Reno frowned. “Then what they timing it for?”
Sal frowned. “What they timing it . . . What are you talking, you idiot?”
“Forget you, Sal!” Then Reno looked at Roz. “I love you, Roz. You know I do. And you’re a very beautiful woman. I mean stunningly so. But your ass ain’t no thirty-five. I know that too.I’ll bet my fortune on that knowledge. Now answer my question: How old is your old ass?”
Instead of laughing, everybody looked at Roz. If you cross that line with her, she could be as vicious as Mick.
But this time she just nodded. “My ass old enough to beat your old ass,” she said, and then they laughed. “That’s how old I am.”
But then Reno went where they all wanted to go. “And another thing,” he said. “Where Mick at?”
Everybody was shocked that Reno asked it, was glad he did, and they all looked at Roz.
Roz tilted her head slightly back and looked at Reno seemingly with her eyes half closed. “Why you always got questions?”
“Because I’m a curious man.”
“You ask too many damn questions.”
“But curious minds want to know where Mick at.”
Roz was agitated. “Can a bitch just chill?” she asked, and they all laughed at that too. “Damn Reno! It’s my birthday.”
And that was the end of any talk about Mick.
Until his daughter Gloria came out onto the back patio. She’d just gotten into town. She greeted everybody but went over to hug her stepmother’s neck. “Hey Ma,” she said. “Happy birthday.”
“Where’s Oz?” Roz asked.
Gloria stood erect. “He couldn’t make it.”
“He can never make it,” said Reno.
“What is that your business?” Trina asked her husband.
But Roz was even more blunt. “What y’all doing?” she asked her stepdaughter.
Gloria looked at Roz. “Excuse me?”
“What y’all doing? He’s never where you are, and you’re never where he is. What kind of awalla-ha-hay’all got going? Because it ain’t no marriage. It’s awalla-ha-ha.”
They all laughed, some falling from their chairs laughing at Roz’s phrase. Even Gloria smiled and began looking around. She never wanted the spotlight on her marriage. She looked over at the golf course further back on the property where he usually could be found whenever he was home. “Where’s Daddy?” she asked.
Everybody expected Roz to go off on Glo just for bring him up, but she didn’t. She just sipped more of her wine.
“He was supposed to be in town earlier today,” said Big Daddy, answering for Roz. “But he’s not back yet.”
“Then who’s driving his truck? I thought he didn’t let anybody drive his tricked out Escalades. Not even you or Mom.”
Even Roz found Gloria confusing. “What you talking about, Gloria?”
“Daddy’s SUV’s out front. When I drove up and saw it, I assumed he was home.”
“He is home.”
Everybody looked over at the patio door as Duke was walking out of it with four canned sodas for him and his cousins.
But Roz was frowning. “What do you mean he’s home?”
