Page 26 of The Calendar of New Beginnings
Lucy asked her father to make two glasses of her concoction. Andy selected a Murphy’s. When their drinks came, Lucy eyed the milk/juice glasses with suspicion. This might not have been her best idea, but she liked trying new things.
“Well, no one found a diamond without looking in the rough.”
Danny looked at her in confusion. Andy rolled his eyes.
“On three,” she told the little boy. “One. Two. Three.”
The chalky mixture hit her tongue when she took a sip, and she gagged. “Oh, yuck. It’s like drinking paint.”
“Blah!”Danny shouted dramatically, setting his glass on the bar top and grabbing his neck for effect. “That’s the most horrible drinkever!”
Andy signaled to her father, his lips twitching. “Orange juice please for my industrious son.Straight.”
“Coming right up,” her dad said, his grin as wide as a dinner plate. “Lucy?”
The foulness of the drink saturated her mouth. “I might need a Jameson to wash that down. Neat.”
“The only way to drink the water of life,” her dad said, all Irish-like. “Coming up.”
“Can I have a Jameson too, Dad?” Danny asked hopefully.
“Yes,” Andy said, tousling his brown hair. “When you’re twenty-one.”
His face fell. “But that’sforever.Mr. O’Brien says it’s water.”
“Water with alcohol,” Andy corrected. “But youcanhave fries with your burger.”
“Cool!” Danny said. “Sometimes Dad makes me eat salad. It’s horrible—even if all my aunts eat it like candy. Oh, except Aunt Natalie. She likes fries as much as I do.”
Should she act horrified in front of Danny in camaraderie? She was tempted, but Andy looked way too serious about the subject, so she kept silent as her dad brought their drinks.
“Speaking of my son’s French-fry loving Aunt Natalie, she’s meeting us here with Blake and Matt and Jane and Moira,” Andy told her. “So you can spill this thing you’ve had me stewing over all day.”
Thinking about Jeff and the other members of the hot dog patrol, her lips twitched. How was Andy going to react to the notion of an equal-opportunity calendar? Personally, she wasn’t sure how she felt about taking risqué photos of Jeff considering how he was trying to cozy up to her. Sure as shooting, she wouldn’t be taking those photos alone.
“You might have to pry it out of me,” she said, sipping her Jameson instead of downing it like she might have if a child wasn’t around.
Danny downed his orange juice like he’d been on a fast.
Andy leaned over her, trying to be menacing.
“You couldn’t intimidate a fly,” she told him, pushing him back.
Danny barked out a laugh and Lucy joined in. Was there anything better than kid giggles? Lucy had learned that one of the major indications a country was in serious trouble was the absence of children laughing.
“You forget,” Andy said, putting his hands on his hips like he’d taken a Toughen-Up pill. “I know you can’t stand to be tickled. I’ll have it out of you in five seconds.” He poked her under the ribs and laughed when she lurched away.
Danny’s eyes widened before he started laughing with his dad. “Get her, Dad.”
“Cut that out,” she demanded as Andy’s fingers fluttered against her side again, “or I’ll kill you.”
Danny’s mouth dropped open, and Andy gave her a hard look.
“What Miss Lucy meant to say?—”
“Was that your dad was mean to tickle me,” she interrupted, realizing she couldn’t talk like that in front of Danny. “But I shouldn’t have said that last part. I was only teasing.”
The little boy’s nod was punctuated by his wide-eyed gaze. “There’s good teasing, and there’s bad teasing. Right, Dad?”
