Hewasthat look.
With Archie.
She was his.
And she was his entire future.
He was so into this thought, his body jerked in surprisewhen there was a knock on the door.
Before he moved the short distance to answer it, quickly,Archie asked, “Jagger, baby, are you okay?”
“Yeah,” he muttered, and opened the door.
Hound and who he assumed was Lafayette were standing at theback.
His ma and Joany were at the front.
Jag noted that Lafayette was mixed race, Black and maybeAsian.He was also tall.But with the women blocking him, Jag couldn’t seeanything else.
He and Hound were staring at the backs of the heads of thewomen in front of them.
“Jag, honey, hey!”his mother cried, coming forward,grabbing his shoulders, and pulling him down for a kiss on the cheek.
“Hey, Ma, come in,” he said, shifting aside.
“Jag, honey, hey!”Joany echoed in order to take her shot toget a smooch, reaching up a lot higher, since she was so much shorter, to grabhis shoulders and pull him down for a kiss on the cheek.
“Hey, babe,” he muttered, chuckling.
Hound came next.
“Son,” he said, pounding Jag on the arm.
“Hound,” Jag returned.
Hound went in and Jag saw that for Lafayette, it was aT-shirt-and-calf-length-pleated-skirt day.
There was some makeup.
And the guy could grow a fierce beard.
“Hi, I’m Lafayette and I’m vowing to you now we will be hereall of five minutes and then we’ll vanish.”
“Hey, I’m Jagger and it’s okay,” Jag replied.
“You’re new,” Lafayette returned.“You’ll learn JoanyControl.”
Jag started chuckling again as Lafayette entered.
He shut the door and turned, seeing Archie rounding the barand heading their way.
So he introduced, “Ma, Hound, this is my girl, Archie.Arch,this is my mom, Keely, and my stepdad, Hound.”
“Or Shep,” Keely said, extending a hand.“You can also callhim Shep.”
She could call him Shep?
No one called him Shep.
