HAPPY PANTS CAFE (THE HAPPY PANTS SERIES) by Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

Author:Mimi Jean Pamfiloff [Pamfiloff, Mimi Jean]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: P&S, Inc
Published: 2014-06-17T00:00:00+00:00

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When the family sat down to eat, Harper couldn’t help but notice Austin’s suspicious grin. He kept looking over at her as if waiting for something.

When the foil came off the large serving tray in the center of the table, Harper immediately understood why. Oh, boy.

“Mmmm…cabeza,” she said, rubbing her tummy. “My favorite.”

“You like this dish, my dear?” asked Luci.

“My next-door neighbors in Pacifica were from Mexico. They made this for their daughter’s quinceanera and almost anytime they had a big party.” Throw in some handmade tortillas and those grilled onion thingys that looked like chives with a big bulb, and it was some serious alma-food. “I like mine with red salsa.” She glanced over at Austin, who looked stunned.

Point for Harper. I love strange food.

Of course, when Sebastian insisted on having the eyeballs, she had to look away. No one should be forced to watch a man with one large eye eat an eye.

The rest of the meal, however, was extremely pleasant. The family was fun and quirky and a reminder of her own. With two brothers and a sister, dinnertime had always been eventful at her house. Drama, verbal banter, laughter…always fun.

Harper chatted politely with Josefina, one of Ms. Luci’s daughters, to her right and Juan to her left. Officer Alberto sat opposite her and appeared to be desperately trying to avoid any eye contact. Austin sat near the head of the table next to Luci and Jodiann, who seemed to be doing everything in her power to monopolize his attention. Also present were Ms. Luci’s other daughter, Abby, who appeared to be in her forties, and Abby’s twenty-year-old daughter, Sarah, who didn’t take her eyes off Austin, except to glare at her cousin Jodiann for hogging his attention. Don Sebastian sat at the other end of the table with the three “fireflies,” who, ironically, were Alberto’s kids. Margarita, Juan’s sister and owner of the pink hooker dress, who helped manage the estate, had called to say she’d not be joining them that evening because she had a date.

“She ate a cookie,” Juan said to Harper.

“You don’t really believe in that superstitious stuff, do you?” Harper asked.

“Of course I do. And the facts don’t lie. Isn’t that right, Doña Luci?” he asked over the voices carrying on multiple boisterous conversations.

Ms. Luci, who had been busy chatting with her granddaughter Sarah, looked up. “What is this now?”

“Harper doesn’t believe that your cookies work,” said Juan.

“Well…” Luci smiled coyly.

“You said earlier today that the rumors weren’t true.” Austin seemed to be just as interested in the answer as Harper.

“No,” Luci corrected. “I said that you shouldn’t believe the rumors.”

“Doesn’t that mean the same thing?” he asked.

“You’re a man of words; you tell me,” she replied.

“Then you do believe,” he said.

“I believe that they work because people want them to. And we all know that when people believe in something, it has a funny way of happening. The power of faith should never be underestimated.”

“So you think it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy?” Austin asked.

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