The good kind.
The happy kind.
The wondrous kind.
However, sitting in the seating area in front of the largeplate-glass window was what could only be every beautiful white woman in theDenver Metro area.
And, if my eyes weren’t deceiving me, among them was DollyParton, traveled forward through time, or a much younger lookalike, repletewith a huge head of platinum blonde hair not even close to being contained by awide pink Alice band.She was wearing a pink lace bustier out of which wasbursting so much cleavage, entire sects of fundamental Christian churches hadher on their watch list.Over this was a denim blazer, its lapels adorned withdiamanté rivets.On the bottom were skintight, stonewash jeans, her calves andfeet covered in bubblegum pink, patent leather, platform stripper boots.
She looked like she was going to pop up and start singing“Two Doors Down.”
She was a lot.
And I wanted to be her best friend immediately.
But there was more.
The man behind the espresso counter had an ultra-long russetbeard, a wild head of graying blond hair, and the aura of a serial killer.Hewas wearing a flannel shirt and looked like Grizzly Adams gone bad.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to be his best friend, but he lookedinteresting.
Duke, unfortunately, was nowhere in sight.
Indy was waddling over to us, but it was the guy behind theespresso counter who boomed, “VIP!VIP!”He turned to a blonde woman behind thecounter with him and hollered, “Froth, woman!Froth!She’s here!”
“I’m frothing, Tex, I’m frothing,” the woman said, smiling asmile that was so dazzling, I was stupefied for a moment, but she was doing itwhile frothing.
And then Indy was there.“That’s Tex.He’s loud.He’sannoying.He’s also sweet and makes great coffee.And that was his way ofsaying he’s happy to meet you.”
“Do I get froth, my man?”Toni called to him.
“Who are you?”the man named Tex boomed.
She tilted her head at me.“I’m her best bitch.”
“Then fuck yeah!”Tex shouted, and I felt my eyes widen athis language shouted across a place of business where the women at the frontsection, clearly Indy’s crew, weren’t the only people in the place.
However, oddly, it didn’t appear like they heard it, or theywere regulars and it was nothing new.
“Sit your ass down,” Tex ordered on another boom.“I gotyou.”
He then, no other way to put it, appeared to beattackingthe espresso machine.
Indy took my hand and thus began the introductions.
I kinda recognized them from that time Liam and I spent inthe hospital, but for obvious reasons, I couldn’t say I was paying a lot ofattention then.
In fact, I couldn’t have been, because I hadn’t noticed Texor the Dolly Parton lookalike, and even with the Darius situation, I would haveremembered them.
First there was Roxie, who was Hank, Lee and Ally’s olderbrother’s wife.Then Jules, who was married to Vance, another one of Lee’s men,the woman Darius had talked to about Liam.And Ava, who was married to a guynamed Luke, also one of Lee’s men.Sadie, a fairytale-princess-looking gal whowas married to Eddie’s younger brother, Hector (who, too, worked for Lee).Stella was semi-kinda famous.I’d heard of her before she hit the papers withher story with her guy.She was in a popular local rock group.Her man wasanother of Lee’s team, his name was Mace.Then there was Jet, who came out frombehind the counter.She was Eddie’s wife.
Ally was there too.
And the Dolly Parton lookalike was called Daisy.I learnedshe worked with Ally, and when I was introduced to her, she said, “I sure amglad to meet you, sugar.It’s high time.Welcome to the tribe,” and then sheemitted a laugh that was gorgeous.It sounded like tinkling bells.
The final two were a hippie chick named Annette who greetedme with a “Yo, bitch!”and I learned, unsurprisingly,she owned the head shop down the way.
And Shirleen, who was studying me tentatively and holdingherself uncomfortably.
