Chapter 9 #3
The younger Wentworth laughed and it startled Blue.
He hadn’t thought the guy had a sense of humor.
“Sure! But I think you should wait until Monday. Go to the second office on the right when you walk out of here and ask for Mindy. She’ll give you a hiring packet.
You can take it home and bring it back. Giver her your sizes and your uniforms will be waiting for you when you bring back the paperwork.
And welcome to the Wentworth family of dealerships,” Chuck said and stood, extending a hand.
Blue took it and realized he was seeing his future unfold right there in front of him. He’d get to do what he loved in a shop with state-of-the-art equipment, mentor other younger mechanics, and make enough to pull his own weight for his family.
His family. The thought made him smile. Anne would be so proud. God, he wanted all this shit with social services to be over! Maybe when he told Ms.Parker he had a good job, she’d back off. “Thank you, sir. You won’t be sorry, I promise.”
“I’d better not be or my dad will hunt you down. Seems he’s pretty good at that,” Chuck said and gave Blue a pretend grimace.
“That he is! Thank you for this opportunity, sir, really.”
“Chuck. Call me Chuck.”
“Chuck. See you Monday. And everybody calls me Blue.”
“Then see you Monday, Blue.”
He picked up the hiring packet, thanked the girl in the office, and headed home, so excited he could barely stand it. When he’d parked the truck, he ran across the yards, up Anne’s front steps, and burst through the front door. She spun to look at him, alarm on her face. “Brent! What’s wrong?”
Suddenly, he couldn’t speak. He couldn’t move. He could barely breathe. In the next second, he was gulping air so fast that he couldn’t make words form. “Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god,” he gasped.
“What? Baby, you’re scaring me!”
“Beer! I need a beer!” was all he could squeeze out.
Anne ran to the fridge and grabbed one, popped the top, and handed it to him. When he took it, he fell into the sofa and handed her the hiring packet he was still clutching in his hand. “What? What is this?” she asked, trying to make sense of the paperwork.
He took a long swig of beer, then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and hauled air into his lungs.
“Thirty-five to start. They pay for my ASE. After six months, sixty thousand, full benefits, three weeks of vacation, ten days of sick leave. And I run the service department. Two months later, up to seventy. Annual raises after that.”
Anne’s hands started to shake, and she leaped up and started to jump up and down and scream. “Oh my god! Oh my god! I don’t believe it! That’s awesome! Awesome, baby! I love you!”
Blue bolted out of his seat, grabbed her, and hugged her to him, still bouncing. “I love you, Anne.”
“I’m so proud of you,” she said and kissed him. “Wait! You’ve got an appointment with Ms.Nosy-butt in an hour or two, don’t you?”
“Not until three thirty.” He lifted her off her feet and kissed her. “Let’s celebrate.”
“In bed?”
“Hell no, right here on the floor!” Before she could protest, he lifted her gown up and over her head, then started shucking his clothes.
They made love right there on the floor, in broad daylight, with the baby sleeping in the next room. Inside Anne, he felt strong and smart and safe. He had plans, big plans, and they’d include her and the kids. They’d all be together.
Maybe that afternoon would be the day he was free of Ms.Parker.
“So, Mr.Wallace, how has everything been?” Ms.Parker asked over her usual scratching on that white legal pad of hers.
“I’ve got some exciting news!” he said, almost breathless. She looked up at him like he had a foot growing out of his chin. “I got a job!”
She gave him a blank look. “Well, that’s nice. What kind of job did you get?”
The more Blue told her about it, the more interested she seemed. When he finished, she sat there, staring at him and saying nothing. “So, what do you think? Good, huh?”
He was beginning to think she’d died sitting up when she finally said, “That’s, um, that’s pretty fantastic.”
“Yeah, it is, huh?” he said, grinning.
“I really don’t know what to say. I didn’t think you had it in you,” the woman said and it hit Blue square between the eyes.
Never raising his voice, Blue said, “What? Have you been hoping I’d fail? Do you want to take my daughter away from me?”
“No, no! Not at all! But when I first met you…” she said, then stopped. “I really didn’t know what to think. You’ve surprised me, Mr.Wallace. You’ve surprised us all.”
Uh-huh. I’m not the loser you thought I was , Blue wanted to scream. And there was another truth there that he had to acknowledge.
He wasn’t the loser he’d thought he was either.
“Mom, can I invite Grandma and Grandpa?” Polly only had three invitations, and she didn’t know who to send them to. It was Saturday night before eighth-grade graduation the following Saturday, and Polly really wanted to send somebody an invitation.
“I doubt they’ll come, but you can try. Hang on. I’ll get their address.” Anne rummaged around in the drawer and came out with a set of spiral-bound index cards. “It’s in here somewhere… Ah! Here it is!”
“Thanks.” The girl went back to printing their return address on the envelope, then started adding her grandparents’ address. “What about my other grandparents?”
“Honey, I think that would be a waste of a stamp. In all the time we’ve struggled along, they never once offered to help us. I don’t think they care.”
Defeat was thick in Polly’s voice when she answered, “Oh. Okay.” Then she perked up. “What about Blue’s family? Doesn’t he have somebody who’d like to come?”
Kids. Things seem so simple to them , Anne thought as she took a seat at the table. “Honey, Blue doesn’t have parents.”
Polly snorted. “Mom, everybody has parents.”
“Not Blue. He grew up in foster care.”
“He told me. It makes me so sad.” Polly’s eyes reddened. “He’s a grownup now. They’d probably like to see him. He has no idea where they are?”
“No. He never knew his parents. Just got bounced from place to place until he got old enough to run away.”
“That’s horrible. Were they mean to him?”
“Very. Not all of them, but almost all of them. That’s why it’s so important to him that Indigo be cared for very, very well. He doesn’t want anything like that to happen to her if anything happens to him.”
“But she’s got us!” Polly cried out. “She’d be fine!”
“Legally, we don’t have a claim to her. She’d go to foster care too.”
“Oh my gosh. That can never, ever happen. You need to tell Blue he needs to go to the doctor and get a checkup, and then he should drive very carefully.” Anne didn’t think she’d ever seen her little daughter look so serious.
“We’ve had all those conversations. He said he’s going to have Mr.Glen make up guardianship papers so she’d be taken care of. He’ll probably take care of that soon.”
Polly had gone back to writing. “I hope so. So who else could I send an invitation to?”
Anne stepped behind her daughter’s chair and wrapped her arms around the girl’s neck. “Why worry about sending one? The people who love you the most will already be there.”
Polly’s hand stopped mid-air. “You know what? You’re right. I’ll just send this one to Grandma and Grandpa and that’ll be it. Oh, and I know it’s a Friday night, but Blue’s coming, right?”
“Yes. They don’t start playing until eight, and he told the guys he’d be late.
He wouldn’t miss it for the world, sweetie.
” Sure, it was just eighth-grade graduation, but when she’d mentioned it to Blue, he’d assured her he’d make sure he could be there.
Even though she’d had her doubts in the beginning, they’d slipped away.
Blue really did care for all of them. Matter of fact, she was pretty sure he’d do anything to keep them safe.
But this gathering was going to be important for another reason, a totally different one.
It would be the first time Anne had been out in public with Blue as anything more than his neighbor. What would it be like, walking into that junior high gym with him? What would people think when they saw them together?
And in that moment, Anne decided she really didn’t care. The people who loved them would be fine with it. The ones who weren’t okay with it? They could go suck an egg. It was none of their business.
On Sunday afternoon, she heard Blue’s voice from the bedroom. “What the fuck?”
“Language!”
He stepped into the living room where she was watching TV, and he was carrying clothes on hangers. “What is all this?”
“Your clothes for graduation.”
“Clothes? For eighth-grade graduation?”
“Yes. New shoes, belt, shirt, pants, and tie.”
“What, no tuxedo?” he almost hissed. “What the hell?”
“Don’t you want to look good for Polly?”
That left him with nothing to do but sigh. “Am I going to look like some desk jockey geek?”
“No. The slacks are dark blue. Light blue shirt. Blue and gray striped tie. Black shoes, black belt. You’ll look fine.”
“Well, okay, if you say so, but I―”
“Honey, it’ll be okay. You’ll look great. Do you trust me?”
She heard him snort. “With my wardrobe? What do you think? If it’s not a Grateful Dead tee shirt, I’m screwed.”
Anne laughed. “I can guarantee there isn’t one of those in there, but you’d look good in that too.”
He rolled his eyes and headed back to the bedroom. “I must love you or I wouldn’t let you dress me like a car salesman.”
“But a cute car salesman!” she called out to him, still laughing.
He thought he was dressed up when he went to work in jeans and a polo instead of his uniform.
She couldn’t imagine what he’d say when he was dressed in that stuff.
But it would be fine. In a minute or two he strolled back into the living room and plopped down on the sofa.
Anne reached for his hand and when he took hers, she lifted them together and kissed the back of his.