Fireball (Cheap Thrills 1)

“She’d…” I stopped as another sob broke free. “She’d be tickled pink,” I croaked, starting to completely lose it.

There are some moments when tears happen, a bit like shit does. You don’t want them to, but they just come out and you can’t stop them. This wasn’t one of those moments. Why? Because Jose burst out laughing, shocking the hell out of all of us because this wasn’t a laughing moment. This was a ‘let’s bond over our tears and have a moment that should feature in an Oscar winning performance’ moment.

“Did you…” she snorted, wiping her face. “Did you just quote Steel Magnolias?”

Fuck me, I had.

My face must have shown that this was in fact what I’d just done, because both men burst out laughing, the sheriff’s chuckles making my body move seeing as how he still hadn’t let me go. Trying to pull away from him and losing, I tried to prevent the shudders still coming from him from waking up Olivia, but it was impossible. With a squawk, she opened her eyes and started pursing her tiny little lips. I hadn’t been around a lot of babies, but she was the most beautiful one I’d seen. Her eyes were dark blue at the edges with a paler blue around her pupils, framed by long dark lashes. Those eyes would melt the hearts of every man she looked at, I was sure of it. She was going to be the opposite of Medusa!

“It was appropriate,” I eventually snapped when they wouldn’t stop laughing. “I didn’t mean to quote it, it just happened.”

“Girl, farts just happen. Quoting a key line from a movie of that ilk? That was just outstanding,” Ellis chuckled.

Glaring at him, I flicked a quick glance at Jose and decided that when she was ready, he’d be the perfect guy for her. Right now it was too soon because a matter of hours doesn’t heal a heart that’s been betrayed, but in time she’d be ready and she needed a good guy who would heal the jagged pieces inside her. How did I know he was a good guy? Something in the way he’d looked at my sister when we’d come in, like he was making sure she was ok, told me that. The way he was looking at Olivia like she was the biggest miracle in the world, told me that. The fact he was obviously interested in her, but he wasn’t overwhelming Jose with it, told me that. In time, I was going to put him to the test like all sisters did just to make sure, but I also figured that if he was ok with the sheriff, then he was probably a good guy. So, I’d plant the seed in my sister’s head, and I’d work on making sure that I was right about him until she was ready. We had time.

I could feel the Sheriff’s fingers moving gently over Olivia’s back and looked at Jose to make sure she was ok with him touching her baby. Her happy smile assured me she was. Like he could tell what I’d just done, he asked, “Can I hold her?”

A big grin split my sister’s face as she answered him. “Of course. Just don’t arrest her, at least not yet.”

Ellis joined us as he carefully lifted her out of my arms and smiled softly down at her when she was settled against the sheriff’s chest. “She won’t get arrested, ever. At least she better not,” he shot a warning glare at his friend.

“I dunno, he’s mighty fast with those handcuffs,” I muttered, and then realized how that sounded. There was a second of silence before they started laughing again, proving that they were all a bunch of dirty-minded bastards. “You guys suck.”

Fortunately, my torture ended before it started thanks to my awesome niece who started wailing. Looking uncomfortable and worried, the Sheriff tried passing her back to me, but I took a step back shaking my head.

Ellis scored a point in his favor on my new ‘Ellis list’ when he leaned in and carefully took her out of the Sheriff’s arms. “Are you hungry, princess? Your mama’s right here, she’ll fix it.”

“What? No, I don’t know how to fix it. Don’t you need stuff?” Jose stammered, shifting in her bed like she was trying to move away from the baby being passed back to her.

“You’ve got the stuff,” I nodded at her boobies. When she just looked back at me, I sighed. “Your ta-ta’s, girl.”

“Uh, we’ll go wait outside,” the sheriff said as he grabbed Ellis’s arm and moved toward the door. “Shout when you’re done.”

When the door shut behind them, Jose whispered frantically, “I don’t know how to do it. I mean, I read the books and watched the shit on YouTube, but I’ve never actually done it. What if she doesn’t like mine? What if they don’t do what they’re meant to? What if she wants chocolate milk and I’ve only got… what flavor do we have?”