I looked down at Chelsea who was staring up at me. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.
“This woman showed my daughter pornography!” Mrs Dyer said just loud enough that we caught the attention of the people around us.
“Pornography?” Ethan said. “Mrs. Dyer—”
“Pornography she starred in.”
“My phone,” I breathed. I’d been handing Chelsea my phone after every rehearsal so she could watch the videos I made of her. She must have started poking around. And I almost started to laugh it was so awful and ridiculous but I saw Ethan’s face. And I saw his fear.
I’m running for mayor.
And mayors don’t get their freak on?
Not if they want to be elected.
Yeah, this wasn’t funny. At all.
“I don’t know who she was with but it was definitely her.”
“Did you see the video?” Ethan asked, his face pale.
“No. But my daughter told me.” Mrs. Dyer grabbed Chelsea by the hand and yanked her to her side.
“Then we don’t know if it’s real,” Ethan said with relief.
“Are you saying my daughter is lying?”
“I’m saying your daughter is a child and sometimes they don’t know what they’re looking at.”
“Do you really want me to go into specifics about what your wife was doing in that video? With some other man?”
I leaned down so I saw Chelsea’s face and she could see mine.
“Are you mad at me?” she whispered and I shook my head.
“You were scared?” I asked and Chelsea nodded. “You didn’t really realize what you were looking at?” She shook her head. “So you told you mom—”
“Of course she did!” Mrs. Dyer interjected but I ignored her.
“And she told you what I was doing in the video and then it was fun to know something that other people didn’t know. So you could tell them.”
“I’m so sorry,” Chelsea sobbed.
“It’s all right,” I said and then stood up. People were moving on around us, but I could feel people watching. In part because of the drama, and maybe because they’d heard about the Jamboree. And this place where I’d felt really good, where I felt like I belonged. It no longer felt good.
It felt cold. Judgy. Like Ohlala once a month but a million times worse.
Jeez, I thought, one little sex tape. But instead of laughing, a sob hurt inside my chest.
“I think I should go,” I said. I could hide at Ethan’s. Wait until this night was over and then we could talk about it.
“No!” Ethan said.
“Just to your house.”
“No, you’ve worked so hard, Lexie. Let’s go talk…”
“I think you should go, too,” Mrs. Dyer said, arms crossed over her chest. But I was ignoring her. If it was just small-minded women slut-shaming me I could weather this all day, but it was spilling over onto Ethan at this point and I didn’t know how to fix it except to leave.
People were filling in the seats around us and Ben looked at his watch. Oh, the poor guy, he must have been so nervous. For sure Chelsea said something to him and here he was sticking by me and sticking by the pageant.
Suddenly Avery’s dad’s text made a whole bunch more sense and while I’d been in shock now I was flooded with embarrassment. Everyone knew.
It was like being drowned in bees.
Ethan must have seen me breaking down because he grabbed me by the hand and pulled me out of the barn into the shadows outside the door.
“I told you to delete that video,” he said.
I blinked, stunned. “Really, you’re going to lead with ‘I told you so?’”
“I’m sorry,” he said, rubbing the middle of his forehead with his fingers. He did that when he was stressed out. “But how did this happen?”
“I taped Chelsea rehearsing and she liked to watch the video, so I gave her my phone.”
“Shit.”
“I didn’t think she’d go snooping around.” But really how could I not? The girl did what she wanted. “Look, I’ll go back to your place. Just let tonight be about the kids and your family. I didn’t…” I swallowed. “I don’t want to ruin everyone’s hard work.”
“You’re not leaving,” he said. With all the confidence of a man who believed he could weather any storm. “I’ll get up there, I’ll say there’s been a misunderstanding. I’ll introduce you as my wife and this will all blow over.”
“You know,” I said. “Your face isn’t even in the video. You can get away from this totally free. Just let me leave.”
“I’m not letting you leave, Lexie. Not over some kid and some gossip.”
I pushed Baby Girl out of the way, and took my phone put of my purse. I thumbed through until I found the video. Good lord, what had I been thinking knowing this video was on my phone giving it to a kid. No, of course I didn’t think she would look, but I should have.
“I don’t need to see the video,” he said, pushing away this thing he’d been asking me to watch almost every day I’d been in this town. “I don’t care.”