“You’ve got secrets?” Auggie asks Mo.
“Everyone has secrets,” Axl says.
“I don’t have any secrets,” Auggie returns to Axl.
Mag coughs and the word “Bullshit,” comes out when he does.
“Fuck off,” Auggie shoots at Mag.
“I’ll fuck off after you fuck off with being such a goddamn nose,” Mag retorts.
Mo grunts again but this time a word is formed from it.
“Men.”
They shut up.
God, but I dig these dudes.
Even if Mo has effectively ended it, I can see that Boone and Aug aren’t big fans of not knowing what’s going on with something in which they’re involved.
So I wade in.
“Uh, you boys do know that you’ll find out what happened with Axl and me when the book is published.”
“I’m not reading this book,” Auggie says.
“Me either,” Mag adds.
“Nope,” Boone puts in.
“Negatory,” Axl finishes it.
Um.
Excuse me?
“But…why?” I ask.
They all just stare at me.
Mo lifts a big mitt, reaches out to me and squeezes my shoulder.
“Don’t worry, babe, I’m totally gonna read it,” he says.
I shoot him a smile. “Thanks, Mo.”
On this, the back door to Auggie’s duplex (which I have recently discovered is my duplex, a duplex I gave to Indy for her book and a duplex Indy and Lee sold to Auggie recently) opens and a Black woman in a V-necked, body-hugging dress of orange and white stripes that run this way and that, steps out.
She does this on a pair of fabulous, spike-heeled orange strappy sandals.
And she does it carrying a scrapbook.
Nope.
The scrapbook.
“Did I not make it clear when the pork rinds come out, a phone call is made to me?” Elvira, Hawk’s office manager and general chick-you-wanna-know demands.
She then clicks and clacks to Auggie’s outdoor table and drops Tod’s Wedding Planner Scrapbook on it.
“You left this at Fortnum’s,” she announces to Mag.
“Well, that tactic didn’t work,” Axl says to Mag under his breath.
“No, it didn’t,” Elvira agrees. “And pullin’ that shit, I had a chance to peruse. I made notes for Evie. My stickies are the ones shaped like a star.” After delivering that, she turns to me. “Hey, girl.”
“Uh, hey,” I reply.
“You the cookbook queen?” she asks.
“Well, no. Suzanne, my partner in this project, is. I’m just writing the narrative.”
“Mm-hmm,” she hums then turns to Auggie and notes, “I’m still standing.”
“Vira, this is our thing with Kit,” Auggie replies.
Elvira says nothing, she just holds his gaze.
“For fuck’s sake,” Auggie says, getting up, offering his chair to her, and then prowling off, presumably to find another seat for himself.
He does this heading to the house, so Elvira takes that opportunity to seat herself at the same time shouting, “I eat these nachos, I’ll need a drink. And I am eating these nachos.”
“On it,” Aug says, waving his hand in the air and not looking back as he enters his home.
Elvira reaches for a pork rind, asking me, “This gonna be a steamy cookbook?”
“So far, yes,” I tell her.
A variety of heavy sighs sound from around me.
But Mo chuckles again.
“Got no choice with these boys,” she mumbles. “All testosterone and gunpowder.”
Another chuckle from Mo.
And another sigh from Boone.
“Who are we up to?” she asks.
“We were about to get into Auggie,” I say.
She munches her nacho, swallows, and replies, “Perfect timing, then. Also, don’t let me leave without giving you instructions on one of my boards.”
Oh.
My.
Gawd.
“Seriously?” I ask.
“Seriously,” she answers.
I lean toward her and breathe, “I would love that.”
She shrugs. “No problem, babe. Got it all ready for you.”
And she reaches for another nacho.
Auggie
One week earlier…
When his woman walked into his kitchen, her eyes were sleepy but warm, and they were doing a thing they did often when she discovered them together.
They were losing the battle to take in her daughter and her man all at the same time.
She was up from a nap because she always ran herself ragged.
But she was also a mother, so she didn’t stay hazy for long.
And this time was no exception.
“What on earth?” she asked.
“Momma!” Juno cried, whirling from the counter where they were just finishing up what was in the pan. “Auggie and me are making Chocolate Butter Bars!”
“I see that,” Pepper murmured as she walked to them. “And it kinda scares me.”
“It shouldn’t,” Juno returned. “Auggie and me dreamed it up, ran to the store and got all the goods, came back, put it together, and I know when it’s all baked it…is gonna…be…yum.”
Aug watched as she slid her arm around her daughter’s shoulders, bent to kiss the top of Juno’s hair, and said there, “Looks like it can’t not be.”
Juno tipped her head back to look up at her mother.
“I know, right? Sugar cookie dough, brownies and Nutter Butters. I mean, whaaaaaaaat?”
Pepper smiled at her girl.
Aug’s heart squeezed.
“Gotta put these in, honey,” he broke into their convo. “You wanna do it, or you want me to?”
“I’ll do it!” Juno said excitedly.
“Right, oven’s ready,” he told her.
Juno broke from her mom, grabbed the pan, and even though she wasn’t too young, she also wasn’t very old, so both Aug and Pepper watched closely as she carefully slid it in the oven.
Once she closed the door, she whirled on them and declared, “Thirty-five minutes and then…ecstasy.”
Pepper laughed.
Auggie chuckled.
“Will you set your phone, Auggie?” Juno asked.
“Definitely, sweetheart,” Aug answered, reaching to the counter to nab it.
“Since you’re not on the couch anymore, I’m gonna go watch TV. Is that okay, Momma?” Juno queried.
That didn’t make Aug’s heart squeeze.
It made his gut tense.
“Sure, baby,” Pepper said softly.
“Cool,” Juno replied, then she was off.
She was a good kid. Sweet. Polite. Funny. Respectful. Full of personality.
But she was careful.
Too careful.
And the polite and respectful she often took to extremes.
That was about her shitheel of a dad.
And maybe the lunatics that made up the rest of Pepper’s family.
“It’s okay, she’s back with us, she’ll settle in.”
Auggie stopped looking at the door Juno disappeared through and turned his attention to his woman.
“It pisses me off,” he told her something she already knew.