Page 189 of Tenderfoot

In fact, I didn’t know if I’d ever been there when I wasn’t or I didn’t have an Angels confab to attend.

We knew the weekend crew, Joey and Gemma.

Joey did nails part time out of her mom’s garage, à la Steel Magnolias. Gemma did part-time home healthcare work during the week. We knew them because they sometimes filled in for us or picked up extra hours during the morning and evening busy times.

They were great. They were also peripherally in our posse (for instance, they often came to Oasis shindigs and were both on the waiting list to get units), and it was a huge bummer our schedules didn’t often align so we couldn’t hang out with them more.

And neither of them seemed to be Dream’s biggest fans.

I felt bad they’d been saddled with her, because they also had to help train her, and if you knew Dream, you could tell she was trying, but she still wasn’t very gracious about it.

Then again, they clearly needed help. The Surf Club on the weekends was a crush.

We were also killing time because Trev’s laptop had been hooked up since Friday, Arthur had been working on it, and he reported through Clarice that he might be getting somewhere soon.

So the Angels were poised to dash out at any minute.

And the Hottie Squad was poised to horn into our lead the minute we learned we had one.

I was watching Dream peel her lips back from her teeth in what I was suspecting she thought was a smile when Javi, sitting next to me, murmured, “Jesus.”

He wasn’t wrong. That grimace on her face was frightening.

“I think I’m gonna have nightmares about that,” Cap muttered.

“How did she manage to get knocked up three times?” Brady asked.

“Like dudes need a girl to be nice to get themselves some. Yeesh,” Jessie replied.

Brady and Roam shared a telling glance and a lip twitch before Brady said, “I would prefer they were nice.”

“It’s not a dealbreaker though, is it?” Luna inquired.

“I’d advise you not to answer that.” Eric, the oldest and wisest of us all, gave Brady some of that wisdom.

Brady just winked at Luna.

Luna rolled her eyes.

It was cute. And Brady was hot.

But I thought it was interesting Knox wasn’t there. When we had a hang, he usually showed.

Samesies with Gabe.

Hmm.

I was leaning into Javi to share this thought when we heard yelled, “I have a bone to pick with you! And you!”

We turned to see Shirleen storming in, with her husband, Moses following.

She was expected to join us considering she was a Rock Chick, and it was only her hunkering down at the NI&S offices to stake her territory with Marjorie that she wasn’t around on Friday. As for Saturday, Roam had also had an offer accepted on a house, he’d moved in a few weeks ago, and Shirleen was intent to stake more territory and stamp her claim on her son’s place by meddling with his interior decorating.

I would have loved to have a mom who went out with me looking for fab things to put in my cute pad. That would be the best.

I didn’t know if men were into that, though I did notice that Cap and Roam pretty much let Shirleen be all that was Shirleen.

I got this, all that was Shirleen was pretty fabulous. But also, in this world we all picked our battles.

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