Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 139147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 696(@200wpm)___ 557(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 139147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 696(@200wpm)___ 557(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
My head was spinning.
“Shirleen, a word,” Cap bit off after he prowled around the Porsche.
“Ain’t no word we gonna have will change our minds, boy,” she replied. “Met up with them at the hostess stand, so been talkin’ to Raye’s real parents. They had the same idea as me. We warned the hostess. They’re settin’ us up with an even bigger table. It’s all good.”
“I want a word anyway,” Cap demanded.
She heaved a beleaguered sigh, dramatically rolled her eyes then looked to me. “You look real pretty, child.”
“Thanks, Shirleen.”
“You too,” she said to Luna.
“Thanks,” she replied.
The valet drove off in Cap’s car.
I stared after it longingly, wondering if I could run fast enough in my bubblegum-pink pumps to latch onto the bumper.
Cap took his mother’s hand, tucked it to his chest and dragged her in her fabulous orange dress with the gold band belt behind a paloverde.
Scott sidled close to me and said low, “Please don’t be angry, sweetheart. Louise has been a mess since Luna told us you were going to dinner with him tonight. If you want, we can ask for a different table. We’ll take Shirleen, Tex and Nancy with us. We just need to be close.”
Damn it, I was going to start crying.
I hadn’t fought off this many tears since…since…
I didn’t go there.
“My man,” Tex said, “we don’t do it that way. You make a decision to get up in someone’s business, you stay the course. You back down, trust me, I been through this ten fuckin’ times, these women will drag you through the gauntlet, and if you survive, drag you right back. Now, I’m not sayin’ it ain’t all kinds of fun, sometimes, if bullets aren’t flyin’, but you gotta get in on the beginnin’ so you not only don’t get left out of the action, but you can keep it under control.”
“We are being very intrusive,” Nancy who was now close said. “But Tex is right.”
“What do you mean, you’ve been through this ten times?” Louise asked.
“We got ten girls,” Tex told her. “They aren’t ours through blood, though one a’ them is Nancy’s, but they’re ours all the same.” He turned back to Scott. “Listen to me, buster, when the cars start explodin’ and the egg drop soup starts flyin’, you’ll wish you took a firmer hand.”
Scott stared at him in horror mixed with confusion. Louise had the same expression.
I had a feeling I wore an expression not far from that, and I’d already heard some of the stories.
Cap and Shirleen reappeared with Cap looking like he was contemplating homicide, and Shirleen smiling a big smile, so I knew how their convo went.
“Let’s get inside,” Shirleen announced when she made it to us. “Shirleen needs an appletini.”
Shirleen claimed Luna and drew her down the brick walkway that led to Lon’s.
Tex claimed Nancy and guided her behind them.
Scott claimed Louise, and with a worried glance back at me, he walked Louise after them.
That was when Cap claimed me and started us moving, but a lot slower.
“I’m pissed as fuck, but you okay?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said uncertainly.
“She knows what you mean to me, so she’s being protective of you, but this shit still isn’t right,” he muttered angrily.
“I think it will be fine,” I told him.
He stopped us and turned to me. “Cards on the table, she just told me she and the Rock Chicks got nosy, they looked you up, so she knows about Macy and your mom. Which is part of the reason why she’s being so fuckin’ out of line right now.”
I nodded slowly.
In a strange and what I was learning Rock Chick way, that was sweet.
“So I’m pissed as fuck about that too,” he continued.
I kept nodding.
“Her heart’s in the right place. I’m still angry.”
I put my hand to his neck. “This is what love is, I guess. Seems, even though we’ve had it for a while, we’re both not used to it.”
He jerked his head up to communicate he got me and then started us toward Lon’s again.
Of course, I saw Tex seating Nancy at a long table because I could spot Tex in a crowded football stadium, but it was at the back of the patio, by the fireplace, and there were a lot of people milling around, and trees with fairy lights in the way, so I didn’t see much more.
My chest tightened when I spied my dad, appearing confused and shaking Scott’s hand.
We got ever closer when Louise and Shirleen cleared away, and I saw her at my father’s side.
I halted in my tracks.
Cap halted with me.
“What?” he asked.
It had been years. I hadn’t seen her since…since…
I wasn’t sure, but I thought it was since the last time I was over at her house playing with Macy and her best friend, when I was eight.
She’d aged, but it was her.