“Good eye.”
“I can always spot trouble,” I agreed. Whether or not I could stay away from it was a completely different matter.
“Dezi, yo, Holly needs your help,” one of the guys called, making Dezi shoot up, and my damn jealously did just the same thing.
Who the hell was Holly?
Why the hell was Dezi hopping-to for her?
And why the ever-loving hell did it matter to me?
“I have to go sample some icing,” Dezi declared, leaving me to stew on what that might be a euphemism for.
“He means that literally,” a female voice said, making me look over to see the birthday girl standing there holding a drink with a purple umbrella in it.
“Sorry?”
“The icing sampling,” she explained, dropping down on the couch, putting her combat-booted feet on the table. “He meant he is probably going to take a lick of the icing on my cake. Holly is a baker. And an old lady to one of the legacy guys,” she explained. “In case you were worried.”
“I’m not worried,” I said, but it was a little too quickly. A dead giveaway.
“No, of course not,” she said, smirking. “But, yeah, Dezi is obsessed with food. All kinds of food. But especially shit that someone else makes. Like home-cooked kind of thing. It’s just one of his quirks. In fact, half the time, you find him without a shirt on under his cut because he spilled some sort of food on it.”
I was honestly more excited than seemed right to let on that there seemed to be all sorts of food on its way in. Without looking, I could smell pizza and Chinese.
My poor, mostly-empty stomach was begging for literally anything other than ramen and peanut butter wraps for a change.
I’m not proud to admit this, but there had been more than a few instances in my life where I attended a party I wasn’t interested in with people I didn’t particularly like just because there would be food there.
I’d mostly managed to get my life somewhat financially on track. Right before life made me move to Navesink Bank, eating through my savings, and having me salivating over free pizza.
“How is it working at Redemption?” Vi asked.
“It’s not as busy as what I’m used to, but I’m settling in. Toll is a good guy. Danny is a good boss. A is a really good tipper. What do you do?”
“Oh, I chase skips,” she said.
“You’re a bounty hunter?” I asked, and suddenly Dezi’s comment about the women being very capable ass-kickers came back to me.
“Yep. My mom was too.”
“Do you like it?”
“I love it. You ever just want to slap or tackle the shit out of a guy?”
“I am familiar with the urge, yes,” I said, smiling.
“Well, I get to do it. It’s cathartic. Plus, the money is good. And I get to travel.”
“You need to travel a little less,” another of the girls said, dropping down next to Vi. “We miss your face.”
“I’m here all the time.”
“For, what, a night?”
“Hey, no one is ragging on Kit and Ria for never being around,” Vi grumbled.
“We’ve been working on you and Layna. We will get to them, don’t worry. Hi, I’m Gracie. I mean, we met, but there’s always a lot of people here. It’s a lot of names to remember, so I’m reminding you.”
“Theo,” I said, nodding at them.
“And don’t call her Theodora,” Dezi said, and it was maybe the first time in my life when I heard my full name and kind of liked it. “Or she will threaten to pull your eyeballs out through your nostrils.”
“Ah, if I recall correctly, you were the one threatening to pull someone’s eyes out through their nostrils,” I corrected.
“Really? That doesn’t sound like me at all,” Dezi said, smirking.
“Says the guy who was fighting with one hand because he didn’t want to put down his whiskey bottle.”
“Oh, come on, Gracie-Lou,” Dezi said, clucking his tongue. “I’ve been in at least a dozen fights since then. You gotta reference newer material. Vi, your cake is banging,” he declared. I’m told there are two different fillings, but was not permitted to sample them for you. You know, to make sure they were good.”
“Told you,” Vi said, shaking her head at him as she got up. “I’m going to go check out the damage,” she said, getting up to do just that.
“Now where were—“ Dezi started, before someone was calling his name again. “I’ll be back.”
“I know he is trouble,” Gracie said as she watched him walk away. “But he’s a good egg too. Just so you know,” she said before going to join her friends again.
It was sweet how much the princesses knew and liked Dezi. In my experience, they really had a finger on the pulse of the club. Maybe even more so than the old ladies. So them clearly adoring him said he really was the “good egg” that Gracie claimed he was.