“You make it a sister act, I’l take you off unplanned vacation and f**kin’ put you in my wil .”
“I’m not dancin’ a pole,” I shouted.
“Al right, calm down. Fuck,” Smithie said.
It was then I felt something not unpleasant but somewhat scary slide across my skin and I looked up to see the gang of hotties al standing, watching and every last one of them flashing a grin.
“What are you lookin’ at?” I snapped, not to any one of them in particular, but in their general direction.
Don’t ask me why I didn’t run and hide in the books, I just didn’t. I guess that wasn’t me anymore.
“Babe, you just made me a regular,” Mace said.
I glared and his grin deepened into a smile. I’d never seen Mace smile, I’d never even seen Mace grin, and I felt my ni**les go hard.
Lottie final y noticed the boys and her mouth dropped open.
“Good Christ,” she whispered.
“Don’t mind them,” I said, “They’re here al the time.” Slowly, Lottie turned to look at me.
“You were holding out on me,” she replied. “I should have bit you harder.”
* * * * *
Indy took us to her duplex to get us some dry clothes. Unfortunately, my mascara was running down my cheeks too so we also did a quick makeup fix.
Tod came over, announced there was a sale at King Soopers and Stevie had bought a year’s worth of shaved turkey so we al went over to their side of the duplex to have turkey and Swiss sandwiches.
We walked in the backdoor to the kitchen and were confronted with a chow dog, smal for her breed, with an enormous ruff around her neck but her bottom was almost completely shaved. She looked like a miniature, beige lion— with attitude. She barked twice, her front feet coming off the floor, her claws clicking on the tiles when she landed.
Then she ran to each of us in turn, head-butting our shins.
I knelt down to give her cuddles and she panted in my face and al owed it as if she was prizing me with a sacred treasure. Then she pranced out of the kitchen, fluffy tail fur bouncing on her bald ass.
“That’s our dog, Chowleena.” Tod smiled down at me,
“She likes you.”
* * * * *
We were sitting around the dining room table, Lottie, Indy and Tod comparing lash-lengthening strategies when my phone rang. It said “Daisy cal ing.”
I flipped it open. “Hey, Daisy.”
“Hey Sugar, what’re you up to?” she asked.
“Wel , I think my Mom is on the longest date in history with a crazy ex-con, Vietnam vet who has a shotgun, grenades, tear gas and twenty-five cats. And I got in a wet-t-shirt, knock-down, drag-out fight on the floor in Fortnum’s with my sister who’s just in from LA. Oh, and we did it in front of most of the boys on Lee Nightingale’s payrol ,” I said.
Silence.
“Darlin’, you know how to live,” Daisy final y said.
“Normal y, I’m real y boring,” I told her.
She laughed her tinkly-bel laugh. She didn’t believe me either.
“What’s up with you?” I asked.