Peyton suddenly bursts out laughing. “Okay, I realize that your dad is terrible about telling when you’re lying to him, which still to this day absolutely amazes me, but you guys are gonna have to work on that if you’re not going to tell him.”
Mia straightens and looks at me. My eyes are wide as I look from her back to Peyton.
Peyton rolls her eyes. “Seriously? I mean okay, I have an advantage because I read about the deer stand and the camping with the twinkle lights.” She looks at me. “That sounded really romantic by the way.”
I frown and look at Mia. “Read about it?”
Mia groans. “My mom reads my fanfiction.”
I straighten away from the counter. Oh…shit.
“I actually just thought she was writing some wishes,” Peyton says.
“Mom!”
“Until I read the four-wheeler one. I skimmed it, by the way, when I realized it really was you.”
Mia groans. “You found that story? Mom. How do you keep doing this?”
“Doing what?” I ask.
Peyton grins. “She started a whole new story. It’s still set in the same world, but it’s outside the sex club. It’s a whole new couple. They’ve interestingly known each other since childhood. And they’ve had hot, dirty sex in a deer stand, and in the back of a pickup. With twinkle lights.”
I shake my head. “There are more stories? And that didn’t happen.” I look at Mia.
“Stuff happened,” she protests.
“Not hot, dirty sex.”
“It was pretty hot on my end,” Mia says.
“But we didn’t do anything in the deer stand.”
“Okay that…” Mia trails off, then says. “I took artistic freedom with both. It was more what I imagined or wanted or fantasized about what could’ve happened in both those places.”
Peyton is just listening, grinning widely.
I groan and run a hand over my face. “This is your mom.”
“I love her stuff. I think she needs to submit it to a publisher and see if they’ll buy it.”
“I started a new username and wrote that story completely separately from what I usually write. You weren’t supposed to find it or know it was me.”
“Please. I love that whole fanfiction world, and have things set up so I get notifications for anyone publishing there. And your writing style is very distinctive. Plus, a deer stand and the back of a pickup sounded like something you’d like to try. The four-wheeler did surprise me, though.”
I look at Mia. “I think I’m gonna need your new username.”
And I realize that I will very much like watching this woman blush for the rest of my life.
“Anyway,” Peyton says. “You guys are gonna have to be a little less obvious if you don’t want Scott to find out.”
Now Mia looks a little chagrined. “I don’t like keeping it from him, but?—”
Peyton holds up both hands. “I get it. You have your reasons. I do think you need to tell him. He would appreciate hearing about it rather than just finding out or suspecting it. He always thinks you’re sweet and telling him the truth,” Peyton says to Mia. “But eventually, he’s going to get suspicious. He is a very good cop.”
“We’ve been talking about it.”
“I’m glad to hear that. It seemed to me, judging from the fanfiction, that you guys didn’t have a lot of time to be doing anything like talking.” Then she gives us a wink and turns and walks out of the kitchen.
