“Do you know how much I love you?”I asked.
She looked me right in the eye and answered, “Yes.”
Damn.
I felt like crying again.
Instead of crying, I jumped and looked up when the huge,serial-killer-looking-not-a-serial-killer, wild-gray-and-blond-haired,crazy-russet-bearded barista smashed two coffee mugs on the table before us andboomed, “Jesus Jones!I don’t even know what you bitches are talking about andyou’rekillin’ my mood.Suck more of that back andget over this shit.I got a new litter of kitties that came in last night I getto go home and play with.I don’twannabe on adowner when I got new kitties.”
Mom and I stared up at him, agog, and I was pretty sure bothof us didn’t know which part of his boom to be most agog about.
He retreated behind the coffee machine as the beautifulredheaded lady who owned the place took up the space he’d exited.
“Sorry about Tex calling you bitches, bossing you around,and freaking you out talking about kittens.He’s kind of a cat lover.And acrazy guy.The, uh…coffees are on the house.”She then took off on a stomp anddid it shouting toward the coffee machine, “Tex, swear to God, the nextcustomers you—”
“Zip it, sister!”the crazy man called Tex interrupted heron a bellow.“You’re notstealin’ my new kittythunder with your attitude either!”
“I’m not stealing your new kitty thunder!”she shouted back.“I’m trying to retain customers so I can buy that new pair of cowboy boots Leesays I can’t have because I already have fifteen pairs.”
“Like you’rehurtin’.This storeturns over a shitload and your husband’srollin’ init,” Tex retorted.
“And like she cares Lee says she can’t have them,” Mom and Iheard whispered from our sides, this coming from a pretty blonde lady who had asmile that made her a knockout.“She already bought those boots.She just wantsTex to pipe down and not freak people out.”
Mom and I looked in unison to the silent standoff Tex andthe redhead were having with their eyes, but we looked back to the blonde whenshe spoke again.
“And it isn’t about his mood,” she said.“He’s worried aboutyour bandage.It doesn’t look like it, but he’s a ladies’ man in the good kindof way, really protective, and he doesn’t like what he sees.He doesn’t knowyou but he does know people like his coffee, and since that’s all he can give,he gave it.So really, he’s just a big, crazy,kindascary softie.”
She delivered that, then she swiped up a used mug that hadbeen there when we sat there and took off.
“Don’tyajust love this place?”we heard from the table in the corner that was on the other side of us and ourheads swung that way.“These people arefreakin’loco,”the woman there went on.“You never know the shenanigans they’ll get up to.Honestly, and I know this’ll say it all, I don’t actually come here for thecoffee.That’s just the icing on the cake.I come here for the floorshow.Itnever disappoints.”
She lifted her foamy-topped latte our way and turned back tothe book she was not-so-much reading.
I looked to Mom.
Her eyes drifted to me.
And then we burst out laughing.
In the midst of it, we heard boomed, “See!Look at thosebitches now, Indy Nightingale!My work is done!”
So of course we laughed harder.
Chapter Seven
World
Rosalie
I waskindaembarrassed that I essentially watched out the window, waiting for Snappersince around five minutes after he texted to say he’d picked up the food andwas on his way.
And when he arrived, still watching, I was totally shockedwhen he got out of his truck and went around to the passenger side to nab twoplastic bags stuffed with stacked food containers.
There had to be enough food in those to feed six people.
I didn’t know what he’d read (and was beyond caring) when Iopened the front door way before he got close to it.Snapper probably alreadycaught me watching through the window (I’d be hard to miss) so it didn’t matteranyway.
But really, I was just glad he was there and I didn’t carehe knew it.
