Firestone (17 page)

“
Not that I remember,”
Sandy said.

They leaned forward together to look at the
photo.

“
Five bucks it’s his DNA,”
Sandy said.

“
Make it ten,” Seth said.
“You’ll beat the house on that one.”

~~~~~~~~

Tuesday afternoon — 3:07 p.m.

“
Nice to see that someone
knows I’m a star,” Annette, Jabari’s mother, said as she came in
the side door to the Castle.

While she had arrived on time, she’d spent
the last seven minutes “letting” the paparazzi take her photo.

“
Come on, Jabber,” Annette
said as she entered the main Castle living room. Her lawyer and
publicist came in the door behind her and stood in the Castle
entryway. She spotted Jabari playing cars on the floor with Keenan
and Nash. Grabbing his forearm, she dragged him toward the side
door and said, “Time to earn your
keep . . .”

Jabari started screaming.

“
Hey!” Nash jumped to his
feet.

“
Where do you think you’re
going?” Mike asked. Towering over Annette, he pointed to her hand
on Jabari’s arm. “Let go of the child.”

Annette’s mouth fell open. For the first
time, she looked around the living room. The social worker, Risa,
was sitting in an armchair. She had a cup of tea in her hand and a
stunned look on her face. Yvonne was sitting near Risa, and Delphie
was standing in the doorway to the kitchen.

“
Now!” Mike
growled.

She opened her hand and released Jabari.
Weeping, the child ran to Yvonne. She pulled him onto her lap. He
hid his head and sucked his thumb.

“
There he goes,” Annette
said. “Crying like a baby.”

“
He’s four,” Mike said.
“He is a baby.”

“
What’s it to you?”
Annette asked. “You ain’t his daddy.”

“
I’m his friend,” Mike
growled.

“
Annette.” Risa set her
tea down and stood. “The judge informed you that neither Jabari nor
his likeness could be used in any media.”

“
Who are you?” Annette
asked.

“
As you know, I am
Jabari’s
social worker
,” Risa said.

“
I don’t remember you
giving a crap when he was born or when he wet his bed
or . . .” Annette started on a diatribe but caught a
glimpse of the stunned faces of the children. She flushed and
stopped talking.

“
You’re late,” Risa
said.

“
So?” Annette
sniffed

“
You only get a half hour
with your son,” Risa said. “You now have less than twenty
minutes.”

Annette wagged her head from side to side.
She glanced at the door again.

“
You all can go about your
business,” Annette said. “I’ll stay with the whining
baby.”

“
Stop saying that!” Nash
said.

“
You’re hurting him!”
Keenan said.

“
I got this,” Mike said.
He put a hand on Nash and Keenan’s shoulder.

“
No,” Risa said. “I’ve got
this.”

Risa walked to Annette.

“
I’m terminating this
visit,” Risa said. “We’ll try again later this week.”

“
Later this week?”
Annette’s voice rose with fury. “I can’t hang around podunk Denver
forever. I got bidness in Atlanta.”

“
Be that as it may,” Risa
said. “I’m still terminating this visit.”

“
You cannot do that,”
Annette’s lawyer said. “My client is
entitled . . .”

“
I can do my job,” Risa
said. “I can certainly do what I think is right for this child.
Look around, sir. The child is hysterical. The mother is enraged
that her ‘bidness’ might be disrupted by spending time with
him.”

The lawyer looked at Jabari and then at
Annette. He opened his mouth to say something.

“
Your client put her child
on a plane without a guardian or any care in the world and sent him
to Denver,” Risa said. “He arrived in the middle of the night, and
by the grace of God, found his way to his father’s old home, where
he waited alone in the cold for the better part of a day. It’s a
miracle he’s alive.”

“
You don’t know,” Annette
said. “You’ll be sending that boy away in no time. He’s
evil.”

Yvonne gasped. She gave Annette a hard look
and carried the hysterical Jabari out of the room. Nash ran after
her. Keenan watched them go. Mike gave him a little push, and he
ran after them.

“
Call me when your client
is in order,” Risa said. “I’ll see about granting another visit.
But you can be damned sure that I’m going to report all of
this . . . to the judge.”

The lawyer pursed his lips and squinted his
eyes. Risa gave him a stern look. She pointed to the surveillance
camera they’d set up for Annette’s visit.

“
Come on, Annette,” the
lawyer said. “There’s nothing more we can do here
today.”

Annette pointed at Risa and then at
Mike.

“
You’ll be hearing from my
lawyer,” Annette said.

She spun in place and left the room. They
heard her carrying on in front of the photographers in front of the
Castle.

“
That was awful.” Valerie
came out from Charlie’s study room where she’d been watching. She’d
ducked in when Annette had arrived. “Is she out there?”

Mike nodded. Valerie gave him a sly smile.
She pulled the knot out of her long dark hair and tucked her shirt
into her stretchy pants. She picked up Jackie from her
bassinette.

“
How do I look?” Valerie
asked.

“
Gorgeous,” Mike said. He
unbuttoned one of her shirt buttons, exposing a bit of her nursing
enlarged breasts.

Valerie nodded to Risa, grabbed her
sunglasses, and went out into the Castle drive. Mike, Delphie, and
Risa went to the door to watch.

The moment she stepped out the door, the
photographers screamed Valerie’s name. Annette screeched with fury.
Valerie made a display of putting Jackie into her car seat. The
photographers’ screams and calls to Valerie drowned out Annette’s
screeching. Valerie took a long time before she got into Jill’s
Lexus and drove out of the lot. The paparazzi followed her.

Stunned, Annette stood in the swirling cloud
of dust in the Castle parking lot. Her lawyer and publicist
negotiated her into her car, and they left.

“
Good riddance,” Mike
said.

“
Not for him,” Risa
gestured to the sound of Jabari crying in the kitchen.

Mike gave a sad nod and they went to see how
he was doing.

Wednesday evening — 6:15
p.m.

“
This is nice,” Tink
said.

She looked around Annie’s Cafe before
looking back at Charlie. He took her hands and smiled. They were
sitting at a small two-person table near the windows. Charlie’s
family and Tink’s family were having dinner with Seth and Ava near
the middle of the restaurant behind the partition.

At first, Charlie had thought they were all
going to dinner, which was great because he was excited to see
Tink. When they had arrived he found out that Seth had arranged for
Charlie and Tink to sit at a table by themselves.

“
Seth’s pretty nice.” Tink
nodded. “For a cop.”

“
Retired,” Charlie
said.

Tink nodded.

“
He’s like my uncle,”
Charlie said. “He and my dad were partners at the police forever,
and they went to Vietnam together.”

“
Really?” Tink
asked.

“
Yeah.” Charlie nodded.
“They met in high school. We used to stay with Seth a lot. I mean,
after he moved home to his dad’s house and stuff. Sissy and me and
Dad, of course, lived with him the last few months my dad was
alive.”

“
Why?” Tink
asked.

“
I don’t know,” Charlie
said. “I mean, I was pretty little. I remember we lived in this
cool hotel with a pool and everything, and then we lived with Seth.
Then Sissy and me lived with Mom.”

“
Your mom didn’t live with
you when you lived with Seth?” Tink asked.

Charlie shook his head.

“
She wasn’t with your dad
when he died?” Tink asked.

Charlie shook his head.

“
That’s kind of sad,” Tink
said. “I’d want
you
to be there when I was dying.”

Tink realized what she’d said and blushed.
Charlie smiled.

“
I don’t think we have to
worry so much about that anymore,” Charlie said.

Tink gave him a big smile.

“
Did you get braces?”
Charlie asked.

“
I’m just starting with
them,” Tink said. “I told Heather that I wanted to be just like
you.”

Charlie flashed his own metal-filled smile,
and she laughed.

“
I guess my teeth are
pretty messed up, so I can’t do the invisible ones like Sissy and
Wanda are doing,” Tink said.

“
Mine are super messed
up,” Charlie said. “But . . .
um . . . It’s kind of hard at first, but it gets
easier.”

Tink nodded. The waitress came up to ask if
they wanted something to eat. Charlie was nervous, but the waitress
was a true professional. She helped them pick out an appetizer to
eat while they waited. Charlie knew what he wanted for dinner, but
Tink needed help. While the waitress talked to Tink, Charlie
couldn’t help but notice how pretty Tink looked. Her hair hung in
waves and she wore a sweater that matched her eyes. She caught him
looking at her and he blushed. She smiled.

“
I thought you did a good
job today,” Charlie said to distract himself from wanting to kiss
her.

Tink scowled.

“
It was a lot harder than
I thought it was going to be,” Tink said.

“
It was hard,” Charlie
said. “I kind of sucked.”

“
I bet you did better than
you think,” Tink said. “The prosecutor thanked you for your help
when we were leaving.”

“
She thanked you too,”
Charlie said.

Tink nodded, and Charlie smiled.

“
They seemed to like what
you said about being hurt and getting better,” Charlie said. “That
you get better because that’s what you do, but you don’t get hurt
because of something you do. You get hurt because of what someone
else does, and that’s not right.”

“
I didn’t realize I almost
died,” Tink said. “I mean, you said it before, and I guess Heather
said that too, but I didn’t . . .”

Tink nodded.

“
Seeing the pictures was
really hard,” Charlie said. “I was glad Sissy wasn’t there. She
would have cried.”

“
I didn’t remember that I
was with Sissy when I had the first seizure,” Tink said. “She told
me on the way here.”

Charlie nodded.

“
I . . .
feel kinda . . .” They heard laughing from their
families’ table and they looked over in that direction. Tink
grabbed Charlie’s hand, and he looked back at her. “I’m trying to
say thank you.”

“
For what?” Charlie
asked.

“
For being there,” Tink
said. “For
always
being there. I remember waking up, you know after,
and . . . I knew I had to find you because I didn’t
feel . . . right . . . and then there
you were and . . .”

Charlie nodded.

“
That must have been hard
for you,” Tink said.

“
I don’t think I really
got what was going on until Anjelika and I went to see you in the
hospital,” Charlie said. “I
thought . . .”

Charlie scowled and looked away. The
waitress stopped by with their sodas and fried zucchini appetizer.
Charlie took a bite, but it was too hot. He fanned his mouth, and
Tink laughed. He smiled.

“
I’m just glad you’re
better,” he said with his mouth full, and then he was embarrassed.
Tink didn’t seem to notice. She gave him a nice smile.

“
Do you think it will ever
be . . . over?” Tink asked.

“
You mean like
happily-ever-after over?” Charlie asked.

“
I guess so,” Tink
said.

Charlie scowled and took a drink of his
soda.

“
You know what I think?”
Charlie asked.

“
What?” Tink
asked.

“
I think it’s all just
life,” Charlie said. “I think we had hard stuff early so we don’t
have to have it later in our lives. If I can stay sober, and you
can stay sober, everything will be just fine.”

“
And if we can’t?” Tink
asked.

“
I don’t know,” Charlie
said. “Aden says you have to get your sobriety right first,
but . . .”

The waitress came up and took the appetizer
plate. She brought their dinner. Charlie was having a juicy
hamburger with a mound of french fries. Tink was having a salad and
her favorite food in the whole world, a tuna sandwich. Charlie took
a bite of his hamburger and chewed.

“
I think I’d love you no
matter what,” Charlie slipped in, between bites of french
fries.

Tink was so surprised that she said,
“What?”

Charlie nodded because he knew that she’d
heard what he’d said. She became very flustered. She focused on her
tuna sandwich to keep from having to look at him.