Page 136 of Back in the Saddle

I adored Linda, and not just because she spooned a mound of marshmallow fluff on the top of her hot chocolate.

But in that moment, I etched that particular trait high on my list of why I adored her.

“Oh, Jessie, I’m glad you’re okay. Getting snatched in a parking lot. What on earth?” Linda asked as she put her tray down.

I reached for a mug and was about to say something to make her feel better when the security gate slammed back on the fence, making a loud bang.

We all turned to see Tex plodding toward us, a man on a mission.

“I…you…I…” he blathered in a boom after he reached the table. “We haven’t even had our meeting yet!”

“Tex, I’m okay.”

He glowered at me, then leaned into me, reached beyond me, snatched up a mug, and I watched as he did a slurp (the fluff) then dropped his head back, downing the hot drink in one.

He slammed the mug down, pounded a fist on his chest, and declared, “I’m unprepared. This trip, I forgot to bring my grenades with me to Phoenix.”

At this, Jacob took a mug, handed it to Alexis, took another one, then grabbed Alexis’s hand and dragged her to his apartment.

On the way, she waved her mug at us and called, “’Night all! Glad you’re okay, Jessie!”

Jacob slammed the door behind them, and I heard the locks go.

“He’s a Hot Bunch boy without bein’ a Hot Bunch boy, that one is,” Daisy decreed.

Eric and Stella joined us.

“Glad to see you’re okay, Jess,” Stella said.

“Thanks, Stella,” I replied, shot her a smile and then took a sip of my cocoa.

“Were you kidnapped?” Luna asked Stella.

“I never thought I’d say this to a living soul, but you girls really need to read those books,” Stella replied.

I was thinking I should.

I would look at it as a form of training.

“You all good?” Eric asked the table at large.

“With what?” Luna asked back.

“With knowing Jess is all right,” Eric explained.

“I’m good,” Luna said.

“Me too,” Raye put in.

“It wasn’t fun, but it’s over”—Harlow lifted her mug—“and we have cocoa.”

“You got cocoa, and you’re downrightloco,” Martha decreed.

Shirleen looked to Daisy. “I forgot how crazy this all seems in the beginning.”

“I’m havin’ a flashback too, since I was introduced to it when my Marcus kidnapped Jet,” Daisy replied.

“I forgot about that,” Shirleen murmured in her mug.

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