Joan yawned and stretched her back. The red scab under her eye was thanks to Prowl’s assault. As if Sadie needed another reason to dislike that jerk.
She stirred the salted caramel hot chocolate, then studied her short, rounded and newly painted lavender nails. “I don’t know if I like this color or not.”
Joan glanced over. “It’s okay, but I always prefer red.”
“A dark crimson the same shade as on a former Supervillain’s suit?”
“Exactly,” she said with a cute wink.
The former Villains hadn’t returned their suits to the Supers yet. The city’s Heroes had been too busy with increased activity from the new Villains. Trying to get them to leave had made them more determined to stay and wreak havoc. They were doing things in broad daylight with Squawk breaking windows and Prowl hopping in and out of stores with armfuls of loot. The sky was frequently swirling and misty green and buzzy over specific areas.
At least Joan and Mark and Perry had tried to help. Fighting the new Villains showed they really did want them gone.
Joan stretched her arms forward, groaning from the effort.
“Sore from your workout?” Sadie guessed.
“Yeah.” She leaned in, tilting her head to Sadie’s ear. “Sorry we missed having morning sex.”
“That’s okay. We can always have good old-fashioned nighttime sex.”
One of Mark’s eyebrows scrunched low. “Ew. Why would you do sex-type things when you’re half asleep and have stinky breath?”
“We’re usually too tired after work,” Joan said. “This way, we know no matter what happens, we took care of that important business.”
After a moment, Mark said, “That’s actually a really good idea.”
“I know, right?”
“Plus there’s less chance of me dropping by and ruining the mood.”
“You’re not wrong about that.”
Sadie just shook her head. “I would never in a million years discuss my sex life with my sister. Whenever Carrie has a baby, I’m going to assume it hatched, or one of those cartoon storks dropped it off.”
“We don’t have a normal sibling relationship,” Joan said.
“Joanie’s my best friend,” Mark said. “I tell her everything.”
“Aww,” Sadie cooed as Joan drawled, “Yeah, he tells meeverything.”
“You love it.”
Someone knocked on their rear entry. Sadie set her long metal spoon to the side and decreased the burner to a low simmer. Morris from Cajun Soul stood on the sidewalk in a puffy, bright-red jacket.
“Hi, friend,” Sadie said.
“Hey, Sadie. Do you have any extra honey we could borrow?”
“I think so. Let me check.”
“Thank you. I thought we had whole other bottle, but we can’t find it.”
“No problem.” Sadie ducked back into the truck to investigate. “Morris and Tenia need to borrow some honey.”
Mark chin-nodded at a high metal shelf. “There’s some up there.”
Sadie moved around containers of spices and condiments to find the bear-shaped plastic bottle. Joan followed her to the open doorway and said hello to Morris.
