The Big Three, their eyes almost popping out of their heads, stared at her. Cady took a deep breath. “This is the short version. I remembered more. Rain canceled the reenactment. Amy Chambers scalded herself today and is in a burn unit in Pittsburgh. Jill and I were arrested for all kinds of things. Drunk and disorderly, failure to pay a bar tab, disturbing the peace, resisting arrest, assault on a police officer, and a bunch of other stuff. I think I’m out on bail. I fired Pete Danson. I’m now going to bed. I’ll see you in the morning. Oh, yeah, I was going to go to bed with Boomer. He has this lick-off chocolate paint we were going to try. Obviously we will never be trying it now. Good night, all.”

“So much skin,” Anthony said.

“I wonder if this will make the papers,” Mandy muttered.

Lola’s eyes sparkled. “Lick-off chocolate paint. Hmmm.”

Upstairs, Cady showered in the Ginger Rogers bathroom, then crawled into bed and cried. Atlas licked her tears as he stretched out alongside her.

19

For the first time in their respective lives, the Big Three were speechless as they hovered and glowered over the front page of the Indigo Sentinel.

“It says your granddaughter is a brawler. An inebriated brawler,” Anthony said in hushed tones.

“A near-naked brawler. It reminds me of one or two of your more famous escapades, Lola,” Mandy clarified, tongue in cheek.

“So it does. The child is incredibly photogenic. It’s almost impossible to believe it’s the same Cady,” Lola said proudly.

“Straight to the hoosegow. The charges are…awesome. The way this reads, she sounds worse than Clyde’s partner Bonnie. I thought that reporter Denville was on our side,” Anthony dithered.

“He is on our side. This is human interest,” Lola snapped as she read the article a second time to be sure she didn’t miss anything. “He’s not speculating, he’s reporting facts. There’s a difference. If there’s one thing I know, it’s how the print media works. Look, he even has a picture of her dress hanging off a parking meter. He does say it’s her bathing suit, not underwear. Facts. One cannot argue with facts.”

“We should have told Cady that her friends came out here yesterday,” Mandy said, hoping to distract Lola from the article.

“Frankly, my friends, I don’t think it would have mattered. She was…what’s the word young people use so much today…ah, yes, pissed? She was definitely pissed when she came in last night. No, it wouldn’t have mattered. I think perhaps it’s time for us to…to…”

“Meddle?” Mandy snorted. “I think we should mind our own business, Lola. Matchmakers we are not. We could end up making things worse.”

“The path to true love never was smooth, and if it is, then it isn’t true love,” Lola said breezily. “The child is in love. I recognize the signs. What could possibly be wrong with us going to the police station to…square things away? Cady said she fired Pete Danson, so that would give us reason to go. Now, if we just happen to bump into the police chief, oh well. I know a thing or two about love, as you both know, and our Cady’s heart was broken last night. We need to fix that.”