“Suki”). No problems during the pregnancy or delivery. But Lee took matters into his own hands after that and had what Al y described as “The Operation” in capital letters with the air quotation marks she always used when referring to it as she would lift her hands and jerk her index and middle fingers up and down.

It was Indy’s turn to go berserk. Lee had had “The Operation” without consulting her and Indy wanted three kids.

I had kept it between Lee and me but when Indy looked like she was going to hold a grudge for, perhaps, ever, I shared with Indy the episode in the waiting room while Indy was delivering Cal um. Indy got over her tizzy pretty damn quick after hearing that.

I smoothed my tee down over my bel y and left my hands there.

Soon, I wouldn’t be able to wear my jeans, which would suck.

Other than that, my pregnancy with Gracie had been pretty good outside of the crippling migraines I had in the first three months which I had no idea, until Daisy confided in me after Tex confided it in her after Gracie was born, drove Luke straight to Lincoln’s Road House. There he and Lee would drink themselves to oblivion, talking drunkenly about how they should never have let the Rock Chicks “fuck with their heads” and getting into in-depth conversations about the pros (there were many) and cons (there were none) of adoption and Tex or Hank or Eddie would be cal ed to drive them home.

As I stared at my bel y, I smiled. I didn’t mind being pregnant. I hadn’t lost al my pregnancy weight after Gracie.

Not because I didn’t want to but about ten pounds to goal, Luke put a stop to al dieting by showing me in his unique way how much he liked my curves.

I looked at Luke who was sitting on the side of our bed and pul ing on a pair of boots.

“I’m going to get fat again,” I told him.

His head came up and he looked at me.

“You’re pregnant. Pregnant is not fat.”

“Pregnant is fat,” I retorted.

Luke lost patience. “For f**k’s sake, are we seriously having this conversation?”

“You know how I feel about being fat!” I snapped. I’d once been huge and I’d worked hard to lose the weight. I never wanted to go back there.

Luke looked back at his boots. “I don’t care if you’re big as a house, just as long as you never cut your hair or lose your sense of humor.”

I stared at his bent head like it had split open and a dancing mini-Luke popped out wearing a top hat and tails singing “Thank Heaven for Little Girls”.

I mean, seriously, was he for real?

“Luke?”

His head came up then his eyes narrowed when he saw I was stil not ready.

“What?” he asked impatiently.

Crapity, crap, crap. He was for real.

“Nothing,” I muttered, turned away and started to pile on my silver.

I really love him, Good Ava, my sweet little angel, said in my ear.

You think we have enough time to jump him again before going to the concert? Bad Ava, my not-so-sweet little devil, asked in my other ear.

Jeez, Bad Ava was such a slut.

* * * * *

Daisy was staring around Sports Authority Field at Mile High which was packed to the gil s.

“Do you believe this shit?” she breathed.

I looked around the stadium. I believed it.

The Gypsies had started out in Denver. This was a hometown gig. There was no way the people of Denver were gonna let Stel a and her boys down.

What I did find hard to believe was watching Stel a on television. Now that was weird.

Though she looked good on the red carpet, dressed rock ‘n’ rol cool but couture chic and hanging onto Mace’s arm while walking up to some awards ceremony.

The Blue Moon Gypsies were huge. They were the new definition of cool. They were, as the magazines said,

“Bringing rock back to its roots,” and it was true.

They didn’t do slick, produced, music videos. Most of their videos were clips from concerts or them playing a song, live, on a sidewalk in Vegas (for which they didn’t get a permit so they got arrested which was also touted as bringing rock back to its roots but it wasn’t original, U2 had done much the same for their kickass “Where the Streets Have No Name” video) or they’d shoot the video while playing in a smal , cool-as-shit but seriously dive club somewhere (thus making the club famous and jacking up their revenue).

It didn’t hurt that Stel a was gorgeous and the boys in the band not only weren’t hard on the eyes but they also drank a lot, screwed around a lot, got in trouble a lot and were general y just pure old fashioned rock ‘n’ rol .

We had a roped off section, front and center. We also had backstage passes hanging around our necks.

Stel a took care of the Rock Chicks.

The entire gang was there. Indy and Lee, Roxie and Hank and Ren and Al y (the Nightingale offspring’s parents, Kitty Sue and Malcolm, were watching Cal um and Suki, Hank and Roxie’s kids Leah and Tex and Ren and Al y’s daughter, Katie); Jet and Eddie and Hector and Sadie (Hector and Eddie’s Mom, Blanca, was watching Jet and Eddie’s brood, Alex, Dante and Cesar and Hector and Sadie’s daughter Lola and newborn son, Gus); Jules and Vance (Jules’s friend May was watching Max, Sam and Harry); Daisy and Marcus; Sissy and Dom; Tod and Stevie; Nick; The Kevster; Ralphie and Buddy; Tex and Nancy; Duke and Dolores; Annette and Jason; Smithie and LaTeesha; Tom and Lana; Chloe and her husband, Ben; Roam and one of his (many) girls (this one was new, I didn’t know her name); Sniff (who was alone, for once) and Floyd, his wife, Emily, and his two daughters.

Floyd was now The Blue Moon Gypsies’ Manager, though, on occasion (or more often than “on occasion”) Stel a coaxed him onstage. Floyd wasn’t backstage during this gig, he was going to hang with the crew since it was a hometown show.

We al hadn’t seen Mace and Stel a in awhile though they kept in close touch or at least Stel a did.

At first, Mace stayed working for Lee while Stel a and the band travel ed, toured and promoted albums but they kept their home base in Denver. A few years ago, when her popularity moved outside The States and she’d have dates in Europe and Asia, Mace quit Nightingale Investigations and went with them.

This worried me. Mace was action man. I didn’t see him as a member of an entourage.

He wasn’t one for long.

Some crazed fan had broken into Stel a’s dressing room before a gig and did things that were so freaky and gross, Luke wouldn’t tel me what they were. Mace now oversaw the entire band’s security detail.