Chapter 12
Initiation – an excuse to have a girls’ night out and interrogate the newcomer for all her secrets
Mercy
I groan when there’s a knock on Mercury’s door. Today was my second day working with Basil at the garage. I enjoyed it but my muscles are sore. I forgot how physically demanding being a mechanic is.
“Answer the door,” Mercury bellows.
“Answer the door, please,” I correct.
“What?”
“Have you heard of the word please? It’s considered polite.”
He snorts. “Never said I was polite.”
“No shit.”
“Don’t swear. It’s unbecoming of a woman.”
“And it’s unbecoming of a man to not use the word please,” I insist.
He sighs. “Will you please answer the door?”
“I’d love to.” I push to my feet.
“Hi!” Indigo greets when I open the door. She’s standing on the porch with Virginia and Leia.
“What’s happening?”
She beams at me. “It’s girls’ night.”
“Sorry. I can’t leave Mercury alone.”
She leans around me to shout, “Old Man Mercury, can Mercy come out to play?”
“She’s her own woman,” he shouts back.
“There. All taken care of.”
I step out on the porch and shut the door behind me. “No, it’s not,” I whisper. “I can’t leave him alone. He doesn’t drink anything when I’m gone because he’s afraid to go to the bathroom alone.”
Leia frowns. “She can’t leave him. He’ll get dehydrated.”
“I guess I’ll go home.” Virginia starts to walk away but Indigo catches her wrist.
“No one’s going anywhere and we are having a night out,” she insists.
“What about my uncle?”
She smiles. “The solution is already on the way.”
“I’m not letting Cayenne in this house,” Mercury shouts.
“Seriously?” I shout back. “You have the television blaring all the time but you can hear us when we’re whispering on the porch?”
“What did you say?” Mercury pretends he can’t hear us.
Leia giggles. “I like your uncle.”
“He’s my first relative besides my mom and I’m starting to wonder what all the fuss is about having big families,” I mutter.
Cayenne, an elderly woman who’s sat with my uncle before, bustles up the porch. “I’m here! You go along and have your night out, Mercy.” She pats my shoulder as she passes me.
“We’ll continue this conversation at my house,” Indigo declares.
Relief fills me. I don’t have money for a girls’ night out since Basil hasn’t paid me yet. “We’re not going to the bar?”
“Nope. The gossip gals have spies there.” Indigo winks.
“Who are the gossip gals?”
“A bunch of elderly women who pride themselves on being busybodies.”
“I heard you, Indigo Scott,” Cayenne hollers.
I groan. “Do all old people have excellent hearing in this town?”
“I’m not old!” Mercury shouts.
Indigo threads her arm through my elbow. “Let’s go. Girls’ night waits for no man.”
“Which makes sense considering it’s a girls’ night,” Virginia says.
“Buckle up, buttercup. You’re not going home to read your book anytime soon,” Indigo tells her. “Virginia prefers not to go outside after eight in the evening. She’s an eighty-year-old woman hiding in a twenty-nine-year-old’s body.”
“Preferring to stay at home doesn’t make me an old woman.”
“Personally,” Leia says. “I could do with a break from home before I strangle my twelve going on thirty-year-old daughter.”
“We’re here.” Indigo motions to a Colonial house.
“Wow. Your house is gorgeous.”
I’m not trying to flatter her. The house with its green exterior and bright red front door is gorgeous. There’s also a wraparound porch complete with a porch swing. I’d love to spend my evenings swinging on the porch relaxing after a long day of work.
“Thank you. It was my grandmother’s house.”
“My house is down the block.” Virginia points to a similar Colonial house a few doors down.
“Do you live on this block, too?” I ask Leia.
“No. I’m on the other side of town in a much more modest house.”
Indigo snorts. “More modest house your man doubled in size with an extension.”
Leia sighs. “I did try to stop him but do you know how many guitars Fender has?”
Virginia nods. “I can imagine.”
Indigo flings the door of her house open. “Welcome!”
“She is way too excited about a girls’ night,” Virginia mutters.
“Because this isn’t any girls’ night.” Indigo winks. “It’s Mercy’s initiation.”
I back up with my hands in the air. “Initiation? I’m not doing any weird shit like drink blood from a goat’s skull.”
“Don’t be silly. We won’t do any weird shit,” Indigo insists. “Besides, where would we get a goat’s skull?”
“There is the goat farm outside of town,” Virginia points out.
I retreat two more steps.
Leia pushes me forward. “They’re kidding. Their idea of initiation is bugging you to tell them all of your secrets.”
All of my secrets? I can’t tell them my secrets. Especially not the one about Gibson being my fake boyfriend. I don’t need them tattling to the entire town about how Gibson and I are faking it.
I can’t chance Uncle Mercury finding out. He doesn’t go anywhere all day long but he somehow knows all the gossip anyway. Until he’s settled in a nursing home, this charade must go on.
I plant my hands on my hips. “Is this an interrogation?”
“No, we’re here to reassure you,” Indigo insists. “You don’t need to worry about Gibson cheating on you while he’s away, the guys will keep him in line.”
Acid burns through my stomach at the idea of Gibson having sex with another woman. I rub a hand over my middle to wipe away the jealousy. I can’t be jealous. What Gibson and I have isn’t real.
Except I want him. I want to spend days exploring his naked body, licking his skin, memorizing his tattoos. There’s something about a man with tattoos that revs my engines. Oh, who am I kidding? There’s something about Gibson that revs my engines.
But I am not going to have sex with the rockstar. He practically has the word player tattooed on his forehead. I’ve had enough of players. You can’t trust them.
Time to move this conversation along. “I’m more worried he’s drinking.”
“I can’t believe he stopped drinking for you,” Leia says. “The guys have been trying to get him to stop forever. You show up and in one swoop he quits.”
I shrug. “I wouldn’t date him otherwise.”
Indigo freezes with her hand in the refrigerator. “Do you have a problem with people who drink?”
“No.”
She blows out a breath and pulls a bottle of white wine out.
“But I don’t drink.”
Her nose wrinkles. “At all?”
“Indigo,” Virginia scolds. “When someone says they don’t drink, you don’t ask them questions. You accept it and offer them a soft drink.”
I smile at Virginia. She appears all shy and meek but this woman has a backbone.
Indigo scowls. “You can’t tell me you aren’t curious.”
“It doesn’t matter if I’m curious. You’re being rude,” Virginia accuses.
“It’s okay.” I’m quick to reassure them. I don’t want to be the cause of a fight between them. “I’m used to all the intrusive questions.”
Leia barks out a laugh. “You think you’ve experienced intrusive questions before, but you don’t know Indigo. She’s the definition of nosy.”
“Ah, but was her nickname in school nosy?” I ask.
Leia groans. “Don’t tell me we now have two nosy Nellies in our friendship group.”
“I never said I was part of this friendship group.”
Indigo laughs. “It’s cute you think you have a choice.”
“Can we at least sit down before you stick your nose in my business?” I ask but don’t wait for an answer before plopping down on the sofa. I moan as my muscles relax into the furniture. “This sofa is major comfy. I might sleep here from now on.”
Leia’s nose wrinkles. “You’ll change your mind when Cash bends Indigo over the table and has his way with her in front of you.”
Indigo sighs. “For the last time, we didn’t realize you were here.”
“You need to lock your door.”
“Katy Purry needs her freedom.”
Virginia shivers. “Her freedom to attack your face while you’re sleeping?”
I scan the room. “Where is your cat anyway?”
Indigo shrugs. “Katy Purry comes and goes as she pleases.”
“She’s probably busy bullying the neighborhood dogs,” Leia mutters.
Indigo ignores her and lifts up a bottle of wine. “Is it okay if we drink in front of you?” Before I can nod, she glares at Virginia. “And I’m allowed to ask that question.”
I wave away her concern. “It’s fine.”
“So, you have a problem with Gibson drinking but not us. Interesting.”
I chuckle at Indigo’s attempt to get me to spill my secrets. This woman doesn’t know what the word subtle means.
“My mom’s an alcoholic and Gibson is a heavy drinker,” I admit.
“Your mom’s an alcoholic?” Indigo asks.
I nod.
“I knew we were best friends at first sight.”
My brow wrinkles. “You need to explain for the slow kids in the class.”
She motions to Leia and Virginia. “We’re not just the girlfriends of rockstars. We’re also members of the crappy mother club.”
“I’ll go first.” Leia turns to me. “My parents kicked me out when I got pregnant at seventeen.”
I gasp. “Where did you go? What did you do?”
“I couch surfed until my grandparents took me in, but my parents have never met my daughter Isla.”
“It’s their loss,” Virginia says. “Your daughter is adorable.”
Leia grins. “She’s a terror, but I love her more than anything in the world. Don’t tell Fender what I said.”
Indigo snorts. “Please, Fender loves your daughter as much as you do.”
Leia’s face softens. “He does.”
“I’m next.” Indigo sets her glass down on a table. “My mother blackmailed Cash into dumping me at our high school graduation.”
“Blackmailed?”
“Yep. She told him she wouldn’t pay for my college if he didn’t dump me.”
“Witch,” I grumble. “And I’m not sorry I said your mother is a witch.”
Indigo waves away my non-apology. “She is a witch.”
“What about you?” I ask Virginia.
“My mother remarried after my father died and the two sons she had with my step-father bullied me, but she refused to believe me when I complained about it.”
“It’s official.” I glance around at the women. “All of your mothers are witches.”
“Yours too,” Indigo says. I don’t deny it since she’s right.
My stomach rumbles and Indigo jumps to her feet. “Let’s get some snacks.”
As the four of us rummage the kitchen for food, a feeling of contentment steals over me. These women understand me. They understand how it feels to have a mother who doesn’t support you. To not have family you can turn to in times of need.
I’ve never had many girlfriends in the past because I’ve always found it hard to connect with people. But these women could very well become my friends.
Maybe I should stay in Winter Falls.