fashion.
“Two master’s degrees,” Cyrus said. “I’m marrying a genius.”
“You know it, Daddy.” She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. “I’m thinking of getting my hair done like Einstein. Get it dyed all white and gray, stick it up like I stuck my finger in a light socket. What do you think?”
“It’s almost October,” he said. “You could be Bride of Frankenstein with hair like that.”
“And you’ll be my Frankenstein?”
“I ain’t going anywhere in public with you looking like that.”
She swatted him again—his arm this time—then sat back in her chair, laughing. When she reached for her coffee on the table, Cyrus picked it up and held it out of her arm’s reach. She reached for it anyway.
“Uh-uh. No more. It’s past your bedtime.”
“Give it…please…me…” she pleaded, begged, whimpered. Pitiful.
“No, ma’am.” He sat the coffee cup behind him on the table where she couldn’t get to it.
“Ah, so mean.” She slumped in her chair like a grumpy ten-year-old who was about to get sent to bed without supper.
“You said you’re almost done. Bedtime for beautiful girls.”
“Fine, fine. But tell me about your night first. You kinda smell like you had a time of it.” She sat up again, prim and proper, took his hand, met his eyes.
“I was on Bourbon Street. Remind me not to do that again.”
“Don’t do that again.” She poked his nose.
“Thank you.”
“What’s going down on Bourbon Street tonight?”
“Trouble,” he said. “Not my fault. Didn’t start it. Might have finished it, though.”
Her eyes widened. She blinked.
“Now I’m awake. Tell me.”
He told her, starting with Doc who couldn’t keep his lips off Nora’s hands. Then Mister Pasadena who was, probably, right that minute, in the ER getting his foot put in a cast. And finally, the vampire and the witch.
“So,” Paulina said, nodding, “typical night in Nola?”
“I wish you could have been there, baby. It was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen. That tiny little white girl broke the hell out of that boy’s foot. Just STOMP and boom, kid’s limping for life.”
“I can’t say I feel too sorry for him.”
“Nah. If that’s how he acts with a woman in public? Don’t even want to think what he’d do in private.”
That was one thing Cyrus never did and never had to do. He had never forced a woman in his life. Even at his worst, he had lines he didn’t cross.
“You make sure your new friend got home okay?” Paulina asked.
“Nora? Yeah, she’s home safe now. She keeps asking if she can come to our wedding.” He snorted. “No way.”
Paulina pretended to pout.
“You want a crazy white lady at our wedding?” he said.
“Your cousin Martin’s wife is going to be there, remember.”
“You want two crazy white ladies at our wedding?”
Paulina laughed so hard, she had to put her head on the table for a minute to recover.
“You’re ornery,” she said.
“I got nothing on Nora. That woman…my Lord.”
Paulina looked up. “You like her.”
“She’s entertaining. Then again, so is playing Mortal Kombat.”
She pushed his shoulder. “You like her.”
“She’s fun to get in trouble with, that’s for sure. I’d let her throw my bachelor party, but we’d all be dead or in jail by morning.”
“That’s how you know it’s a good party,” Paulina said. “Maybe I’ll let her throw my bachelorette party.”
“No. No. No.” Cyrus put his foot down with each and every “no.”
“It’s cute when you get all protective of me.”
“Glad you think it’s cute, because it’s not going to stop anytime soon. Except when you get us rich with that big brain of yours and we can hire bodyguards. Then I’m off duty.”
“I don’t think I’m going to get us rich as a middle school principal.”
“That’s just the beginning,” Cyrus said. “I got plans for you. You’re gonna be in the governor’s mansion in fifteen years.”
“As what? A maid?”
Cyrus made a disgusted sound to go along with his disgusted expression. “Governor. Smart as you are, two master’s degrees, working as a guidance counselor and then a principal. If anything can prepare someone for politics, it’s working with middle school kids.”
“That’s probably true.”
“I will make one fine first husband.”
“That I can believe,” she said, following it with a loud yawn.
“That’s it,” he said. “You have got to go to bed.”
“I’m going. I’m going.” She slapped her hands on the table dramatically and pushed herself up. Cyrus didn’t mind a bit when she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and kissed the top of his head.
“You did that just to get to your coffee again, didn’t you?” he asked. He