Unfazed, they kept doing it.
“Like they’ll care,” I replied. “Anyway, ask Tod to do your hair. He’d love that.”
“He’s already claimed Suki,” she said swiftly. “And I want the kids here today, and Tod’s got that look in his eye that says ice cream, mall, extreme spoiling and me with two children who don’t understand why everything he or she points at isn’t at their command.”
This was true. I’d witnessed it. Repeatedly.
“There are worse things,” I pointed out.
This got silence before a soft, “Yeah, there are.”
I grinned and said, “Cake.”
“Don’t forget,” she repeated.
“Cake and catfight if you keep saying that,” I returned.
“Whatever,” she muttered then, “Later.”
“Later, chickie,” I replied and we disconnected.
“So I take it we’re picking up the cake,” Ren asked, and I looked to him.
“Yeah,” I answered.
Katie threw another tater tot. Ren looked to his girl and poked her gently in her rounded belly.
“You’re supposed to eat them, baby,” he told her.
She giggled.
She also threw another one.
That was when I giggled.
Ren just smiled.
Then he leaned in and kissed his daughter.
After that, he leaned further and kissed me.
It was Sunday breakfast in bed at the Zano house.
Yeah.
You guessed it.
Righteous.
“Yo!”
That was Lee.
We were in the kitchen at Indy and his house: Lee, Indy, Tex, Nancy, Jet (with her latest son, Cesar, or son number three, attached to her hip), Eddie, Ada and me.
The Kevster and Leo, Stella’s bassist, were wandering through, heading toward the back door.
Lee was scowling at Leo and Kevin.
“What?” The Kevster asked.
“Keep it in your pocket or give it to me,” Lee ordered.
“What?” The Kevster repeated, trying to look innocent.
And failing.
“You say ‘what’ one more time, I’ll pat you down, confiscate it and it’ll be in the garbage disposal,” Lee warned.
Kevin gave up the ghost and cried, “But it’s a party!”
“You don’t smoke that shit at my house,” Lee informed him.
“We weren’t gonna,” The Kevster replied. “We were gonna smoke it in your backyard.”
I could swear I heard Lee growl.
“Kevin, just abstain, all right?” Indy waded in.
The Kevster looked at Indy then looked at Leo. “You’re famous, right?” he asked.
“Yup,” Leo answered, and he was.
The Blue Moon Gypsies had hit the big time. Totally. Red carpets. Their frequent brawls splashed all over the tabloids. Pong even had a sex tape that was still circulating the internet.
Totally rock ‘n’ roll.
“So, do you have, like, a limo or something?” Kevin asked.
“We ride around in Escalades,” Leo shared. “That doesn’t say rock ‘n’ roll. But they’re roomy.”
“Do you have one here?” Kevin asked.
“Yup,” Leo answered.
“Let’s go,” The Kevster said, and they switched directions but got only a couple of steps in before Ada was there.
“Are you two young men going to smoke a doobie?” she asked.
Leo just stared at her.
The Kevster tipped his head to the side and hedged, “Maybe.”
“I’ve never smoked marijuana,” she informed them excitedly, her meaning clear to everybody. Including Kevin and Leo, who were unclear about most everything.
“Jesus. Someone shoot me,” Lee muttered.
“Live large, mama,” Leo said to Ada, an invitation coupled with an arm going out, leading the way.
Ada sent a happy grin to Nancy and shuffled out, followed by one famous and one infamous pothead.
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.
This meant no.
Total Rock Chick in the making, even at three.
Roxie loved it. She thought it was a hoot.
Hank was screwed. And he knew it.
But he secretly loved it, too. I knew that.
Then again, he just adored his little girl.
May, a close friend we met during Jules’s Rock Chick Ride, sidled up to me with Harry, Jules and Vance’s youngest at her hip.
“Are we allowed to eat yet?” she asked out of the side of her mouth.
“They’re almost here,” I answered out of the side of mine. “But if you’re about to expire, a few cashews probably won’t be missed.”
She didn’t reply. She went for some cashews, took a handful, then disappeared in the crowd.
I was going to go back to the kitchen to help Indy but Daisy, snuggling a sleepy Tallulah, Stella and Mace’s first (and only, so far), caught me.