Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 143382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 717(@200wpm)___ 574(@250wpm)___ 478(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 143382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 717(@200wpm)___ 574(@250wpm)___ 478(@300wpm)
But the best part was in the beginning, when I pulled out the posterboard brackets I decorated with red, green and gold glitter and Christmas stickers, something Eric hadn’t seen yet, and something that delighted Gracie and Maisie beyond imagining (they got to use the fat gold and silver markers to write in the songs).
That was when I caught him looking at me a lot like I suspected I looked at him when he and the girls were putting the batteries in the trees.
So…yeah.
It had been an amazing night.
But that was totally the best part.
TWENTY-SEVEN
I KNOW
We were the Avenging Angels, they were the Hottie Squad, with a dash of Rock Chicks and a rumble of Hot Bunch thrown in.
Therefore, even after we solved the case of the missing homeless folk, the month of December was far from boring.
Allow me to sum up:
During the week before Ava and the girls were in town, Eric and I, the Angels and the Hottie Squad, with Javi, Jeff and Cody, attended Jamal’s funeral (by the way, Cody shocked the crap out of me because he didn’t look like a computer dweeb, but instead was a blond-haired, green-eyed Adonis, not as buff as Javi or Jeff, but he was taller than Jeff (not many were taller than Javi)).
Jamal’s family were wrecked, but they were lovely.
The rest of it totally sucked.
The next day, with Javi, Jeff and Cody, me, the Angels and the Hottie Squad hung at the back at Joaquim’s memorial service and disappeared before it was over so Javi and Jeff wouldn’t cause Joaquim’s family any distress.
That sucked more.
Harlow came to both of these, and Javi and Harlow circled each other like predator and prey each time, though for the life of me I couldn’t tell who was predator and who was prey. That said, it wasn’t the time to take it there, so nothing came of it.
But we would see.
The Monday I went back to work after our tree trimming party, Luna told me Tito was calling a staff meeting.
This did not bode well seeing as Tito had never called a staff meeting.
Tex was still in town, and since he was no longer undercover, he was also in the coffee cubby.
At the tree trimming party, I got the news from Shirleen that Tex’s wife, Nancy, was still in Denver. Nancy’s daughters and sons-in-law, Eddie and Jet and Lottie and Mo, were helping her get their house ready to put on the market.
Tex was sticking to Phoenix, considering his Rock Chick experience started at the beginning with Indy, so now that the Angels were on the move, he wasn’t leaving anything to chance. That being leaving Phoenix in case he might miss some action.
Thus, he was also at the staff meeting.
In fact, we stood in the employee break/locker room with Tex and Tito standing in front of us like a deranged Penn and Teller, and precisely like Penn and Teller, Tito didn’t say a word.
But Tex did.
“Shit is gettin’ real here, so there’s gonna be some staffing changes,” he stated. “Shanti is moving from evening shift to afternoon shift with Harlow and Jess. Willow is coming in full-time. She’ll be baking in the morning in the kitchen with Lucia, and then working with Raye and Luna until one. We’re hiring someone else to help with the evening shift and we’re hiring a daytime and nighttime busser slash dishwasher so you women don’t have to clear the tables and load the dishes along with everything else.”
We glanced at each other because this was all rad.
Truth told, things had been getting busier and busier. Fortunately, our crowd was pretty chill. Equally fortunately, busier meant more tips.
But it was beginning to get hectic, and it was never fun to do any kind of dishes (even if Tito had one of those industrial sprayers on his faucet in the dishwashing area, and that had its times when it could be fun, though that fun didn’t involve rinsing dishes).
“That’s it,” Tex said. “Any questions?” Before anyone could even begin to open their mouths to ask a question, Tex clapped his hands and boomed, “Great! Get back to work!”
He then lumbered off.
Tito shuffled after him.
We all milled about for approximately two point five seconds before Tex bellowed from the restaurant, “Do I have to explain getting back to work?”
Lucia was already gone, Otis and Hunter wandered out, me and my chicks came up the rear.
“Did he become a boss without that being added to our two-minute staff meeting agenda?” Luna asked as we all headed through the kitchen toward the main area.
“I don’t care if he’s boss, I don’t have to do any more dishes,” Harlow spoke aloud my thoughts.
Tex was at the doorway to the restaurant, and as we girls came through, he stopped us.
“You, you, you, and you,” he said.