Shit.
“Christ,” he grunted.“Iwannamake out with you, like, all the time.”
“That isn’t gonna help her be less miserable,” she pointedout.
“No,” he was grunting again.
“Wegottabe good, boyfriend.”
He just shook his head, grinning, but said, “Yeah.”
She shifted away, but not too far away, and Dutch was at thetable, grabbing the salad bowl.
“You sure I can’t help?”Archie asked Dutch.
“There can be too many cooks in the kitchen, not too many toclean up, though,” Dutch replied.But on a glance to the sisters and back tothe table, he said, “Maybe give them some time, yeah?”
“For sure,” Archie replied.
Dutch looked to Jag, to Archie, gave her a tight smile, thenmoved to the kitchen.
She turned to Jag.“Something there I’m missing?”
“He’s pissed he didn’t know about you.”
“Until today, there wasn’t a lot to know.”
“Yeah, there was.”
She conceded that point with a dip of her chin and thensaid, “Fair warning, the family stuff is probably gonna be stepped up a dozennotches.We get too deep before I take you to see him, Dad’s gonna be pissed.He’s mentioned you, like, five hundred times.”
Say what?
“He has?”
She reached for her wine, nodding, took a sip, then slid hereyes to him and said, “Yep.”
“How does he know who I am?”
“Your note.”
“Oh, right,” Jag muttered.
“He was…I was…” She set her glass back down.“The timing wasperfect.I needed that.Elijah did too.Dad didn’t know what to do.He was init with us.Not down the road where he knew what to say.You knew what to sayand that helped all of us.Even Dad.So, in the meantime, considering he’shated every guy I’ve dated, he would say things like, ‘I don’t see why you’rewith this schmuck.What about that Arby’s guy?’”
“Great,” Jagger sighed.“I’m ‘Arby’s Guy.’”
She grinned at him.“Hey, don’t knock Arby’s.And bee teedub, that’s Dad’s favorite fast food joint.So you scored points you didn’tknow you were scoring.”
He grinned at her, doing it thinking he hadn’t smiled thismuch in…
Well, ever.
And he was a pretty happy guy.
“I fear the meal wasn’t all that great if you guys aretalking about Arby’s,” Georgie joked as she rejoined them at the table.“Morewine?”she offered Archie, extending the bottle.
“Yes, please,” Archie answered, extending her glass.“Andwe’re talking about my dad, not Arby’s,” she corrected.
