Chapter 4 #2
I lean down and wrap my arm around his neck, the most I can manage of a hug with me standing and him sitting with Emily in his lap. “I’m calling in reinforcements, buddy. You’re not even safe going to a fucking party.”
“Screw you,” he says lightly.
“I mean it. Mac’s out. I’m inviting him to stay on your damn couch until I’m confident you can go out in public without risking another brain injury.”
“Wanker,” he says.
I release him, slap him on the shoulder, and get the hell out of Dodge before any noises from upstairs turn my semi into a full stiffy.
Ty isn’t the only person waiting for me when I get back to my place. Manny’s sitting on my couch with the kid, playing a two-person shooter game.
I’ve known Manny for more than a decade.
I’ve been in firefights with him. I was the best man at his wedding.
I was there for the unplanned home birth of his second kid.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen him look as haggard as he does this morning.
His thick black hair, usually combed back into a quiff any fifties greaser would be proud of, is ragged and rumpled.
He’s got bags under his eyes worse than the month right after the birth of each of his kids.
He hasn’t shaved and there’s a hint of gray in the whiskers on his chin.
He’s still wearing work clothes: white dress shirt, black suit, black checked tie.
He’s draped the suit jacket over the back of the couch and rolled up his shirt sleeves in deference to the August heat, although my apartment is air conditioned to an ice cube.
His clothes are creased and there’s dark spots on his shirt that look like dried blood.
“Hey,” I greet them both. Manny has a spare key not just to the building but to my apartment and I’m assuming he let the kid in. I give Ty as much of a hug as he’ll allow, which is to say an arm around his shoulders before he bats me off with a grin.
“You going to be here for a while?” I ask Manny.
“You mind? Stuff went south last night with Rick. I went to the hospital with him and didn’t go home. Jen’s mother came over to help with the kids and now she’s staying the weekend and I’m in the, uh, craphouse. Any chance I could crash here?”
“Any time, man. You don’t need to ask. Let me get you some clean clothes and you can take the bed in the loft. Ty and me are going to play ball.”
Manny stretches backwards, cracking his neck and back. Fuck, he sounds like an old man. “I’ll come to the court with you. Game of ball’s just what I need to really tire me out. Otherwise, I’m gonna toss and turn. I hate it when Jen’s mad at me.”
I almost call him a pussy, but that’s sexist and I want to set a good example for the kid.
“Cook her a nice dinner tonight and she’ll forgive you.”
“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” he says. “I haven’t made her my world-famous Meatballs Diablo recently. That always gets her eating out of my hand.”
I chuckle at the idea since Manny is completely whipped for his wife.
“Speaking of which,” I say to Ty. “We’ve got a guest for dinner, so I’m cooking. Don’t suppose you want to invite your girl over and we could make it a double-date, then you guys could watch a movie while the oldies talk?”
Ty’s eyes light up. “Yeah?”
“Uh-huh. Call her and see if her parents will let her come over for dinner. We’re eating at seven-thirty. We’ll have her home by ten.”
“Okay!” Ty scrambles over the back of the futon and over to where he’s thrown his backpack, presumably to get his phone. I leave him to do teenage stuff and head upstairs to get Manny clean clothes.
Manny follows me upstairs and strips out of his clothes in my bedroom, out of Ty’s sight.
I vented at him when Ty returned the key I gave him.
Manny explained why a parent might be concerned and the things I needed to do to make sure Ty’s mother never leveled an accusation of pedophilia at me.
It made me angry, but I understood the need for caution.
Now I’m careful not to dress or undress in front of Ty and I make sure no one else who visits while he's here does, either.
Given that I’m also their landlord and I’ve given Cerise a lot of slack with the rent to make sure Ty doesn’t end up on the streets, you’d think she’d just be grateful and shut the fuck up, but Cerise never shuts up, and I’ve seen people act against their own best interests before.
“Want me to run this through the wash to try to get the blood off?” I ask when he hands me his shirt.
“Yeah, if you don’t mind. Jen hates it when I work Rick’s parties anyway and the blood’ll just set her off. Although I don’t think we’ll be working any more of Rick’s parties after last night. It went bad, hermano.”
“I got the Cliffs Notes version last night. Anything I should know?”
Manny scratches the back of his thick neck. He’s a buff fucker. He’s a little shorter than both me and Logan, but he’s nearly as wide as the two of us put together.
“Whatever the fuck the crazy lady put in the punch made people go nuts. They were, uh, doing the deed in every corner. I saw some shit I can’t ever unsee, man.
And Rick went purely loco. I could not pull him off Logan.
I thought that cop friend of Logan’s was going to have to drag him out in cuffs.
When I finally got him in the limo, he vomited fucking everywhere before I got him to the hospital.
Shithead kicked me out as soon as the doctors got him in a bed.
I drove the limo over to Mellow’s and spent three hours waiting while he detailed the damn thing.
I’ve got a job tomorrow and it cannot smell like Rick’s puke.
Two to one he won’t pay the bill, either. ”
“Yes, he will,” I say with certainty. Dickhead thinks about stiffing us and he’ll be sorry. I’d hate for his bank to freeze his accounts on suspicion of money-laundering. That’d be a real shame.
“He was saying some shit. Made me nervous, I gotta tell you. Like he’s gonna get everyone at the party to sue Logan for not catching the stalker faster.”
“He tries that and he’ll be fucking sorry.”
I already have a search-and-destroy bot running to squash any mention of Rick’s name with keywords relating to his stalking, but I can easily alter that so he never gets another mention on the internet.
That won’t do his fucking career any good.
I make a mental note to get a search running for any mentions of the party.
I’m betting half of the people there don’t know Rick personally and only a handful of them know Logan. I’ll make sure it stays that way.
Manny claps me on the shoulder. “Thanks, Maxie. Logan’s had a tough summer already. I don’t want anything else to go wrong.”
I fold his dirty shirt over my arm while he shrugs into the spare clothes I’ve pulled out for him. The shirt’s going to strangle his biceps, even though it’s loose on me. Serves him right for all those extra reps at the gym.
“I’ve been thinking about that,” I say. “You know how Logan suggested I join you guys last year?”
Manny tugs at the collar of the T-shirt while staring at me. “You said no. You were still too tangled up in other jobs.”
“Yeah, well, I’ve untangled myself. If the offer’s still open, maybe I could come in with you guys and help keep Logan off jobs like this. Maybe have him wiring CCTV systems for a couple of months.”
Manny grabs my shoulders. “Seriously, hermano? Hell, yeah, it’s still open. LMM, Inc.”
“Okay.” I pat him with my free hand. “You wanna take it to Logan, or should I?”
“I’ll talk to him this afternoon after I’ve gotten some sleep. You won’t regret this, Maxie. It’s the way it should have been from the beginning, the three of us. Hell, the four of us when Mac gets here. A fire team. Just like we were in the service. You’ll help convince Mac, right?”
I nod, but there’s not going to be any convincing Mac. He’ll make his own decision, just like he always does, and he’ll do the right thing for everyone but himself. Since he loves Logan like a son, I don’t doubt he’ll join us.
“Yeah, of course. You’ll help me keep Logan outta this kind of shit, right? No more jobs for Rick-the-Dick, no matter what he offers?”
“Absolutely.” Manny hangs his head. “I can’t tell you how bad it was watching Rick hit him. It wasn’t anything like when we were in the Gulf. I don’t know. It was bad, man.”
I grip his shoulder. My fingers don’t even dent the muscle. He is such a solid fucker.
“We’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again. C’mon, let’s go play ball. Put last night behind us.”
Manny nods and follows me downstairs. I toss his shirt into the washer and get it going. Ty’s on his phone, grinning like a fucking loon into it while his girl looks back, red-faced but smiling. I throw an arm around his neck and scrub my hand through his sponge twists.
“Hi, Dakota. Are you coming to dinner?”
“Gerrof,” Ty protests.
I ignore him and smile into the phone.
“Yes. Are you Mister Max? Would you mind just speaking to my mom for a minute?”
“Happy to.”
The picture blurs as she walks and then a woman with her daughter’s pretty eyes, although hers are more wary, looks into the phone.
“Hi, I’m Max Bateman,” I tell her. “I’m cooking dinner for a friend and Ty tonight. We were hoping Dakota could join us?”
“Hi. I’m LouAnn Reed. Dakota’s mother.” She colors as brightly as her daughter. “Obviously. Yes, that’d be fine. Could I have a contact number for you and your address?”
I give them to her.
She clears her throat. “We’re on Tenth and C.”
A block away from the Riis projects. I’m guessing she wouldn’t want Dakota walking home on her own.
“Great. Ty and I can walk Dakota home afterwards. We’ll have her home by ten if that’s not too late.”
“Ten would be great. Thanks so much for inviting her. Um, Dakota’s birthday’s in a couple of weeks. It’s been a tough year so we weren’t going to do anything other than a family dinner and some cake, but if you two would like to come, that might make it more of a party?”
Ty looks up at me with not just his heart but his entire soul in his eyes. Poor kid. I grin at him.
“Sounds great. Are you guys ice cream eaters?” At her nod, I continue, “Cause my friend makes the best ice cream cakes on the entire East Coast and if Dakota’s okay with an ice cream cake, I’ll bring one.”
Total lie. There is a place two blocks over that makes custom cakes, but I don’t know anyone there and they don’t know me from Adam. Pretty sure they’ll take my credit card with a smile, though.
I hear an excited, high-pitched, “Awesome!” in the background, which makes my grin widen.
LouAnn blinks rapidly. “That would be amazing. Thank you so much. You’re sure it’s not too much trouble?”
“Definitely not. We’ll see you at seven-thirty. Anything Dakota won’t eat? Any allergies?”
LouAnn shakes her head. “She’s easy. To feed, I mean. She’s easy to feed.”
I smile gently. I know the feeling of stumbling over my words trying to fill those awkward gaps. I’ve only been semi-smooth with her on the phone because I know Ty’s counting on me.
“Great. Don’t bring anything, okay? I’ve already got everything.”
LouAnn’s face sags in what looks like relief, and I wonder exactly how tough a year they’ve had. “If you’re sure.”
“I am. Call if anything comes up between now and then, okay? C’mon, my man, let’s go play some ball.” I ruffle Ty’s hair again, to his protests.
LouAnn says goodbye and ends the call. Ty punches me in the shoulder, affectionately I think, but the skinny kid is building some muscle.
“Ow,” I protest.
“She’s coming over,” Ty says, like he can’t quite believe it.
“She is. Better than her saving you a seat on the bus, huh?”
“So much better.” His face pinches in suddenly. “What if I mess it up?”
Manny chuckles. “You’ll do that plenty, kid. Be ready to spend half of your life groveling.”
I laugh with him but something in me revolts.
I don’t want to grovel. I want something different.
What, I’m not exactly sure. Maybe dinner, or more likely, after dinner since DirtyGurl won’t be able to say much in front of our thirteen-year-old chaperones, will give me some idea of what my options are.