I pressed closer and tilted my head back further.
“Three months ago, if this happened to me, I’d have sat in a house with the blinds closed, the doors locked and been scared out of my mind.”
He hesitated a moment, then I felt his body relax and his hand came up to where my jaw met my neck, the pad of his thumb against my cheekbone.
“You’re so ful of shit, Chiquita,” he said quietly but the scary had gone out of the quiet. He was looking in my eyes, the glitter in his melting and I knew I’d won.
Final y, I’d won an argument with Eddie.
I felt like dancing around, instead I gave him a squeeze.
“Am not,” I said.
“You would have been as hel -bent to risk your neck and solve your Dad’s problems, you just wouldn’t have had some crazy Rock Chick to get you in trouble while she’s tryin’ to watch your back.”
“Indy’s not a crazy Rock Chick.”
“And Indy isn’t the only one watchin’ your back.” I smiled at him. I knew what he meant because that warm feeling was in my bel y again, but I decided, and for the life of me I didn’t know why, to tease him and maybe, just a little bit, flirt.
So I cocked my head and said, “I know. Al y’s watching it too.”
Wow. Flirting worked.
His eyes went liquid, my bel y fluttered, his other arm went around me and his thumb came under my chin and tilted my head back even further.
“Al y is a crazy Rock Chick,” he said.
I couldn’t help it, I let out a little giggle.
He watched me for a beat, then his face got serious. “I don’t like what you’re doin’, I don’t agree with it and if I can, I’l stop it.”
Wonderful
I didn’t like that he didn’t like it but I nodded anyway.
We were at an impasse and we both knew it.
“This your way of tryin’ to prove to me you’re boring? If it is, I should warn you, it real y isn’t workin’.” I shook my head then tried again to use the truth and said, “Eddie, trust me, I am boring.” The dimple came out.
“You’re crazy.”
“I’m not.”
“What are you doin’ now?”
“Indy and I are meeting Daisy at the Cruise Room for a drink.”
His eyes flared.
“You are crazy.”
“I’m not.”
We stared at each other again, I was preparing for another battle but to my surprise, he gave in again.
“For Christ’s sake, Chiquita, be careful,” he said.
I snuggled deeper into his body, I didn’t have a choice since his arm went super-tight around me, and I said, “Okay.”
Chapter Seventeen
Daisy, Indy and Me - The Unholy Trinity We met Daisy in the ultra-cool, art deco Cruise Room of the Oxford Hotel.
Daisy was already sitting in a booth, waiting for us. She was decked out in second-skin denim and rhinestones, the two-buttoned jacket exposing acres of cleavage. The purply-pink neon that had been giving cool ass atmosphere to the Cruise Room for nearly one hundred years was shining in platinum-blonde hair that was so teased and sprayed I figured environmental watch groups had campaigns dedicated to stopping her single-handed destruction of the ozone layer.
We ordered dirty martinis and settled in.
Daisy turned cornflower-blue eyes to me, “Al right, Sugar, tel Auntie Daisy al 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 mil ionth 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 seen Steel Magnolias?”
I nodded.
“That’s my favorite movie of al 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 hel 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 fil ed the bottoms of her eyes but she didn’t let them fal .
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 physical y or emotional y. 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. But a girl has to have girlfriends, comprende?” Indy and I both nodded, we comprende’ed.
“And, I’m here to tel you, the snooty society bitches of Denver just do not get 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.