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Javi grunted, and it wasn’t difficult to read it was a grunt of approval.
My lips turned down as I looked back up at him.
“Cap did too,” Shanti added, and my attention went to her.
That wasn’t quite as much of a shock, even if it was still kind of a shock. Raye had told us Cap had what she called an “inner caveman,” one who struggled with the Angels business.
He never let the caveman take over, though.
“So Jess threw down, then Raye threw down,” Shanti kept relating the story. “Martha’s Martha, and she was in the vicinity, so she threw down. Now Raye’s on a mission to solve this case before you Nightingale guys do.”
Javi grunted again, this one also wasn’t difficult to read, and it was not approval at all.
Shanti kept talking, “And we all got an email this morning from Bill and Zach that we’re having an Oasis-wide meeting in the courtyard tonight at seven thirty to discuss ‘this Angels business.’”
“What’s to discuss?” I asked.
“I don’t know, but I’m supposed to craft a cocktail for it,” Jessie said. “Raye’s been ordered to bring her pudding. There’s a Google form to sign up to bring other nibbles. And Bill and Zach laid down the law that you can’t have a cocktail unless you fork over five bucks, and you can’t partake in the snacks unless you bring something.”
“So, in other words, Bill and Zach are humoring Martha’s demands, but mostly, they’re using this as an excuse to organize an Oasis party,” Shanti summed it up.
I was totally okay with that. The parties at the Oasis were fab.
“I wonder what I should bring,” I mumbled, vacillating between my brie-and-cranberry bites that were always a crowd pleaser or my butter-brushed-and-sea-salt-dusted pigs in a blanket, which not once garnered leftovers.
“Are you done?” Javi asked Jessie and Shanti, but now his tone said, Get out or I’m throwing you out.
Shanti smiled at him again.
Jessie scrunched her nose at him and looked to me. “We’re done once I get a hug.”
I started to move toward her, but Javi’s hold strengthened.
I looked up at him. “I’m good, Javi.”
His gaze moved over my face, another grunt came, this one said, Okay, but I’m watching, and he let me go.
I was dealing with how nice it felt, regardless of the fact Javi’s brand of protective clearly veered deeply into the overprotective zone, when it came to me that Jessie was not a hugger.
So, obviously, she felt really bad about jumping my stuff last night.
I knew this was true when she didn’t let me go after the initial squeeze.
“I don’t have any excuses,” she said in my ear. “I couldn’t sleep, it upset me so much me and Raye acted like your mom.”
I clenched my teeth but held her close, because now I was upset that she was upset by that.
She knew all about my mom. And my dad. And my brother. She also knew all of them.
She could put up with the former two, barely, but she struggled so much with my brother, Easton, I did my best to make sure she didn’t have to spend too much time with him.
I’d done so well with this, she only had to suffer his company on my birthday. But I knew even that couple hours a year were two hours too many.
“I don’t know what came over me,” she continued.
I still didn’t let her go even as I shifted to catch her eyes. “You have something really special. Maybe you wanted that for me.”
“And maybe you should bust my chops for acting like your bitchy, judgy big sister when I’m not. I’m your edgy, loyal best friend,” she retorted.