And then she did one of the funniest things I’d ever seen. She ran up to her PawPaw, wrapped herself around his legs to get away from Noah, and peeked around him to see what her dad was doing. When she saw him getting close to where she was trying to hide, she shoved both hands into her pockets, grabbed some of the contents, and then started shoving them into Hurst’s pocket.
Yeah, that was funny, but his reaction was what ended up with me laughing my ass off so hard I had tears. When he realized what Jamie was doing, Hurst jumped away from her and reached into his pocket to get out what she’d just given him, not caring where he was throwing them so long as they were gone. Then, he grabbed Noah’s bottle of beer out of his hand and took a big mouthful.
Not amused yet? Well, come to find out that some of the poop raisins had landed in it while he was tossing them away, so as he went to swallow, he felt something in amongst the beer in his mouth. His eyes bugged out, and then the beer went spraying everywhere.
“Rainbow!” Jamie screamed, dancing around again, happy that no one was coming to steal her sunshine.
I wasn’t sure if that sort of thing was normal, but I loved her excitement about life being just about sunshine and rainbows. When I was her age, I’d been the same way, and it brought back memories of life before Mom got sick and died. We’d laughed a lot, played together, and she’d help us build shit and then knock it back down again.
Basically, at some point, my life had been the same. Sunshine and rainbows on a happy day. Maybe not ones made of beer and goat shit, though. That said, these ones came with a feeling of freedom I hadn’t had in years and the best people in the world. I’d take this kind over the last eighteen years any day.
ArianaElijah was listening intently to what I was saying to him as I worked until something over my shoulder caught his attention.
“So would you be interested?” I asked, waving my hand in front of his face. “Earth to Elijah.”
Taking his eyes away from whatever it was, he looked back at me and gave an apologetic smile. “Sorry, what were you saying?”
“I was saying we might all take a trip to go and see the cousins and that you should come with us.”
“But they smell funny, and—” he suddenly cut off, scowling at something as the muscle in his jaw ticked furiously.
“Are you okay?” I asked, turning to see what was pissing him off. All I found was Sadie wiping the bar down with a small smile on her face. “You seem distracted.”
“Yeah, sorry, I thought—" he started, and then stopped abruptly again, his eyes narrowing even more on whatever it was that he was seeing.
Figuring someone was hassling my friend, I turned around again, expecting to see a man in her space or even walking away from her, but this time she had her back to us as she changed out a bottle from the display. “Is it Sadie?”
Not taking his eyes off her, he growled, “She keeps giving me the bird and sticking her tongue out at me.”
“Can’t say I blame her, Elijah. You’ve been tormenting her since you got here.”
Suddenly he stood up and pointed at her. “The next time you stick your tongue out at me, I’m going to kiss you. Let that be your warning!”
The noise in the bar shut off like someone had flipped an off switch as we all prepared for the ensuing war between them.
Surprisingly, Sadie didn’t fire back with anything other than, “I have no idea what you’re talking about? Hey, Parker, maybe you should look him over. I’m no doctor, but I don’t think having hallucinations is good, is it?”
Growling, he sat back down with a thud, not taking his glare off her once.
Seeing that there were no patrons to serve and knowing someone would shout if there were, I smiled and waved at Parker as I moved over to where Sadie was.
“Help me swap out the barrels, will you? Those things weigh a ton, and I can’t move the full ones into place by myself. I got these here puny little musk-les.” I held up my arm to show her my bicep.
“Please,” she snorted. “You run and lift shit every day. I’m almost certain you’re not human.”
That might be a fact, but I still couldn’t move those damn barrels by myself. Pulling my best pathetic look, I pleaded, “Please? It’ll get you away from the moron.”
The moron was Elijah, named so by Sadie herself. Well, technically, that was her current name for him. Before this, he’d been the wanker, twat, tit stain, arse wipe, arse fungus, cretin, sodding shit… it was hard to keep up.