No Quarter (NOLA's Own #2) (25 page)

Sheri and I positively howled with laughter while Alys did her very best not to join in. Pursing her lips, she concentrated hardcore on driving. If she hit silent-laughing mode, she’d steer the car into oncoming traffic and kill us all.

“He was just getting a glass of water,” said Alys.

“He scarred me for life!”

Tears poured down my face, and Alys pulled over onto the shoulder of the long stretch of highway, so she could safely bust out laughing, too.

Ten minutes later, we were back on the road.

“So, yeah…” Alys said with a hint of the giggles. “We had sex, and it was
awesome
.”

“Did you do it in the dark? Did his pubic torch light the way?” asked Lili scathingly.

“Just the nightstand light on,” Alys continued. Then, she went into massive amounts of details of her first night of sexual passion with X. “I mean, seriously, he would’ve spent the whole night going down on me, but finally, I was like, ‘Would you just shove it in already?’ And he did, and he knows how to use that thing, let me tell you.”

Sheri spontaneously clapped. “Yay! He really
is
in love with you!”

I turned around, and Lili was staring at Sheri in complete surprise, too.

“How do you figure?” asked Alys.

“The guys don’t go down on chicks,” she stated. “Never. It’s this thing they have. You only go down on the one you love. Phil called it ‘kissing the gates your children will pass through’ or some such shit.”

“Yeah.” I snorted and faced forward again. “That sounds like something he’d say. It was probably ‘you only fuckin’ put your face next to the hole your fuckin’ kids will shoot out of.’”

Heartily came the chortles from the backseat.

“Really?” breathed Alys. She looked to me. “Phil goes down on you, right?”

“Are you kidding me? You’d think I had set up an all-you-can-eat buffet down there!”

“Does Jason do the deed on you?” Lili asked Sheri.

“He didn’t for, like, the first year. But after we got really close, yeah. Haven’t had it since his face got busted, but that’s understandable.”

“What about you, Lili? Lewis enjoying the Colombian cuisine?” I asked.

“Yep! No complaints in that department.”

“Well, how nice. We’re all getting some head,” commented Sheri.

Traipsing through the outdoor market, we found chicken thighs and a huge skirt steak for the barbeque later and had the vendors hold on to them, so we could hit up the café area for some lunch.

“So, Lewis wants me to come work with him at the restaurant,” Lili announced as we started digging in. “And I was wondering what I should do. What do you all think?”

Alys gave her a surprised look. “Really? Is that such a good idea?”

“Well, I’m not so sure,” she replied. “He wants me to take over the hostess station. The girls working the front of the house are kind of…well, they’re hot and eighteen. He’s got six of them, and he thinks an older person would sort of keep them in check. He also thinks my experience in dealing with panicking people calling nine-one-one could be of some use, like with customers who are assholes and want to make the staff cry. I can see why he thinks that’d come in handy.”

“What do you
want
to do?” I asked her.

“It’s a lot more money, for one. And it’s not like we’d be working together so much. We’d see each other but not more than that really.”

“What is it that worries you about accepting?” Sheri asked, being psychoanalytically brilliant.

“I don’t want to disappoint him,” Lili replied, her voice hushed. “I’d just die if I let him down. I’ve never worked in a restaurant like that. Kenna and I worked at Dairy Queen in high school together, and that’s about all I got.”

“We put on, like, fifteen pounds each that year,” I stated.

“And that’s another thing! I don’t want to get fat on his fine dining and shit!”

“In all honesty, Lili, if you
are
going to get fat, it
should
be on his fine dining,” drawled Alys.

“More money, seeing Lewis more, and access to fantastic cuisine,” I listed. “Go for it. If you end up really hating it, then just let him know. The guy adores you. He’ll understand.”

“Let him know how you feel about the cons beforehand, you know? So, he knows what makes you nervous,” Sheri told her. “That way, he’ll take into consideration your feelings and be more patient.”

“Who are you?” I laughed. “Did you tap into your inner Oprah this morning?”

Sheri smiled shyly. “I’ve been reading some self-help garbage my therapist recommended about getting your feelings out and not being afraid of standing up for yourself…blah, blah, blah.”

“You incorporating that into your own life?” asked Lili.

“Trying to.”

“How’s that working for you?” Lili asked.

“Meh. One day at a time, I suppose.”

We finished our lunches, wrapped up the farmers market shopping, then headed to the organic grocer on the way home, so I could grab a few tubes of toothpaste and some other stuff for dinner. When we got back to the Plantation House, we unloaded everything in the big half.

“I know I should help you guys prep for dinner and everything, but would it be okay if I took a nap? I’m dead tired,” said Lili. “I promise to make it up to you guys, I swear.”

“Well, you did get us a fabulous dinner at The Duck Pond, so consider it our thank-you and go nap,” replied Alys.

“True,” agreed Lili, heading for the backyard. “I’ll be over later then.”

After putting beef and chicken in some marinade, making the salad, and finishing X’s favorite dish of macaroni salad, we went to the patio with some iced tea, waiting for the guys to come home.

“It’s really like we’re one big family now,” remarked Sheri. “It’s nice.”

Alys said, “We’ve always lived like this. When we grew up on the compound, everyone would get together for dinner.”

“And after we left, our families would still do dinner a couple of nights a week. I think Grandma thought we were weirdos at first, but after a while, she ended up enjoying it.”

“It sounds like a fantastic way to grow up.” Sheri’s tone was light, but her eyes reflected the horrors she had suffered.

“Hey, we don’t have to talk about our childhoods if it brings up bad memories for you,” Alys told her, her voice sounding a lot like her mom’s when she was trying to soothe a sore heart.

“I love hearing about you guys. It just makes me so angry that Evan and I didn’t have that.”

“Is it easier to say his name now?” I asked.

“No, but I’m forcing myself to use it. He shouldn’t be erased because my past is hard to face.”

Sheri might say she was taking it one day at a time, but the rest of us truly saw just how strong she already was. She had made leaps and bounds with herself since that night, and her determination to heal her old wounds had sped up the process. I would love to know who her therapist was. The woman deserved a fucking medal.

The guys showed up not long after that, and they decided to set up for a jam session on the patio to entertain us before we all pitched in and made dinner.

Grill Master Alys took the last chicken thigh off the grill just as Lili showed up for the feast. Like one big happy family, we had a meal full of laughter and story-swapping. Alys was right. This was just like when we were kids.

“Too bad Connor isn’t here,” I remarked to her.

I witnessed a sadness of sorts flash in her eyes. I supposed she missed him, too. He was just as much a brother to her as to me.

“Yeah,” she said with a small smile, “he’d probably really enjoy himself after he shit his pants, considering who we’ve made a new commune with.”

Laughing, I said, “Yeah. It’s going to be hilarious when he finally gets to meet them.”

“Have you spoken to him recently?”

“Not since my birthday. I know he said he has a heavy load this year, and the two bands he’s in for the moment get a lot of circuits. But he keeps talking about coming back permanently after he graduates, so…”

“He sounds really interesting,” said Phil around his mouthful of skirt steak. “Holy
shit
, this meat is fuckin’ tasty.”

“Skirt steak is a specialty of the Stuarts,” I told him.

Grunting in appreciation, he asked, “Is he coming back for Thanksgiving break?”

“Probably,” I replied. “He always has.”

Alys seemed keen on getting as much chicken in her mouth as possible.

“My dad was saying he’d like for everyone to come over to his place for Thanksgiving,” Phil told us. “Your family and Alys and Lili and Lewis, too, if he wants. Dad’s gonna have a shit-ton of food. Alys, your family can come. And I guess if Lili—”

“That’s cool,” I said quickly.

Lili nodded in agreement and a little appreciation as well. They didn’t know what sort of family life she had grown up with, and until she wanted to share it with them, that was just the way it would stay.

“It’ll be nice not to be the ones to cook this year,” Alys said. “Although, if everyone brought something, your dad wouldn’t have to slave away either.”

“Ooo! Alys,
please
make your mom make that carrot soufflé!” wheedled Lili. “That’s what makes the whole damn thing worth it.”

“Oh, jeez, thanks, Lili,” I said dryly.

“You know it’s true,” she retorted. “Even though your turkey and stuffing are almost as amazing.”

“I’ll talk to him and see if he’s cool with it. I don’t see why he wouldn’t be,” said Phil.

“Sweet! Then, Kenna can make her stuffing, too,” Lili said with a shit-eating grin.

“Yeah, what are you gonna make?” asked Phil, sounding testy.

“Nothing. But I’ll have Lewis make us some badass desserts.”

“She’s got you there.” I laughed. “I tried to make Lewis’s pumpkin and ginger spice cake a couple of years ago. I found that perhaps my culinary talents don’t include baking.”

“I’ll have him make that one and a few others. Let me know what you guys like, and I’ll see if he’ll do it.”

After the food had been cleared and Phil and X and Flipper cleaned up the dishes, the guys decided to make it a Led Zeppelin evening and play some of our favorites.

A couple of hours later, Flipper headed out to Vivian’s, and Lili caught a ride with him to The Duck Pond to finish out Lewis’s shift, saying that she’d be spending the night with him.

“Let’s go back to my place tonight,” I whispered to Phil. “Alys plans on staying here with X, and that means the house is all ours.”

“Too fuckin’ right.”

Muscles burning, sweat pouring into my eyes, I transitioned from a handstand into scorpion pose. Breathing deep, focusing on my positioning, I executed it with a little difficulty. It wasn’t easy, holding such precise balance, but I managed, and I was happy following through with it.

Phil was still asleep, and it was really no wonder. He had been a fucking machine last night. I didn’t know how he had done it. His stamina was a little scary in its intensity, but I saw how it benefited him up on stage. NOLA’s Junk had a reputation of going balls to the wall for hours, and I wondered if Alys had the same issue with X and if Flipper was a monster in the sack as well. The stories Sheri shared with me about Jason had confirmed he was a beast in bed, too.

Where in hell do they get the energy?

I had been slacking on my yoga recently, and for that, I was punishing myself this morning. As I reclined in corpse pose, I heard the familiar gentle pattern of Alys’s footsteps on the porch.

“Hey, Sweet Pea,” she whispered. “I wanted some coffee. You want some, too?”

“Hells yes,” I replied in an equally soft voice.

“Espresso?”

“Yes, please.”

She went inside as I sat up in lotus pose, willing myself to have a few minutes of meditation before starting the day. The sumptuous scent of hot espresso wafted toward my nose, and I forewent my meditation and enjoyed this simple pleasure instead.

Mmm…fuck yeah…coffee.

Alys came back out with a small pot and three cups. “Phil’s still asleep then?”

“No.” His rich voice floated out from the kitchen.

Both Alys and I peered in and discovered him shirtless and barefoot, wearing only his beige cargo shorts. He had pulled his hair into a knot on the back of his head, and I really noticed the several days’ worth of scruff growing on his face.

Damn, that’s hot. He looks so…primitive, in a real sex-inspiring way, with all that facial hair.

Alys was thinking along the same lines because she shot me a guilty glance. I just winked at her, and she smiled sheepishly in return.

“Is that espresso?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she replied.

“Awesome.” He took the seat next to me and filled the cups. “What do you want to do today?”

“I think X wants to go to the city and do some shopping,” Alys informed us. “Do you want to come?”

“No,” I replied firmly.

“Sure,” said Phil at the same time. Glaring, he demanded, “You don’t want some new stuff?”

“I
hate
shopping, Phil. And I don’t need any more new stuff.”

He gave me a grumpy look.

“When do you and Jason leave today?” I asked.

His eyes narrowed. “I fuckin’ forgot about that.
Shit.
Sometime this evening. Seven o’clock, I think.”