Page 68 of Single-Minded
Luke flipped him off as we all laughed.
“Knox, you should write a book about giving a llama a cookie,” Chance said.
“Would that be a parody of the mouse version or a how-to book?” Knox asked.
“If you give a llama a cookie, she’s probably going to want one every damn day,” Ben said.
Still humming, Esmerelda eyed us suspiciously as we approached, until Luke held out the cookie. Her eyes locked on the llama-shaped goodie.
“Isn’t that some kind of cannibalism?” I asked, standing back so I wouldn’t get llama drool on me.
“This one could be your uncle,” Luke said to Esmerelda as he held out the cookie.
The llama didn’t bat an eye, chomping the cookie before we could say another word.
“Wash your hands,” I told Luke as we went back to the group.
Someone’s phone rang as Luke headed inside, and I sat back down.
“That’s me,” Knox said, digging his phone out of his pocket. “Quincy’s FaceTiming.” He frowned. “Hey, Quince, what’s up?”
“She said her first sentence, Knox!” The words burst from Quincy for all of us to hear. “Can you say it again, sweet girl?”
“Hey, Junie,” Knox said to his daughter on the screen.
“Dada!” came the reply.
“What did you tell me before, sweet pea?” Quincy asked the two-year-old.
“Dada, Dada, Dada.”
Luke came back out with the makings for strawberry shortcake as we all listened to Knox’s conversation, keeping quiet, waiting to see if Juniper would say whatever it was she’d said to excite Quincy.
Knox stood and wandered away from the group as we all helped ourselves to shortcake, bright red strawberries, and whipped cream, filling Luke in on Juniper’s milestone that she apparently wouldn’t repeat for her dad.
Knox wandered back, grinning like a man in love. “Sorry about that.”
“Did she do it again so you could hear it?” Chance asked.
“Nah. Apparently she said, ‘Where my dada?’ Once she saw me on the screen, there was no reason to ask again,” he explained, laughing.
As we all settled in with our dessert, Chance said, “Things have sure changed since we first started getting together. Not only is it harder to meet, but once we do, our families can’t seem to do without us, whether it was Sam not being where she was supposed to be a few months ago or Juniper hitting a milestone today.”
“Or a llama protecting an injured cat,” Luke said of a few weeks ago.
“A kid forgetting her clothes,” Ben added.
We took turns bringing up other interruptions over the past few months, laughing more as the list grew longer.
“You get married, and it just gets worse,” Ben said, grinning. He couldn’t hide how stinking happy he was since getting together with Emerson.
“Rub it in, asshole,” Luke said lightly. He didn’t make it a secret that he wanted to find a wife and pop out more kids, but the dude worked so much on his farm I didn’t see how he’d ever meet the right woman.
“Speak for yourself,” I said, drawing laughter because Luke and I had this disagreement frequently.
He was all about finding a wife. I was all about staying the hell single.
“You two are overdue,” Chance said. “The rest of us dropped like flies.”
