Page 113 of Unlikely to Stay

CC felt herself nodding before realizing he couldn’t see her head moving.“Boy, is it ever.They shoot fireworks off over the lake and there’s a big block party on Main Street.Hot dogs, ice cream, sparklers.And don’t forget the Fourth of July dance off in the senior citizens center.”

“Are you serious?”

“Totally serious.Last year, Kelda beat out Madge for the senior trophy.We had to pull Madge off Marty.He was one of the judges.She said it was cheating because Marty is Burt’s best friend and she said it was a conflict of interest since Burt was boning Kelda.”

Brant laughed out loud.“She said that?”

“Haven’t you gotten used to the old people in my town?They’ll say anything.”

“That is true.”

“After the fireworks, there’s a dance in the middle of town square for everyone, so you better save me a dance.”

“I’ll bring my dancing shoes.”

“So I’ll see you Friday night?”

“You’ll see me Friday night.”

“Now who’s copying Igor?”

“Touché.Bye, Freckles.”

“Bye, Snaps.”

CC smiled and pressed end.Across the table, Annie’s grin was splitting her face.“There you go, girly.”

“There I go, what?”

“Fighting for your man.I like it.”

CC rolled her eyes.“You’re ridiculous.Now, are you finished stuffing and licking?We need to get those invitations to the post office so everyone has enough notice.You know Kelda will throw a fit if she doesn’t get hers soon.”

“Yeah, I’m finished.I can see your project was a miserable failure,” Annie said, eyeing the pile of diapers and strands of ribbon littering the table.

“I gave up.I’ll take it to Sadie.It seems like something she’ll be good at.”

“Agreed.Maybe we can help cut out decorations.That seems easy enough, right?”

“A lot easier than making a diaper cake hopefully.”

Annie laughed.“Here’s to hoping you don’t have a kid any time soon.I don’t know if you’d survive diaper duty if you can’t even build a tower of them.”

“You’re probably right.”