’t terrible.

I mean, it’s clear he’s new at the whole concept, but he’s a quick learner and he dialed back on the slobbery tongue real quick.

” She closes her eyes and shakes her head. “You don’t need those details.”

“It’s fine. You’re fifteen. Making out with boys isn’t unexpected.”

“Anyway, everything was fine, and he was catching on, but his younger sister came downstairs and saw us and then she went and told Michael’s mom.

She lectured us about not having sex before marriage because she clearly still believes that it’s 1950 and now she thinks we’re dating!

” Violet throws her hands in the air. “And I like Michael, but I don’t like, like him.

Like, I don’t want to be his girlfriend.

He’s not even remotely my type. I just closed my eyes and pretended he was Tom Welling from Smallville .

Michael’s obsessed with Star Wars and he’s on my Mathlete team and I can never go to his house again ever.

What if he tells the rest of the guys that he kissed me? What the hell am I going to do?”

The Golden Arches appear, and I pull into the drive-thru. There are three cars ahead of us.

“I’m taking it you haven’t discussed this with Michael.”

“Nope. His sister caught us, ran upstairs, and tattled, and then we got a twenty-minute lecture on inappropriate behavior and then she wanted us to pray for our sins. We kissed! It wasn’t like we were humping each other on her rec room furniture!

I mean, then maybe we’d deserve the lecture.

But our hands were all in PG places and you could have fit an entire extra human between our bodies.

The only parts of us that were touching were our lips. And tongues.”

Violet stops freaking out while I order her a small vanilla shake and a medium fry. Even with the lactose pills, she’ll probably regret this tomorrow, but she’s had a hell of a night.

“It was just supposed to be pointers, not a freaking live tutorial. What’s wrong with me?”

I pat her hand and wait until I’ve paid for her snack before I respond.

“There’s nothing wrong with you, honey. You’re a teenage girl and you’ve been hanging out with these guys for the past two years.

That this is the first time you’ve kissed one of them is pretty amazing, if I’m honest. Every single one of those boys has a crush on you. ”

“They do not!”

I arch a brow and pull up to the next window.

“If he tells the rest of them, I’ll kill him. Oh, shit.” She pulls her hood up, and sinks down in her seat.

The window slides open and a gangly teen boy who looks beyond bored asks, “Small vanilla milkshake and a medium fry?”

“That’s right.”

“Do you want any ketchup packets with that?”

“Violet?” I ask.

“Nope, no ketchup, but thanks,” Violet replies, her voice all pitchy.

The boy’s head lifts and his eyes light up. “Violet? Hall?”

She drops her hood and adopts a stiff smile. “Hey Jordan, how’s it going?”

“Good. I got a part in the play this semester. Are you working on costume design again?”

“Uh, not this time. Mathletes is keeping me on my toes this semester.”

“That’s too bad. It’s nice to see you.” He passes over the shake and the bag with the fries. “I threw in some ketchup, anyway. Just in case.”

“Thanks. See you around.”

“Yeah, have a good night.”

I wait until we drive away before I ask. “Would that be the Jordan you got all the practice kissing time in with?”

“Yeah.”

“He’s cute.”

“Yeah.”

“Why didn’t I ever meet him?”

“Because we only hung out when we were working on the play and he had a kiss scene because he was the lead role. I’m sure you can see where this is going.

” She pushes her straw into her shake and tries to hide a smirk by taking a hearty slurp.

Two seconds later, she’s holding the side of her head. “Ahhh, damn, you brain freeze.”

“So you practiced that scene together.”

“Obviously it was supposed to be closed mouth on stage, but we took creative liberties.” She flings a hand around in the air. “Anyway, that happened, and now this has happened, and I don’t know how to deal with it. And I’m terrified to text him because his mom probably reads all his messages.”

“I read your messages.”

“Yeah, but we have an agreement. When it’s no longer safe to read my messages, I’ll let you know.”

“I’m hoping that won’t happen for a couple more years.”

“Based on what most of the girls I know say about their boyfriends, you don’t have much to worry about there.

I’d rather wait until the hormones have settled before I go making those kinds of life-altering decisions.

My body is mine and all that jazz.” She pries the lid off her shake and dips a fry in the thick vanilla.

“Ah, fries and ice cream, my arch nemesis and best friend, how I love you so.” She hums contentedly as she chews. “Do you want one?”

“I’m okay, but thanks. Back to the Michael issue.

I think you can safely message him and ask if he’s able to talk.

And then you can set the parameters for him.

All your concerns are valid, and you can present it to him as valuing his friendship and your working relationship, and that you don’t want to disrupt the dynamic on the team, so it would be best if you kept what happened between you,” I suggest.

“Okay. I can do that. I’m so glad you’re my mom. I can’t imagine having to rely on my girlfriends for advice on stuff like this.” She pops another fry into her mouth. “Oh! How was the date? Did it go well?”

“It did, actually. We had a lovely dinner at Spiaggia.”

“And? Will you see him again?” Violet’s hopeful excitement makes me smile.

“I think so, yes.”

“Did you get a last name so I can internet stalk him and see what he looks like?”

“I did! His last name is Butterson.”

Violet frowns. “Butterson? That’s a weird last name. If you marry him, I’m keeping Hall. Violet Butterson doesn’t sound as nice as Violet Hall.”

I chuckle. “We’ve been out twice, Vi. Don’t get ahead of yourself.”

“Still. Doesn’t hurt to put that out in the universe.” She pulls out her phone, presumably to look him up.

“He has a son,” I tell her before she finds out through social media. “He’s a little older than you. A junior I think.”

Her thumb stills for a moment before continuing to tap along her screen. “Okay. It’s b-u-t-t-e-r-s-o-n, right? Spelled like it sounds?”

“Yup, spelled like it sounds.”

“Cool. Huh, there are more Buttersons in the world than I realized. The top hit for Sidney Butterson looks like a hockey fan.”

“That’s him.” I grip the wheel nervously. My daughter’s approval is important. We’ve been a pair for a long time, and I don’t want to upset the balance. These years before she goes to college and becomes a strong, independent woman are pivotal. I brake at the four-way stop.

“Oh, hey now.” She whistles and holds up her phone. “Is this him?”

“Yup, that’s Sidney.”

“And the beefcake must be his son. He’s a junior in high school? He’s freaking huge.”

“He plays competitive hockey.”

“That’s unsurprising.”

I don’t tell Violet about the situation Sidney and I walked in on this evening.

I don’t want to taint her view of his son before she meets him.

And I’m not even sure if that will ever happen.

Besides, she’s had enough of her own nonsense tonight.

She doesn’t need more stress on top of the Michael situation.