He started striding toward their apartment, but when he got close to Bill and Zach, Zach said in a horrified tone, “We didn’t mean to upset her.”
At that, Alexis leapt gracefully like the ballerina she was from her man’s arms and threw herself at Zach, who caught her.
“You’re the best big brother ever!” she wailed.
Zach rounded her with his arms and stared at Jacob, stiff backed and clearly fighting emotion, because he wasn’t her blood brother, but no one missed her meaning.
Bill didn’t fight it. He started crying.
I started crying.
I heard Harlow whimpering behind me.
Alexis threw herself at Bill next. “You too!”
“Oh, girlie, you know we love you,” Bill said.
She pulled free and whirled on Martha. “And just to say, I know this was all instigated by you. So you don’t fool anybody. You’re pure gold.”
Martha rolled her eyes and let out an offended, “Puh.”
Shanti whispered, “It was so instigated by Martha, and let me tell you, she didn’t let you scrimp on the contribution.”
Collecting over seven thousand dollars?
I had no doubt.
“She should quit her job and become a collector for a loan shark,” Shanti continued.
And now I was fighting laughter again, along with tears.
Facing the crowd, Alexis tossed both her arms out. “You all are, and I love every single one of you with ALL MY HEART!”
Then she dissolved back into sobs, Jacob swung her again in his arms and strode to their apartment, both of them disappearing behind the door.
“She dropped the envelope and check,” Shanti told me.
I reached down to grab them, slid the check in with that thick stash and tucked it in my lap to give it to her when she came over to talk cake.
No one said anything.
The door to Jacob and Alexis’s apartment opened, Jacob’s handsome head appeared, and he called, “We’re having it here.”
A joyful cheer rang from the crowd.
Jacob shut their door.
Oh yeah.
Oasis Square was the best apartment complex in Phoenix.
And maybe the whole damned world.
EIGHT
YOU DONE?
Unsurprisingly, Jacob texted me to say the cake talk was going to have to wait.
