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Cool kid, indeed.
As I drove home, I thought about what had Duke said to me about attending Boxer and Doc’s wedding. It would be a declaration. An announcement.
The weirdest thing about taking my friendship with Duke to a sexual level was that it hadn’t been weird at all.
Why hadn’t we been doing this the entire time?
“Oh, right, because we were sixteen, and life was hard enough,” I muttered.
I was driving on autopilot and instead of going straight home, I made a detour to Pie in the Sky.
“Hey,” Jazz greeted with a smile. “You just missed the rush.”
“Perfect. It’s gonna be a long workday, so I’ll need one of your special concoctions.”
“You got it.” Jazz grabbed a cup and then pointed to the chalk board that listed the drinks. “We made the drink official, by the way. You can now order Witch’s Brew in three different sizes. I’ve already had a large. The baby kept me up all night.”
I frowned. “Baby? What baby? You don’t have a baby.”
“I have a fur baby,” Jazz clarified. “Brielle and I found a puppy the night we were supposed to go the Blue Angels barbecue. That’s why we didn’t make it.”
“Oh, right. Brooklyn mentioned that.”
“We took the dog to the vet. He’s not chipped, and we called all the shelters to see if someone put out a lost and found for him. No dice. So, I decided to keep him.”
Jazz grabbed a pitcher and dumped milk into it. She adjusted the steamer wand on the espresso machine and then began to foam the milk.
Her phone trilled in her apron pocket. She reached into it and pulled her cell out. Jazz pressed a button and put it to her ear. “Hello? Stop grumbling at me. It’s not his fault.”
She turned off the steamer and set the milk aside. Then she got to pulling espresso shots.
“Don’t take that tone with me! You were the one who decided to bring him to the tattoo parlor. If he’s such a problem, take him back to the apartment.” She listened for a few more moments and then said, “Homer, you big softie. I’m off at two. I’ll be by to pick him up. Yes. I promise.”
She hung up.
“What was that about?” I queried.
“I asked Homer to look in on Fluffernutter.”
“You named the dog Fluffernutter?” I asked in amusement.
“Damn right I did.” Jazz looked at me over her shoulder and smiled. “Since Homer lives in the same building as us, I asked him to do me a favor. All he has to do is walk one floor down. Well, the big grump didn’t like hearing that the dog was going to be alone for more than a few hours, so he brought him to the tattoo parlor. Apparently, he’s an escape artist, and managed to get outside. So Homer just spent the last hour running around looking for him. You know where he was?”
“Where?”
“He made friends with the guys who own the taco truck. He was eating a soft taco when Homer got there.”
I laughed. “I think you should change his name to Houdini. Or Hell Hound.”
“Or Helldini? Anyway, he’s all bark and no bite—Homer, that is.” She swirled whipped cream on top of my drink and then added the caramel drizzle before putting on the lid.
“How’s living with Brielle?” I asked.
“It’s a blast. Even if her grumpy brother decided he justhadto move into the same building.”
“So you punished him by making him watch your dog?”
“Hevolunteeredto watch my dog. I just asked him to take him for a walk. He went above and beyond. That’s on him.” She sighed. “Still, I should probably do something nice for him.”
