Pretty Hurts (Left 1.50)

“Yes, ma’am,” he says with a two fingered salute that makes me grin and give a little wave.

My tummy flips like a pancake. I haul ass out of the shop before I get caught up in my feels and fall too deep into like.

***

Edgar

I’m not prone to second guessing myself, but now I’m in a weird limbo. Did I just ask a client out on a date? Do I honestly care? I haven’t been on a date since I broke things off with Marilyn, and Efia seems like good people. Even better, we’re on the same page with what we want. I’m getting way too ahead of myself, but it’s in my nature to get caught up in my head. I run my fingers through my hair and tilt my head back to peer up at the sky through my sunglasses.

It’s a perfect day for fishing. After grabbing my poles, I load them in the back while I wait for Addler to arrive. My best friend since the womb, he’s more of a brother than a friend. His mother, my Aunt Marisol, has been my mother’s best friend since they were in kindergarten. So when they got pregnant around the same time, it was a given we’d be best friends. I guess that’s one of the many perks of staying in the town you grew up in.

Ad’s always been a good person to bounce things off. Hell, he was the one who told me Marilyn and I weren’t a good fit. Maybe I should start listening to him. Five years of my life went down the drain when we called it quits.

He pulls up in his black Toyota Four Runner. I wave as he parks and hops down. Retrieving his poles and tackle box out of the back, he brings it over so I can add it to my own.

“Hey, brother, what’s going on?”

I shake my head. “Happy to have a day off. It’s been too long since we went fishing.”

“Understatement. I think it’s been close to three months. Do you want to head to the Texas City Dike?”

“Yeah, we haven’t been there in a while, and we usually come away with a decent haul,” I reply, thinking of the cooler full of fish I’d used for an impromptu fish fry with my family.

“That’s true.”

“How are the wife and my favorite niece, Addy, doing?” I ask once we’re inside the car.

“They’re great. I think the wife is getting a combination of baby fever and sadness since Adelaide will be starting school after the summer is up.”

“Poor thing. The years flew by, though, didn’t they?”

“That they did. I blinked and suddenly the tiny baby keeping me up all night was a walking, talking sass pot.”

I snicker. “She gets that from her mama.”

“Oh, I know, but you can’t tell Abby that.”

I snicker. I like the petite blonde that tamed Addler with her smart mouth, no bull attitude, and her ability to be one of the guys. When he’d brought her out camping with us the first time I knew she was going to be a long-term thing.

“You thinking about adding to the family?”

“I’m weighing it. Right now we’re comfortable. Another mouth to feed might stretch us too thin. At the same time, I know we’re not getting any younger. I’ll be forty in a couple of months, and she’s going to hit thirty-six in December.”

“You still have time.”

“Yeah, but the age gap is steadily growing. Family politics, man.” He shakes his head. “What’s up with you? Any ladies on the horizon?”

“Maybe. But it’s kind of fucked up.”

“Well, now you have to continue on with the story,” he says as I pull out of the driveway and turn on the classic rock station.

“Houston called me a few weeks back and asked me if I could open the shop up early for a client, a woman. My first thought was she might be a cancer patient, so I say of course I’ll do it.”

“She wasn’t?” Ad asks.

“No, she has Alopecia.”

“Isn’t that where you lose all your hair?”