“Jerk,” one of them grumbled behind my back and I shook it off.
It didn’t matter to me what a bunch of small town gossips thought about me, but I was sure the anonymous woman they spoke of would feel differently if she knew. I stabbed the women’s lunch order into the digital ordering system that went straight back to the kitchen and then made their drinks.
“Food will be up soon,” I grunted and set their drinks down.
As the lunch traffic died down so did the gossip, and by the time the after work crowd filtered in for happy hour specials and pitchers—beers for the men and margaritas for the women—all talk of the woman too old to have a baby according to the gossips, disappeared.
Until the next day when it started up all over again, and with more vigor, and from all manner of sources. The gossip was no longer relegated to the tables populated by women, even the men had opinions on when a woman should have a baby—as young as possible—and what she should know about her baby’s father—everything.
“What do you think Grady? Forty is entirely too old for any woman to have a baby, isn’t it?” Fred, one of my most loyal drinkers, asked with a confident smile.
“Pippa is over forty and she just had a baby. If a woman can still carry a baby to term then she’s not too old to do so. What about those seventy year old men having babies with twenty year olds?”
Fred laughed. “If you’re lucky enough to land a twenty year old at seventy, you give her what she wants.”
“Forty is sexual prime time for women, so I’d say same goes,” I told him and my mind immediately went to my own recent night with a woman in her sexual prime. That night, I absolutely would have given Margot anything she asked for. Except a baby, my mind added in rebellion. She would be the worse person in the world to share a child with. Those glimpses of kindness and humanity weren’t enough to override her constant need to judge anyone and everything as beneath her unrealistic standards.
Fred laughed again and pushed his empty glass towards the edge of the bar. “Hell, I guess you’re right. If I find a hot forty year old naked and panting after me, I’d give her what she wanted.”
“I knew you were a smart man,” I told him as I refilled his beer. “This one is on me.”
It went on and on like that for the rest of the week until it felt as if the whole damn town knew about this mystery woman’s pregnancy, and had an opinion on it. By the time Thursday afternoon rolled around, two things had happened. First my curiosity got the better of me and I found myself ear hustling all conversations in search of the woman’s name, just so I could let her know that her personal business had sent every tongue in town wagging. The second thing was far more selfish. I was grateful that it wasn’t my name leading the gossip headlines in town. Not that I had anything going on in my life worth gossiping about, but the gratitude hit the same either way.
“Grady, my favorite bartender!” Derek Gregory strolled into my bar looking every bit like the superstar he was, and smiled as he dropped down on a stool. “How goes the drink slinging business?”
“Busy,” I answered bluntly. “And I’m the only bartender around these parts.”
Derek, as good-natured as ever, laughed and shook his head. “True, but you make one hell of a Midnight Cowboy. In fact, I think I’ll have one while I wait for my lunch order.” He reached behind the bar for a menu and I barely even grunted at him, because I’d grown used to it since he and Bella got together. “I’ll have a tuna melt for Bella with extra cheese. A chili cheese bacon burger for Everest, and even though I shouldn’t, I’ll have the Tennessee Titan sandwich for myself with all the fixings.”
My brows rose in shock. “Did you all run out of food at the farm?”
“Nah, but Bella is gearing up for three days of farmer’s markets, so this is one less meal she has to worry about.”
“I guess those playboy days really are over. For now.”
Derek shook his head. “Not just for now, forever man. As soon as I can make it happen, I’m gonna get her down the aisle.”
“Good for you. You mind spreading the word around, so I don’t have to hear another moment of shallow gossip?” I shook my head and put his order in the computer before I started on his drink. “If I have to hear it for another day I might start watering down the drinks.”
Derek eyed his Midnight Cowboy warily. “But not my drinks, right?”