by the sheer need in her gaze, she stands up and looks at where Desi is petting the dog.
“I’ll come back,” Sidonie says while Bambi gets comfortable next to me. “I can sit next to you at lunch.”
The girl walks over to Bronco and Desi. I don’t know what they say, but my girl pops up and smiles brightly. She’s always got a grin for the world.
“Her mom’s a bitch,” Bambi tells me as she gently bounces a wide-awake Carina. “Lives right here in this neighborhood but doesn’t have a thing to do with Sidonie. Messed up that girl’s head.”
“Why would she ignore her daughter?”
“Kellie Dee was a club bunny, bouncing from dick to dick. Got pregnant by Bronco, but wanted his club brother, Hoagie. No one knew who Sidonie’s father was until the test. Once Kellie Dee realized it was the wrong guy’s, she ditched the baby with us. Acts like it never happened. Real little bitch. Barbie and me give her a hard time, but that can’t fix what she does to Sidonie’s brain. That child is a handful.”
“Is she with Hoagie now?” I ask while my gaze flashes between my mom talking to Barbie and Bronco nearby. I try my hardest not to stare at him, but he pulls me to him like a magnet.
“Yeah. They got two sons. Real brats too. Kellie Dee is not built for motherhood. I find her boys wandering around the neighborhood, begging people for food.”
“I’m glad you give her a hard time,” I babble while forcing my gaze from Bronco.
“A year ago, Barbie nearly ran Kellie Dee down with her SUV. My sister takes those things more personally,” Bambi says and then leans over to whisper very loudly. “She lost her man years ago and hasn’t been the same.”
I try not to look at where Barbie must hear her sister.
“Are you close with your sister?” I ask, changing the subject and trying to get a feel for this family.
Oh, boy, does Bambi explain lots to me over the next few minutes. Barbie was always their father’s favorite, meaning she got beat less. Bronco was his least favorite because he thought the boy would kill him one day.
My gaze goes immediately to Bronco, who gives me a look that screams, “She’s full of shit.”
Though I smile at his reaction, I think she’s telling the truth. Bronco’s father treated him the worst. He’s a big strong man now and doesn’t want me thinking of him as a scared kid.
“I met Rooster when I was a teenager. He was a pervert and wanted to fuck a high school girl.”
“That’s a damn lie,” Rooster nearly yells and then remembers the baby. “I was in high school too.”
Bambi laughs at his reaction. “I never said he wasn’t.”
“This is how they flirt,” Bronco explains while I grin at his sister’s amusement.
“Rooster, Wheels, and Drummer were older than Bronco by a few years. He didn’t care. My brother just bossed them around.”
Rooster nods. “Still does.”
“Wheels was a whore,” Bambi says, and Barbie stands up as if to rush her sister. “I’m holding a baby, dipshit.”
“Give it to the stripper, so I can pound your face.”
“No,” Bambi says and then smiles at me. “Wheels fucked half the women in Ohio, a third of them in Indiana, and even a few from West Virginia. He wasn’t ever going to settle down, but then he fell for Barbie, and his dick didn’t want anyone else.”
Her sister stops flexing her fists and shrugs. “It’s true he loved me something fierce.”
The women grin at each other, and Barbie sits back down next to my mom.
“We were a tight group. Still are. Though like I said, Hoagie is with that idiot, so he can’t be around us as much. I don’t want the cunt in my house.”
Bronco watches the entire discussion while wearing his slightly amused expression. He’s probably used to all their bickering and stories, but I sense he worries his sisters will embarrass him. We might have only shared a hot quickie in the back seat of my SUV, and I don’t assume he wants my heart. But there’s no denying Bronco watches me like a man who wouldn’t mind getting sweaty together again.
BRONCO
My sisters test people every damn day. When they gave birth, Barbie and Bambi both gave the nurses shit and threatened the doctors. After Wheels died, they ran the mortuary ragged. They can’t let shit slide, always fighting a battle against a man long dead. Nothing will ever settle