Page 70 of Broken Grump

Ice cream. Ah, yes.The magical elixir that can fix all things—hurt feelings, broken hearts, and even bad days at school.

However, I’m not the responsible adult in charge here, so I can’t just flat-out say yes.

“We’ll ask your mom, okay?”

She sighs. “Fine.”

Finally, I see Addie start walking back towards us. And when she climbs into the driver’s side of the small car, she shakes her head.

“Her teacher had nothing,” she mouthed carefully.

Ah, damn.

I look in the rearview mirror. “What were you saying you wanted to do again, Luna?”

“Ice cream.”

My head swivels in Addie’s direction, and I shrug.

She’s understandably apprehensive, and her eyes jolt down to the clock on the dash. It’s lunchtime.

“Oh, alright. Just a small cone.”

“With lots and lots of sprinkles!” her daughter insists, and it’s the most animated I’ve heard her speak all day.If only everyone could get so jazzed about food-safe wax.

“Me too! Me too!” I join in.

Addie’s mouth goes taut, causing her dimples to show, and she flutters her eyelashes. “Remember, back in the day, you used to call them jimmies. Did you hear that, Loones?”

“Jimmies? That’s my uncle’s name.”

“She has a great uncle Jimmy,” Addie explains.

“I know. I met him once, remember.”

She thinks for a moment, and then her hand rises to cover her face. “That’s right. He almost blew your leg off that one Fourth of July.”

Hiking my pants up, I show her the scar I still have to prove it.

“My gosh. I’m still so sorry. If you ever need an example of why about a dozen wine coolers and fireworks don’t mix—”

“Mom!” Luna’s little voice peeps up from the back. “What’s a wine cooler?”

We exchange looks and then laugh.

“Back to the jimmies situation. At least, I didn’t adopt what my granddad used to call them.”

She looks over at me. “Oh, yeah? And what’s that?”

“Hundreds-and-thousands.”

“Huh. That’s actually a pretty good and accurate name for them.”

“Right?”

“Mom!” Luna urges impatiently.

“Okay, okay! I’m sorry. Off we go.”

---