“Drink the coffee,” Stella advised.“It helps.”
I took a sip of coffee thinking, after all that, she’d bewrong.
After the sip, I realized she was very right.
Even so, when I dropped my mug, I asked, “Is a man I don’tknow planning my wedding to a man I’m not engaged to yet?”
To this, for some bizarre reason, Annette threw her headback, whooped to the ceiling, then dropped her chin and looked at me.“This issofa-kingphat!It’s been a long time.Too long.This is gonna beawesome.”
“It’s been five months,” Ava pointed out.
“That’s too long.God, I hope there’s another car chase,”Annette said and again looked at me.“Do you think there’s gonna be a carchase?”
“Um, I hope not,” I replied.
“Snipers?”she asked.
Oh my God!
“Lord, no,” I said.
“Well, I hope Darius’s house doesn’t get bombed.I haven’tpartaken, but I heard about that wine cellar, and it’d be a shame that went skyhigh,” she shared.
Good Lord.
Regrettably, Annette wasn’t done.
“At least I won five hundred bucks off you.Thanks for that.I didn’t know you, but I thought, things came to a head when the dude was in ahospital bed.You needed to let him heal before you started the Rock ChickSex-a-thon.And I was right.”
I was speechless.
Annette continued not to be.“You gotta give me something toadd to the tour.We need new blood.”
I turned my attention to Ally.“Can you explain what’shappening?”
Ally was fighting a smile.“First, don’t get offended, weall went through it starting with Ava.But we take bets on when the Hot Bunchwears a sister down and the Rock Chick starts getting the business.”
I heard Toni’s chuckle.
I was sure I’d find it funny.
Someday.
“Second, after the books started coming out, Annette starteddoing Rock Chick Tours, taking fans around to all the places everything wentdown,” Ally went on.
“Cheese and wine in the Reserve would be a good place to enda tour,” Annette noted.
I considered for a nanosecond how I’d feel about Rock ChickFans in Darius’s house.
I then considered for less than a nanosecond how Dariuswould feel.
Then I said, “That’s not gonna happen.”
Annette looked to Daisy and said, “Worth a try.”
Daisy laughed her tinkly-bell laugh.
“Last,” Ally carried on, “I asked you here to talk aboutwhat you and Toni were doing in that office building.”
