Chapter 69

Lee and I had bonded like best girlfriends, since we were both Californians living in cowboy country. He, too, was born and raised in Los Angeles. From what I knew about him, not that I knew much, he’d moved from his parents’ home in Beverly Hills to West Hollywood and starred in a handful of adult movies just after he turned 18—which just happened to be a few years after he had baby-sat me. Lee had told me that he’d been a “wonderful power bottom” in those days, some thirty years ago, and said, “I knew how to rock a man’s world. All my industry friends died of AIDS, though. God only knows how I lived through the epidemic.”

Nowadays, Lee was a widower of eight years, owned and operated The Mystic Garden all by himself, drove a Bentley around, and seemed very happy.

Because I knew he wasn’t a gossip, I spilled my fears abruptly. “I think Gray is seeing Toby behind my back.”

“Toby Chambers?” Lee looked shocked, as I’d expected.

“Yes, him.”