Page 147 of Broken Grump

“This one!” she announces after he holds her up and lets her sift through all of her choices.

“Perfect!” he gives her slobbery kisses before taking it into his hands, folding it just right, and then placing it in his front pocket. It’s a dark gray, which just so happens to be the color of her dress for the evening.

Her hair is a crazy mess, but when she re-emerges about half an hour later, while I’m resting with my feet up, it’s back in a gorgeous little updo.

“Well?” Sam, my bestie, comes in and asks.

“You did a great job. Thank you.”

She takes Luna’s hand and spins her. “No problem. Looney is always my favorite little model.”

After that, she and Hayden help me back up, and we all make our way downstairs to wait for the limo.

As we’re standing in the foyer, I’m trying to distract myself from my own thoughts by fiddling with my fingers. A few moments later, Hayden grabs them in his hands.

“You look beautiful, Addie. Truly.”

I blow raspberries in the air. “I feel like a whale.”

“You’re pregnant, my love.”

Although I still feel fat, hearing him call me his love helps a little.

“Please, just try to cram down any thoughts of self-doubt and insecurity and instead, focus on the fact that Ivory Shores is opening tonight!”

He’s right. I know he’s right.

Out of nowhere, my phone rings. Across the screen is my aunt’s name.

“Auntie Melissa? Everything okay?” I hired her to be the event planner.

“Everything is fine.” In the background, I can hear the Reggae beats of Carlos Montalban, one of the hottest artists out of Nicaragua right now. “Just wanted to let you know that Carlos is at the venue and ready to rehearse. The only thing is—”

Oh, God.“What?” My heart drops into my stomach. He had quite the lengthy “rider,” but I triple-checked that I had everything he wanted—green M&M’s, chocolate chip Teddy Grahams with their heads chopped off, Fruit by the Foot, strawberry and grape Gatorade, cinnamon Pop-Tarts, and such. For a famous Nicaraguan, he sure loves American snacks.

“He says you forgot his peanut butter and honey Uncrustables.”

“Shit.”

“Mommy!” Luna scolds.

“I’m sorry, baby. I meant ‘shoot.’ Shoot.”

She grins and nods. “But you still need to put a dollar in the swear jar.” With Hayden living with us and having to adjust to her being around, we’ve had to implement certain things—likethe swear jar—to help him. “Shit” and “damn” are one dollar, “bitch” is five, “fuck” is ten, and anything worse than that is twenty.

I want to be a good example for Luna and Hayden both, so I take the dollar out of my purse and put it in the jar before I forget.

“Good,” Luna comments.

“Anyway, I’ll get them on the way over.”

“You sure?” Aunt Melissa asks.

“Yes, yes. I’ll work it out. I promise.”

When I hang up, Hayden is straightening his tie, and he looks up at me and says, “Now what?”

“We need to stop at the store on the way to the party.”

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