“I’m starting the pool this time and calling twenty-four hours. He’s a Stark. They don’t fuck around,” Tex proclaimed.
That gave me a little hoo-ha quiver.
Lucia broke her silence. “I get thirty-six hours then.”
“I’ll take that action,” Tex replied.
“Lucia!” I gasped, shocked.
“The pool,” so you know, was a leftover from the Rock Chicks. I wasn’t sure they did it with Jessie or Harlow, but they did it with Raye and Cap.
And what they were betting on was when Gabe and I would sleep together.
Oh yeah, you read that right.
If I didn’t love my family of the heart with all of that organ, I’d run for the hills.
“You’re both going to lose because we’re not getting together,” I decreed. “I’ve sworn off men for all time.”
For a second, there was no sound or movement.
Then Tex threw his long-haired, crazy-ass-bearded head back and roared with laughter.
I planted my hands on my hips and glared at him.
Still laughing, Tex pulled out his cell (a flip phone, and not one of the cool new ones, I think his was made in 90s, bought in that decade, and he’d never upgraded).
He jabbed at it.
He put it to his ear.
He waited.
I waited.
Lucia waited.
Then he said, “Stark? Yeah. She says she’s sworn off men for all time.”
It was then I heard a bark of laughter from Tex’s ancient cell phone.
Without saying goodbye, Tex flipped the phone shut.
“Which Stark were you talking to?” I demanded.
“The one who’s married to the mother of his two girls who, back in the day, said she’d sworn off men for all time…and then came Luke,” Tex answered.
That didn’t give me a hoo-ha shiver.
It gave me a terrified shudder.
“If you don’t want a muffin thrown at you, you might want to leave,” I threatened.
“Throw what you want, woman. I don’t give a shit,” Tex replied.
I threw a crumble-topped blueberry at him.
He caught it, bit the entire muffin cap off in one mouthful (and I did not make small muffins) and strolled from the room.
