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“Raye-Raye,” he whispered, calling me something he hadn’t called me in a long time, making something that was out of whack inside me shift back in place. As if to solidify that feeling, he cupped my shoulder in his hand and gave it a squeeze before taking his hand away. “I’m sorry I blew it so bad with trying to get us back together.”
I picked up my ice cream. “You didn’t blow it. You unintentionally set up a scenario where we could say things we’ve been needing to say for a long time, doing it in the most dramatic way possible, so we could see where the other one was at and start dealing.”
He chuckled again, and this time, it lasted a lot longer.
That made me happy too.
“Yeah, I’ll look at it that way,” he said. “Instead of how it was. I screwed up royally.”
He wasn’t the only one.
“I pointed in Deb’s face and got up in her shit, and I wish I hadn’t. This isn’t on her.”
“Sweetheart,” he said, still smiling. “She wasn’t mad atyouabout that. She was pissed as all hell at me. Why’d you think I came to your place last night? I was being a coward and saying you needed time. But she kicked me out of our casita and told me, if I didn’t go see if you were okay, and at least make some attempt to start a conversation, she was starting divorce proceedings.”
Just then, I remembered how much I liked Deb.
She was sweet, but she also had spirit.
I spooned up gelato. “Did she mean it?”
“I don’t honestly know. She doesn’t need me around to do the yardwork anymore.”
That was when I started laughing.
“The man is intense,” Dad noted. “But I like your boyfriend.”
Yes. Yes, definitely.
It was time to move on to better things.
I grinned at him. “I do too.”
“One thing I can say about that guy, he’s no clown.”
“He totally is not.”
“Why do you call him Cap?”
“I didn’t make it up, but it’s his nickname. Everyone calls him that because he looks like Captain America.”
Dad burst out laughing, and through it said, “Shit. He does.” He spooned up some pistachio. “Who was that girl with you?”
I told him about Luna. And then about Scott and Louise, which led me to Dream. Also Tex, Nancy and Shirleen. And Jessie and Harlow. I told him about The Surf Club. I told him about Oasis Square and everyone there.
While I was telling him all of this, Dad ate up more than just gelato.
And in the midst of it, Tex and Tito got up and went to the El Camino.
I had to stop talking when I was drowned out by “Smoke on the Water” blasting out of the El Camino’s windows.
But after it faded away, I kept talking.
And my dad kept listening.
NINETEEN
WONDERS OF THE SISTERHOOD
