Daisy’s eyes bugged out and her brows went to her hairline.

“We’re not gonna f**k with her head!” Daisy screeched.

“Can we not say ‘fuck’ so loud in front of the customers?” Indy threw in a request.

Jet and Ava looked at each other and let out small giggles.

“I get back and she’s shut down, I’m not gonna be f**kin’ happy,” Hector clipped out, ignoring Indy’s request to avoid the f-bomb.

“The point of the Powwow, Hector, is not to shut her down but to sort her out,” Daisy threw back.

It was time to step in before the Battle of the Badass and Southern Diva escalated any further. I put YoYo down and she immediately ran to Roxie who was bent over, clapping and making kissy noises.

“I don’t think I need to be sorted out,” I put in.

Daisy’s Mother Hen on a Rampage eyes focused on me and she snapped, “Shirleen said there were problems.”

Shirleen, sipping a latte, calm as could be, chimed in from an armchair opposite Stella, “Looks to me like it sorted itself out. The girl’s been laid, my guess, fairly recently, guessin’ again, good and proper. Next problem!”

I closed my eyes.

Someone, please tell me that Shirleen didn’t just announce to the entire store that I’d been laid “good and proper”.

I opened my eyes again, looked up at Hector and whispered, “Please, tell me Shirleen didn’t just announce to the entire store that we’ve had sex.”

Hector bit his bottom lip and again I didn’t know whether he was biting back a smile or anger.

If it was my choice, it would have been the latter.

“Hate to say it, mamita,” he said, eyes scanning the crowd, some of whom were surreptitiously watching us, others settled in and openly enjoying the show, “but it seems she did.”

“Are they always like this?”

I could tell now he was fighting back a grin. “Far’s I can tell, yeah,” he replied.

“Why is my life so difficult?” I blurted out before I could think better of it.

I watched as Hector’s eyes went gentle and he replied, “This isn’t difficult and Sadie, it isn’t bad. They don’t mean you any harm, they just care.”

I knew he was right.

But still.

Everyone in the entire store knew I’d been laid.

His hand went to my neck and slid into my hair, his thumb against my hairline.

“Looks like the Powwow is a bust. You wanna go back or you want a coffee?”

“Coffee,” I answered. “I should get one for Ralphie too.”

“I’ll get ‘em,” he told me then his face dipped and his mouth brushed mine.

Then he was off to the coffee counter, leaving me affected deeply (yes, even by his brush on my lips!) and teetering without his body to support me.

“Sit down before you fall down, child.” Shirleen called.

I decided to do as she suggested before I caused an even bigger stir and took a seat in a big, comfortable armchair amongst the crew.

“I cannot believe you have a small dog wearing a cute sweater accessory!” Ally exclaimed. “Chickie, you got it goin’ on.”

“YoYo’s not mine. Buddy, Ralphie and I are watching her for a friend,” I told Ally.

“It’s still a cute sweater,” Roxie said, rubbing YoYo’s body all over and YoYo was loving it, wiggling in Roxie’s lap, showing her belly.

“The sweater’s not YoYo’s, exactly, it’s Ralphie’s,” I explained.

All eyes came to me.

“Don’t ask, it’s a long story,” I went on.

All lips formed grins.

“Everything all right?” Jules asked, her eyes on me, her arms holding her new son Max.

I surprised myself by saying, “No.”

Now why did I say that?

I didn’t share.

Ever!

“No?” Ally asked quietly.

“I got bad news yesterday,” I shared again.

Yes, shared.

Yes, again!

What was happening to me?

“Your Mom,” Indy said softly and I looked at her. “Lee told me.”

“Eddie told me,” Jet put in.

“Hank told me too,” Roxie added.

“You should know, they told the rest of us,” Ava finished.

I feared I was about to hyperventilate.

“You don’t have to talk about it,” Jules said immediately, watching me closely for a second, then her eyes sliced to Ally but it was Stella that spoke with her super cool, throaty, sexy voice (no kidding, Stella’s voice was aces).

“She doesn’t, Ally, so lay off.”

“I didn’t say anything,” Ally defended herself.

“We should let Sadie control what she wants to share,” Jules replied and I decided I liked Jules, loads.

“It just felt like I lost her all over again.”

That was me too!

It just came out.

I could no longer control my own mouth, I was blurting out private thoughts willy-nilly!

“That’s understandable,” Ava told me.

“She was trying to protect me,” I went on, still unable to stop myself and they all had their eyes on me.

Normally, I wouldn’t like that.

Normally, it would make me uncomfortable.

Normally, I would call my Ice Princess.

But their faces were open and their eyes were kind. Instead of feeling uncomfortable, it felt like they were open because they wanted me to give it to them so they could take it away from me. Even though it was bad stuff, really bad stuff. But that way, I wouldn’t have to hold it inside anymore.

Now, how bizarre was that?

I put my hands in my hair, pulling it away from my head and looked at Mace’s boots.

Then my hands dropped and I whispered, “I can’t stop thinking about it. Thinking that she died scared. I hate it that I’ll never see her again, because I always thought…” I stopped then took a deep breath and started again, “But I hate it more that she probably died scared.”

Then all of a sudden, that big, hard, burning thing came back into my chest and it started choking me. I even made a choking sound out loud.

“Oh blast! I’m going to f**king cry again,” I announced then my hands went over my face and I burst into tears.

Within moments, I felt fingers curl around my wrists and strong hands pull me out of my chair. Then I was up against a rock hard body that, for a second, I thought was Hector’s. But it was bigger than Hector’s body, taller and the arms that wrapped around me were different.