This time, Layne nodded before he kept going. “Seth see you like that?”
Paige looked away.
“Eyes on me, Paige,” Layne ordered gently and her eyes slowly moved back to him. “This time, has he seen you this time?”
“No,” she whispered.
“I’ll talk to him before he walks in here,” Layne told her.
Tears filled her eyes and started falling down her cheeks before she whispered, “Thank you, Tanner.”
Vera moved in on one side, sliding an arm around her waist and Rocky moved in on Paige’s other side, wrapping both arms around her shoulders. The women’s heads bent to her and Paige pressed her cheek against Rocky’s breastbone as Vera clucked softly in Paige’s ear and Paige kept silently crying.
Layne’s eyes went to Devin who was looking at the women, his mouth tight, his eyes hard and glittering. He felt Layne’s eyes on him; Layne jerked his head to the door and then moved to it, Devin following. He waited until they were both in the garage, the garage door still open, before he spoke.
“You feel like multitasking?” Layne asked.
“You want a busted lip for askin’ a stupid question?” Dev answered.
Layne smiled. Devin would get the goods on Coach Adrian Cosgrove. Even if Paige pressed charges, if he did any time at all, it wouldn’t be much. She needed leverage and Devin would get it for her.
Layne got close and his voice got quiet. “Even if you have to make shit up.”
Devin grinned. “I like playin’ dirty.”
It was then they heard the grumbling roar of the Charger and they turned to watch Jasper pull into the garage. Then they watched the boys pile out of the car. Layne kept his eyes on Seth and Seth didn’t peel his from Layne. He knew what was happening. Layne didn’t have to say a word to Seth Cosgrove about what he’d find inside Layne’s house.
But he had to warn his boys.
“What’s up, Dad?” Tripp asked as they got close and Layne tore his eyes from Seth and looked at his youngest son then at his oldest then back to Tripp.
“You’re gonna walk into the kitchen and see shit and hear shit and everything you see and hear stays in that house. You don’t talk to friends about it, you don’t pray to God about it, you keep your mouth shut. Get me, Pal?”
Tripp stared at him and nodded.
Layne kept talking. “It’s not gonna be pretty but you play it cool when you get in there. Be smart and be yourself, except, like I said, cool.” He smiled at his son to take the bite out of his words and Tripp smiled back, it was small, it didn’t reach his eyes but he smiled.
Layne’s eyes went to Seth. “You know?”
Seth nodded, face pale, jaw tight then he hissed, “Fuck! I shoulda gone home.”
“Put it away, son,” Devin said firmly. “Ain’t no goin’ back, only movin’ forward. You learn that, you learn it fast and you learn it now. What’s done is done. Now you go in there and see to your mother.”
Seth had no idea who Devin was but he still nodded to him before he looked at the door to the utility room and closed his eyes. Layne hoped he’d beat it back but he knew the kid was struggling. He was nearly a man but this shit wore you down. Layne wouldn’t be surprised at tears and he hoped his sons would get it that their friend wasn’t weak, he was just powerless.
But Seth beat it back, opened his eyes and walked straight to and through the door.
Jasper moved to follow but Layne put a hand on his chest and looked to Tripp.
“Get your Grandma to make everyone lunch,” he ordered, Tripp nodded and then hurried after Seth.
Devin gave Layne and Jasper a look before he followed Tripp.
Layne took his hand out of Jasper’s chest and said, “We gotta be quick and you gotta get down everything I say.” Jasper nodded and Layne laid it out for him, what happened with Stew, what the gig was with Gabby and what his role was with Seth. “You get that?” he asked when he was done.
“Got it,” Jasper answered.
“You think you need to bag on Youth Group?” Layne asked.
“Naw, we gotta keep on that too,” Jasper replied.
Shit, Jasper was a good kid. But he’d told him that once today and once was enough so Layne just nodded.
“Check in with her regular,” he repeated.
“I said I got it,” Jasper returned.
“Rocky and me’ll take Paige. You follow with Seth in the Charger. We go to their house first, help them get their shit then we go to Cal’s.”
Jasper nodded.
“Control Keira,” Layne ordered. “The woman in our house is humiliated enough. We don’t need Keira sayin’ anything or doin’ anything nutty.”
Jasper’s chest expanded. “She’ll be cool.”
Layne lifted his chin. “I reckon she will.” Jasper relaxed, Layne turned and moved to the door, muttering, “Let’s get lunch and get this done.”
He had a hand on the handle when he heard Jasper call, “Dad?”
He looked to his boy. “Yeah?”
Jasper stared at him, expression hidden except a muscle ticking in his cheek.
Finally, he spoke and the words seemed forced out of him. “I’m glad you’re proud of me.” Layne jerked his chin up and started to turn the handle on the door when Jasper finished. “’Cause I’m proud of you too.”
A new burn ignited, just in his chest, so hot, he was finding it hard to breathe.
His voice was hoarse and low when he said, “Good to have you back, Bud.”
He saw Jasper’s chest was moving like Layne knew his was moving and he knew his son had the same burn inside him so he left him alone to beat it back, turned the handle and walked into the house.
Layne hit the button on the remote and the TV flicked off then he looked down at Rocky’s head resting heavily in the middle of his chest.
Vera was upstairs in Tripp’s bed. Tripp was on an air mattress in Jasper’s room, Jasper in his bed. Gabby had called in to Jas and she was safe at Brandy’s. Stew was wherever Stew was but none of his shit was at Gabby’s. Paige and Seth were at Cal’s old house.
Devin was out, whereabouts unknown, but he was either at J&J’s getting hammered or he was talking a bookie into doing him a favor and laying a fake trail of Coach Cosgrove betting on high school football games as well as giving insider information on when he’d be throwing them. Layne thought this because that was what Layne would do and Devin had taught him everything he hadn’t learned in the field so if Dev felt like playing dirty, Layne reckoned that was how he’d play it.
And Layne was on his back on the couch with a sleeping Raquel, her body half on his, half tucked into the seat of the couch at the back. Her knee was cocked, thigh resting over both of his, her pelvis snug in his hip, her arm was slung along his waist and she’d been out for the last hour.
He moved and her head instantly came up.
“Time for bed, baby,” he whispered and her eyes came to his.
He watched her blink, look around the room and he started to curl up, his arm around her back tensing to take her with him when she pressed into him and her gaze came back to his. Then he settled back when she moved her body so it was mostly on his, only partly in the couch and she crossed her arms on his chest and put her chin on her hands. He’d pulled the clip out of her hair hours ago so it was down, falling around her shoulders and on his chest.
Now she was studying him, sleep still in her eyes, something he couldn’t read with it.
“You know,” she started softly, “I promised I’d live it real.”
“Yeah?” Layne asked when she said no more.
“Well, I’m thinking about going back on that promise,” she told him and his arm around her squeezed.
“Roc –”
One side of her mouth she couldn’t control twitched up and she said, “Layne, if this is your real, I think we should live it fake for Sunday. I’ll wear an apron and make a pot roast and you can put on loafers and we can pretend to be Ozzie and Harriet without seeing disgusting pornographic pictures starring Stew ‘Ick’ Baranski, shaking anyone down, setting up safe houses for victims of domestic violence or sending teenaged kids on undercover assignments at Church Youth Groups.”