Then I said, “Eddie…”
“Remember what I said about wantin’ you to see your next birthday?”
The quicksand slurped up my shoes and headed for my knees.
“Eddie…”
“Stay close to Matt. Don’t worry, Chiquita, it’s gonna be fine. I’l cal you later.”
Then there was a disconnect.
I flipped my phone shut and looked at Tex, he was watching me.
“Eddie just took a meeting with his mortal enemy for me.
Daisy cut off Marcus’s water. Duke broke a broom. Lee’s hemorrhaging money to keep me in bodyguards. It goes on and on and on. How is this happening? Why is it happening?” I asked, and I real y wanted to know.
Tex laid a big, beefy hand gently on the top of my head.
“What goes around comes around, Loopy Loo.” Then his hand went away and he boomed across the store, “Yo, Daisy. What’l it be?”
I stood behind the espresso counter, letting my second, far more brief lecture about karma wash over me.
Wel , then, f**k it. If everyone was so intent on being nice to me, let them. I’d deal with the consequences later. I mental y pul ed myself out of the quicksand while Daisy walked up to the espresso counter and ordered a mocha, double chocolate, skimmed milk.
I stared at her.
“Chocolate’s good for you, milk’s not. I don’t care what those stupid celebrity-mustache ads say,” Daisy told me.
Whatever.
“Do you know where Shirleen lives?” I asked her.
“No, but I can find out,” she said. “We gonna pay a visit?” I hadn’t expected it to be a “we’ situation but then again, with Daisy in the mix, it was never anything but.
I turned to Tex.
“Put it in a to go cup.”
I turned to Daisy, “Make the cal .”
I turned to Matt, “Fire up the SUV, we’re rol in’ out.” Daisy was watching me.
“Shit, Sugar, did Vince blow some bossy into you, or what?” Daisy asked.
Tex chuckled low.
“I’m not al owed to joke about the shooting,” I told her as Tex handed her the cup.
“Says who?” Daisy asked.
“Says Eddie,” I answered.
She cocked her head a bit and nodded. “What’d I say about the coffee maker?”
Wonderful.
* * * * *