“And we brought goodies,” Maria concluded.
They set their bags down on the counter and shed their coats and sweaters. Underneath, they were all wearing pajamas. Drew’s were Barbie™ -themed, the fashion doll having recently earned her stripes as a feminist icon. Drew had memorized the film’s America Ferrera monologue about being a woman. Willow’s pajamas were plain and blue, and Maria’s were white and looked as if she’d borrowed them from Harrison. In fact, there was an HH embroidered on the pocket.
She saw Lily notice. She said, “What? At this point in my marriage, all my jammies are naughty,” and everyone laughed.
“We heard you had a rough day,” Maria went on, sending Lily a smile. The grocery bag she’d brought in was insulated and held ice cream and soft drinks. She unpacked them and put them into the fridge and freezer.
“And we’re also aware that our cousin’s an idiot,” Drew put in. She’d brought multiple varieties of junk food, chips, and pre-made dips. There were Oreo cookies and peanut butter cups, God help her. Oh, and chocolate syrup and sprinkles. Okay, she got it. The evening would include making sundaes.
“Don’t be speculating about me and Ethan,” Lily said. “There’s absolutely nothing going on.”
Willow’s laugh came through her nose because she clapped a hand over her mouth. The others just let it rip. They stopped giggling when she scowled at them, though. Then Willow wiggled her eyebrows and started taking glasses from the cabinet, lining them on the counter, adding ice, and pouring booze.
“We never celebrated your career change,” Maria said, then muttered, “or even discussed it.”
Lily lowered her head. “I was…embarrassed to admit I couldn’t hack it, to be honest,” she admitted.
Willow shoved a drink into her hand. “Look up,” she said.
She looked up while taking a long drink. The three cousins were surrounding her, looking her in the eye.
“You see these faces?” Willow asked. “These are the faces of your sisters. There’s no embarrassment among sisters.”
The others nodded, there was a group hug, and then the drinking began in earnest.
“I think he’s scared of me, the big goof,” Lily said, then she bit a full moon Oreo into a waning crescent.
“Big goof,” Drew said, and she snort-laughed which made them all laugh.
“He’s nuts ‘bout you,” Maria said. “He was terrified when that stranger threatened you.”
“Aw, yeah,” Willow said. “He loo—” Hiccup “—looked terr’fied.”
And then everyone laughed at the hiccup.
They’d put a movie on. A rom-com nobody was watching. Lily decided to turn it off, and did so, and then Maria set her phone in the speaker dock and got some country music playing.
Drew said, “Does anybody else think it was weird, how that guy threatened Lily, then died before he ever got out of town?”
“Oh, I sure do,” Willow said. She looked around as if somebody might be listening, which made Lily giggle a little more. But then she said, “There was brown paint on that Caddy.”
“Brown paint?” Lily asked. “What would that mean?”
“You think another car hit him?” Drew asked.
Willow nodded hard. “Driver said it had happened a coupla days ago, but?—”
“So the car that hit him was brown?” Lily asked.
Drew was dancing. She grabbed Willow’s hand and pulled her up to her feet to join her.
“Mud brown,” Willow said, swaying to the music as if she did it every day. “I got a sample, so we might even be able to get make and model.”
“Old Buick,” Lily said.
Maria, a green-eyed redhead like her mamma, tapped Drew’s phone to stop the music. “How do you know that, Lil?”
She frowned, recalling the brown car she’d seen parked near the cantina. But she didn’t want to get someone into trouble until she knew more. So she said, “My neighbor back east had an old Buick. Thing was mud brown, that’s how I always thought of it. When you said that, it reminded me of it.”
