Mom nodded. “Your dad said the same thing after the whole Pop Rocks fiasco.”
Don’t ask. Don’t ask. Don’t ask.“Pop Rocks?”Crap.
“You put them in your mouth before you…you know.” Mom cleared her throat and made her eyes get wide. “It’s supposed to give a little pop, but I didn’t have enough saliva so they didn’t dissolve right. It was like sand in my mouth.” Mom shivered. “Followed by an explosion when they all popped at the same time. Don’t ask your father about that time.”
Frankly, Becca had no intention of that.
“He was not impressed,” Mom said.
“Okay, well, I gotta work.” Becca started toward the bar to get the next orders.
Unfortunately, her mother followed.
“Don’t worry, that only happened once. He really thought the yogurt was fun when we tried that.”
“Mom.” Becca stopped and turned on her heel, so they were face to face. “Please don’t tell me any more of what Dad does and doesn’t like in the bedroom.”
“Oh, it wasn’t in the bedroom. We did the yogurt one on the patio.”
“Moooom.”
“I thought it might spice it up a little if there was a chance of getting caught.”
Don’t ask. Don’t ask.“Did it?”
“Well, Karen and Bob—they’re the neighbors to the south of us—got a variance for a full six-foot cedar fence. We didn’t even have to pay for any of it. Your father was so happy about that. He said we could do the yogurt thing whenever I want.”
“What’s the yogurt thing?” Kellie approached from behind Becca’s mom, sipping from the red straw in her Crown and Coke.
“Mom will tell you all about it.” Becca tried to turn back toward the bar, silently wishing there was a Crown and Coke with enough Crown to wipe her memory of that entire conversation.
It didn’t work. Mom grabbed her arm.
“Have you all done the whole pet name thing yet?” Mom asked. “Because I have thoughts on it.”
Becca shook her head. “No, because we are grown-ups, and we don’t have pet names for each other.”
Also, pet names were for relationships, not indulgent affairs of the kind she wanted to partake in with Linx.
“Even grown-ups need pet names for each other. It’s half the fun of being in the relationship,” Kellie said, waggling her brows.
Becca hit her with some side eye. “We’re not in a relationship.”
And they wouldn’t be. Relationships raise stress levels and responsibility levels.
“Seriously. I’ve got to get back to work.” Becca jerked her thumb toward where Brek had her next set of beverages ready for delivery.
This time, thankfully, they let her escape.
With her tray reloaded, Linx and Tanner and Mach picked that moment to go into a rock-inspired rendition of “Sweet Caroline,” with exceptional use of the drums that had the front row elderly getting a little rowdy.
Becca had to do a duck and twirl maneuver with her full tray so it didn’t get knocked to the ground by a stray swing of a cane.
Linx nailed abom-bom-bom,and they all went bananas. More bananas.
Someone was totally going to break a hip if this kept up.
Linx was invested in the song. Which was funny because he didn’t seem like a Neil Diamond kind of guy. But what did she really know about him, anyway? Nothing about his yogurt and Crisco preferences, that was for certain.
