Rock Chick 07 Regret(54)

We stopped several feet in front of the door and I took in the scene.

There was a large open space at the front of the store, a counter in front of rows of bookshelves, an espresso counter against the back side wall, tons of comfortable-looking chairs, couches, armchairs and tables littered the middle. It smelled musty, dusty but looked really cool in a lived-in, sit-back, stay-awhile kind of way.

Even though it was well beyond coffee hour, there were people everywhere. Most of the seats were taken, there were three customers waiting in line to order, two standing at the end of the espresso counter waiting for their coffees.

Indy and a big, gray-bearded, long-gray-hair-in-a-ponytailed man wearing a black T-shirt that demanded you “Ride the Range” and a black leather vest with a rolled red bandana on his forehead were standing behind the counter. Tex and Jet were behind the espresso counter. Ally was clearing coffee mugs from the seating area.

“You!” Tex boomed, pointing at the people innocently sitting on the couch in front of the big, glass window at the front of the store. “That’s VIP seating. Up! Move!”

Without a word, as if this had happened before and they had loads of practice, the people grabbed their mugs and laptops and scurried to the corner table.

“You!” Tex pointed to me. “Sit!”

“You better sit,” Shirleen whispered sideways to me. “Indy’s face is gettin’ red. She hates it when Tex bosses around the customers. She looks like she’s gonna blow.”

I didn’t want Indy to blow so I nodded to Shirleen and hurried to the couch.

“I’m makin’ you a special,” Tex shouted to me.

“Okay, Tex,” I thought it best to shout back. Then I sat down.

“You’re gonna hafta wait, that’s Sadie. She’s a VIP,” Tex informed the next person in line like they didn’t already know this fact really, really well.

Daisy sat down on one side of me, Shirleen on the other side. They sat close, like sentries.

I looked helplessly up at Hector. He was doing that fighting-a-grin thing again.

I narrowed my eyes at him. The grin grew into a glamorous, white smile.

My eyes un-narrowed and I stared at him. He shook his head and went to the counter where Indy was.

Ally bustled up, precariously balancing used coffee mugs.

“You okay?” she asked.

I nodded. “It wasn’t that bad. Detective Marker is nice,” I told her.

She smiled and her eyes danced in a mischievous Veronica Mars type of way. “I wasn’t talking about that. I was talking about Hector taking you to Blanca’s for dinner last night. What is it with the Chavez men taking their women home to meet their Mama? They know better. Blanca’s a nut. First time Eddie took Jet home, Blanca had the whole family over plus half the neighborhood.”

I gasped, sorry for Jet but also thankful that I didn’t have to deal with half the neighborhood last night. What I had was enough!

All of a sudden, Jet was there. “It’s true,” she told me. “I got snockered on margaritas.”

“And Eddie threw your cell across the yard and shattered a margarita pitcher,” a newly arrived Indy shared.

“I still wish I hadn’t missed that,” Daisy muttered.

“Boy’s got good aim,” Shirleen put in. “Damn waste of margaritas though.”

“Why’d he throw your cell phone?” I asked Jet.

“Well, I kind of had some bad men after me. One called me. Eddie took the phone away from me and heard what he had to say. It made him a little…” She hesitated. “Miffed.”

“Miffed! Eddie Chavez miffed! I love it,” Ally hooted.

“He wasn’t miffed, the man was pissed!” Indy put in, a huge smile on her face.

Boy, he would have to be beyond miffed to throw a cell phone.

I looked at Hector who was talking to the guy with the bandana.

“I just bought a new cell phone. I like it,” I told them.

“Keep it away from Hector,” Ally advised then burst out laughing.

So did everyone else. I looked around at them, not sure what was funny.

I mean, I did like my cell phone. It was fancy and you could even get e-mail on it.

Tex shouldered in and handed me a big mug. “Butterscotch sandie latte. That’s butterscotch and pecan syrup. If that don’t trip your trigger, woman, nothin’ will,” he announced then he shouldered back through and returned to the espresso counter.

I turned to Daisy. “I don’t mean to be mean or anything but, isn’t he a bit… odd?”

Daisy started giggling and it sounded like Christmas bells. I couldn’t help but giggle with her.

She put her arm around me and gave me a squeeze. “Sugar, that ain’t the half of it.”