He nods his acknowledgment before turning back to Dani. “Top-shelf or well, sweetie?”
She flashes him a sickly sweet smile. “Top-shelf, of course. Oh, and a food menu, please?”
Somehow, his smile becomes even more jolly. “You got it,” he says as he passes her a menu and walks off.
She ignores my raised brows in her direction, opting to focus all of her attention on the menu.
“That menu is riveting, huh?”
“Yeah, should I get fried green tomatoes or no?”
“Dani,” I say, barely keeping the laugh out of my voice.
“Hmm?” she hums.
“Care to share why you stopped me from asking about Tanya?”
Finally, she takes her eyes off the menu. “Because you have to ease into these things.”
“Really? Because you got straight to the point with Traci.”
She rolls her eyes as if her logic makes perfect sense. “That was different. It was just the three of us there. You can’t just walk into a bar full of people and start asking about a whole family. Especially a family that apparently everyone knows. You’ve gotta build a rapport. So, just sit back, relax, and let me do my thing.”
The person closest to us leaves, so I grab their chair for Dani and remain standing. “Okay, fine. Do your thing. And yes, you should get fried green tomatoes.”
She smirks as she passes the menu over to me.
The bartender comes back with our drinks, ecstatic when Dani gushes over the taste of hers. She orders our apps and entrées, even the one I told her I wanted earlier.
Dani learns his name is Aaron, and from then on, she has Aaron eating out of the palm of her hand. He checks on her constantly, making sure her glass is always full and her smile is always prominent.
The fish and chips she ordered are delicious, so I’m happy to let her continue taking the lead.
Aaron sets a small container of sauce in front of Dani. “Brought you this. It’s chile-lime sauce. I promise it’s gonna really set those wings off.”
Dani wastes no time dipping her hot honey wings into the sauce and digging in. “Aaron, you are a God among men,” she exclaims.
Once again, he looks awfully proud of himself. “I’ve been told that a time or two before.”
Oh, brother.
After the dinner crowd somewhat dies down, Aaron comes back over to us. “Where you folks from, anyway?”
Dani uses that opportunity to finally tell Aaron why we’re here.
“Tanya Gaten,” he exhales. “I was sorry to hear she passed.”
Dani tells him about the hunt Tanya has sent us on, and he’s captivated by her every word. “I gotta ask, is everybody in Tanya’s family as dramatic as she was?”
He holds his stomach as he belts out a laugh. “That’s like asking if water is wet. Matter fact …” He pauses to survey the bar, his eyes landing on his target. “Tony!”
A tall, brown-skin man with glasses looks over from one of the high tops as Aaron waves him over. Tony approaches with caution. Anotherbrown-skin man covered in tattoos and a brown-skin woman with a shaved head follow closely behind.
“I ain’t even do nothing yet, Goose,” Tony says to Aaron.
“Shut up, fool. This here is Dani and that’s Micah. They were friends of Tanya.” He turns to Dani. “The three stooges here are Tony, Michael, and Ella Gaten. Tanya’s cousins.”
Michael assesses us carefully. “You look a little young to have been friends with Tanya. Were you some of them wayward children she loved to take in?”
