Divas and Dead Rebels Read Online Free PDF Page A

else.”
    She looked around the rather small dorm room. “I don’t know where you think we can go to talk privately, unless you mean the closet or the dorm bathroom.”
    “Neither one is clean enough. I’d rather stand neck-deep in a Louisiana swamp. No offense, boys.”
    “None taken, Aunt Trinket,” said Brandon.
    “It’s not that bad,” Clayton defended himself. “I cleaned up a day or so ago.”
    We all just looked at him, and he shrugged and gave a sheepish grin. “Okay, I forgot. But I meant to clean. I’ve been studying for exams, though, so that should count for something.”
    “Not much,” said his brother, and Clayton smacked at him with a spiral notebook. That started one of their frequent tussles and provided a perfect distraction.
    “Just step outside in the hall,” I said to Bitty. “This won’t take but a moment.”
    Once in the hallway, I looked at her and said, “Don’t involve your boys. The less they know, the safer they are, and the better it is for all concerned.”
    Bitty thought about it for a moment, then nodded. “You’re right. I’ll just pretend nothing happened.”
    I stopped her before she went back into their room. “Uh, Bitty—you’ve already told them we found a man in their closet. We better think of some way to fix that.”
    “True. Hm. Oh, I know—we can say that it must have been a practical joke. That should explain it.”
    “Somehow, I think your boys will find flaws in that explanation.”
    “Oh for heaven’s sake, Trinket, just let me handle it. I’ll think of something.”
    Bitty tends to forget her boys aren’t ten years old any longer, so I had no great expectations for her concocting a viable explanation.
    She must just love to astound me.
    “Listen,” she said when she got their immediate attention by snapping her fingers at them as they wrestled on one of the stripped beds, “Trinket just reminded me that I had your clothes and bedding picked up to be cleaned, and that’s probably what the man was doing in your closet. I’d forgotten all about those arrangements, so your things will be returned as soon as the dry cleaners finish with them.”
    “Why didn’t the laundry guy say something then?” asked Brandon skeptically. His face was a bit flushed and his blond hair tousled from wrestling. “It seems to me that if some guy had a woman asking him why he was in our closets, he’d have said so.”
    “You’d think that, wouldn’t you?” Bitty replied. “But he must have been startled, because he didn’t say a thing about it. He just left without the rest of your things. I’ll be sure to talk to the laundry about it. Now, Trinket and I are going back to the hotel and rest before we go eat supper. We’ll meet you later at Proud Larry’s if you two want to drop by for a drink and music tonight.”
    The last was said more as a question than a statement, and Clayton replied, “I’ve got other plans earlier, but I’ll be by there later.”
    Brandon said, “Heather and I will come by after we finish helping her sorority mom get stuff together for the Sigma Kappa tailgate party tomorrow.”
    “Good. It’s going to be fun, just like always. Now, don’t you boys get into any trouble while I’m here, or I’ll be angry at you, you hear?”
    “I hear, Mama,” they chorused, then looked at each other and shrugged. It was Clayton who said, “Did you talk to Professor Sturgis about my grade in his class?”
    “I did, and he’s a dreadful, dreadful man to try and reason with, I swear. But don’t be too upset, sugar, because things will work out. They always do.”
    I guess Bitty’s boys are so used to her whimsical impracticality that they accepted it without more questions. That can be a good thing sometimes.
    Once Bitty and I were downstairs and outside the dormitory again, I said, “You’re going to have to take all their things to a laundry to be cleaned, you know.”
    “I know. There are plenty in Oxford.”
    “There’s