Page 48 of The Spite Date (Small Town Sisterhood #1)

FAMILY LUNCHES AND OTHER AWKWARD THINGS

Bea

Being friends-with-benefits with a single dad is already reminding me of how difficult parenting is.

We didn’t do tea yesterday. One of Simon’s boys gets tangled up with a skunk and so Simon had to dash off before we made it to the tea house.

He had the boys last night, so his focus was on them, though he’s texted me a lot.

The man is hilariously funny with a vulnerable vibe beneath it all that I can’t help but appreciate, even if I’m wary of how much I’m enjoying everything about him right now.

And then there’s the other weirdness that comes with being involved with a single dad.

Namely, his ex.

Who’s now sitting at my chef’s table, having a burger and fries while I wait on the occasional customer.

I’m parked at the farmer’s market, the only food truck here today, and traffic is slow enough to make me wonder if the Camilles are spreading more rumors, or if something else is going on that I haven’t picked up on yet.

I know my social media reach is being suppressed—Lana said she almost couldn’t find my account to see what today’s special was even after searching for my bus by name—but I don’t know why or how to fix it.

It’s frustrating, but I’ll find a way to make this work. Or I’ll find a new mission in life.

That’s what I do.

“Can I ask a very personal question?” she says to me between customers.

“We’re basically neighbors since we live in the same town again, I know your boys well enough to tell them to behave in public, and I’m sleeping with your ex, so sure. Let’s get personal.”

She smiles.

Beams, really. “I love your bluntness.”

“Thank you. It comes and goes. And that wasn’t a question.”

“Right. The question. Why did you ever date Jake Camille?”

I look up from the burger I’m frying. “That’s your question?”

“He just seems like such a dick to me. The whole family, actually. But I was one of few people who didn’t like him in high school. Enough that I wondered if the problem was me.”

I shake my head. “He’s good at making people like him.

When he asked me out, I felt like he was the first person who saw me in a long time.

And it wasn’t just the way he smiled at me, or the little presents and the flowers and the other normal dating things.

He’d go to Hudson’s band performances with me, hold my hand when I got nervous before all of those interviews about Griff, reassure me that Ryker would be okay when he was extra grumpy.

Jake seemed to get that dating me meant dating my family.

And I thought he liked all of us. Sometimes I still can’t believe he’s the guy who woke up one day and was like, we both know this isn’t working out, so let’s just call it a loss before it gets worse. ”

“He seriously just flipped a switch like that?”

“If there were signs, I didn’t see them. And believe me, Daphne and I analyzed everything either one of us could think of to analyze.”

“Asshole.”

“I hate that I sometimes question what I could’ve done to make him love me more when it feels so obvious now that he’s just a user, and when I know I shouldn’t ever have to beg anyone for their love, but I definitely see the whole family differently now than I did before.

And now I’m mad that so many people around town still love them when I logically get it—they do a lot of good in the community, which reminds me of my parents too—but he hurt me.

They hurt me. And now they’re telling everyone I’m the problem. ”

“If it helps, nearly everyone here that I’ve ever heard talk about you seems to love you too.”

“Not enough to pick my burgers over his,” I mutter. “The asshole’s serving bester burgers at JC Fig for lunch today.”

“Classic Camille family warfare. You only notice the poke if it’s aimed at you, and otherwise, it looks like an innocent accident. Though bester burgers is pretty direct.”

“It is. And the reason everyone loves me is because they think it’s amazing that I left college to take care of my brothers.

I could blow up a car on Main Street and kidnap everyone’s puppies and they’d say it was because of the psychological trauma of losing my parents.

They’d avoid me for it, but they’d make excuses for me too.

Those people who think I’m great? Very few of them have gotten to know me .

Don’t get me wrong—I’m grateful for all of the support we’ve had the past ten years, but?—”

I stop myself and shake my head.

“But your entire identity to the town is caretaker, and not person,” she says softly.

“ Yes .” I give her a wry smile. “Everyone asks about your mom first now, don’t they?”

“Or the boys. Or something about Simon.” She shrugs and lifts her last bite of burger. “It’s the box we get put in.”

Pretty sure by we , she means women .

“What’s your favorite TV show?” I ask. Because it’s not about caretaking. It’s about making friends.

“Promise not to tell a soul?”

“My lips are sealed.”

“I watch Panda Bananda when I have five minutes.”

“The kid show?”

“Yes.”

“ No .”

“You watch it too?”

I shake my head. “My brothers were past cartoons when I moved home. But—a kid show? When you could watch anything? Really?”

“You know the main panda? Jonas Rutherford does his voice. And one cannot grow up in Athena’s Rest?—”

“Without having a crush on one of the Rutherford brothers,” I finish for her with a smile.

The Rutherford family owns the Razzle Dazzle TV movie empire. It’s headquartered in Albany, which is close enough that one of them used to occasionally roll through town and cause a massive stir.

“Which one was your crush?” Lana asks me.

“Jonas all the way,” I answer without hesitation.

There are two Rutherford brothers, but only Jonas went into acting.

His older brother is way more reclusive, and the people I know who say they’d pick him also say it’s because they like the mystery of him.

Not that it matters. They’re both married with kids and not in Albany often anymore.

“I fell asleep to the Razzle Dazzle channel nearly every night the first three years after my parents died.”

“Simon’s had small roles in a couple of their TV movies and says they’re all super nice.”

“Would he say any different?”

“No.”

“Didn’t think so.”

“Two seconds. This order’s done.” I settle the burger on its bun, top it with the lettuce and tomato from Ryker’s farm, grab a handful of fries, and pass it out the window.

“You’re being so screwed by the Camilles and what they’re saying behind your back to anyone who will listen,” my customer tells me. “Jake fucked up a real estate deal for me once, and it opened my eyes. I was the same as you before. Thought they were great. I hope Simon takes them down for you.”

“What if I want to take them down myself?”

She gives me a look that suggests she wants to pat me on the head and call me adorable.

“Sweetie…you’re living with Daphne Merriweather-Brown, and it’s been how many months since you and Jake broke up?

If you wanted to do it yourself, you would’ve already done it.

Where are you tomorrow? I’m making my husband and daughter come too. ”

I smile at her. “Thank you. I’ll be lined up with everyone else at the parking lot at the lake. Paddleboating is half off tomorrow.”

Lana’s watching me when I turn back into the bus. “I think there are more people who’d speak out about them than we think there are,” she says.

“Yeah, but at what price? The Camilles have decades of experience with making everyone think they’re amazing. It’s easier to just run a spite burger bus until I get tired of it.”

She grins. “So it’s true that this is a spite business.”

“Where’d you hear it?”

“From Simon. Don’t worry. I won’t tell a soul.”

I squint at her. “You’re a lawyer?”

“Specializing in intellectual property. Keeping secrets is the biggest part of my job. I’m pretty good at it.”

“Hello?” a voice calls at the window. “Do you have enough burgers left to feed an army of two teenage boys?”

Lana’s gaze smacks into mine.

I’m positive I’m starting to blush.

She smiles.

It’s definitely on the wicked side.

“Is this weird?” I ask her.

She shakes her head. “Simon’s more like a brother who also happens to be my co-parent than he is anything else. If you’re having fun, have fun.”

“That’s…really unusual and pretty cool of you.”

“If I wanted more, I’ve had ample opportunity over the past fourteen years. But he’s not the one for me, and I won’t raise my kids the same way I was raised.”

My face does the talking for me, clearly telegraphing I’m not entirely sure what she means.

“My parents shouldn’t have been together as long as they were. Not a good example of a healthy relationship. I want my boys to know it’s important for them to be happy on their own instead of expecting a woman—or anyone, really—to cater to their every whim.”

“Hello?” Simon calls again.

“Hold on, I’m bracing myself for how much work I’m about to have to do,” I call back.

“Quite wise. We’ve just come from the trampoline park, and jumping made them ravenous.”

I glance at Lana. “Want them to join you? Or do you have to go?”

“Send them in. Believe it or not, I miss them. All of them.”

“Come on in to the chef’s table,” I tell Simon as I lean out the window. “Fans are working, and I’ll point them out the bus so I don’t have to smell stinky boys.”

“We don’t stink nearly as bad today as Charlie did yesterday,” Eddie tells me.

“It’s impossible to ever stink that bad again,” Charlie agrees.

Simon smiles at me while Butch and Tank hustle the boys toward the back of the bus. He’s in a T-shirt advertising the cheese shop, which is hilarious considering he can’t eat cheese, and a ball cap with the college’s women’s hockey team logo on it.

“You’ve changed your bandanna,” he says

“I felt purple today.”

“It does lovely things for your eyes, and I didn’t think they could get lovelier.”

And now I’m smiling and blushing harder.

His gaze flicks to my lips, then back up to my eyes. “At least twelve burgers, I’m certain. Would you like me to take my shirt off and call everyone else over too?”

“Maybe after you eat.”

“Dad, Mum’s here!” Charlie shrieks from the back of the bus.

Simon’s brows shoot up. “Truly?”

I nod. “We’ve been talking about how annoying it is when people think you’re funny.”

He smiles broader.

“Oh my god, don’t be happy about that! And we weren’t. We wouldn’t. You’re honestly very funny. But we were hardly talking about you at all.”

“Were you thinking about me at all then?” he murmurs.

“Yes,” I whisper.

“Excellent. Glad to hear it. And we truly do want at least a dozen burgers.”

The boys are peppering Lana with questions and hugging her, and for a split second, I feel the hardest longing.

It’s the way she’s smiling at them.

Like they’re her whole world.

The best thing she’s ever done in life.

Just like Simon said they were.

I raised my brothers, but I didn’t get that .

“Any secret menu items?” Simon asks me.

“Do you want a secret menu item?”

“I have an insufferable craving for corn dogs.”

“Just corn dogs?” I tease.

He grabs my hand and turns his face into my palm, pressing a light kiss to it. “Corn dogs made all the more delicious for the specific companionship.”

Yep.

I’m in trouble.

I know it’ll hurt when he leaves , I told Daphne.

I just hope it hurts less for knowing it’s coming.