66. Joe
Ijerked awake and sucked in a sharp breath as something in my back spasmed. Sleeping in a lawn chair wasn’t great for a forty-year-old’s back, apparently. The sun was beating down on me already, cooking me, even though it couldn’t be later than seven in the morning. A shadow fell over me and I realized something had woken me up and it was Ada’s Aunt Maxine splashing droplets of orange juice on my face.
“Wake up, idiots.” She splashed more on me and grinned. It was clear she was enjoying herself. “I got you breakfast. If you’re going to sit out here all night and all day, you need food.”
My stomach growled in answer to her offering and I eagerly took the sack from her. I opened it and found my go to breakfast inside. Looking up again, I frowned as I took the cup of orange juice from her. “This is what I eat at home. Ada told you?”
“Ada made it herself.” She took a few steps back and waited. “Go ahead. Eat up.”
Collin groaned as he sat up. “Is there a chance this isn’t poisoned?”
Maxine shrugged. “You won’t know until you eat it, will you?”
I shrugged. “I’m starving so I don’t care.”
I ate a giant bite of eggs and instantly gagged. Salt. She’d salted us again. Grabbing the orange juice, I drank half of it before I realized it wasn’t orange juice but some strange orange flavored drink. I dropped both things to the ground next to me and dropped my head back on the chair. I was already hot, sweaty, miserable, and she was trying to kill me with salt. Great.
“Will you tell your wonderful niece that I said thank you for breakfast?” I dragged my tongue over the inside of my shirt and sighed. “Tell her I can’t understand why she ever got fired as a waitress.”
Collin spit his own orange drink out and swore. “Where can I get a breakfast around here that isn’t poisoned?”
“Two blocks down, take a right. Just down the street a bit there’s a place called Two Early Birds. If you bring me back something I’ll let you use my bathroom.”
“You’re on.” Collin nodded to me before hurrying off down the street.
“Did I forget to mention that it doesn’t open until eight? Oops.” Maxine had waited until Collin was too far to hear her. She smirked at me and crossed her arms. “I’m trying to make sense of you two. You fly across the country to sleep in my yard? Shouldn’t just just grab Ada up and haul her back to your house? You have that caveman energy going on. Just grab her. And do it fast. I’m used to having a bachelorette pad. She’s cramping my style.”
I stood up and tried to stretch out my back. “You want me to kidnap your niece?”
“I didn’t use that word.”
I groaned. “She has to come willingly but I’m not leaving without her. Collin and I will make great lawn ornaments if Ada refuses to forgive us.”
“You already look like shit. How much longer can the rich boy suffer?” She grinned and there was something in her gaze that told me she wanted me to win. She also wanted me to suffer a little first.
“For as long as it takes.” I pulled out my dying phone and held it up. “Mind if I use your power? I’ll pay you.”
“Do whatever you have to. I’m expensive, though.” She looked up at the house and wagged her eyebrows. “She’s not going to be easy. You boys did a number on her. She’s been a basketcase since she got here. Honestly, I’m tired to it.”
“Aunt Maxine!” Ada called from her hiding spot behind the front door. “Phone’s for you.”
“That phone didn’t ring, Ada! I’m an old woman. I have that ringer turned up so loud that Jesus in the sky could hear it. Lie better or don’t lie.” The old woman shook her head and patted my arm. “Her daddy was never a good liar, either. Those are the ones you have to find and keep. So maybe try harder next time, huh?”
I stood there, dumbfounded, as I watched Maxine make her way inside. I tried to catch a glimpse of Ada but she stayed hidden, of course. Sighing, I tried to ease the ache in my back before sinking onto the sandy grass of Maxine’s front yard.
Collin didn’t come back for over an hour and when he did, it was a dark scowl on his face. “That woman… Two Early Birds is a pregnancy store. A pregnancy store that I waited in front of for so long the cops showed up to ask me what I was doing. Thankfully, they gave me a ride to a real breakfast place and if she comes out here to ask for anything I’m going to be sorely tempted to drop kick her.”
I snorted and took the donut he handed me. “Look at what we’ve come to.”
“Drop kicking old ladies and eating donuts in sweat-stained suits. We’re doing great.” He sat next to me and once again the chair threw him backwards. The coffee he’d been holding tipped with him and he came up sputtering as it spilled all over his face. “Thank fuck the coffee was cold since I had such a nice long walk back here! How does coffee get cold when the air here is a fucking oven?”
I let out a small laugh at first but as I watched Collin wipe coffee from his face while struggling to stay upright in the law chair, I just caved. I laughed so hard that my stomach hurt and my eyes leaked tears. I laughed harder than I had since before Ada left and it eased something in my chest. Sighing, I laid back in the grass and tore off a piece of donut with my teeth. “Maxine suggested we just kidnap Ada.”
“I don’t hate the idea.”
I smiled and turned my head to look at him. “You remember that time Mom and Dad took us to the beach?”
He frowned. “No. That never happened.”
“Exactly.” I ate more of the sickeningly sweet donut. “We’ve never taken the kids to a real beach. We have all the money in the world and we’ve never made time for a real vacation. That’s pretty sad.”
“Shit. You’re right.” He used his discarded jacket to wipe his face clean. “We have been shitty parents. How did that happen? After the way we were raised I swore my kids were never going to know sadness. I swore they would never suffer the way we did. And maybe they haven’t suffered in the exact same way we did but they’ve still suffered. The twins mom left them the same as ours and I’ve been just as absent as Dad was.”
“I think we’ve been shitty people in general. Maybe the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.” I sat up and groaned. “This fucking heat is killing me.”
Collin watched as I ripped the sleeves off my dress shirt and tossed them down beside me. He considered his shirt for a second and then did the same. “It’s definitely making you sentimental.”
“When we get back to Lake Dun, I want to take everyone on a vacation. I’m going to step back from the company, too. I don’t need to work. I’ve been so fucking afraid that we’d end up as piss poor as we were growing up but we would’ve been okay if our parents were worth anything.” I ripped my pants off at the knee and grabbed another donut from Collin. “My kid has a girlfriend. She didn’t even come out to me.”
“My kids have a Leanne. I still haven’t figured that one out but I can’t even get them to talk to me now. They don’t want anything to do with me after the way we ran Ada off.”
“We’re going to fix it. We came here to bring Ada home and we’re going to.” I looked back at the house and stood up. “Give me another one of those donuts. I’m gaining access to her, one way or another.”