Spirit (6 page)

I finally decided it might be sensible to stop ogling my guest. After all, I was pretty sure he wasn’t here to see me. He was here to see his nephew.

“About Timmy’s hair,” I explained. “He didn’t fall in the Cuisinart, you know. He cut it himself. I turned my back on him for no more than five seconds, I swear, and look what he did.”

Sam laughed and reached across the table to run his fingers through what little hair Timmy had left to cover his noggin. Timmy was gnawing at his hot dog and barely noticed the touch.

“It’s original,” Sam said. “I’m thinking there’s only one way to fix
it.”

“Give it a year to grow out?” I asked. “It might be simpler to just trade the kid in on a new one.”

“No. Buzz the whole thing off.”

“What, his hair?”

“Yeah.”

“His mother would kill me.”

“Like she won’t kill you now?”

The mention of Sally made me wonder just how much Sam knew about what was going on.

“Sally is gone for a few weeks on vacation. You did know that, right?” I wasn’t sure if this was the time to tell him I was sorry his brother had taken a powder three years earlier and abandoned his family like a heartless shithead, so I bit my tongue and said nothing. Come to think of it, there is probably
never
a right time for saying that.

Sam nodded when I mentioned Sally, forking a little more salmon into his mouth. Sipping his water. Dabbing at his mouth with a napkin. Gazing around the room. He had the appearance of a man stalling for time, which I thought was odd. Then I decided I was imagining things. Sam was too cute to be duplicitous. (See how infatuated I was already? Lord, I’m a slut.)

Finally, Sam nodded. “There was a message on her answering machine saying she’d be gone for a few weeks and leaving your address and phone number because you were babysitting Timmy.”

Timmy almost choked on that. Through a mouthful of hot dog he cried out, “He’s not babysitting me! I’m babysitting him! He’s even afraid of bugs!”

Sam and I laughed. I laughed because it was true. I also laughed because Sam was laughing because he thought it was the ridiculous spouting of a four-year-old. I’m afraid the man had a lot to learn about his nephew’s other uncle.

Again, Sam was staring at Timmy with a wistful expression on his face. I could see it meant a great deal to him to meet the boy.

“Have you never seen Timmy before?” I asked. I never remembered Sam visiting. Never remembered Sally mentioning him at all.

Sam tore his eyes away from his nephew. There was a hint of sadness in their golden-brown depths for a moment, then he blinked the sadness away and focused on me. “No. When Sam was born, I was pulling a hitch in the Navy. Went in right out of high school. Not long after the wedding, in fact. By the time I came home, Paul had…”

His voice trailed away, and I finished the sentence for him. “… run off.”

Sam nodded, but he didn’t look happy about it. “Yes. I suppose. Run off. Anyway, he was long gone.”

The timeline wasn’t adding up for me. “So you must be about twenty-three.”

“I’m twenty-four.”

“And you must have been discharged from the Navy almost three years ago.”

He did some calculating in his head. I could see him do it. “That’s about right.”

I glanced at Timmy. His attention was centered on a green bean. He was examining it like maybe it was actually a worm or something. I lowered my voice and leaned in a little closer to Sam. I wondered if I was about to kill a burgeoning friendship.

“It seems to me if this is the first time you’ve seen Timmy, it’s no one’s fault but your own. Tucson isn’t that far away. You could have driven or flown out to see your nephew on any given weekend, even if you were working.”

A flash of anger darkened Sam’s eyes for the briefest moment, but then he looked away. By the time he gazed back at me, the anger was gone, replaced by humility.

“Yes. It was my fault. But now I’d like to make up for it and get to know him. He’s my only nephew. I hope you’ll let me do that. I’ll only be in town for a couple of weeks. I’ll try not to monopolize his time.”

I couldn’t understand the desperate tone of his voice. Once again, I wondered just what kind of person he thought I was.

“Well, of course you can get to know him. You
should
get to know him. I don’t know why you would think I wouldn’t let you do that. And I don’t care
how
much time you spend with him.”

Sam’s relief was evident on his face. He gave me a grateful smile, which I was still having trouble understanding. But I returned his smile with one of my own.

“Then it’s settled,” I said. “While you’re in town, you can spend as much time with Timmy as you like. Come over whenever. I work at home. We’ll almost always be here. Where are you staying? Did you fly out or drive? Do you have a car?”

Again Sam looked uncomfortable. If he hadn’t been sitting, he would probably have been shuffling his feet. “My car’s parked around the corner. I haven’t found a place to stay yet. I just drove into town a couple of hours ago. I’m sure there’s a motel close. Maybe you can suggest one.”

“Stay here,” Timmy said.

Sam and I looked over at the kid. He had a green bean poking out of each ear.

Timmy grinned at the expressions on our faces.

When he knew he had our full and undivided attention, green beans be damned, he said it again. This time to me. “Let Uncle Sam stay here. Then we can play hide and seek.”

“Oh, no,” Sam said, but I ignored him. I was still staring at Timmy. The kid looked sincere. Even
with
the beans.

“Would you really like your Uncle Sam to stay here with us so you can get to know him?”

“Sure. It’ll be fun. We could play tag too.” Timmy gave a big tooth-baring grin to expose a green bean draped over his front teeth. Combined with the two sticking out of his ears, it made him look absolutely insane.

Sam and I laughed. Then we gazed at each other.

Before Sam could open his mouth and try to wiggle out of the invitation, I asked him point blank. “Would you like to stay with us? There’s plenty of room.” Was there an ulterior motive niggling around in the back of my head? Even I wasn’t sure. All I really knew was that it made sense. What better way for Timmy to get to know his uncle than by living under the same roof with him for a couple of weeks. And it would even save the guy some money. That’s always a good thing, right?

Sam said exactly what I knew he would say. “I don’t want to impose.”

“Nice try,” I said. “But frankly, you’d be doing me a favor. Maybe I can even take a nap without worrying about the kid shaving the dog bald.”

Timmy’s eyes popped open wide, like that was the best idea he had heard in weeks. He leaned over the edge of his chair to peer into the living room, where Thumper was snoring like a diesel engine in among the sofa cushions.

I narrowed my eyes and reached across the table to tap Timmy on the head with a fork. “Don’t even think about it.”

Sam laughed. Then he offered me a very handsome, very sincere look of pure gratitude. It was so handsome and so sincere that for some reason I felt my dick stir in my pants. Good grief, that was unexpected.

He laid his hand over mine atop the table, and my dick gave another tiny lurch. “I would love to stay,” he said softly. “And I won’t just be getting to know Timmy. I’ll be getting to know you too. We’re practically related after all.”

I raised a finger and wagged it in front of his face. “But we’re not.”

He grinned and his face reddened. “No, Jason. We’re not.” Then he gently added, “Thank you for doing this.”

My poor dick was confused. Was I putting the moves on the guy or simply being hospitable? Even I wasn’t sure anymore.

“It’s settled, then,” I said.

“Settled,” Sam echoed.

Timmy plucked the green beans out of his ears and poked them both into his mouth with the other one, chewing them all into a pulp. “Yay!” he sputtered, spitting green beans down the front of his shirt by accident. Then he looked down at himself and groaned. “Oops.”

Sam was about to say something, but once again I waggled my finger in his face before he had a chance.

“Too late to back out now. You already said yes.”

He blinked and smiled. His big warm hand still rested over mine, and I was really digging the way it felt.

“That I did,” he said.

“You better watch out,” Timmy said, licking the green beans off his shirt. “Uncle Jason likes boys.”

Sam gave Timmy a fond smile. “Yeah,” he said, “but so do I, so your warning is invalid.” He then cast a devious glance in my direction, which took me by surprise and made me jump in my seat like someone had poked me with a needle. But it was the ensuing friendly wink that caused my heart to skip a couple of beats. Was I imagining things, or were there all kinds of possibilities in that wink?

Timmy stared at Sam and me eyeing each other like he was watching a Woody Woodpecker cartoon, then he buried his face in his little hands and silently giggled. For the longest time, he simply sat there shaking his head, chewing his green beans, and giggling without a sound. It was actually quite astonishing. I had never seen the kid muted by circumstances before.

As a matter of fact, I was muted too. Couldn’t have strung three words together if someone had put a gun to my head.

All I could do was stare at Sam, who was now attacking his salmon like he was starved. Lord, the man was beautiful.

I
SETTLED
Sam and his one tiny suitcase in the spare bedroom past Timmy’s. After putting his few clothes away, he gently closed the bedroom door for a little privacy and spent some time on his cell phone, presumably pertaining to that business he mentioned earlier, whatever it was. With his call complete, he and Timmy went out to explore the backyard while I parked myself in the sunroom in front of my computer and my quad monitor setup and worked on
God of the Sun
, my latest video game creation, which seemed to have more bugs in it than a frigging ant hill.

I watched Timmy and Sam giggling and chasing each other through my cedar trees. Later I saw them sprawled side by side on my hammock, and shortly after that, I spotted them crawling through the grass with their noses to the ground like bloodhounds. When they caught me spying on them through the window, they both popped up on their knees and waved hello, excited as puppies.

I laughed and waved back, seeing the pleasure on both their faces when I did. Timmy had a new friend, and that made me happy. Sam was connecting with his long-lost nephew, and that made me even happier. I thought it quite possible that before Sam’s visit was over, I might make a new friend as well. I hoped so anyway. Aside from Sam being gorgeous and sexy and apparently kind, he was also secure enough in his own skin to crawl around on the ground with a four-year-old and not have his masculinity threatened.

How could you not be attracted to a guy like that?

I slogged away for a while honing the soundtrack for the big finale of the game. Unfortunately, what was supposed to sound like a volcanic eruption in truth sounded more like a dyspeptic choo-choo train, and after twenty minutes of tweaking, the choo-choo train had morphed into a god-awful belching sound like maybe a rhinoceros would cough up after eating a porkypine. Beaten for the time being, I switched over to work on the mechanics of the game instead, the JUMP command in particular. The sound equipment I had used before was now set to blast out show tunes. How gay is that?

I happily cocooned myself in a thundering bubble of voice and orchestra and the staccato clatter of countless tap shoes. Eyes glued to the bank of monitors, I adjusted and coaxed and tweaked for all I was worth. Gradually, the JUMP command appeared to be improving, so I moved along to the SPIN command just for a change of pace. Lost in my own little world, I had little sensation of the passing of time. Only when the golden light of sunset began to stretch across the yard outside did it snag my attention long enough to make me realize the day was almost over.

I had not seen Timmy or Sam for hours. And poor Thumper
needed to be taken out too.

I powered down my equipment, groaned my way to my feet, and set off in search of my nephew and houseguest, feeling guilty about ignoring them both for so long. Still, there was a spring in my step because I had moved
God of the Sun
a little farther along toward completion. Of course, the spring in my step only made me feel guiltier about being a crappy host and dog owner. So to make it up to everyone, I decided to take the lot of us out to dinner. Or have it delivered in. Then I was struck by a fresh bout of guilt wondering if I was actually being nice or was I simply reaffirming the fact that I was too lazy to cook?

The house was silent and empty—no brown-eyed hunky uncles, no four-year-old terrors, no geriatric canines anywhere. Then I found a handwritten note stuck to the refrigerator door.

OUT TO COLLECT DINNER. GOT THE KID AND THE DOG WITH ME. BE BACK SOON. SAM