Smooth transition away from a loaded conversation, that was not.
But Margie goes with it. She shakes her head. “No, are you?”
“All three of us,” Lucky says. “We thought for a hot minute that our friend Laney’s dad was our dad because he is too, but she took a test, and we went back to square one. Until you popped up.”
She purses her lips and nods. “I’m not. And neither—neither was my mom. We used to eat them as a special treat.”
“We got to eat frog guts for a special treat,” Lucky says.
“Frog guts?”
All three of them grin.
“That’s what our mom calls Chex Mix.”
“Dude, shehatedmaking that stuff.”
“We wanted it all the time.”
“Shit, I want some right now.”
“You think we can find somebody to run to the grocery store and bring us some?”
I watch Margie watching them, her smile softening with every word of praise that they utter about Chex Mix.
Is she faking?
Or is she really enjoying watching the three of them in their natural element?
They’re entertaining as hell on a normal day—clearly—and I doubt she sees this kind of behavior in the boardrooms and offices of her real life.
Which isn’t to say I’m softening toward her.
It’s to say I’m trying to understand her.
There’s a difference.
“Does that one app work here?” she asks them. “What’s it called? MunchieGoGo?”
“Nah, the only driver we had retired after less than a year because people tipped like crap and he made more money flashing his junk on GrippaPeen,” Jack says.
“I didn’t know Theo was the MunchieGoGo guy,” Lucky says. “Why don’t you tell me this stuff?”
“He wasn’t. Derrick Swayman did GrippaPeen too. He made money. Just not Theo-level money.”
“Theo—is that the retreat co-owner with the tattoos and baby?” Margie asks.
Again, like she doesn’t know.
“Yeah, he’s like,superfamous in some circles, but he retired from GrippaPeen too when he hooked up with Laney. His wife. They hated each other in high school. You know how it goes. He was her best friend’s bad boy brother, she was the good girl in line to take over the family company…”
“Yeah, Margie knows how that goes,” I agree, since she’s also clearly the good girl in line to take over her family company.
I’ll probably hear about this later, but apparently I’m in a mood for fun too.
Or possibly a mood to keep her on her toes.
She slides me a flat look before rolling her eyes at the triplets. “A man catches you reading a romance novel and thinks he can mock you for life.”
