“Huh?” Lauren blinks. “Oh. Sure.” She goes for the tongs. Rae, meanwhile, is craning her neck after Pan. I make a show of following suit, then looking right at her.
“Here’s the thing,” I make my voice warm and low, older-brother style. “My boy Pan, out there?”
“What?” Rae looks startled. “Oh, um?—”
“You want a mini?” Lauren interrupts, from the corn dog machine. “Or a regular?”
“Both,” I answer. The bro-country song fades into something 80s-ish, with saxophones. I look back at Rae. “Anyway, he’s, uh…” I smirk. “How do I put this?”
Lauren returns with my corn dogs, and I lift them out of their paper boat. To demonstrate.
“You know.” I let the full-size dog drop a little so only the teeny one remains upright. “Mini.”
Rae’s eyes widen. “Nuh-uh,” she says, doing a slow shake of her head. But she’s smiling.
“Yeah huh,” I say. “Like, so much so that it’s weird, you know?”
“Oh myGod.” Rae looks at Lauren and they dissolve into laughter.
I’ve turned it into a literal dick-measuring contest.
“Don’t tell him I told you,” I hurry on. “All I’m saying is, maybe go find some nice boys your own age to take you out for a milkshake.”
“False alarm,” Pan says, striding back in. “Just a…” Seeing the three of us, he stops in his tracks. Frowns. “What areyouall talking about?”
“Nothing,” I say.
Rae and Lauren burst into another round of giggles.
“What?” Pan’s smiling, head cocked.
“Nothing,” I repeat. Ever so innocent, leaning against the counter. “Just told them about your little…condition.”
“My…?”
“Emphasis onlittle,” Lauren squeaks, then collapses into laughter again.
Realization dawns. Pan scowls. But it’s a smiling kind of scowl. “You bastard. You?—”
“Don’t worry about it.” I’m smiling now, too, because he’s smiling, and hold out my hand with an offer to share. “Corn dog?”
Pan responds by grabbing me by the shoulder and steers me toward the exit. “Ladies, excuse us.”
“We work ‘til close Friday and Saturday,” Lauren calls. “Maybe stop by again?”
“Maybe.” Pan yells back, with a wink. “Never say never.”
Their giddy little shrieks echo with the chime of the entrance as he shoves me the rest of the way out the door.
I stumble, but I’m laughing.
Because mission accomplished. Everyone goes home happy.
Outside, the others are waiting, Fox and Kit leaning idly while Blue’s already on his bike, ready to go. The air feels hotter and dryer now, the late afternoon sun baking all of London Valley, and we’ve got at least another half-hour ride to Krye’s.
“Finally.” Fox sighs and rolls his mask down his head. “You guys are like girls in the freakin’ bathroom.”
“Sexist.” Kit revs at him.
