“Mama, can we go ride the Ferris wheel?” Luka asks, having seen what she came to,
The Pulverizing Peaches.
“Yep. Let’s make our way toward the rides and games before they light the tree,” Vangie says. Payton takes his cue, leading the pack through the crowd.
“Hey Brody,” Zoey calls from above his shoulders. “Will you ride with me?” she solidifies her seat on the Ferris wheel figuring Brody is tall enough to make the height requirement for the both of them.
“I’m afraid of heights,” he kids. “You might have to hold my hand.”
“You got it!” Zoey encourages, her gloved appendage now begging of a high-five from him.
Once they clear the crowd, Luka and Zoey scurry down from their posts making a run for the Ferris wheel line, Payton’s watchful eye keeping track of their petite forms.
“Where’s Willow?” Savannah digs at Noah as he walks between her and Vangie, trailing behind.
“This isn’t really her thing,” he says, a victorious grin forming. “She did invite me over for a Thanksgiving nightcap, though.”
“I bet she’ll be awful
thank
ful.” Savannah giggles.
“You think I should go? I mean, isn’t there some kind of rule about having so many dates before,” he searches his vocabulary, “giving of the
thanks.”
“Do you want to go?” Savannah’s eyebrow ascends tauntingly.
“Well yeah,” he says as if that’s a no-brainer.
“Willow’s no amateur. If she invited you over, she knows exactly what she is prepared to offer, or not,” Savannah advises. “You’re both big boys and girls. If you want to go, go.”
“Willow? As in your boss, Willodean?” Vangie asks. “You and Willow?” She looks to Noah. He smiles bashfully. “Why am I always the last to know everything in this family?”
“Because you’re judgmental,” Jac pipes, finally catching up to them in the crowd, having swiftly exited the float parade.
“Isn’t that the big fat pot calling the kettle black!” Vangie spars at her domineering senior. “Speaking of, did you know Mama ditched us for a date with some old geezer from the bridge club?”
“Are you still on this?” Jac shakes her head. “I listened to this all the way over here,” she informs Savannah of the shared car ride where Vangie outwardly obsessed over Buffy’s newfound independence. “Mama is a geezerette,” Jac returns her conversation to Vangie. “It’s good for her to hang out with her crowd. Would you just
let it go,
already.” She slaps Vangie on the bottom, briskly making her way to the front of the pack, jumping upon Gavin’s back.
“Hey baby!” he greets, his arms encircling the backs of her knees, happy to piggyback her through the crowd. “You were pretty damn phenomenal up there on that float.”
“A regular
Misfit
America.” She laughs, kissing the side of his face, her short, spiky platinum blonde hair tickling his skin. The usual purple-tinted ends now red, facilitating the holiday season, a nice accent to her tiny red and green spiraled candy cane nose stud.
“You cold?” he asks, her limbs still bare in her derby gear.
“Not anymore,” she purrs, the warmth of his back heating her up.
“Luka!” Payton yells, as he and Brody play interception amongst a scuffle in the Ferris wheel line. “You can’t do that,” he scolds, pulling the southpaw away from a boy her age after having thrown a punch square in his abdomen.
“But he pulled Zoey’s hair and cut in front of her in line,” Luka argues, her angry little brows furrowed.
“Good girl, Luka!” Jac cheers from the sideline.
Payton waves her away with his hand, knowing Luka doesn’t need any encouragement. “We don’t hit,” Payton returns to Luka.
Zoey milks Brody’s affection, as his large hands take great care in wiping tears away from her cheeks. “It’s alright, baby girl. We’re still going to ride that Ferris wheel.” Her frown quickly reciprocates his wide smile.
“Don’t you think you should apologize?” Payton asks Luka.
“Well, I’m not sorry,” she says, her head giving one stiff nod.
“Look, little dude,” Payton addresses the boy who holds his arm across his stomach, apparently unsupervised, no parents in sight. “You can’t go around pulling people’s hair and cutting in line. Okay?” The boy nods. “Since apologies seem to be out of the question, maybe you two can shake on it,” he prods. The boy cautiously offers up his hand to Luka, who, with Payton’s insistence, half-heartedly meets his palm.
“What’s going on over there?” Vangie sputters walking up on the scene. She and her group keep their distance, letting Payton mediate.
“Seems this kid thinks he’s Jimmy Bruschi,” Jac informs, the second grade menace who underwent the same fist to the stomach after pulling Vangie’s pigtails.
“Luka,” Vangie whispers, her tone somewhere between pride and scorn. “Those two fuss and fight with each other, all day, every day. Yet they’re the first to come to one another’s defense.”
“Thick as thieves,” Jac says admirably.
“Just like watching those two all over again.” Savannah chuckles, gesturing to Vangie and Jac, as she informs Noah.
“Wish I would’ve been around to see that.” Noah takes them in with his eyes, the women they are now providing colorful imagery of the girls they were then.
“You shoot darts?” Gavin asks Jac, the Balloon Dart Throw game in his peripheral aside the Ferris wheel.
“I can try,” she answers, purposefully unsure.
“We’ll win Zoey a stuffed teddy bear. That’ll make her feel better.” He claps, stepping up to the booth, laying his money down. Settling in behind Jac, he coaches her on her form, enjoying the closeness. “Now, you try,” he says.
Jac levels her elbow with the balloon, the dart held precisely between her thumb and index finger, releasing with a flick of her wrist, the balloon disintegrates. “Will that do?” she says, smiling at him as if experiencing beginner’s luck.
“You little hustler.” Gavin nuzzles her neck, stepping up aside her. “Best out of three,” he challenges with a wink.
Jac’s head cocks to the side, enjoying his competitiveness. “I don’t think I’ve ever been more attracted to you.” She giggles momentarily, returning her determined attention to the task at hand.
“Oh boy,” Vangie mutters. “Bogey inbound. Nine o’clock,” she warns.
Savannah turns in the direction, noticing Jack Brigant and Daisy approaching. “Now, be cordial,” she whispers out the side of her mouth.
“It’s not me you have to worry about.” Vangie’s eyes grow large, darting in Jac’s direction.
Jack inspects Noah as he walks up, the handsome, well-built man roughly around Savannah’s age. “Savannah. Vangie,” Jack greets, his eyes settling on Noah.
Daisy tightens her grip on Jack’s hand, her body slightly hidden behind him, apparently not feeling so brass without her texting phone to communicate.
“Jack. Daisy,” Savannah replies, consciously making herself include his companion into her salutation.
Jack extends his hand to Noah, pressing to know exactly who he is. Noah looks to Savannah for introductions, picking up on her slightly apprehensive body language and tweaked tone.
“Jack Brigant, this is Noah Bondurant. Our brother.”
“Brother?” Jack’s facial tension releases with the favorable information, now growing confused at the notion that the girls have a male sibling.
“Long story,” Savannah keeps it short. “But a good one.” She smiles affectionately at Noah.
“Aunt Vannah!” Zoey calls from atop the Ferris wheel, her hands thrown up over her head mirroring Brody’s. “Look at us!” Her ecstatic laughter sounding over the hum of the giant wheel’s engine.
“I see you, baby!” Savannah yells up, her hands equally waving. Turning back around eventually, Savannah catches Jack’s glance as he peruses Zoey’s unfamiliar Herculean seat partner. She does not validate his curiosity, holding firm that they no longer have shared business.
“Couldn’t ask for a better night for the winter festival,” Vangie fills the awkward silence, tugging on her hat pulling it effectively down over her ears, the air growing more brisk as the sun sets. “I like your coat,” she compliments Daisy, attempting to bring her into the conversation.
“Thanks,” Daisy dismisses, looking around the event, clearly disinterested in her current company.
“It was good seeing y’all,” Jack excuses, Daisy pulling on his arm.
“Take care,” Vangie and Savannah reply in unison. Noah remains quiet, the tension a little thick, his loyalty with his sisters.
“Well, she’s not overly talkative, is she?” Vangie pipes.
“Probably just the way everything went down,” Savannah says, still a bit unsettled with the debacle herself.
“The way what went down?” Vangie asks, completely clueless to Daisy’s text war.
“Nothing.” Savannah waves her off. “Doesn’t matter now anyway. Look at how much fun those kids are having.” She deflects, watching Luka and Zoey as they laugh and shout going round and round on the Ferris wheel.
“Be a toss-up between them and the guys,” Noah comments as he grins, shaking his head at the excitement on Brody’s and Payton’s faces as they rock the seats back and forth per the girls’ insistence.
“I swear, nobody ever tells me anything,” Vangie exhausts. “And they better stop rocking those seats before they get kicked off,” she quickly returns to her maternal role.
“Don’t do it,” Savannah talks under her breath, watching Jack walk toward Jac and Gavin at the Balloon Dart Throw booth. “Just keep walking.”
“What?” Vangie asks, following Savannah’s visual trajectory. “Uh,” she huffs at Jack’s bold move. “Didn’t he have enough at Mama’s?” she reminisces the mortifying scuffle.
“Jac-You-Up,”
Jack calls, “you looked pretty darn good up there on that derby float.” On his lonesome now as Daisy stands behind him chatting with some acquaintances, he, too, feels at liberty to converse.
Jac turns around, taking an intermission between alternate throws with Gavin. “Jack Brigant,” she says, her stone-cold face turning friendly, the existence of an inspiring new relationship aiding in her elevated mood and ability to let bygones be bygones. “Thought I’d see you on the fire engine,” she recalls the large, red rectangle on wheels making its appearance in the parade.
“Lucky me, I’ve got the holiday off,” he says. “Look, this may not be the place, but I just wanted to make sure we’re okay. I’ve already talked with Savannah.”
“I know,” Jac interrupts. “We’re fine. Long as you do your thing and mind yours. Stay out of Savannah’s. You and me, we’ll get along just fine.” Jack nods, happy to be amicable.
Daisy spots Jack talking with the tall, lean, alternative-looking woman, having no idea who she is. Quickly manning her station, she walks to Jack, slipping her arm around his waist, hugging herself against him territorially.
Jac’s friendly expression vanishes with Daisy’s presence, figuring her for Savannah’s vulgar text stalker. “Have a good one,” Jac says sternly, looking directly at Jack, his cue to get his crude
idgit
out of her sight.
“Oh, good God,” Savannah mutters, briskly walking in their direction in case she needs to corral her agitable eldest sister. Vangie and Noah follow suit.
“Another one bites the dust,” Gavin exclaims, joining Jac, proudly holding a stuffed teddy bear in his grip. Reading her standoffish body language, he looks to Jack and Daisy inspecting.
Feeling secure with the fact that the attractive woman appears to have a suitor, Daisy extends her hand to Jac, her smug smirk still warning. “I’m Daisy. Jack’s
girlfriend,”
she enunciates her title.
Jac returns her self-righteous grin, sizing up the rather dainty waifish figure aggressively exuding a Rottweiler’s bark with a Chihuahua’s size. Finding absolutely no thrill in engaging in an unfair physical altercation, “Fuck off,” Jac says, her tone completely apathetic.
“Well, we better be going,” Jack quickly interjects, pulling Daisy along with him as Savannah, Vangie and Noah help him out, crowding around Jac and Gavin.
“Baby?” Gavin prods, his lips upturning, even with a foul mouth he finds her simply adorable.
“Judging from her texts, I figure that’s the only language she understands,” Jac mutters.
“I’m sorry,” Savannah apologizes. “I didn’t think they’d actually come over here.”
Vangie can’t help herself from goading, throwing Jac’s ever-present advice back at her, “Why,
sister mine,
‘Would you just
let it go,
already.’” She slaps Jac on the bottom spritely, followed by an indulgent laugh.
Jac wraps her arms, one each around Vangie and Savannah’s shoulders. “Take it from me,
sister loves.
There are times in life when you simply don’t want to
let it go.
When it just feels better to let it burn,” she growls, taking great pride in the declaration. “Everybody needs a little angry motivation. Especially in my line of work.” She chuckles, knowing exactly whose face she will picture at her next bout when she takes out an opponent skater.
Luka and Zoey’s jovial voices fill the air as they accompany Brody and Payton off the Ferris wheel, running toward the rest of their crew. “Mama! Did you see us, rocking our seats?” Luka asks excitedly.
“Yes. I did,” Vangie acknowledges, a bit of lecture in her tone. “I ought to give your daddy and Brody a lashing with a wet noodle for teaching you girls bad tricks.”
“That would have to be an awful big noodle,” Zoey pipes, sizing up her towering seat mate, fully entertaining her crowd.
“Gavin won this for you.” Jac hands Zoey the large stuffed teddy bear.
“Ooh, cool!” Zoey hugs the teddy bear to her chest, her glance trailing in Luka’s direction. Any other time, she would taunt her big sister for having something she does not. Zoey takes the bear by its arms, hugging it around Luka’s neck, giving it to her. “Thanks for sticking up for me, Sis,” she says.
“Aw,” Vangie exclaims, her arm encircling Payton’s waist, the two parents enjoying a tender moment between their otherwise bickering children.
“Anytime,
sister mine,”
Luka says, having heard her mother, Aunt Jac and Aunt Savannah share the same expression at least a hundred times.