Mal turned back to his drink and sucked more up.
He then said to Jag, “I never had a cherry Coke.It’s prettysick.”
Jag grinned at him again.“Stick with me, Mal.I’ve got alot of things to share that are awesome, and totally bad for you.”
Mal grinned back, it was genuine and there didn’t seem to beanything dragging on it.
A minor win, but a win.
He’d take it.
And for today at least, they’d managed to get it done.
ChapterFourteen
The House He Built
Jagger
“I don’t think I’d ever even heard of a yurt untilArchie mentioned it.”
“Her trip to Portugal sounded totally rad.Iwannago and stay where she stayed.”
“Archie’s gonna do Archie, but you won’t catch me stayingsomewhere that I don’t have my own bathroom and the room isn’t cleaned everyday by maids.”
“You aresoboujee.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
“It kind of is.You’re like, not enlightened at all.”
“Power to the people and especially power to the ones withvaginas, and my power is going to be making scads of money and then staying atthe Ritz during my bi-annual trips to Paris to go shopping.”
“Ugh, gross.”
“Whatever.”
The comment about the yurt was Haley’s.
The ensuing discussion was between Hellen and Liane, Haley’sdaughters, Archie’s stepsisters.
Hellen was twenty, going to the University of Colorado inBoulder, studying business.She was theboujeeone,and she didn’t let down that side and dressed for dinner at what was still herhome, considering she was a student, like she was having sushi with some realhousewives somewhere.
Liane was eighteen.She was also at U of C in Boulder, hermajor undeclared.She was the granola one and she also represented, wearing atee that saidA Well-Read Woman Is A Dangerous Creature, dark-washjeans that, regardless of the wash, still had a number of splits and tears inthe legs and Birkenstocks.
Jagger really wanted to find their conversation hilarious,because it was.They’d generally been hilarious since he and Archie arrived.
But Archie and her dad had disappeared into the kitchen withthe last of the dinner dishes, with Andy telling Haley to take a load off, heand Archie were going to serve dessert.
And since dessert was cupcakes, which didn’t take a lot ofprep, Jag was distracted because they’d been in there a while.
He didn’t get a read from her dad, or Haley, or the girls,that they didn’t dig him.
There had definitely been a lot of looking him over.
But Archie was chill.He was chill.
And Jag found out straight away he had no worries about anyof them having an issue with bikers.
