I leaned close to her. “You’re lying. What’s more, you know I know that you’re lying.”
She remained the picture of innocence. “Please tell me you’re finally going to get your girl. I can’t take much more of this.”
“Oh, I’m going to get her,” I agreed. “I’m not going to do it here in the ice cream shop so everybody can ooh and aah, but I’m totally going to do it.”
“How are you going to do it?”
The question threw me. “What do you mean? I’m going to ask her out.”
“You’ve already done that, and she said no.”
That was a fair point. “Well, I’m going to be more forceful this time.”
Livvie looked dubious. “Okay, but don’t stomp into her suite and say something stupid like ‘you are going out on a date with me.’ Ruby isn’t going to like that.”
I nodded in agreement. “I’ll figure something out.”
Now she did allow herself to smile. “I’m so glad you finally got your head out of your ass.”
I didn’t smile in return. “I can’t stand any of you right now. I hope you know that.”
“You can stand Ruby.”
“I can.” A reluctant smile crossed my lips, unbidden. “Now I just have to figure out how to convince her to give me a shot.”
“I find flowers always help.”
“Yeah, it has to be bigger than that.”
“Good luck.”
“Thank you. I think I’m going to need it.”
19
NINETEEN
“Today is the day for celebration!”
Dad strolled into the boardroom throwing Mardi Gras beads in every direction. A purple set smacked me in the face but after the hot fudge sundae—with all the fixings—I wasn’t in the mood to get up and strangle him to death with the beads for a change.
“And what are we celebrating today?” Pearl asked, her eyes narrowed as Dad considered throwing beads at her. There was a clear message in her glare.Do it and die.
Dad must have read how serious Pearl was because he nicely handed her a set of yellow beads. “Today is the day, children. Today is the day my new life begins and the old one ends.”
I cast a quick look at Zach, who was settled on the opposite side of the table with Olivia. The muscle working in his jaw suggested that he wasn’t in the mood for whatever mind trip Dad was about to embark on.
“I think he’s saying his mistress had her baby,” Opal offered in a stage whisper. Everybody was meant to hear it. “I mean … that’s just a guess, though.”
Dad pinned Opal with a pointed but still pleasant stare. “Opal, Claire gave birth two months ago. It was right after the party at your sister’s suite to announce my first grandchild.”
It was so Dad to make everything about him. “Technically, I’d already announced my pregnancy,” I offered helpfully. “The dinner at my suite was to announce the father.”
“Yes, you always did like to do things in the proper order,” Mom said sarcastically.
All I could do was shrug. I refused to engage with her. She’d come a long way when it came to my pregnancy. She was still struggling with the fact that I wasn’t married, though. It was the way she was raised. I understood that and didn’t hold it against her. In her day, people got married whether they were a good match or not. They didn’t see the damage a bad marriage could do. Not that I thought Rex and I would have a bad marriage. Weirdly, the longer things went on, the more I started to wonder if we were selling ourselves short by not dating.
We were getting along great these days. The ice cream situation was further proof of that. Even though I’d been determined to go the healthiest route possible at the ice cream shop, Rex had seen beyond my facade and insisted on real ice cream. Sure, it had been a bossy move, but since I really loved ice cream, it had been the right one.
