Page 119 of Back in the Saddle

I just didn’t know he was still in The Valley.

Or he’d be back at SC.

This meant, once I hit the parking lot, I hightailed it in, dumped my bag, and made a beeline for the coffee cubby (not only to say “hey” but to get a sugar cookie peppermint mocha—sometimes something was too much of a good thing, but I reckoned that creation wrought by the hands of Tex was gonna be stellar).

I made it into the main room to hear Luna say “Hey.” I vaguely noticed Harlow making an approach with an empty tray, but I skidded to a halt when I saw the two women sitting at the bar.

One was Shirleen, Cap’s mom.

He was adopted, which explained why he was white, and she was Black. She was also gorgeous, she had a killer wardrobe, shoe collection, and the biggest, finest Afro I’d ever seen.

The other wasDaisy.

I’d metDaisy(emphasis earned by all that wasDaisy) at Raye’s little sister’s funeral.

And I fell in love with her at first sight too.

I moved to her, clasped my hands in front of me, and gushed as a joke, “Oh my God, you’re my favorite recording artist of all time!”

People turned to look.

Strike that.

People were already looking (such wasDaisy), now they were staring.

She laughed a tinkly-bell laugh.

“Well, that’d be sweet, sugar, if I was who you think I am. But don’t worry, it’s a compliment you think I’m her.”

This was a joke, and it wasn’t, because she looked exactly like Dolly Parton except younger: huge rack, big, blonde hair and plethora of rhinestones on her stonewashed denim jacket with its saucy peplum, opened at the chest for maximum cleavage potential, and a thick line of more rhinestones acting as a pinstripe down the sides of her skintight, stonewashed skinny jeans.

Her platform stripper shoes had a Lucite sole and pink line of marabou feathers across the top of her foot and at her ankle.

See?

Totally love-at-first-sight worthy.

She kept her narrow ass on her stool and threw out both arms, at the end of which were fingers, at the end of which were nails sporting long, lethal, almond-shapes that were entirely crusted in pink sequins.

“Give me some love, Jessie.”

I moved in for a hug. “So good to see you again, and better circumstances this time,” I said in her ear.

“You too, sugar bunches of love.”

Seemed Louise was going to have competition with the endearments.

I let Daisy go and turned to Shirleen.

“Heya, Shirleen.”

“Hey there, child,” she said softly and opened her arms too.

Oh man.

Someone told her about Jeff. I knew it just looking at her face.

Still, I’d had a hug from Shirleen before (yes, at the funeral), and learned they were very good, so I went in for another one.

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