Page 64 of Cognac Secrets

Her smile grew and she said, “I don’t remember any of it, but my mamma swears it happened,” she said.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah,” she nodded. “Apparently, I was like two or three and my mom’s mom passed away. Heart attack or something. My momma said I was making a bunch of noise in my crib and that when she came in I was laughing and clearly interacting with someone. I said it was memaw, and the next morning she got the call that her mom had passed the night before in her sleep from cardiac arrest.”

“Daaaaamn, girl! You got the hair standing up on the back of my neck!” Chainsaw declared, rubbing the back of his neck below his baseball cap for the New Orleans Magicians ardently. He was a baseball fan, which we all found a little weird being that he’d played football. To each their own, I guess.

I had no use or care for any sports but if I had to pick one, I guess baseball would be it. I understood the numbers. That’s pretty much the whole of it. Baseball was a mathematician’s game.

“Yeah, I guess I saw her off and on right up until I was four or five and my daddy found out.” She didn’t say anymore after that, but she didn’t look happy, either. I could almost feel her scars under my fingertips again, and my palms practically itched to slap the shit out of her old man.

I didn’t think I would ever get the chance, but here was to hoping.

“My niece did something similar,” Axeman remarked quietly from where he was slouched in his seat. He was staring absently into the flames of the barrel, a beer perched on his knee, his hand wrapped around the neck of the bottle.

“Said she saw aunt her aunt Sally, my other sister but that she didn’t have a body, it was just made of bones…” he paused and said, “Sally died of anorexia.”

“Holy shit,” True muttered, wide-eyed.

“I’m so sorry,” Sandrine said.

Axe shrugged.

“Our mom rode my sister’s asses about their weight entirely too much. She was a beauty queen and started dragging Sally to those fucking kiddie pageants starting at like age six. Some real Jon-Benet Ramsay shit.” He shook his head. “When she started making noises about my niece doing them my other sister, Jilly, put a stop to that shit real quick and I told her she even thought about putting lipstick on that baby I’d fucking kill her.”

Nobody said anything until True took a breath and letting it out slowly said, “Is this the part where we start childhood trauma group therapy?”

Chainsaw barked a laugh and Saint smirked and shook his head nearby and I admit cracking a grin myself.

“I mean, does anyone here have a happy origin story?” Hex called out from over by the grill.

“Fuck no, that would make us all normal,” Saint said.

“And normal is boring,” Axeman said with a grin raising his bottle in salute.

“Fuck yeah it is,” Chainsaw agreed.

“Sometimes all I want is normal,” Sandy said with a sly grin and a side eyed glance at True who grinned.

“My darling girl, when are you going to realize that normal isn’t exactly a virtue? It rather denotes a lack of courage.” True sounded all prim and proper and she wasdefinitelyquoting something, but I had no idea what.

“Practical Magic!” Alina perked up and True pointed at her excitedly.

“I knew I liked you,” Sandy cried.

Alina threw back her head and laughed and I was just as lost at the next guy here about whatever girl boss bonding ritual we were witnessing here.

“We should totally watch that some night,” Corliss suggested.

“What, like a girl’s night where we get in our PJ’s and sleep over and do each other’s hair and nails and shit?” Jessie-Lou cracked.

“Ilovedoing nails,” True said enthusiastically and Sandy was grinning.

“For real?” Cor asked. “Let me see.”

True held out her hand which was still fairly masculine but for the blood red, black tipped, sparkly nails at the ends of her fingertips.

“You did those yourself?” I asked, impressed.

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