If this was where the rumor-mongering was going to start, Maya was ready for it. They could bring whatever they wanted her way and she wasn’t going to back down.
She maintained a level, unashamed gaze in the woman’s direction, which evidently served only to incense the woman. She rose from her chair, throwing her napkin down on her empty plate. Her husband laid a hand on her upper arm and directed her gently, but firmly, back into her seat. He murmured something to her as she took out her cell phone and began typing on the keyboard. The man sighed heavily and looked down at his plate as he continued his meal. The little boy babbled on as his mother silently fumed.
“What are you in the mood for, Maya?”
The words were innocently intended, she was sure, but when she turned her gaze on Kendall, he must’ve seen the heat in her eyes, because he chuckled and placed a hand on her thigh under the table.
She turned her full gaze on him and whispered, “I’d like my dessert first, please. À la mode.”
Kendall nearly choked on his beer as he took a sip. Whatever the good citizens of Divine had to say about her relationship with these wonderful men was of no interest to her when compared to the love and merriment in his eyes as he wiped his lips with his napkin.
He murmured, “Check, please. We’ll take ours to go.”
Maya laughed softly and caressed his hand resting on her thigh. They were in the middle of the dining room, and she didn’t give a rip who saw his hand there. It wasn’t like he had it under her skirt, and the slit didn’t go past the knee.
The waitress returned with an appetizer and cheerfully told them about the specials and took their orders. It struck Maya as odd the way people, most of them women, moved around the dining room, conversing with each other during their meals. Didn’t they know it was rude to interrupt someone when they were trying to eat?
Kendall noticed it, too. “Wonder what’s got them all stirred up?”
“Are they normally like this?”
“Well, it’s not unusual for friends to leave their tables and go greet someone, but they’re milling around like this was a cocktail party. Shit.”
Maya turned to Kendall as he caught sight of the same dark-haired woman making a beeline toward Maya. “Who is that woman? She was staring at me earlier like she wants to rip my hair out. What is with all these people?”
Maya felt other eyes upon her as the woman drew close.
“She’s a member of the ‘frozen chosen’ as Adam likes to call them. She’s been rude to the girls on a number of occasions.” Maya glanced at Kendall and he looked ready for anything, too. It was a shame it had to be like this.
Just as the woman closed in on Maya, drilling her with her dark eyes and looking ready to say something righteously indignant, her husband caught up to her and placed a firm hand around her upper arm and diverted her back to his side and whispered in her ear. He nodded at Kendall, and they continued on their way. Maya hadn’t moved in her seat and realized she’d been holding her breath for the first salvo fired directly at her.
“Thank goodness her husband has managed to gain some control of her. For a while there, the girls could count on that woman to have something nasty to say to any of them, even Rachel and Juliana, for being friends with Grace, Teresa, and Rosemary. She looked like she couldn’t wait to get her claws into you. Sorry, baby.”
Maya looked at him and smiled. “Who is she?”
“Her name is Elizabeth Owen. She leads a women’s Bible study here in town. She has quite a following. Her opinions about the girls are very vocal, and she has some friends who follow her example. I’m sorry, babydoll.”
“Why do you keep apologizing? You can’t control what she does.” She cast her eyes around the dining room at all the people staring. “Nor can you control their narrow-minded thoughts. I love you, and none of this,” she said, gesturing around the room, “can change that. I’m here and I’m staying.” She’d turned to the woman who’d made the rude comment in the entryway and emphasized the word “staying” as she held her gaze.
Kendall chuckled and squeezed her hand. “I think the Divine Moral Authority has met its match.”
The title of the blog came to her mind, and it gave her the creeps to think whoever had written the judgmental, narrow-minded blog was probably seated in this room right now.
“Maya, do you want to leave?”
“Not on your life, handsome.”
A shadow passed over their table, and both Maya and Kendall looked up into the faces of an elderly man and his wife. They were both white-haired and looked to be in their seventies.