Page 120 of Holding on to Chaos
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Donovan double parked in front of Mrs. Nordemann’s house. Book Club was breaking up and, as usual, had apparently involved a lot of wine. He could tell by the Mooners pouring out of the house. Some of them were stumbling after their designated drivers. He sighed and got out of the car.
Book Club invariably ended in hordes of drunken women, and a handful of men, clogging Mrs. Nordemann’s street. There weren’t any neighbors left to annoy of course. They were all part of the Book Club. But he still liked to check in every month to make sure everyone got home safely.
“Ladies,” he said, greeting the first group of women. They eyed him up starting at the crotch and giggled. He sighed.
It was an odd collection of people, an exact representation of Blue Moon. Nan, the brewery’s line cook, was still wearing her John Pierce Brews work shirt, her dark hair hung over her shoulders in braids. She had an arm around Moon Beam Parker, the man-eating good time girl of Blue Moon. Moon Beam had snatched up Beckett Pierce’s virginity at sixteen and was currently shopping for husband number three. Willa trailed them in her hot pink cowboy boots, giving Ellery wide berth. She tried to hide the plastic cup full of God knows what under her poncho when she spotted him.
“Evening, Sheriff,” she said with a cheerful wave.
“Evening, Willa. What’s in the cup?”
“Just some iced tea for the road,” she said innocently.
“It’s not that I don’t trust you, Willa. It’s that I’d hate to pull you and your friends over and find an open container in your car.” He twirled his keys around his finger.
She sighed. “Ugh. Fine!”
“You don’t have to dump it,” he told her with a grin.
“Chug it!” Enid Macklemore, Blue Moon’s oldest working dog walker, shouted in her thin old lady voice. She looked like a slight breeze could knock her on her ass, but he’d seen her wrestle dogs the size of Summer’s Valentina to the ground if they had the bad manners to ignore her commands.
Willa shot Donovan a coy look.
He rolled his eyes, hands on hips. “Go on. You might as well.”
The growing crowd around them cheered as Willa knocked back eighteen ounces of definitely not iced tea. She finished with victory arms and spiked the empty cup on the sidewalk and, with a distinct sway in her step, jogged in a circle high-fiving everyone before picking up the discarded cup again. No one in Blue Moon would ever dare to purposely litter.
“Who’s Willa’s DD?” Donovan asked the crowd.
“That’d be me,” Rob, Julia’s husband, ambled up the sidewalk. “I’m taking five of these drunken hippies home.” He pointed at the Volkswagen bus behind him.
“Where did you get that thing?” Donovan asked. It was covered in glossy rainbow paint. The interior lights were on, and Donovan could see purple fur covering the interior.
“Ernest Washington loans it out every Book Club. Free advertising for his car lot.”
“The Shaggin’ Wagon’s here!” Julia, several glasses of wine to the wind, announced before planting a sloppy kiss on Rob’s chin. “I was aiming for your mouth,” she snickered.
“Yes, you were,” Rob said affectionately. “Okay, ladies, let’s load up. Your sports drinks, aspirin, and greasy veggie burgers are waiting for you in the cup and burger holders.”
“You are like the best husband I’ve ever married,” Julia said, batting her baby blues up at him.
“I’m also the only husband you’ve ever married,” he reminded her, giving her a nudge toward the front seat.
“I have such good taste!”
Donovan hid his laugh as Rob proceeded to load four inebriated ladies and one Fitz into the van. They pulled away from the curb, arms waving out of windows. He could hear the giggling even as the van turned the corner.
He turned back to the crowd that was slowly dispersing.
Ellery danced over to him in her Frankenstein boots. “Just so you know. Your girlfriend is amazing.” Her thick black eyeliner was smeared into one eyebrow and she had black lipstick on her teeth.
“I am well aware, El,” he grinned.
“She’s like a legit author, and her characters are so real. I mean, all that stuff lives in her head, and it’s like…wow!”
“Who’s taking you home?” he asked her.
