“Fuck that,” Dad swiped at his mouth with the back of his hand when he caught Mom pointing to her own mouth, giving him a clue. Then he went on talking. “Ain’t nothin’ in the big towns I need. Anyway, I heard they started making these eye-talian coffee drinks in Miriam’s Café,” Dad looked over to Indy, Daisy and me. “They got frozen custard there too. That custard business pissed off the folks at Dairy Palace, which is right across the street. Ain’t no cookie shake in the world better than frozen custard, I don’t care if they double up the cookie crumbles, which was what they started to do.”
“The Dairy Palace doubled up the cookie crumbles?” I asked, forgetting to be embarrassed by my father’s behavior.
I loved cookie crumble shakes
“Damn straight, Roxie,” Dad told me. “You gotta come home. I know you like your cookie crumble shakes but you’l f**kin’ flip over those turtle sundaes they make at Miriam’s with the frozen custard. Swear to Christ, thought your mother would rol up and die after she got her first taste of one,” Dad looked at Hank. “Roxie likes her ice cream,” he informed Hank as if this was the key to future happiness with me.
“I’l remember that,” Hank said, his eyes came to me and I noticed his trying-hard-not-to-laugh look because it was now very familiar.
In fact, the Hot Pack were al now looking at me, al of them grinning. Except Luke, who was looking down at his boots but I could tel his half-smile was in place. I felt their grins in the form of goose bumps running along my skin and I said to the entire room, “Can we stop talking about ice cream?”
That’s when Luke’s head came up and his eyes sliced to me.
“I wanna hear more about ice cream,” Luke said.
Damn.
The bel over the door rang.
“I’m not talking to you!” Jet snapped at Eddie as they both walked in.
At first, I got worried, but then I saw Eddie’s lips twitch.
“What now, Loopy Loo?” Tex boomed.
“I don’t wanna talk about it,” Jet answered, stomping to the book counter and slamming her purse into a drawer.
“What’s going on?” Indy asked.
Jet glared at Eddie, who was entirely unaffected by the mental laser beams Jet was directing at his back. He walked up to the espresso counter as the last customer moved away.
“Everything. Lottie’s so popular Smithie has to sel tickets. He’s already given her a raise. She found a house, put in an offer and it was accepted. Mom’s moving in with Trixie and the apartment has already been rented to someone else. I want to move in with Lottie but Lottie won’t let me because she and Eddie had a chat.” Daisy and Indy nodded knowingly.
“What?” I asked.
“Eddie’s kind of famous for his chats,” Indy replied.
“Don’t let Hank chat to you,” Jet warned. “Chatting is bad. You end up agreeing to stuff you never would agree to normal y after you’ve had a chat. And don’t, under any circumstances, have a chat in bed. You could end up agreeing to anything during those chats,” Jet’s warning turned dire.
The light dawned.
“I think Hank cal s them ‘conversations’,” I told her.
Her eyes got big and she nodded to me, once, slowly, saying, “Unh-hunh.”
“So, what your sayin’, Sugar Bunch, is that you are now official y moved in with Eddie,” Daisy said.
“Yes. We’ve just beaten the world record for the fastest moving relationship in history,” Jet replied.
Indy and Daisy smiled.
“No, I think I may get that one,” I said.
Jet, Daisy and Indy looked to me.
“I’m moving to Denver,” I announced.
Without hesitation, Daisy threw an arm up, punching the air. “Yee-ha!” she screamed.