Wild Wind: A Chaos Novella (Chaos #6.6)(90)

“Important note, you can’t vote with her just because she’s giving you the goodness.”

“You are very wrong about that,” Jag contradicted.

Archie chuckled.

Joany did an eye roll.

“All right, Allan was never a problem,” Lafayette (who, incidentally, today was dressed like Jim Morrison on the bottom with tight black leather pants, but up top he was John Lennon with a “New York City” T-shirt, though his was cropped and showed his stomach). “But it isn’t about Allan. It’s about the other kids. The group is tight. They’ve bonded. And no shade on Allan, but we have to think of his influences and what he’ll bring to the other kids.”

“Have you asked the kids what they think?” Jagger queried.

This appeared to flummox them.

All of them.

He was surprised and again looked down at Arch. “You haven’t?”

“It’s our responsibility to make these decisions for them,” she said. “And that’s a responsibility we took on for them, and the trust their parents give us.”

“They aren’t five, Arch,” he replied. “Pretty soon, they’re gonna have to be making a lot harder decisions. You gotta guide them now, so when they get there, they make the right ones. Hell, Mal considers himself the man of the house already and he isn’t even close to having his first shave.”

After he finished talking, Arch smiled up at him then turned to the team.

“Powwow with the kids next week. We’ll get their input and decide from there.”

The crew nodded their approval to this plan.

“Just to say, I don’t want to be the tie-breaker with you guys,” Jagger put in.

“Too bad and too late,” Joany declared. “You are. Next up is a discussion about the kickass couch Archie found. Fabe and I want to rearrange the front of the store into a pseudo-living room that you see the minute you walk in. Archie and La-La want to rearrange the entire book section so the shelves surround the couch that’s, again, set up in a pseudo-living-room-style scenario. What’s your vote or do you need to see the couch?”

Weirdly, Jag kinda wanted to see the couch.

But wisely, he said, “I’m not weighing in on this.”

“And I’m not lugging a ton of books around to rearrange the book space,” Joany returned. She then stated the obvious, “So I need you to vote with me.”

“We can make it a project, and next week, the kids can help us do it,” Archie suggested.

“If we put it up front, it has a bigger impact,” Fabe stated. “It shares immediately what you’ll find in this store and it’ll do that in a good way. And anyway, we need some fresh around here.”

“Agreed, we need some fresh, totally. I’m tired of lookin’ at this baby this way,” Lafayette said, throwing out an arm to indicate the entirety of the space. “So I say we do a full-store overhaul. Plan it out, even close down a couple of days to get it done.”

If they couldn’t agree on where to put a couch, Jagger didn’t want to be anywhere near when they discussed a full-store overhaul.

“Uh…” Joany cut in. “This is new to the debate, but I will add at this juncture you can’t overhaul a store without breaking a nail. So, if that’s the vote, I’m sitting that work out as a conscientious objector.”

“That’s not what a conscientious objector is, Jo,” Fabe told her.

“It is so,” she shot back. “I am very conscientious about my nails.”

“Can someone either kill me or let me and Archie go so we can get the fuck out of here and start our weekend?” Jagger asked.

“We’ll decide what we’re doing with the store on Monday,” Archie decreed. “And we’ll talk to the kids on Monday too.”

“Maybe we should poll the kids about the couch,” Lafayette suggested.

“That’s actually a good idea,” Fabe agreed.

“Have fun doing something I would not be caught dead doing for two whole days and two whole nights,” Joany bid to Jag and Arch. She finished with, “Or one whole night for that matter.”

“You don’t know what you’re missing,” Archie told her.

“I also don’t care,” Joany said.

She gave them a finger wave, a wink, and with the two guys, she wandered away.

Thank fuck that was done.

He looked down at Arch and gave her a shake against his body.

“You ready?” he asked.

“Am I dreaming, or is my man really going camping with me?” she asked back.

“My father loved camping.”

That bought him warm eyes, a soft look and her melting into his side.

Then she said, “I just gotta grab my bag. I brought it down. It’s in the office.”

“I’ll text Dutch and let him know we’re on our way.”

She smiled up at him, curled into him, rolled up on her toes and tipped her head way back.

Jag didn’t need any more of an invitation.

He gave her a proper hello kiss.

And then they headed through her store to get to her office in order to grab her stuff and get on the road.

Halfway there, he stopped them.

Archie looked up at him curiously.