“I’ll be outside,” he grunted, then he went right to some hooks by the door, hung my coat on one, then out the door he went, closing it behind him.
Pepper approached me, asking, “Did Hattie and him have a thing?”
I glanced down at Juno, then said to her, “I’ll share later.”
“Oh, I know you get Boone like Evie got Mag and Lottie got Mo and Hattie is gonna get Axl,” Juno told me.
What she did not add was that Pepper was going to get Auggie.
“Did they fight?” Juno asked.
“No, honey, he saw her dance,” I told her.
“He saw her dance?” Pepper asked quietly.
So I was right.
Pepper didn’t know she still danced either.
And maybe she didn’t until she had a big studio space open to her.
I looked to my friend. “Yes. And I couldn’t tell what she was doing wrong, but we also saw her mess up.”
Pepper pressed her lips together.
In other words, she got me.
So, the rundown was, my dad was an absent dick. Evie’s dad was a neglectful dick. Pepper’s dad was a judgmental dick.
And Hattie’s dad was an actively evil, children’s-animated-film-villain-level dick.
He was still in her life, fully in her life since he was sick with diabetes and about a dozen other maladies, didn’t manage his care very well (that was, at all) and she went over to his house a lot to take care of him.
And when she did, he broke her apart.
Systematically.
Time and again.
I mean, it might not say a lot about me, but I kinda wished he’d get so bad, he had to be placed into nursing care or something.
Or just die.
But in my defense, that was how bad this dude was.
The door opened, Lottie came in calling, “Hey,” and then looked around and her brows went together, as she asked, “Where’s Hatz?”
“Rinz and Axl saw her dancing. Rinz and Axl also saw her mess up,” Pepper shared.
“Oh shit,” Lottie said, her gaze drifting to the door, beyond which was Axl.
“So…yeah,” Pepper finished.
Lottie started to move back toward the door, a set look on her pretty face, but before she faced the eye of the tiger, I said quickly, “He’s on it.”
Both Pepper and Lottie turned to me, but it was only Lottie who asked, “What?”
“He’s on it as in on it,” I told them.
“On what?” Juno asked.
I looked down at her. “Hattie is having a bad day,” read: life, “and he’s gonna make it better.”
“Cool,” Juno said.
Ah, to be a kid and not understand the staggering effort that Axl was going to have to expend to get in there with Hattie.
“He’s on it?” Lottie asked.
I looked to her and nodded.
“How on it?” Lottie pushed.
“Well, we can just say that if she was the Holy Grail, and he was King Arthur, it’d take about a week before that cup was in the display case at Camelot.”
“Finally,” Pepper muttered.
I gave her a look that said, Yeah, right. And you and Auggie are up next.
She gave me a look that said, Mind your own beeswax.
I changed my look to say, Not on your life.
She changed her look to say, Whatever.
I adjusted my look to say, I’m getting it regular from a hot guy who makes me breakfast and I’m pretty sure you’ve named your vibrator Augustus.
She rolled her eyes.
She so totally named her vibrator Augustus.
“Are you guys gonna dance, or what?” Juno asked.
“We’re gonna dance, baby,” Pepper said softly to her girl.
I turned my attention to Lottie.
She was now staring out the window.
So I went to her.
She wasn’t only queen bee at Smithie’s, she was our queen bee. A little older than us. A lot wiser than us (except Evie, no one was wiser than her, maybe not even Stephen Hawking). And she’d assumed the duty, with not a small amount of resolve, to look out for us.
“She’s gonna be all right,” I promised.
“I know a thing or two about a dad who isn’t worth much,” she said to the window and then looked to me.
I hooked my arm in hers.
“And you’re all right, and Evie’s all right, and look at me, I’m all right. And you know, it isn’t only Boone who’s making me that way. I’ve always been that way, really, because I have you guys.”
It took a sec, but Lottie finally let it go.
“Was she a good dancer?” she asked.
“Lottie, you would not believe.”
She shook her head. “I don’t think she’s done it in years.”
Hmm.
Dance space.
Alone time.
The need obviously couldn’t be held back.
Which was a problem if she was actually holding it back.
“We all need to look out for her, Rinz,” Lottie declared.
Directive received.
Though I was going to do that anyway.
I nodded.
She unhooked our arms but hooked me about my waist and turned us, saying, “Let’s dance.”
And then we danced.
* * *Axl and I were scarfing down burrito bowls at Chipotle when my phone rang.