Page 180 of Rock Chick Rescue

“Thanks,” I muttered.

“There’s extra in there from the girls and the bouncers. They did a collection, knew you needed it,” he said.

Damn.

Trust my luck, after twenty-eight years, to find my attitude and toss it around when folks were doing something nice for me.

I felt the tears crawl up the back of my throat and I swallowed them down.

“I don’t know what to say,” I mumbled as I shoved the envelope in my back pocket.

“Maybe ‘thank you?’” Mom snapped from behind the espresso counter, again using The Voice. “Yeesh, you’d think I didn’t raise her right,” she said to Tex.

“That your mom?” Smithie asked.

I didn’t have the chance to answer when the bell went over the door again.

I turned and saw my sister, Lottie, standing there.

She was wearing skinny black jeans and a black tank top with the Audi circles straining across her D-cup boobs. She had a knockout tan and her blonde hair was flopping around the back of her head in a loose bunch designed to look sexy and messy. It worked.

“Eyeeeeee!” I squealed, thrilled to see her, forgetting everyone—Tex, Duke, Smithie, Jane, Indy, Mom and the So Fine Commando Wild Bunch.

I ran and threw myself at her.

Lottie squealed too and we hugged, swinging each other back and forth and laughing out loud.

Mom wheeled up and pulled herself out of her chair for her own Lottie hug. Lottie helped her sit back down then turned and shot a bleached teeth, LA smile at me.

“What’re you doing here?” I asked, still smiling.

“Gotta call from Lavonne, then from Trixie, then Lavonne again and finally Mom,” Lottie said.

My smile died and with it my excitement at seeing Lottie.

“What’d they say?” I asked.

Lottie’s smile died too. “They told me what’s been going on.”

Wonderful.

My hand went back to my hip. “They shouldn’t have done that.”

Her hand went to her hip. “Why not? No, wait, why didn’tyoutell me?” she asked.

“I was handling it.”

She shoved my shoulder.

My entire body froze.

“You weren’t handling it, you crazy bitch,” she said.

“That’s what I’m sayin’,” Smithie put in.

Lottie didn’t even know who he was and she nodded at him.

I pulled out the Double Diva Threat and put both my hands on my hips. “I’m handling it.”

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