Page 8 of Playing for Keeps

“She can’t help herself. She’s a natural know-it-all. That’s right. I’m marrying a wise woman like my ma.”

Ma-Poppy starts to smile before narrowing her eyes. “Don’t manipulate me.”

“You let West do it.”

“He’s right,” West chimes in as he horndogs his woman. “But I think it’s obvious why I get special treatment.”

“Pity?” Tuesday asks, and I nod approvingly.

“No, shits-stains, because I’m the golden child.”

“All my children are golden,” Ma-Poppy insists while peeking out the back door and waiting for her backup.

“Val doesn’t even have blond hair,” West grumbles. “He isn’t golden at all. Just a shit-stain.”

“I look like our pa,” I reply and smile. “I’m telling him you think he looks like a shit-stain.”

Defeated by my snitching skills, West looks to Alexis for comfort. “My brother’s annoying, and I nearly crashed on the way here. Let’s go to our house to help me heal.”

“No,” Ma-Poppy says. “I might need you to hold down Val during our deprogramming process.”

“Uncle Court agreed for me to run the Blood-Red Suns, and he said I can marry Lola. Now, you know I’d love to do whateveryou say, Ma, but Uncle Court runs our lives like a dictator. My hands are tied.”

“Court will listen to reason,” announces my aunt—and Uncle Court’s never-not-chatty wife—Justice as she enters the house from the open back door. “I married a very wise man.”

“Why wouldn’t Uncle Court want me to be happy?” I ask Auntie Justice. “Is he secretly a dickhead?”

Justice gasps, but my mom isn’t having it. Ma-Poppy snaps her fingers in front of her older sister’s face.

“I’m the one freaking out. You keep your drama as a background thing.”

“But you already freaked out about West and Tuesday. This feels like a bit much, doesn’t it?”

“You flipped out about Felix, Matilda, and Rie. That’s three. Why don’t I get three freakouts? I’m being deprived!”

Auntie Journey enters the house and immediately rolls her eyes. “Why can’t any of you just fall in love normally?”

Tuesday rushes to our gasping ma’s side and mutters at Journey, “Your son recently married a ghost, so maybe don’t judge.”

“WhereisIke?” Auntie Journey asks West and me.

“We ditched him back at the clubhouse. It’s okay, though. Court and Donovan are there, so he’s being supervised.”

Auntie Journey doesn’t find my crap funny. Well, I know she must laugh deep down inside. However, her job is to act normal while the rest of us bounce around like hyper dogs. I wink at her, assuming she’s secretly cool with my crap.

“Don’t wink at me,” she grumbles, making West laugh.

“What is happening?” Queen Meemaw Christine asks as she shoves her way past her daughters.

“Val is going crazy!” Ma-Poppy cries. “And I’m still exhausted from the other two going crazy. Why won’t these children give me a break?”

Auntie Journey replies, “I told you to only have two.”

“Hey, I deserve to exist!” Tuesday cries at our aunt. “And my crazy was endearing.”

My sister steps back from them. West instantly covers Alexis’s ears with his meaty hands. Tuesday lets out a wail and thrashes her head around like she’s a tantruming toddler or maybe possessed.

“Yah!” Ma-Poppy adds when her daughter shuts up. “Tuesday is a treasure.”

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