Is she fucking kidding me? I take a deep breath and hit call.
“Why are you calling me, you psychopath?” Arizona laughs. “Just come to your door and let me in so we can talk like normal people.”
Wait. “You’re here?”
“I literally texted you that.”
I try to get up from my chair but wind up stumbling over a dog, a common occurrence when you have three –yes, three!- but all the more challenging when you’re surprised already and trying to move faster than normal.
It takes me all the way across the small room and nearly stepping on dog number two on my way to the doorway before I regain my footing. Then as soon as I’m in the hall, I speed up and run for the stairs. “I know you literally texted it; I just didn’t know you literally meant it!” I squeal, rounding the corner at the bottom. Then, as I lunge for the handle, dog number three, who’s been napping in front of the door, nearly gets squashed too.
“What are you doing here?”
Arizona beams back at me the second we’re finally face to face. Her hand flies up unexpectedly, nearly punching me in the eye, waving back and forth two tickets. “I’m taking you to go see Knox Marley and The Wilds at The House of Rock, that’s what!”
Knox Marley– God of Rock...and men, as far as I’m concerned. “What? How? Those tickets sold out two seconds after they went live!” I would know, I was online all morning that day trying to get a pair.
Arizona shrugs as she lets herself in, given I’m too in shock to invite her. She’s totally trying to downplay the massively big deal it is that she’s even standing here. And holding two tickets to see Knox. I say, calling him by his first name like I know the man personally. It’s hard not to feel like you do when you’ve read the man’s lyrics.
“You remember my cousin Stacie?”
I nod. Be hard not to. We all used to work together at the Mexican place. Unlike Arizona, she still lives in face-to-face talking distance to me. Not that we take advantage of that. We never were all that close even back then.
“Well, she landed the tickets through work...but then had to, you know,work.” She grins. “So, she was kind enough to pass them along. And I was kind enough to drive my happy ass across two state lines to share them with you.”
We stare at each other for several seconds while she waits for all her news to sink into my brain. There’s a lot of shit going on in there, so it takes several long moments for this new information to sift through and stick in the right places.
When it does, I practically explode into a giggling happy dance fit for a teenager. Not the teenager’s mother. Thankfully, Arizona is right there with me which lowers the blow a bit when my actual teen shows up in our midst, grimacing at the spectacle we’re making. Brinna, the furball I nearly squashed trying to open the door, looks equally unimpressed.
“What are you two doing? I was on the phone with Lena and evenshecould hear you two. Up the stairs. Andthroughmy headphones.” Sloan stands at the bottom of the stairs, arm still curled around the railing, a curious mockery dancing in her eyes.(Something I’ve seen there a lot as of late. I’m sure it has nothing to do with her being fourteen now.)
“We’re going to see Knox Marley!” Arizona and I both announce in a sing-song way, still happily hopping around my foyer.
“Oh.” Sloan rolls her eyes. “That old guy you like.” Then she grins. Maybe because she just remembered thatold guyis only one year older than me. “I’m just kidding, that’s awesome!” Her gaze subtly sweeps past us to the open door and the driveway and open road beyond, probably wondering if anyone else has been able to witness our display. “A little tip?” she offers as we start to calm down and I remember to close the front door.
“Sure.” The occasional teenage ‘tude aside, my kid and I are solid. I’ll take her tip, even if it’s likely to come out as a burn at my expense.
“Maybe don’t do any of this when you’re at the concert. Or, even within a few miles. Really anywhere beyond this house where Knox Marley could possibly see you, don’t do any ofthis.” She gestures at our hopping and dancing.
“Why?” Arizona asks, sounding somewhat offended as we start to make our way toward her. “You don’t know. Maybe he would appreciate our youthful enthusiasm.”
“I’m pretty sure the only youthful enthusiasm rock stars are interested in is a set of perky boobs, and all that jumping about isn’t conveying that particular message,” Sloan says dryly.
“Wow.” I’ve raised a monster. A snarky one. Whose humor I have no choice but to appreciate.
“I know.” Arizona cups both boobs with her hands. “Why you gotta drag the girls into this? I’m forty years old. Do you know what they’ve been through? Show them some kindness, man.”
Sloan laughs. “Meanwhile, can you let your girls go a sec so I can give you a proper hug hello?”
Arizona doesn’t need to be told twice. In a flash, she’s grabbed my child by the wrist and dragged her over from the stairs to smother her with auntie love. “I feel like you’ve gotten taller in the last five months. Have you gotten taller? We have a deal, man. You’re supposed to stay shorter than me. Right now, I kinda feel like you’re going to let me down and stab me in the back with your height.”
Sloan unravels herself from her aunt’s enthusiastic embrace. “You do realize growth occurs involuntarily in children, yes?”
Arizona sighs and looks at me. “She’s getting smarter with her height. Back when we made the deal, she fully believed she could control staying small.” She shakes her head, rolling her bottom lip out in disappointment. “I miss that.”
Which reminds me. “Speaking of getting smarter, how close are you to being done with the math you put off all week but promised you’d have done before you leave? Your dad’s going to be here to pick you up in less than two hours and now that Arizona’s here, I think we should run out and grab lunch at Mesa’s before you go.”
“Lena was helping me, so I just have three problems left to finish. I’ll be fast,” she calls out, already running up the stairs to get back to her room and her laptop. Nothing like lunch with her favorite aunt and mama at the best farm-to-table place in town to motivate her to finally finish up the schoolwork she spent all week trying to avoid.
