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Daisy turned cornflower-blue eyes to me. “All right, sugar, tell Auntie Daisy all about it.”
I didn’t hesitate. She knew some of it anyway after my Smithie’s meltdown. So I told her the story of my life, reciting it for the millionth time that week. Any hopes I held of quietly going it alone were long since gone.
Halfway through my story, she took my hand and didn’t let go.
When I was done, she squeezed my hand.
For some reason, she asked, “Jet, darlin’, you seenSteel Magnolias?”
I nodded.
“That’s my favorite movie of all time,” she told me.
This wasn’t a surprise.
She leaned into me. “You and me, sugar, we’re Steel Magnolias.” Then she let go of my hand, and without further ado, she launched into her story.
It was a whole hell of a lot more sad and scary than mine.
Halfway through her story I grabbed her hand and didn’t let go. When I did, tears filled the bottoms of her eyes, but she didn’t let them fall.
This wasn’t a surprise either. If her story was anything to go by, Daisy hadn’t been touched by kindness a whole lot in her life, either physically or emotionally. In fact, Marcus and Smithie were the only two men she’d known that treated her right.
When she was done, I squeezed her hand.
“Now I’m with Marcus, and don’t get me wrong, I’m mostly happy,” she told me. “But a girl has to have girlfriends,comprende?” Indy and I both nodded, we comprende’ed. “And I’m here to tell you, the snooty society bitches of Denver justdo notget me. I don’t have a single friend in the whole world who isn’t laughing behind my back or scared to death of Marcus.”
I looked at Indy.
“I think it’s time for another martini,” Indy said and gestured to a waiter.
Daisy went on after we’d received our second round.
“I ain’t ashamed to say, I haven’t had as much fun as I had with you and your friends at Smithie’s inages. That is, of course, before you got shot at,” she said to me.
“Of course,” I replied.
We all let this sink in while we took a sip of the second round.
“Do you think I have to worry about Vince?” I asked.
She winced. “Vince is a mean, dirty motherfucker, if you’ll excuse my French. I wouldn’t have thought he’d go against Marcus, but the jackass is entirely unable to take a blow to his manhood, in this case, literally.”
Then she gave a little tinkly-bell giggle.
I wasn’t certain I thought it was funny.
She caught the look on my face and the laughter went out of hers. “I’ll ask Marcus to keep an eye out for him.”
Um, I didn’t think that was a good idea. I wasn’t sure Eddie wanted Marcus to be a member of my Protection Posse.
“Daisy—”
She shook her purple-tinged head, wagged a finger at me and I was quiet. I wasn’t quiet because I didn’t have an argument. I was mesmerized by her fingernail, which was super-long, filed in a lethal curve and had little fake diamonds imbedded into it in the shape a four-leaf clover.
She dropped her finger and we all took another sip of the second round.
Then Daisy said, “What’re you gonna do about your daddy?”
