“You’re certainly getting worked up about it,” Madison leaned back against the island counter, her lip still curled into a smirk.

“That’s because I feel like I’m being accused of something, of course I’m going to get worked up. What did she say?”

“Now, now. I promised her I wouldn’t say anything.”

“That is such crap Madison, and you know it,” Malinda felt her temper start to flare. It was no secret that she had a short fuse, and sometimes it took only the littlest thing to strike the match. Being questioned about her involvement with Rhett was one of those things.

“Well it wouldn’t be very fair to Laurel if I broke a promise, would it?” Madison continued to taunt, a lick of flame-red hair falling over her shoulder.

Madison envisioned pulling the strands right out. “Laurel is an eleven-year-old girl. If you can’t have an adult conversation with another grown-ass woman, that’s not my problem.”

The cool, even tone with which Malinda spoke chilled Madison straight to her toes. She was smart enough to know when teasing goes too far. “Okay, okay. All she said was that you’re always acting like you’re married and that you’re always flirting with each other. And something about a wives’ carnival. And that he spends the night, sometimes in your bed.”

“Oh no,” Malinda suddenly realized the impact her relationship with Rhett might be having on her daughter. While it was true that she was encouraging her dating JC, she had looked to Rhett as a father figure for the past four years.

“Why oh no? And what’s this carnival thing?”

“It’s this carnival type thing that the team has every year. Like most events, it’s organized by the players’ wives and girlfriends. I’m around the place often enough to know all the girls, and since I know them all well enough, they ask me to help out. And at the little stations where the guys sign autographs, the women act as assistants to their husbands. So guess who I’m helping all the time.”

“That sounds like fun. So why’d you say oh no?”

Malinda pulled out a chair and dropped heavily into it. “I just realized that Rhett and I explain ourselves to a lot of people; explain what we are to each other and all that, but I never thought I’d have to explain it to my own daughter. Rhett’s been like a father to her for a few years now, and I’ll be eternally grateful for that, for him stepping in like that to be our support and be so involved in our lives when he really has no obligation to do so. But now, I guess it’s just occurring to me that maybe, since he’s been like a father to her for so long, maybe deep down inside somewhere, she really wants him to be.”

“But I thought she’s been supportive of you and JC? I mean, the dog and everything.”

“For all I know, it could be a phase. It could be the whole superstar fairytale thing. Even I’m having trouble separating fantasy from reality at times, coming to grips with the fact that JC is not Prince Charming and that he has faults just like anyone else.”

“He’s more like Prince Alarming if you ask me,” Madison quipped. “Even though I will admit watching him with Laurel does make him seem extremely attractive. I’ve heard single moms and divorced women say they fall in love all over again with their boyfriend when they see him fall in love with her kids, but I never really understood it until now. And I watch your face change when JC’s with Laurel. It’s like I can see your heart melting.”

“Yeah. He makes my ovaries ache,” Malinda’s lips spread into a dreamy smile.

Madison grinned, “That’s the look. It’s like… like your entire face softens or something. You’ll be looking at him like you could molest him at any minute, but as soon as he and Laurel start being affectionate, you look at him like you’d drink all the water in the pool in seconds to save him from drowning. Yes, I know that was a weird analogy,” she said when Malinda arched one eyebrow. “It’s kind of like how mothers can lift up cars when their kids are trapped underneath. Like you could – and would – do anything for him.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I guess I would.”

“I’ll let you in on a little secret,” Madison threw her arm over Malinda’s shoulders. “He looks at you that way all the time. And that whole melting when you see him with Laurel? You should have seen his eyes when you were holding Joe’s baby.”

“I don’t want you to leave,” JC nuzzled his face against Malinda’s. “Two weeks isn’t long enough. Next time you’re staying for a month.”

“I can’t stay away from work for a month. You’ll have to come to Buffalo if you want that to work,” Malinda stroked his cheek tenderly. He caught her hand.

“That can be arranged.”

“Get on it then.”

“There’s better things I’d like to get on at the moment.”

“I think you mean things you’d like to get off.”

“You gotta get on to get off baby,” JC grinned. “That would make a great song lyric,” he said cheerily before easily maneuvering his body on top of Malinda’s.

She angled away, “Laurel is just across the hall.”

“Then we go to my room. Or better yet, we could go down to the studio. It’s soundproof.”

“That could work,” Malinda giggled playfully. “You could record us.”

“That could get very interesting.”

Malinda stared at him for a minute with a silly grin before bounding out of bed. “Let’s go!”

“Come on, rise and shine! You don’t want to spend your last full day sleeping!” JC hollered into Malinda’s room.

“Go away,” was the barely discernable groan that came from underneath the covers.

“Wake up. You can’t be that tired.”

“Excuse me?” Malinda threw back the sheets. “You kept me up all night.”

“Ah, see, but that’s where you’re wrong. You kept me up,” JC leaned over Malinda’s sprawling form and gave her a slow, tantalizing kiss. “Come on, I made breakfast.”

“I thought I heard fire engines,” Malinda mumbled and pulled the covers back over her head when JC stepped back.

“Hush you. Get out of bed,” JC grabbed the bottom corner of the bedsheets and yanked them off the bed. He slipped his arms under Malinda’s knees and shoulders and picked her up.

“No! Put me down! Let me sleep! JC! This isn’t fair!” Malinda squirmed and struggled in JC’s arms the whole way down the stairs and into the dining room, where he plunked her down in a chair next to Laurel.

“Now eat your pancakes like a good girl,” he said.

“And your bacon, and hash browns,” Laurel added.

“Don’t encourage him,” Malinda snarled at her daughter, who only laughed in return.

“You know, I cooked for you. I cooked! So you better eat it and enjoy it, damnit,” JC stuck his tongue out at her.

“Do that again and I’ll tell you exactly what you can do with that mouth.”

“I already know. So bite me.”

“With relish,” Malinda retorted.

Laurel watched this banter with glee. She’d been emailing her friends and chatting on AIM regularly for the past two weeks, filling them in on everything. Hannah, whose parents were divorced, told her the kinds of things to be on the lookout for. Just before her mother remarried, she and her boyfriend would flirt and tease each other openly in front of Hannah and her brother, not longer concerned with being secretive. This openness made Hannah feel more like the boyfriend was a part of the family than when he used to sneak kisses to her mother. As Laurel became more observant, she noticed that everything Hannah had told her was coming true. Her mother no longer turned away shyly and pointed out that Laurel was in the room when JC tried to kiss her. JC made no efforts to hide a bold caress, sometimes smacking or pinching Malinda’s rear right in front of Laurel. They were comfortable with each other. Moreover, they were comfortable with each other in Laurel’s presence. Hannah confirmed all of this to be a good sign. So when Laurel heard her mother and JC making comments that were probably about adult activities, she knew she could tell Hannah all signs pointed to a wedding.

JC moved around in the kitchen, cleaning up the enormous mess he’d made while fixing breakfast. From where he stood at the island counter, he could see Malinda and Laurel perfectly, reflected off the framed picture on the wall in front of him. From here he could gaze intently, but with his back to them, they’d never know. He watched as mother and daughter spoke to each other in hushed tones, watched the identical facial expressions, saw how the two admired and respected each other enough to be friends, but to also be mother and child, and he felt grateful to be a part of that. He remembered how his heart swelled with pride each time he introduced the two of them to people he knew. He thought of the way his stomach tied itself in a knot when he saw how easily Malinda slipped into maternal mode when Joe brought Brianna to visit; the way she looked holding a baby in her arms. It was the same knot that kept coming back when he thought about how much he wanted to see his child look up at Malinda and know his mother’s face. He made a mental note to himself to call his dad and ask if this was how he felt with his mom when he and his sister and brother were born, if seeing her hold this child that they’d created together made him love her even more.

What made JC angry with Laurel’s father was the way he treated Malinda. What made him furious was that the man had no idea what he was missing out on, what he gave up. How could anyone not want to share in the bond that Malinda and Laurel had? Each morning when JC awoke, he reminded himself how lucky he was to be involved in this life that Malinda had created for her and her little girl, how lucky he was that Malinda let him in that life and didn’t just leave him outside, pounding on the door,

As JC continued to watch, Laurel rose from her seat and pressed herself into Malinda’s arms. Both of their eyes sparkled in a secretive way that sometimes frightened JC a little. It was often as if they were a pair of scheming best friends instead of parent and child, and that look in their eyes usually meant one of two things: trouble or gossip.

Malinda and Laurel kept nothing hidden from each other, as aspect of their relationship Malinda hoped would always remain constant, especially when Laurel got to high school and got to the age that curiosity gets the best of most teenagers. Laurel kept Malinda filled in on all the gossip at school, which girls liked which boys and vice versa, and in turn, Malinda gave Laurel the G-rated details of her love life and of Tyler Price’s – usually because his was more full. JC understood that she needed to tell Laurel what seemed like intimate secrets so that she’d feel like her equal, and therefore not feel uncomfortable telling Malinda her own secrets, and he had come to accept it. It no longer bothered him like it used to, but is still gave him the chills sometimes when he heard Laurel’s familiar giggle reserved for gossip, or saw her tell-tale glittering eyes. It was something he’d come to appreciate, however, because it was yet another sign of the amazing relationship that the two had created, and he loved it. He loved them.

Laurel clung tightly to JC as he hugged her goodbye one last time. “Thank you. I had such a great time out here.”

“You don’t have to thank me. Mi casa es tu casa. I was more than happy to have you here.”

“Make sure you take good care of Junior. I already told Madison to keep her eye on you.”

“Ha. She has no control over me. I wish she could’ve come with us to see you off.”

“Yeah, but she went to see Orly. I don’t blame her. I’d drop everything to see you,” Malinda agreed whole-heartedly with Madison’s decision to go visit Orlando Bloom on-set.

“So would I,” JC straightened up, moving from Laurel to Malinda.

“So do it. I want you to see my life, meet my friends,” she reached up to play with his hair.

“I plan on it. Remember what I said about a whole month.”

“Get on that then,” Malinda managed to utter before JC’s mouth crushed hers. When he pulled away she gasped for air for a second before standing up on her toes to kiss him again.

“Soon.”

“What?”

“You have to come soon. I don’t know how long I can wait before I see you again. Come tomorrow. Well, okay, next week.”

“Well, see, I was thinking more of waiting till September,” JC told her, kissing her neck.

“Why then?”

“Because,” he whispered against her ear, “then we’ll be alone most of the day.”

Malinda felt her body heat jump thirty degrees. “Always thinking ahead. And you guys all say Lance is the planner.”

“Okay,” JC mumbled around Malinda’s lips a minute later. “I have to give you up now, or else you’ll be later. And right now I’m strong enough to let you walk away. So go, quick, while I’m calm and collected.”

“Alright. I love you,” Malinda gave him a few more quick kisses.

“I love you too. Call me when you land. At each stop. See ya next time kid,’ he ruffled Laurel’s hair.

“Hey!” she protested as she readjusted her backpack. They walked away from JC and into the security area, taking a small piece of JC’s heart with them.

“I hear Mission Impossible,” Laurel commented.

“Already?” Malinda muttered, digging her cell phone out of her purse. “I just turned it on.”

Laurel and Malinda stood at the luggage retrieval carousel, having just gotten off their plane. Without even having to see her phone, she knew who was calling, due to the option of setting a specific ringtone to a certain name. Gina had a copy of the flight itinerary, and had clearly been waiting impatiently until she thought Malinda would be off the plane. It was a good thing USAirways was always on time, or else Gina would have gotten so frustrated she would have left her job and come to the airport herself, probably beating Rhett there.

“Can I get home first?” Malinda answered her phone.

“Did you guys do it?”

“Gina! I’m glad I don’t have speakerphone.”

“Oh hell. She’s a perceptive girl, she probably already knows. And as far as anyone standing around you, they’d have no idea what I was talking about.”

“You are crazy, you know that? For starters, let me get home. Let me take a nap. It was like ten o’clock when we left LA, we had about six hours of flying and one hour of layover, and it’s already ten. That’s like five hours lost somewhere. That takes time to recover from. Let me just chill for awhile. Second of all, the answer to the question you were going to ask next is eight,” Malinda snapped her phone closed with one hand while helping Laurel swipe her suitcase off the belt with the other. She grinned smugly as the phone began to ring again. Just to be difficult, she answered it and immediately hung it up. A second later, it beeped twice, signaling a text message. It was from Rhett, in response to the one she’d sent just moments after turning her phone on.

“Outside,” was all it read, so Malinda and Laurel walked outside to the pickup lane, where Rhett sat waiting behind the wheel of the Explorer.

“How’d you get here so fast? Malinda asked when he exited the vehicle to help them put their luggage inside.

He wrapped her up in a hug. “I called Gina to find out when your flight came in, and I’ve been hanging out at McDonald’s across the street ever since. Hey short stuff,” he said to Laurel, opening her car door.

“Hey. Did you miss us?”

“Of course I did. I had no little voice asking me all kinds of nutty questions,” he closed Malinda’s door after she climbed inside and rounded the truck to his own door, which Malinda had reached over and pushed open. “And I had no cheering section last night.”

“Yeah, what’s that all about? Preseason isn’t for like another month,” Malinda asked.

Rhett shrugged. “It’s not really preseason, but it is. I don’t know how to explain it. We’re having five games this week, I’m not really sure why. Yesterday was the first one. I think it’s supposed to be a notch up from regular scrimmaging. I don’t ask questions, I just play the game.”

“Okay then.”

After a moment of silence, Rhett spoke up, “So are you waiting for me to ask about it, or are either of you going to volunteer to tell me about the trip?” he looked to his right and over his shoulder, only to find that the Gracie girls were unconscious. A grin slid across his face as he completed the drive to their building, and woke them up gently, assisting them into their apartment. Laurel managed a grunt of dismissal after Rhett half carried her to her bed, but Malinda’s sleepy goodbye left him puzzled.

“Rhett?” she sighed as he pulled the sheets back on her bed.

“Yes?”

“If there were ever any sexual tension between us,” she kicked off her shoes and climbed into bed fully clothed, “or if you ever wanted to sleep with me, you’d tell me, right?”

By the time Rhett recovered enough to think of a reply, Malinda was already asleep again, and so his bewildered, “Um… I guess so,” went unheard.

“It’s been three whole weeks. Come on!” when Gina’s pleading was met with silence, she propped one foot up on the picnic table and continued, “You’re really not going to let me in on the details, are you?”

“Nope,” Malinda flipped a burger over with a flourish. She realized she was in a very advantageous situation. Gina would do anything to know more about what happened behind closed doors in California. This could be Malinda’s opportunity to have a personal assistant; one who received payment in the form of intimate secrets.

“You’re one evil bitch, you know that?” Gina stomped a foot, counting slices of cheese to put on a few of the burgers Malinda was grilling. “Ouch!” she yelped as she burned herself. “Why isn’t Rhett here doing this?”

“Because genius,” Malinda tapped at her hand with the spatula when she looked like she was going to burn herself again. “This is girls’ day. He’ll be here later.”

“Then why don’t we just wait to eat until he gets here? Cooking on the grill is such a man’s job.”

“You are such a girl! How do you survive between boyfriends?”

“I have no idea honey. My sink leaks and the bed gets cold.”

Malinda rolled her eyes in amusement and called Laurel and her friends to the grill to get their food. She dispensed hot dogs, hamburgers, and cheeseburgers to the hands clamoring around her. Once that was settled, she fired up for another round of cooking, making dinner for the adults. It was time to eat at the third annual end-of-summer girls’ day, instituted by Laurel two years ago. The original event had been nothing but a spontaneous party of Laurel’s friends at her and Malinda’s apartment complex’s pool and park, but the girls had all had so much fun, Laurel asked Malinda if they could do it again. The year after that and this time around, Malinda had rented a shelter at Elma Meadows Park and Laurel invited all her friends out for the picnic. Malinda, in turn, invited Gina and Tyler, who, for all intents and purposes, was one of the girls. Tyler was, at the moment, perched daintily on a picnic bench nearby, absorbing the exchange between Gina and Malinda.

“Gina girl, don’t you worry. I’ll find out exactly what happened and I’ll fill you in.”

“Just how do you plan on doing that?” Malinda put one hand on her hip.

“Honey, it’s easier than I am. All I really have to do is wait it out until you’re just bursting to tell someone. Or, I could do it the sneaky way and wait until we’re at work and you get really busy, and then just prod you with the right questions, because you won’t be focusing on what you’re saying.”

“If I was dying to tell someone, I’d just tell Gina anyway.”

“No you wouldn’t. It’s a matter of principle, and you dear have always stood by your principles. You’ve been swearing over the past few days that you would not be telling Gina what happened, and so by the time you’re bursting to tell someone, you’ll just tell me instead.”

“Feisty bitch.”

“That’s Queen Feisty Bitch, if you don’t mind,” he crossed his legs triumphantly and folded his hands on his knee.

“I’m going to start calling you Jack, because you act more and more like you should be on Will & Grace every day. I’m beginning to think he’s your role model.”

“I’m way cuter,” Tyler pouted until a hot dog was placed in front of him.

The three of them ate their food and watched the girls, who’d moved back down the hill to the playground, and we’re occupying themselves with the swings and the basketball court. Gina continued to beg Malinda to tell her about JC’s sexual skills, while Tyler inserted color commentary here and there. Malinda steadfastly refused to share information, which led to hushed plotting between the other two, now that Tyler had told Malinda his plan. When they decided they’d reached a conclusion, Tyler changed the subject abruptly.

“So when is Rhett getting here?”

“Why, you want to see if his ass has gotten back in shape?”

“No, because I like to entertain myself by watching you two play mommy and daddy,” Tyler retorted, causing Gina to explode in peals of laughter.

“Shut up, we do not.”

“You do so,” Gina gasped between giggles.

Malinda ignored them and moved back to the grill. She reached into the cooler for the corn on the cob that was wrapped in tin foil, and poked at the coals to see if there was still a flame. When there was, she put the wrapped corn on the rack and closed the hood, shouting down the hill to the girls that the corn would be ready in a few minutes.

“And daddy will be here soon!” Tyler added.

Malinda took advantage of the fact that his eyes were closed due to his laughing and smeared ketchup on his face.

“That wasn’t very nice. What would Mr. Malinda say?” he asked, just as Curtis’s truck pulled up, carrying his wife Ami and Rhett inside. “Well speak of the devil…”

“And his fine ass will appear,” Gina finished.

“It seems to me the two of you pick on me so much because you want him yourselves,” Malinda commented, approaching the truck to say hello. She waved to Ami, who she never really liked, and Curtis. Rhett was greeted with a hug and he kept his arm around her waist as they all walked back to the table. Tyler and Gina were engaged in a talk that they both found hilarious. Malinda caught the end of it, and felt her face flush, hoping the others didn’t.

“Just like two newlywed couples who go out together every Saturday,” Tyler pursed his lips together as if he’d just made the ultimate point, nailing home a conclusion.

Malinda turned to the new arrivals. “There’s food left on the grill, and I’ve got the corn on the cob finishing up.” She stood at the hill again, cupping her hands around her mouth. “The food is ready!”

“We’re coming!” came the high-pitched reply.

Rhett snagged a burger off the grill before the mob of girls could crowd around it, and when Laurel saw him, she ran to jump on his back. He groaned and flinched, but didn’t drop her or tell her to get down. Malinda watched the expression on his face with concern and gave him a questioning look. When he realized that she was inspecting him, he shrugged and informed her with only a gesture and lip-syncing that his back hurt.

“Laurel get down,” Malinda said parentally, but without any harshness. “What happened?” she asked Rhett after Laurel dropped to the ground.

“Nothing really, just sore. You know how it is.”

“Are you sure? I’ve seen you play through injuries before; it’s not fun to watch.”

“Yes I’m sure. No injuries. I just beat the crap out of myself today.”

“Yeah, he’s out of shape. He’s a fat-ass,” Curtis chimed in, and Ami swatted at his arm. Curtis was a non-preachy born-again Christian, and hadn’t uttered a cuss word in quite a few years. Recently he’d started added ‘ass’, ‘damn’, and ‘hell’ to his vocabulary again, and Ami seemed to think it was Malinda’s fault. This only added to the list of things that Malinda didn’t like about Ami. Both women had come into Curtis’ life around the same time for the same reason, and Ami never let it go.

Malinda and Curtis Brown first met at the mall one day, and she had asked him for his autograph, recognizing him as one of their favorite Sabres’ players. He’d done better than that and given her his phone number. She called him the next day and he invited her to dinner, where she told him about Laurel. He was cool with it, and they agreed on a second date. Several subsequent casual dates followed, with Curtis meeting Laurel as well, but only being introduced as a friend. During this time, Curtis met a woman named Ami, and Malinda found herself attracted to Curtis on a friendly level, but nothing more. They quickly eased into that relationship, spending as much, if not more, time together as they did when they were dating, something that Ami was never pleased with. Malinda never really took any kind of liking to Ami, finding her too uptight, for both her own tastes and for Curtis. Despite this, Curtis and Malinda remained good friends, and the following year, Rhett Warrener came into the picture. He was traded to the Buffalo Sabres from the Florida Panthers, and he and Curtis quickly became friends. Because of this, he and Malinda also became fast friends. When Curtis first introduced the two of them, he was hoping to hook them up, as Rhett had a lot of qualities he thought would be complimentary to Malinda’s. To his dismay, they settled for just being friends. The three of them were equally as close as they had been for those few years until Ami became Mrs. Ami Brown. She severely cut down on Curtis’ friendship with Malinda, which Malinda never really forgave her for. Curtis did what he could to still be friends with Malinda, but his reach only extended as far as Ami allowed it. Rhett took up the space he left, becoming even closer to Malinda as he had been before; she shared with him details that were previously known by only her mother, Gina, and the psychologist she had seen years before.

“I am not out of shape. I may be a fat-ass, but I’m not out of shape,” Rhett grunted.

“Your ass looks fine to me,” Tyler chirped, and Ami looked horrified.

“Well thank you. I’m glad it meets your approval,” Rhett put his hands behind his head. “I’m so hot even men want me.” The look on Ami’s face was priceless. Malinda hid a smile. She enjoyed watching the woman squirm.

“You’re so full of shit,” she threw a piece of bread at him.

“You love it.”

“I know I do,” Tyler added.

“You love anything that’s full of shit,” Gina commented.

Rhett, Malinda, and Curtis groaned at the visual and then doubled over in hilarity when Tyler countered with the prissiest voice he had, “Oh, ew. Gotta empty it out first honey.” Ami only sneered in disgust and focused on her food. “I’ve never really been a fan of tight-asses though,” Tyler finished. Malinda kicked him under the table, laughing too hard to care whether Ami knew he was talking about her.

“You’re terrible,” Gina howled.

“I try.”

When they had finally gotten control of themselves, Tyler fired off again. “Why are you boys here anyway? I thought this was girls’ day.”

“Why are you here then?” Rhett inquired.

“Please, I’m getting more penis than anyone here. I am girls’ day.” Tyler’s response made Rhett choke with his laughter. “Although, some people around here have gotten laid in the shade, but for some ungodly reason refuse to let the rest of us know about it. I mean, c’mon Malinda, have I ever not told you about even the most meaningless quickie I’ve had?”

“No, I’ve heard about every one.”

“Now then, why can’t you tell us about yours? It’s the first time in who knows how many years that you’ve had a reason to clean out the cobwebs down there, so why can’t we hear about this earth-shattering event?” Tyler whined, pounding his fist on the table.

Malinda blushed at the reference, but couldn’t hold in the giggles when she saw the face Ami was making. She knew that Tyler was always more brash than usual when Ami was around, because he didn’t care much for her either, and sensed that she didn’t think his being gay was right.

“Oh wait,” Tyler continued, “you can’t tell us now!”

“Why the hell can’t she?” Gina demanded. “I’ve been waiting for almost a month! I want to know!”

“Her husband is sitting next to her, stupid. She can’t very well tell us about her extra-marital affair.”

“Would you shut up?” Malinda groaned, still laughing.

“Yeah, if my wife wants to go sleep with other guys, she’s more than welcome,” Rhett said.

“Do NOT encourage them! They’re already out of control!”

“I feel really out of the loop,” Curtis sighed.

“You know how to fix that,” Tyler said, glancing pointedly at Ami, who either didn’t notice or didn’t catch the meaning.

“Come on guys,” Curtis pleaded. There wasn’t anything he could really do about Ami, she was just a little too conservative for his friends’ personalities, and on rare occasions, even his own.

“Yeah yeah yeah,” Malinda waved his request off.

“I gotta piss, where’s the bathroom?” Rhett said.

“I’ll show you,” Tyler practically leapt up from the table.

“I’ll take you, I have to go anyway,” Malinda used Tyler’s shoulder as leverage to stand up, and simultaneously push him back down to his seat.

“I understand. The newlyweds need a quickie,” he said knowingly.

“Shut up.”

Rhett and Malinda walked towards the small hut that contained the restrooms. “Tyler really is too funny,” Rhett said. “He has me in stitches every time he gets around Ami.”

“I know. I’m surprised she hasn’t said anything yet. I wonder if she’s said anything to Curtis.”

“Nah, I think he’d have told us.”

“Maybe not,” Malinda said as she disappeared inside the women’s room.

“So you did get some on your vacation, huh?” Rhett nudged her when they met back up outside.

“Would you all just let it go? I’m not telling.”

“Not even me?”

“Oh Lord. Okay, fine, we did it. Several times. Are you satisfied now?”

Rhett chuckled, “Quite. Are you?”

Malinda grumbled, “You’re such a jerk.”

He threw an arm around her shoulders and squeezed her against him. “You love it. And by the way, it’s about freakin’ time you got laid. What’s it been, like twelve years? How the hell did you not jump Brown’s bones when you were seeing him?”

Malinda elbowed him. “Because I wasn’t interested in him like that. I couldn’t even kiss him.”

“So? There are no laws that say you have to be interested in someone to sleep with them. Some people do live by rules like that, yes, but no one says you have to.”

“Yeah, but then he’d still be single now. Ami probably wouldn’t touch him with a ten-foot pole if he’d been with me.”

“Well damnit, the rest of us would be a lot happier. See? You could have saved us all had you just given in to animal lust.”

“Shut up,” Malinda laughed. “Are you leaving with Curtis or coming home with us?”

“I don’t want to be there if she starts complaining about the stuff we all talk about. Even if it is exaggerated for her, but she doesn’t know that.”

“Alright. Well, I think we’re gonna start heading home in a little while. The bugs are starting to come out, and I promised everyone I wouldn’t keep the girls out late. Plus, I just want to get out of here. I’m pretty sure this is the weekend of the Erickson family reunion, and that’s just drama all around. We got Ashley, who picks on Laurel, her older brother Tony, who was Jake’s best friend, their father, who is just as bad as Tony and Jake. God, I probably would have blown out my tires leaving if I saw them. I know they come here every year, and I’m almost positive that they’re over that hill over there. That’s why I sent the girls down the hill to the playground. They wanted to go to the one up the hill, to the better one, but I told them that Ashley was there, and they changed their minds pretty quick.”

“I imagine. For a little girl, she sounds like a real bitch.”

“Well, her mother is a bitch. And like a said, her father’s an asshole. Her brother’s an asshole. Yeah, they’re your basic bitch and asshole family. Good times all around.”

They got back to the table where Ami was practically clawing at Curtis to leave, and Tyler was looking chipper. Malinda wondered what vibrant conversation had gone on while they were gone. The Browns said their goodbyes and were off. The tires probably would have spun if Ami was driving. Gina and Tyler took off soon after helping Malinda clean up. Malinda and Rhett finally rounded up all the girls into Malinda’s Bravada and headed home.