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"Meh." Zephyr dismisses my suggestion easily. She's chewing on the straw in her strawberry-lemonade while she zones out on something across the street. "Who's that?"
Following her line of sight, I see a man leaving the general store with a box of groceries.
"Augustus Damiani," I answer.
After I found full time help with the daycare center, Zephyr moved down to Slow River so she can work for one of the big florist shops in the valley. She's been off the ridge for a year now, and with her making a name for herself in floral design and me doing the whole domestic thing, we just don't get to see each other much these days.
She drove up today to keep me company on my day off while Hawk does the small-town sheriff thing.
We're sitting at one of the bistro sets that April puts out on the cafe patio during the summer, watching the Ridge move by in slow motion.
"Italian?" Zephyr's voice picks up with interest. "Is he mafia?" She whisper-screams at me.
"NO!" I laugh so hard one of the babies kicks, setting of the other one. We're having a boy and a girl and I full on expect them to come out fighting already. "Oh my God, no. He's just some guy that moved up here to work at the hydro plant.
"You read too much smut."
"Hmph, I wonder who recommends all my smut to me?"
Zephyr sags back in the faux wicker patio chair and chases a crushed strawberry in the bottom of her glass with her straw, giving me a pointed glare.
A truck comes blazing into the parking area, pulling in front of the cafe at an angle fast enough to scare the shit out of the tourists seated around the outdoor fire pit at the brewery that's located a few storefronts down the boardwalk from us.
The engine dies before it comes to a complete stop and it jerks still with the sound of an emergency brake being applied.
Neither Zephyr nor I so much as blink at her brother's dramatic entrance. It's all part of the scenery these days.
Raine jumps out of the driver's side, slamming the door behind him and heading to the cafe door at a dead run.
"You better not have been in the greenhouse!" Zephyr yells after the blur of blue jeans and wildflowers that doesn't stop to acknowledge her.
Good thing there's no one in the cafe right now, although, I'm not sure it would matter. Zeph and I watch through the window as her brother jumps the counter in a practiced motion, sliding over to the employee side and catching April around the waist before his feet even hit the floor.
"Gross." Zephyr grumps across from me.
I watch Raine pressing the bouquet of flowers-- that were definitely pilfered from my bestie's greenhouse-- into April's hand, his lips on hers as he pushes them both through the door into the back room.
"What? He's happy." I point out to Zephyr. "You like April, don't you?"
"I adore April," she assures me. "All my brothers deserve to be happy. I'm glad Raine found her. Don't mind me, I'm just jealous."
"You ever hear from Hayle?"
It's a sore subject. Zephyr's oldest brother disappeared a few years back after starting a pretty gruesome bar fight that didn't end well for him. No one's heard from him since.
Zephyr shakes her head sadly.
"I send him email sometimes, but I never hear back. I don't even know if he still checks that account."
"But he's alive, right?"
"Grandma says he keeps in touch. I guess she's the only one he still cares about-- Speaking of grandmothers, have they started up again?"
"Not yet," I answer.
Our grandmothers have been on good behavior since their big knock down, drag out fight right before Hawk and I got together for good.
"That can't be good," Zephyr notes.
