“I don’t even see why it matters,” Tabby growled, throwing her arms up in the air in frustration. “Who cares if you use one of the other because they’re the same freaking thing. Hell, I went to plenty of gardens in New York, ones that were hidden behind buildings or belonged to the community. Some of them were even on the top of the buildings in the center of the city. Where I’m from, most people call it either a garden or a yard, so what’s the difference?”
There were frantic nods from the other women, and then Linda leaned over and pointed her finger at all of them. “It’s an issue with society,” she declared loudly.
That got our attention, and we all looked over at the group after hearing the way she pronounced the last word. Sho-shy-ety! Seeing that the responding nods of the women looked off as well, the men all swore at the same time, well, aside from me that was. Walking over to where she was sitting, Hurst gripped the back of her chair firmly and moved it to the side, making the women burst out laughing as the feet of it made a farting groan on the porch. Once he made sure his wife wasn’t going to fall off the seat seeing as how she’d been wobbling like Jell-O with the move, he bent over and peered under the table, growling when he saw the reason for their behavior.
Holding up an empty bottle of tequila, he moved around to the other side of the table and glared at all of them. “Designated drivers my old ass.”
“S’a nice butty, though,” Linda snorted and then hiccupped. Leaving him to lecture them, the men put their half-empty bottles on the tables, resigned to the fact that the roles had reversed for the night. “Hey, can I see that photo Linda took of you guys again?” Mace asked, pointing at my cell on the table beside me. Nodding, I scooted it across the surface with the tip of my finger, listening in as Hurst continued his lecture. The funny thing was, I might have been listening to him but none of the women were because they were all making plans to meet up for lunch and ‘shenanenanagens’ while he stood there ranting.
“I don’t know what scares me more,” DB murmured, his eyes trained on where Tabby had her arm around Brett Townsend’s wife Sabine as they declared their newfound love for each other. “The fact that they’re as close as they are and she’s a Townsend, or that they’re making plans to take a ladies trip to Jersey and New York?”
“They’re equally scary,” Mace muttered, looking up from the screen of my phone at us both, and then focusing on me. “Ok, I’ve got an idea. Remember that thing we got in the mail from DrawInk Magazine last week about the photo competition? Well, I don’t think we can submit the one with Liv in it, but I think we should send them this one.” He held the phone up and showed me the screen with the photo of just me and Jose in it. “It’s got everything they’re asking for – her tattoos are visible but keep you guessing, yours are tastefully visible, it’s a candid shot, and it’s perfect for it.” Not waiting for me to answer, he added, “What do you say?”
Seriously, at this moment in time, the answer to that was ‘not much’. It hadn’t occurred to me to submit it to any competition, I’d just intended to keep it as my wallpaper and hang them both on my walls. Now that he mentioned it, though, he was right – it was perfect. While my thoughts ricocheted around how great an idea, it was to how painful my death would be if Jose she found out, DB and the rest of the men started talking amongst themselves.
Eventually, I came to a decision and held my hand out for my phone.
“You’ve got balls, man,” DB chuckled as he slapped me on the back.
Just as I hit send, Tom snorted, “No, he had balls.”
Fuck, what had I done? Then again, she’ll probably never find out, so my balls were still safe. Right?Jose
It had been two days since the bar on the float had introduced itself to the back of my head. My headache was now tolerable, and my only complaint was that it hurt like a bitch where the bump was, so I refused to brush my hair in the area. Living with Ellis was also not the nightmare I’d expected it to be, far from it in fact, and I was enjoying it a lot.
The morning after the accident, he’d enlisted the help of some of the Townsends, Dave, and Mace, and they’d gutted the backyard. After that, they’d carefully outlined a big chunk in the middle and filled it with dirt and grass, and then added borders around it that they’d just left with dirt in them. The following day, while I was working on some designs for a client, he’d taken Liv out there with him, made sure they were in a shaded area, and the two of them had started putting plants and flowers in the dirt. Well, Ellis had put them in, Liv had thrown dirt all over the place. When she’d started fading, he’d brought her in, cleaned her up, and put her down for her nap, before going back out and finishing what he’d started. It now looked beautiful, the borders framing the large grassy area perfectly, and it amazed me how quickly he’d finished it.