Rock Chick Reborn (Rock Chick #9)(26)

“I can be . . . a bit much too,” I admitted.

Another smile in his voice. “Yeah, and how’s that?”

“I can be . . . stubborn.”

That didn’t get me a chuckle. He out and out laughed.

“You find that funny?” I asked.

“Baby, you refused to call me, but wanted to, so your boss set us up on a date. But I got the stubborn thing even before that happened.”

Well then.

“I sometimes talk about myself in the third person.”

Moses was silent.

“It’s my thing,” I went on.

“And?” he asked after I shut up.

“Some people find that weird.”

“So?”

I grinned. “Shirleen’s happy you don’t find that weird.”

He started laughing again.

My phone sounded in my hand telling me I had another call just as I heard shouted by Sniff, “Shirleen, we’re home!”

See?

Told you that’s how it went down.

“I’m plugging in the deep fat fryer!” he continued.

And see?

Told you they’d come home hungry.

I took the phone away from my ear, saw it said Daisy calling, ignored it and put the phone back to my ear saying, “Hold on a sec.”

Then I took it from my ear again.

“I’ll be out in a minute!” I shouted.

“Awesome!” Sniff shouted back.

I put the phone to my ear again. “The boys are home.”

“That was my guess.”

I smiled again.

Then I frowned.

“Means I should let you go,” I said. “They were working out with Mace. I gotta get the burgers goin’.”

“Then I’ll let you go, baby. And I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Okay, Moses.”

“Do you want me to fire up the grill?” Roam yelled.

I put my hand over the phone and yelled back. “If you wanna grill, won’t stop you! But I was gonna fry!”

“Grill!” Sniff bellowed.

“I’ll fire it up!” Roam shouted.

“Great!” I yelled.

I took my hand off the phone and heard Moses chuckling again.

“Sorry, that was rude,” I mumbled.

“Yep, ain’t nothin’ foster about that, sweetheart. Sounds just like a family to me. Now I’m lettin’ you go. See you tomorrow at my place. Six.”

“Okay, Moses, see you then.”

“’Bye, baby.”

“’Bye, uh . . . Moses.”

He disconnected mid-chuckle again.

I took my phone from my ear and engaged texts.

I then texted Daisy, Rock Chick freeze out still in operation. I’ll tell you about the date and the movie we’re watching tomorrow night LATER.

That’d get her. Her big-haired head would explode knowing we already had a second date planned before she knew one thing about the first.

I got up from my bed and padded in my dress from the office that day but with my slippers on my feet to the door. I opened it, went through and walked down the hall toward the open-plan kitchen that was in the middle of the great room.

During this walk my phone sounded with a text.

Daisy.

You know it don’t work that way, sugar.

An extra freeze out day for every text, I replied.

Those three dots that said she was typing didn’t even form.

Daisy Sloane knew when I meant business.

Spread the word to the Chicklets, I ordered.

I sent that off and hit the kitchen to see Sniff shoving Doritos in his face.

“Shouldn’t you be eating a banana?” I asked.

“Maybe,” he answered.

I put a hand on my hip. “You missed this, but every time I say that, that’s my way of saying put the junk down and eat a banana.”

He grinned at me, teeth filled with Dorito goo, which he knew worked my last nerve.

Then he kept eating Doritos.

I could have no idea if this was universal teenage boy or his last hold on rebelling against authority.

My boys were good boys. Even in the beginning, they did what they were told. That had never been a battle.

Of course, at the time, Sniff was with me first since Roam was in the hospital recovering from a gunshot wound. Then Roam was home, with me all over his ass to make sure he recovered from that gunshot wound. And then, I figured, they were so happy to have three squares, a roof over their head, and their precious Jules still alive, they didn’t bust my chops, but instead followed my rules and did as told.

Roam didn’t openly rebel. Roam was more man than most grown men I’d known by the time I got him at fifteen. Definitely now. He did his chores with no backtalk, and now he did them without me even asking. Ditto with his schoolwork. He didn’t mouth off. And he was smart enough not to let me catch him eating Doritos when he knew I’d want him to eat a banana.

Sniff mostly did the same.

Except in times like this.

I’d always wondered about times like this.

But I’d never asked.

Now, I asked.

“Are you just bein’ a teenage boy or are you rebelling against authority?”

“Isn’t that one and the same?” he asked back.