Chapter 10
Moto drove along the tree-lined street where he grew up, sunshine dappling the windshield and contrasting with his mood.
He was preoccupied with concern for his brother and had a foreboding feeling there was danger ahead.
Ben was involved with one of the most notorious drug dealers in the country, and his freedom was on the line.
It was up to Moto to prove Ben’s innocence, and he was up against one hell of an adversary. Whoever had left the face evidence on Ben’s computer knew exactly what they were doing, and it was going to take Moto’s best work to prove it had been planted. Work he was now ready to begin.
As he rounded a corner, Davina’s house came into view, Wyatt just visible in the backyard, and his plans to get to work immediately changed.
He pulled into the driveway with more than a little trepidation.
He wanted to get to know the boy, but Wyatt clearly played a strong offense, and Moto had never been good with kids to begin with.
He got out and walked around the house. Wyatt threw a ball to Piggy, the little dog racing back and forth across the lawn excitedly.
Moto was struck by how tall the boy was, nearly grown, not yet a man but certainly not a child.
He’d already missed so much, and an unfamiliar ache settled into his bones.
“I used to do the same thing with my dog in this yard,” he said, noting the sudden twist of Wyatt’s neck, the way his shoulders shifted higher in Moto’s presence.
“A golden retriever named Muffin. Sweet old thing. She used to drop tennis balls on my pillow first thing in the morning, wanting to play.”
“My mom told me about her. She said the dog used to eat her shoes.”
Moto chuckled. “All the time. Only your mother’s. Nobody else’s.”
They stood in silence for a while, Wyatt throwing the ball and Piggy going after it, as possible conversation topics flew through Moto’s head, each one discarded as lousier than the one before it. How was he going to make any headway when he couldn’t even talk to his son comfortably?
Wyatt took the ball from the dog and threw it again. “Is Uncle Ben going to go to jail?”
Ah, so he was concerned. “Not if I can help it.”
“Can you?”
“I think so.”
“But you’re not sure.”
“No. I’m not sure.”
The dog returned and barked at Wyatt’s feet. Wyatt took the ball and threw it farther this time, behind a hedgerow separating Davina’s yard from the neighbors’. “Mrs. Bloom still live over there?”
“She died. It’s a couple from Pakistan now.”
Moto grunted. “She used to make me cookies. Nothing stays the same.”
“You can’t expect it to. Not when you’ve been gone as long as you have.”
“Fair enough.”
“Were you ever going to come back?”
The tone of Wyatt’s voice told Moto the boy had been waiting to meet his father, and a wave of guilt crested over him. “I had no reason to.”
“Your brother is here.”
“We didn’t get along so good.”
“And my mom.”
They shared a look. He needed to tread carefully here. “I didn’t come here hoping to walk back into a relationship with your mother. I came here because I was asked to help. But your mom meant a lot to me, Wyatt. I loved her.”
“Then why did you leave?”
He moved toward a bench his mother had long ago placed nearby, its feet now buried beneath a layer of turf. He sat down, wanting to answer the question truthfully and not entirely certain what that actually was. “I was scared.”
Piggy approached Moto, dropping the ball at his feet, and Moto threw it. “My parents had just died. Your grandparents.” They would never meet his son, and he ached for the relationship that never would be. “Your mom and I had a fight, an argument. I was upset. All I wanted to do was leave.”
The dog returned, and he patted its curly black fur before tossing the ball again.
“I was angry with everyone. Ben, your mother, myself most of all. I’d planned on joining the Navy after graduation, and it was easy to move up my plan a few months.
Get my GED and disappear, rather than deal with the flaming shit my life became after they died. ”
“You said you loved her. That’s not flaming shit.”
“It is when you think she loves someone else.”
Wyatt crossed to the bench, and for a moment Moto thought he might sit down. “Uncle Ben.”
Moto nodded.
The boy looked at the bench, and Moto scooted over. Still the boy stood. “It wasn’t like that between them.”
“No?”
“No. They’re just friends. He takes me to baseball games. Brings me to bring your kid to work day.”
It was all Moto could do to nod, jealousy ripping through him.
What he wouldn’t do to have been the one to be there for his son, to toss him the ball, to teach him things a father teaches his boy.
But for the first time, he felt the slightest twinge of gratitude that it had been Ben who was here with Wyatt. Ben who had loved him as his own.
Better Ben than someone else.
“What about your mom?” he croaked, his voice betraying his emotions.
“Was she seeing anyone while you were growing up?” He knew he sounded like a desperate lover, but he truly wanted to know if there’d been others in the role of father over the years.
Who had been here for Wyatt when he himself had not?
Wyatt looked uncomfortable. “She goes on dates.”
“Yeah?”
He nodded. “From an app.”
“A dating app?”
The dog lay down in the grass, clearly tired out and panting. “Uh-huh.”
“Anybody you liked?”
He shrugged. “I never met any of them.” He sat down on the bench beside him.
Moto felt like he had a butterfly perched on his finger, ready to fly away. He played it as casually as he could, not looking directly at the boy. “So nothing serious.”
“No. What about you?”
“Me?”
“Are you married?”
“No.”
“Were you ever?”
“No.”
“Do you have a girlfriend?”
“Not really. I go out sometimes.”
“Then why don’t you have a girlfriend?”
Moto shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t go out with any of them for too long.”
“Why not?”
“I guess I don’t like them that much.”
“But you like my mom.”
Now Moto looked at him. “I don’t know about that.”
Wyatt smirked. “You look at her like you like her.”
“Oh yeah? How so?”
“You stare at her.”
Moto bumped Wyatt’s shoulder with his own. “Maybe she had something in her teeth.”
Wyatt smiled. “I don’t think so.”
“No? Maybe she farted and I was too nice to say something.”
The boy laughed out loud. “No.” He looked at Moto conspiratorially. “She does fart, though, but don’t tell her I said that.”
Moto laughed, too. They sat in silence for a minute, the work he had to do suddenly weighing on his mind. HERO Force would be here soon, and he wanted to make some headway before they arrived. “You like computers?”
“Yeah.”
“You any good with them?”
“I went to coding camp, and I troubleshoot stuff when my mom needs help.”
“Good enough. I have to go through your uncle Ben’s computer and prove the evidence on there is made up. You want to watch?”
Wyatt’s eyes lit. “Yeah.”
“Come on.” They walked toward the house.
“Hey, Zach?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m glad you came back.”
Moto grinned. “Me, too, Wyatt.” He patted the boy’s back, then squeezed his shoulder. “Me, too.”