I shared a smile with Indy and Jet before I looked to Tex because he was booming.
“I was wrong,” he stated. “Shit never gets boring. It just gets more and more freaky.”
He was not wrong.
“And just now, that old woman gettin’ stoned with the stoner to end all stoners and a rock star, just plain crazy,” he went on.
He was not wrong about that, either.
And Tex, being all kinds of crazy calling something crazy, said a lot.
But we were used to crazy.
And, none of us, not a single one (okay, maybe the Hot Bunch were exempted), would have it any other way.
“You have chocolate crumbs in your beard, honey,” Nancy told him, lifting a hand and brushing away crumbs and Tex (yes, Tex) let her. “And what’s that?” she asked. “Caramel?”
“Loopy Loo’s brownies,” he shared.
“Tex, you’re not supposed to eat anything until the special guests arrive,” Indy snapped.
His brows shot up. “Woman, you think I’m gonna wait for a brownie?”
“Yes,” Indy answered.
“Well, you’re wrong,” Tex stated the obvious.
My mom walked in, Katie on her hip, her eyes going to Lee. “Sweetheart, do you know where Luke or Ava are? Ralphie’s got Maisie and he says she needs changing, but we can’t find either of them or their diaper bag.”
Lee looked to his boots.
That meant that likely somewhere in Indy and Lee’s five bedroom house, Luke was giving Ava the business.
I gave wide eyes to Jet. She gave them back to me.
Indy advised, “Talk to Sadie or Jules. They may have spares.”
“Right,” Mom muttered and moved out.
Shirleen walked in right after Mom disappeared.
“Got the call,” she lifted up her phone, her eyes happy and dancing, “they’re close.”
Then she disappeared.
Indy handed a bowl of cashews to me and asked, “Can you put that on the table?”
“Sure thing,” I muttered as Indy started dashing around the kitchen.
I moved to the door and heard as I walked through it, “Liam Nightingale! Get back here and grab those bowls of chips.”
Ha-ha.
Lee got it from Indy.
Yeah, so I was a thirty-eight year old pregnant woman with a husband and a daughter.
I was still a Rock Chick.
And a little sister.
Some things never change.
That meant I was grinning as I entered the great room.
I put the cashews on the table covered in food and was immediately attacked by my niece, Leah, three years old. Roxie and Hank’s first.
I bent, lifted her up, tossed her in the air and then pulled her close to me.
“Hey, beautiful,” I whispered as her eyes, Hank’s eyes, my eyes, looked back at me.
“Heyannieally,” she replied, all in one word, and it sounded like a song.
“You having fun?” I asked.
She nodded.
“You being nice to your brother and cousins?” I asked and her eyes wandered.