Iced Tea Read online

“A bunch? What’s a bunch? I can buy a big bag at 7-11. I can be at your house with a bag in 10 minutes, I don’t have to go all the way to the icehouse for a bag of ice.”

  “Not a bag Dingleberry, I need you to fill up your whole car. I need to fill up a whole bathtub. I need you to do it now, and not ask a single question.”

  “Can I bring AJ?”

  “Yes, fill up his car too!”

  “Must be a hell of a party.”

  “I swear to God Cara.”

  “On our way.”

  AJ didn’t even ask, he heard me say that we were on our way, and he just got up and started getting dressed.

  I ran in my room, put on yoga pants, a t-shirt and tennis shoes, grabbed my purse, a couple hundred bucks from my secret stash, mostly since I don’t know how much a bathtub full of ice costs, and headed for the door, which was being held open by AJ.

  I tell you, every challenge I’ve had since AJ moved in has been so much easier.

  “We need to take both cars. Teagan needs us to bring her a bathtub full of ice.”

  “Why?”

  “She didn’t say.”

  “Isn’t the ice going to drip all over the inside of the cars?”

  “Crap. Where can we borrow a truck this time of night? Teagan said the ice people were closing-up in, like, twenty-five minutes.”

  “Which ice people?”

  “The ones on Bellflower and Bingum. How many ice people can there be?”

  “Well, we’re in luck. That company provides ice for the bar’s special events; I even used them for a photo shoot once. I did free maternity pictures of Bill and his wife. I’m sure we can work something out. You want to drive, or you want me to drive?”

  “You, please.”

  What the hell? I hate anyone else to drive me. I didn’t even want to think about what all that means.

  We got to the icehouse with minutes to spare. Bill was standing at the gate, about ready to lock up. When he saw AJ, he smiled bright, came over and shook his hand.

  AJ left me in the car while they walked through the gate and into the building. A few minutes later, AJ came driving out in a white pickup truck, honked at me, and waved. I scooted over, started the car, and followed him to Teagan’s house.

  When we got to the front door, there was a note. ‘You know what to do.’

  I walked back down the stairs, around the back of the garage, three steps from the rain gutter extension thingy, there was what appeared to be, well, actually is, a flat rock. Most of the rock is buried. Looks like it’s been there forever. I kicked it over with my toe, found the key in a snack sized Ziploc bag, ran back up the stairs and let us in.

  “We’re here.”

  “Did you get it?”

  “You make it sound like we are your dealers Teagan. What’s going on?”

  “You can come in. Both of you.”

  We followed her voice toward the back of the unit. I assumed she was in her bedroom. Nope.

  “I’m in here Dingleberry.”

  I walked into the bathroom, and there was Teagan, sitting in her tub, water nearly to the top with a few ice chunks floating around like little icebergs.

  “What the hell happened to you?”

  AJs eyes were as huge as saucers.

  Teagan was covered in tiny little pink bumps. Saying it was a rash, would be like saying the sun is warm. She was covered from her jawline all the way to the waterline. She had on a tank top and shorts, but everything we could see was covered and looked very painful.

  “Oh my God, does it hurt?”

  “That’s the worst part, it doesn’t hurt, it itches. Itching is worse. It is driving me nuts.”

  “What happened?”

  “The body wrap. I had a reaction.”

  AJ finally spoke. “Can we bring you to the hospital?”

  “I’ve already been. They said that there isn’t much they can do. That it isn’t serious, it’s just a pain in the ass, and that I’m to take the medicine they gave me. The doctor said it would probably only last a few hours, and that the best way to deal with it is ice. You did bring ice, right?”

  “A whole truck load.”

  “Truck? Where did you get a truck?”

  “I know the ice guys.”

  “Good, cause if this doesn’t get better, I may need more.”

  “You can’t stay in ice all the time, you’ll get all hypothermia-ed”

  “I’m not in the tub all the time. When I can’t stand the itch anymore I get back in the tub, then when I can’t stand being in the ice I get back out.”

  “I’ll go get the ice.” AJ walked out of the bathroom.

  I am a terrible sister.

  I admit it openly.

  I started to laugh, then I started to laugh harder.

  I damn near fell in the bathtub on top of poor Teagan.

  “What the hell is wrong with you Cara?”

  “Teagan, I’m sorry, I know it isn’t funny, but don’t you get it? Iced Tea!”

  Coming soon

  Green Tea

  One

  “You want to go on Liam’s honeymoon with me?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Cara, that seemed like a perfectly clear question.”

  “Teagan, you’re anything but clear these days.”

  “If that is an attempt at humor because of my rash…”

  “Why would Liam and Morgan want us to go on their honeymoon? I’m not even sure they’re taking Jordan, and Liam adores him, and he is Morgan’s one and only, and we aren’t that high on either one’s list.”

  “Not with them, with me.”

  “Start at the beginning.”

  “I won a cruise.”

  “You did? That’s amazing. Congratulations.”

  “Yeah, it was great till I called Jessie and found out that he can’t go. Then I called Liam and Morgan and asked if they wanted to use the trip as a honeymoon, and they declined. Now I’m calling you. You want to go?”

  “I feel so special. When everyone else turned you down, you came to me.”

  “I haven’t asked everyone else. The advantage of coming from a large family is that I still have a long list of people I could invite, so if you don’t want to come, say so and I’ll ring the next person on my list.”

  “Where?”

  “Alaska.”

  “When?”

  “Well, that’s the thing. Originally, the tickets were good for a year.”

  “Well, then take Jessie when he gets back or gets unbusy or whatever.”

  “I said, originally. Turns out they’ve been sitting around for a while and we’re down to the last few weeks. My boss bought them at some charity thing thinking that he would bring his new wife, but she said there’s no way that she is going toward cold. She’s a Floridian for a reason. If they’re going to cruise, they’re going to the islands.”

  “Why didn’t he just trade them in?”

  “Well, turns out that the cruise line normally lets you do that, but something about these tickets makes them not turn-in-able.”

  “Then how do you know they’re transferable?”

  “Okay, you know what? I didn’t call so that you could beat me up about the tickets. Do you want to go or not?”

  “I’d love to go. I’ve never seen Alaska.”

  “Me either. I’m not sure exactly when we’re going to go, but since you’re unemployed, I figured you would be open.”

  “Not my fault that unemployment runs high in this state right now, and besides, I’m not completely unemployed, I am alternately employed.”

  “You’re the one that quit your job.”

  “I’ve been doing just fine thank you very much. I’m making just as much money doing odd jobs here and there as I was working full time before.”

  “Good. I really am glad. We’re gonna need long johns I bet. Where do we even find those in Florida?”

  “I’m sure they’re available for the snow birds if nothing else or we can always buy them online.�
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  “True. You’re in charge of finding out what we need and finding out where we can get it.”

  “Why me?”

  “I have the tickets, a job, and I’m in a piss-poor mood because Jessie is off with some woman I don’t know instead of coming on the cruise with me.”

  “Woman? What woman?”

  “I’ll tell you about it when I’m not at work. I’m not sure if I’m pissed or hurt or just, I don’t know.”

  “You want to come over tonight? I’ll cook.”

  “I can’t. Jessie and I are going to go out tonight. I want him to leave here with really good, bonding, know-I’ll-track-your-ass-down if you do anything with that other woman thoughts of me.”

  “That sounds really healthy. You don’t need to visit with a mental health professional at all.”

  “That’s what I’m sayin’. I’ll call you tomorrow. Get busy with all things Alaska, figure out if we want to do any shore excursions, they’re not included with the tickets, price wise, but I have a gift card thingy that will pay for at least part.”

  “Excursions? Anything you’re particularly enamored with?”

  “We could look for whales.”

  “I’d love to see a whale in the wild.”

  “They have boats that get really close.”

  “Yeah, I saw that on the Internet, the big ol’ whale came crashing out of the water and hit the boat. I think it broke the mast. Poor whale.”

  “Yeah, well, had I been on that boat I’d have had a heart attack and died, then who would you be feeling sorry for?”

  “The whale.”

  “I should have known. Anyway, you can get close enough for the spray to hit you if you get on the right excursion.”

  “You do realize that’s the whale blowing his nose on you. You get that right?”

  “It is not.”

  “Silly me, you probably think of that as one more skin treatment.”

  “Don’t go there, I’m still sensitive.”

  “How is the rash from hell?”

  “Mostly gone. I still have patches where my skin stays warm.”

  “Eww, that doesn’t sound good.”

  “It’s not.”

  “That’s what I’m trying to tell you.”

  “What?”

  “The whale, it’s snot.”

  “Are you in 3rd grade or what?”

  “Sorry, couldn’t resist.”

  “Oh, and Cara, I got a call from Steph, she is moving forward with the cards, she uploaded them, and there is some pretty disturbing stuff, most of which is self explanatory, but a few of the things are just weird. She works with an investigator and he is going to look into it a bit.”

  “That sounds expensive.”

  “Pro bono.”

  “Why?”

  “The investigator is trying to get his new business off the ground, and thinks that if he comes up with something really important, it will be covered by all the media, and that it will pay for itself with free advertising.”

  “Great, my goal was to keep it quiet, not spread it around for free advertising.”

  “According to Steph, there is no way this is going to stay quiet, she used words like ‘salacious’ and ‘degenerate’ and ‘nefarious’.”

  “Crap.”

  “Nothing we can do now, now it is in the hands of karma and the universe.”

  “Don’t go all new age on me, it doesn’t suit you. Now I’m nervous all over again.”

  “I would be too. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

  “Oh, I need the details for the cruise so I’ll know where we stop and everything.”

  “I’ll email all the stuff I have within the hour.”

  “Did you think maybe Mom and Daddy might want to join you?”

  “Well, it is just for two, and I thought about just giving the tickets to Mom and Dad, but they said they’re all about Ireland.”

  “So, I was closer to the bottom of the list than I thought?”

  “Cara, you know how it works, we’re a big family, we’re all loved just the same.”

  “Yeah, right. But still, there is a pecking order.”

  “I wouldn’t say that, I’d say that due to circumstances, you are blessed to be accompanying your favorite sister on an adventure to Alaska.”

  “That’s why they pay you the big bucks, you can make anything sound good.”

  “True, you should hear how I describe you.”

  “Shut up and thanks and good bye.”