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“No, no we are not,” I replied.
“And don’t y’all start spreading nasty rumors,” Dial added.
She and I needed to figure this out, and I didn’t want the peanut gallery offering up their two cents. We’d tell people what they needed to know when we had a handle on what we were doing. We hadn’t even had a real conversation about our kiss in Gainsborough. Had that been a one-off, or the start of something more?
“We are absolutely, one hundred percent not trying to make this a thing,” Fancy attempted to reassure us.
“And not a word to Maple,” Dial warned. “I don’t want her hopes getting up over nothing.”
“Your secret is safe with us,” Cy said.
“There is no secret, and that’s all there is to it. Talk about something else.”
“I think this is the best birthday party ever.” Fancy spun in a circle.
17
Dial
Maple and I made our way to my house to prepare for our family sleepover. Ozzie showed up around six with a bag full of junk food, which would make Maple a terror for much of the night if I didn’t limit her intake. In the living room we sat around the coffee table and Maple painted our nails.
“Pick a color.” She had a wide selection of nail polish for us to choose from.
“I want black and white.” Ozzie grabbed his preferences.
“I’ll go with burgundy,” I added.
“If you want designs or stickers, it’ll be extra,” Maple said.
“I want the deluxe service,” Oz replied.
Maple started on my nails, applying the first coat. “Did you have sleepovers when you were little, Momma?”
“Yeah, friends slept over all the time. Your daddy was always hanging out with Uncle Cy. And if I wasn’t at Cousin Reese’s house, she was at mine.”
“Did you paint each other’s nails?”
“Sometimes. We mostly gossiped and watched reruns of Sister, Sister.”
“What about you, Daddy?”
“Cy and I played video games or pretended to be MMA fighters,” Ozzie replied.
“I like sleepovers because you can stay up late.”
“Not too late,” I chided.
Oz sported a mischievous grin. “Shoot, the later the better, if you ask me.”
“How late do I get to stay up tonight?”
Both Maple and Ozzie looked at me. I was considered the strict parent because I enforced the rules, and Oz was the fun parent because with him, rules didn’t apply.
“Well, since you only turn eight once, you can stay up as late as you want.”
“Yes!” Maple gave her father a high five. Oz and I both knew she’d wouldn’t make it past eleven o’clock… midnight at the latest.
After placing my hand under the UV light to dry, Maple moved on to her father. It was almost comical to witness her tiny little hands working on Ozzie’s massive ones.
