“You can’t bring your kid here, Vic.”
I’m just putting a scrumptious cream-filled donut onto a little paper plate when that voice stops me cold.
I narrow my eyes and turn. “Alexa. What are you doing here?”
“I’ve been in recovery for ten years. How do you not know that? We dated for almost nine months before you ghosted on me.”
I look down at Princess. “We didn’t date. She stalked me. And it wasn’t ghosting if we weren’t dating.”
“You’re a piece of work, you know that? You smell like a brewery. Get the hell out of here, Vic.”
“You can’t kick people out of an AA meeting, Alexa.”
“I can, and I will. I’m the meeting chair. You’re only here for our donuts.” She looks down at Princess. “He’s a bad example. Your mother should be ashamed of herself, letting him take care of you.”
“OK, that’s enough.” I grab another donut, put it on a plate, and hand it to Princess. “Come on. Let’s go get some real coffee.”
“Thief,” Alexa hisses. “One of these days, Vic Vaughn, your past will catch up to you.”
I just ignore her and lead the niece back out onto the playground. “Don’t let her ruin your day. She’s just bitter. She had her mid-life crisis last year and decided I was gonna be her boy toy. It’s kinda dumb, actually, since she’s not that much older than me. She probably wanted Uncle Vann, but if Alexa made a move on Vann, Belinda would kick his ass. Doncha think?”
Princess looks up at me. Her mouth is filled with donut, so she can’t talk, but she nods her agreement.
“Wanna get some coffee? I could use some coffee. The Bohemian Poet’s House has the best coffee in downtown and my friend Bettina works the AM shift on weekends. You wanna hit that place up?”
Princess nods again, still shoving that giant donut into her mouth.
“Cool.” We take a side street down to Laurel, then turn right. The BPH is the second place on the left. Prime real estate. Right across the street from Colorado State University. “What’s your opinion on downtown, Princess? You like it? Or do you prefer the farm?”
Princess makes a pouty face as she takes in the downtown area. “The farm.”
“Yeah? I both love and hate living just off campus from a major university. On the one hand, there is always a party. On the other, there is always a party. But college kids, man. They love their tattoos. One day, though, I’m gonna get a little piece of land like the farm. Not west, though. I’m going east. The mountains are cool, but I like the open grassland. What do you think? Mountains or open space?”
“Does the open space have fires?”
“Nah. Not really.”
“Then open. I don’t like the fires.”
“Yeah. Fires suck. That one last year was bad.”
Princess nods. “The air was so smoky and it was hard to breathe.”
“Hmm.” This is probably a bad topic for kids. Maybe it scares her to talk about the fire? It came pretty close to their farmhouse. Spencer and Ronnie had to evacuate all the ponies to the campground in Nebraska when that fire happened last summer. They stayed up there for weeks. It was a shitshow.
I decide to end this line of thinking on a positive note, just as I open the door to the BPH. “But this year will be better. You’ll see. We had lots of snow and rain. We’re not gonna have another fire like that, so don’t think about it.”
“OK,” the princess says.
Yeah. She’s different. Quiet and a little more introspective than I remember Ronnie’s kids being. I’m still not sure which princess she is. Definitely not the Little Mermaid. She’s the bossy one. But she’s kinda short to be the other ones, isn’t she?
“Anyway,” I say, jolting myself out of my thoughts. “What kind of coffee do you like?”
We get in line and she takes my hand and looks up at me. “What kind do you like?”
“Black.”
“I’ll have black too.”
“You will?”
She nods.
“OK. You’re not gonna like it though.”
“I think I will.”
I shrug, then order us coffee and chitchat with Bettina. I flirt with her a little, but only a little. We dated back in the day, but it was bad. We’re much better as friends and she and I both know that.
Princess and I take our coffee outside and I watch her face as she takes a sip. She’s just about to spit it out when she looks up at me and forces a smile. “Mmm.”
I laugh out loud. “You’re a little tiny liar.”
“I like it.”
“You hate it.”
“It’s delicious.” She puts the cup up to her lips and tips the cup. But I can tell she’s not drinking.
“OK. If you say so.”
A college kid walks up and thrusts a flier at me. “Art show tonight, Vic. You should stop by.”