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“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.”
“Wearebeing 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.
