And kissed me!
Oh… my… God!
I took a deep breath, calmed the mental flip out, washed my face, found Hector’s brush and was tearing it through my wild, bimbo-groupie, morning after hair when there came a knock at the door.
Before I called, it opened and Hector came in. I just stared at him as he walked up to me, put a cup of steaming coffee on the side of the sink, turned to me, grabbed my wrist, opened my palm with his other hand and planted four white pills in it.
“Hangover cocktail, ibuprofen and Midol. Don’t ask, it works. They give you salve for the tattoo?” he asked.
I was staring at the pills but I looked up at him and nodded.
“Douse it before you come down, you gotta keep it moist so it doesn’t fade.” He reached beyond me, opened the medicine cabinet, rooted through it and came out with a package of new tops for an electric toothbrush. He handed them to me without a word, touched my lips with his again and he was gone.
I kept watching the door, not knowing what to feel.
After my Mom left (or, I should say, was murdered), whenever I was sick, my father sent one of our maids to take care of me. They did it because it was their job not because they cared about me.
But no one had brought me a hangover cocktail in my life.
No one.
Shakily, I sucked down the pills, pulled his electric toothbrush out of its charger, found his toothpaste and went to town on my teeth. Once done, I dug the tattoo balm out of my skirt pocket, pulled up my skirt and peeled back the bandage to salve the tattoo. While I was righting everything, I heard the doorbell ring again.
I sighed, wondering what now, wiped the goo off my hands with a towel, grabbed my mug and walked downstairs.
I stopped at the foot of the stairs.
The living room was filled with people. Detective Marker was there and so were Jet and Eddie, Indy and Lee, Hank and Roxie and Daisy and Marcus.
Someone had uncovered and moved a couch and a coffee table into the living room. There was a box of donuts opened on the table. Everyone had a mug of coffee, apparently courtesy of Jet who was holding the empty coffeepot and on her way back to the kitchen.
“Mornin’ sugar, I brought hangover donuts,” Daisy called, waving a glazed in my direction.
“How’s the tattoo?” Roxie asked, sitting by Daisy on the couch and leaning toward the donut box.
I came unstuck and walked into the room.
“It’s okay,” I answered Roxie as she pulled out a long, glazed cinnamon twist then I looked around. “What are you all doing here?”
“Eddie heard the news. We had to come up to the Highlands anyway for La Reunión so I came with him,” Jet told me on a smile then lifted the pot. “I’ll make more coffee.” And she exited the room.
“Lee heard too,” Indy said. “I came because you left your purse in the Explorer and because I’m nosy.” Then she scrunched her nose, took a bite of a powdered sugar, chocolate icing filled donut and grinned.
“Hank heard too. I thought I’d come to introduce you to Shamus, our chocolate lab. He’s out in Hank’s SUV,” Roxie added.
“Marcus heard too, I decided to bring the donuts,” Daisy finished.
That was super sweet of her, of all of them, because I knew they weren’t there because of Family Meetings, returning my purse, being nosy, wanting to introduce me to family pets or bringing donuts. They were there for me.
This felt nice. Super nice.
Though, the very thought of donuts made me queasy.
I looked at Roxie.
“Why’s Shamus in the car? Why didn’t you bring him in?”
“I didn’t know if you’d want me to but I can go get him now,” Roxie answered, her eyes lighting up.