Rock Chick Reborn (Page 30)

Damn.

Now I just had to give them to her.

This was because I held the knowledge that Luke Stark liked his woman in sexy shoes, and just how he liked to work things out with those sexy shoes and their heels digging in certain areas of his flesh. And now I couldn’t wear those shoes without thinking of those heels digging in Luke Stark’s flesh.

Shit.

“Bring those to me,” Tod ordered, already twisting his body in a knot to take off his own shoes. “I’m feeling those sandals. I’m feeling ‘Born This Way.’ I’m feeling ‘You Make Me Feel Mighty Real.’ I’m feeling wig number three, dress number seventeen. No. I’m feeling shopping.”

Tod, when he was not being a flight attendant, dad to a chow dog called Chowleena, partner to Stevie or the unofficially official Rock Chick wedding planner, was a drag queen called Burgundy Rose.

Ava walked the Guccis over to Tod.

I felt something touch the back of my hand.

I looked to my side.

Jules was there.

“You knew it would happen,” she said quietly.

I did.

I sighed.

“They just love you,” she continued.

They did.

I sighed again.

Jules smiled.

“I’m on cocktails,” Stella announced on her way to the door. “Who wants what?”

“I’ll help,” Sadie said, following her.

“Cosmo,” Roxie ordered.

“Surprise me,” Tod put in, bent over the side of my bed, strapping on my Gucci.

“I’m in for a cosmo, but I gotta call Eddie. Tell him he’s on his own for dinner,” Jet shared.

“He can come over,” Annette invited Jet’s husband to my house. “I’ll just call and order more pizza.”

“Tell him to go to Lincoln’s. Lee’s having a team meeting. He can meet the guys there,” Indy told Jet.

“Tell him to tell Hank,” Roxie added.

“I better call Blanca and let her know she’s got Alex for dinner,” Jet muttered.

“And I better call Nick and see if he’s down with watching Max and Sam for the foreseeable future,” Jules said, disengaging from me.

Eddie and Jet, and Jules and Vance had started their broods.

The rest would follow.

And as evidenced with what was right then happening in my bedroom, it wouldn’t slow any of them down.

I went to the closet to take off my heels and put on my slippers.

What could I say?

The Rock Chicks were in the house.

And as I’ve said, I was relatively badass, and the fact remained, I had been ticked at them.

But still.

The truth of it was . . .

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Holding It Tight

Shirleen

“WHEN THE TIME comes, sweetheart, you won’t have to worry about condoms. That’s the man’s domain.”

It was later that night.

The Rock Chicks had gone.

The boys were down in their space.

And I’d repoofed my duvet so I could unpoof it my own damned self by lying on it to talk to Moses.

Obviously, I’d told him about the Rock Chick visit.

Yes.

Even the uncomfortable parts about it.

“Great,” I murmured.

“Though it would be funny to find out how Lee Nightingale or Kai Mason would react to being asked to buy you condoms,” he went on, sounding like he thought it was funny just to think about it.

And hearing that in his voice, it got funny instead of being mortifying.

“Yeah,” I replied.

“We’re out to your girls.”

His tone was entirely different when he said that.

“Yeah,” I whispered.

“You talk me up?” he teased.

“I talked me down.”

After I said that, I could actually feel his pissed-off vibe coming at me over the phone.

“Don’t worry, honey,” I assured. “They don’t like it any more than you do and didn’t mind sharing that.”

“I hope so,” he stated shortly.

I changed the subject. “Had the talk with the boys about school.”

“How’d that go?”

“Told ’em to think on it. I’ll give them time to do that and we’ll have another chat.”

“You get a sense of where they’re leaning?”

“Didn’t get that shot seeing as the Rock Chicks broke into my house before we could formally end discussions.”

I heard him chuckle.

“But that’s probably good. They tend to do better when I give them space to sort stuff out on their own,” I told him.

“Yeah,” he said.

“You have a good night with your girls?” I asked.

“We always do. They’re good girls. For them, they’re just home. For me, it’s like a reunion every time they come home. My daughters, their ages, biweekly reunions instead of them just bein’ with me every night.”

His tone was again different. And not a good different.

“Darlin’,” I whispered.

“It is what it is. But what that is doesn’t get better no matter how much time goes by.”

“Wish it was different.”

There was a silence he didn’t fill before he cleared his throat. “Haven’t shared that with anyone. Not a friend. Not even my momma.”

“Glad you felt safe sharin’ it with me.”

“Feels good to have you to share it with.”

It sure did.

Just like it felt good to have him to text when I was worried about what would happen about Roam at school, then when I was thrilled with what happened about Roam.

I’d never had anything like that with Leon. I’d learned early never to share a fear or a sorrow, and there weren’t any triumphs worth sharing. He catalogued any weakness and had a specific skill where he’d time it just right to use them against you when he could make the most damage.

“What’re you thinkin’?” Moses asked.

“I was thinkin’ that Leon used vulnerabilities against you, so I learned not to share them.”

He said nothing to that.

So I spoke.

“I’m sorry, Moses. I get use to this, there’ll come a time when I don’t compare him to you.”

“I wasn’t quiet because of that, baby. I was quiet because I was trying to get a rein on bein’ pissed he was such a humongous jackass and you had to live for years with that.”

That didn’t make it any better.

“Maybe we should be a Leon Free Zone,” I suggested.

“Why?”

“It messes with me and pisses you off.”

“How you gonna work through what he did to you if you don’t get it out?”

Good question.

“Might be time to make somethin’ else clear about the us I want us to build, Shirleen,” he declared. “And that’s the fact we gotta be real. We gotta talk. We gotta share. We gotta be there to help the other work shit out and we gotta be open to talk so we can get on working our own shit out.”

And here we were.

Again.

“This is where it gets scary because I got more shit to work out than you do,” I pointed out.

“If you think I got the job I got lookin’ after the kids I see every day and I don’t take that home with me and need somewhere to unload it, you’re wrong. I been doing that job a long time, and most of the time I can handle it. Sometimes, some kids, it gets under your skin and I need to work it out.”