Page 121 of Three Pucking Words
He snickers as he waves at Joe and Helen from across the room. “So she has an enabler friend now,” Sebastian notes, turning back to me.
“Who? Honor?”
He snorts. “No. Gemma.”
I can’t help but grin. “How can you say no to a face like hers?”
Gemma and Honor come out of the kitchen just then, both with different designs painted on their faces. Honor is a bright green alien with purple gems on her cheeks that make her look like Gemma’s giraffe Jordan, and Gemma is some sort of princess, with a tiara that Helen brought for her to wear today. It matches the pink tutu she insisted on wearing over her lime green leggings and black T-shirt with a dog on it that looks a lot like Puck. A shirt she begged me to buy her the last time we were at the store.“So I can match Puck,”was her reasoning.
“Daddy!” Gemma says, running up to me. She stops when she sees Sebastian, examining his face. “Uncle Bash, you need to get painted. I has the perfect one for you picked out!”
I lift my eyebrows at my best friend, waiting for him to turn her down. Like I expected, he simply groans knowing that he can’t. “Don’t you want to see what I got you first?” he asks in an attempt to free himself from his inevitable fate.
The stubborn little girl shakes her head. “No. You need to be painted first. We do presents later.” She takes his hand and starts tugging him toward the area the artist set up.
And he doesn’t fight her. Although I hear him muttering, “Who doesn’t like to open their presents right away?” as he’s dragged across the room.
I wink at him as soon as my daughter forces him into the chair and points toward the image of a neon pink pony hanging on the wall of designs to choose from.
When Henderson turns toward me, he’s glaring as if this is all my fault. Which, I guess it is.
But all I do is say, “Neigh,” and laugh when he flips me off as soon as Gemma isn’t looking.
Honor swats my arm. “Be nice.”
I grin down at her as I drape an arm across her shoulders. “Did I mention how hot you look? Didn’t realize how bad I wanted to fuck an alien until I saw you.”
Her eyes roll. “That was lame.”
I have no shame. “Having fun?”
Her smile brightens. “Yes. Although, I’m almost positive this paint is going to make me break out. If the paint won’t, the amount of sugar Gemma keeps handing me will.”
I knew they were breaking into the good stuff. “You’re allowed to tell her no.”
She sighs. “I know, but it’s her birthday.”
“Technically, it isn’t her birthday until Christmas,” I tell her with a shrug. “So you can turn her down. It will make getting her to bed a hell of a lot easier.”
Before she can answer, Joe walks over with the same beer he’s been nursing all day. “You two have never looked better,” he compliments in amusement. Gemma took it easy on him and only asked the artist to paint a rainbow on his forehead.
Helen joins us with nothing but the makeup she arrived with on. Apparently, that was enough for her granddaughter because I haven’t seen Gemma try bringing her over like she has almost everybody else.
“It’s good to see you so happy,” Helen tells me with a soft smile. “The way Gemma adores Honor…” Her voice gets a little shaky, so she clears it. “Well, it’s nice to see. That’s all.”
I look down at Honor, who’s glancing over at Gemma supervising her Uncle Bash get painted. Or, more likely, Gem is making sure he doesn’t escape before the masterpiece is finished. “We’re lucky we found her.”
That gets Honor’s attention, moving her eyes back up to me with a sheepish smile.
We stare at one another for a while, until Joe speaks up. “Inez would have been happy that Gemma has more people in her life that cares about her as much as she did.”
The words hit me straight in the chest, and he knows it. I reach my hand out toward Inez’s father and shake it. “Thank you.” My words come out watery. “That means a lot to me, Joe.”
He squeezes my hand once and dips his head once as if to sayyou’re welcome.
Helen takes Honor’s hands between hers. “I am glad they have you, sweetie. And I want you to consider what I said. I have at least three people who’d be interested in hiring you. And if there’s one thing I know as I get older, is that old hens like me like to cluck. Your name would get around very quickly.”
I turn to Honor. “Your photography?”
