The 2014 R.L. Mathewson Chronicle Collection (14 page)

A Bradford Halloween

            “Why don’t we-”

            “No,” Zoe said, pinching the bridge of her nose and getting that stubborn look that Connor was quickly becoming familiar with when she dealt with her husband.

            Trevor narrowed his eyes on his small wife, getting that determined look that unfortunately, Connor was also familiar with. It was the look that Trevor always got when he wanted to do something that was guaranteed to end up fucking them all over.

            “I don’t see why I can’t take the kids Trick or Treating and you stay here to give out the candy,” Trevor bit out, glaring mutinously down at his wife.

            “I don’t either,” Jason said with a matching glare for his adorable little wife who was ignoring him as she helped the children with their costumes.

            “It’s not happening,” Rory said with a glare of her own leveled on her two cousins as she absently rubbed the gentle swell of her belly where their son was growing.

            Trevor and Jason’s gaze swung to her and narrowed until the three of them were locked in a stare-off that had Connor shaking his head and leaning down to kiss his wife to interrupt what he knew could last for several hours. “You should get going before all the good candy is gone,” he said against his wife’s lips, pausing to brush his lips against hers again, tempted to say the hell with it and take her back upstairs to the room that they were staying in and repeating this morning’s activities, but he couldn’t disappoint his children.

            Even if it meant spending the night hanging out with his in-laws.

            “We should get going if we’re going to get some Trick or Treating in before the party,” Haley said with a warm smile that had Jason and Trevor shifting their glare to her.

            “You mean the party that we’re banned from?” Trevor practically snarled in demand.

            “Yup, that’s the one,” Zoe said with an unrepentant smile as she walked up to her husband, grabbed his large shoulders and pulled him down for a quick kiss. “We’ll be back around ten. We left plenty of food in the kitchen if you get hungry,” Zoe said pointedly as she headed towards the front door where the children waited patiently and Jason was giving Haley a proper goodbye kiss.

            “Behave,” Rory said against his lips as she pulled him down for another kiss, but he knew that her warning was for her cousins. She pulled away from him, giving his hand one last squeeze as she walked towards the front door where the two glowering men stood, waiting.

            “Traitor,” Jason and Trevor muttered as she neared, even as Jason pulled his sweatshirt off and handed it to Rory while Trevor glared at her until she put it on.

            Once she had the sweatshirt on, all three of them stepped up to the large bay windows and looked out, watching their wives and children walk away, laughing and smiling as they headed across the street to their first house. After a minute, the men stepped back and with a sigh, Connor said, “I’ll get the Jell-O shots.”

            “I’ll get the beer,” Trevor said, following him through the kitchen and down into the basement where they’d hidden the beer and Jell-O shots in Trevor’s workshop fridge earlier. Alcohol in hand, they quickly returned upstairs where Jason was setting out extra bowls of candy to make sure that they didn’t run out of candy for the Trick or Treaters. Without a word, they placed the alcohol on the coffee table, moved the couch into the front hall, and positioned it a dozen feet away from the front door.

            Just as they were sitting down, looking forward to the long night ahead, the doorbell chimed. Trevor stood back up, walked over to the front door and sent them a look over his shoulder before he opened the door and stepped back to reveal a Spiderman, a ghost, one zombie and a Queen Elsa……..

            The object of tonight’s entertainment.

            Connor waited until Trevor had handed out the candy and shut the door before he picked up two Jell-O shots and handed one to Jason. Trevor walked back over, picked up a shot and with a salute, they downed the Jell-O shot just as the doorbell chimed again. This time, revealing three Queen Elsas, all smiling hugely as they hummed, “Let It Go.”

           The men dutifully picked up three shots each and with a salute, downed them just as the doorbell chimed once again. This time it was a large group with five little girls dressed up as Queen Elsa. After the candy was passed out and the men had sufficiently made a big deal out of every costume, they shut the door, downed five Jell-O shots each and barely had a chance to sit down before the doorbell chimed once again.

            As Trevor went to open the door, Jason sat back down on the couch and announced, “First one to pass out or hurl has to rake leaves in an Elsa dress,” Jason muttered, finishing with a groan as Trevor stepped back, revealing another group of little girls, all dressed as Elsa.

            “Deal,” Connor said, confident that no one would be able to remember this bet in the morning.

Thirty minutes later
……..

            “Nobody’s answering,” a pretty little girl dressed like Queen Elsa pouted to the group of girls in matching dresses as they reluctantly walked away, making Rory frown, that is, until she walked into the house a minute later.

            “Ummm, Trevor?” she said, staring down at her cousin sprawled out on across the floor in front of the door.

            His answering groan wasn’t encouraging so she stepped over him, empty candy wrappers crinkling beneath her feet as she walked over to the couch now taking up half the front hall, its two occupants slouched over the sides. Shaking her head in disgust, she turned around to head upstairs to grab her backpack when the sound of humming reached her ears.

            Frowning, Rory slowly turned around, sure that she was hearing things,
hoping
that she was hearing things, only to have her husband clear up any confusion by mumbling, “Let it go, let it go, blah, blah, blah, blah, let it go……”

            Closing her eyes in defeat, she decided that next year she would handle giving out the candy, because clearly these men were lightweights.

The Game From Hell

The Game from Hell

Part I

Fenway Park

Boston, MA

            “I think it would be better if we communicated through lawyers from now on,” Trevor said, his jaw clenched tightly as he stared straight ahead, clearly still upset over her little surprise.

            Big baby, she thought, just barely refraining from rolling her eyes and calling him that, again. But really, the man could be the biggest baby over the littlest things.

            “Fine,” she said, sighing heavily as she gestured to Johnnie and Sebastian, their two year old twins who shared the seat between them, “but do you think that you could give the boys their bag of animal crackers while you’re pouting?”

            “I told you that you shouldn’t have married her,” Jason said in a conspiratorial whisper even as he glared at her.

            Trevor released a long-suffering sigh as he leaned over in his seat and opened the oversized diaper bag to search for the boys’ snack. “I should have listened to you.”

            “I don’t know why the two of you are upset,” Haley said as she shifted on Jason’s lap, no doubt testing his hold on her so that she could make another run for it, “I think they look cute.”

            Every Bradford sitting around them, all twenty-five of them, shifted their glares from Zoe to Haley and back before landing on the twin boys wearing the cutest little Red Sox jerseys and-

            “Where did you get those phones?” Zoe demanded, reaching over and taking the smartphones that were definitely not hers or her husbands from the twins who she would swear didn’t have them a minute ago.

            “Damn it,” Trevor hissed, shifting nervously in his seat as he put the bag down and gestured for the boys to stand.

            Smiling innocently, too damn innocently for even a Bradford, Johnnie and Sebastian stood up, turned around and assumed the position, hands on the back of the seats in front of them, legs spread apart as they waited for a quick, and very discrete, search. Twenty seconds later, Trevor was gesturing for the boys to sit back down and held three more smartphones.

            “Where did you get these from?” Trevor asked, not bothering to yell at the boys since they both knew that it wouldn’t do any good.

            The boys would just take the yelling as a challenge and find something else to get into, which wasn’t a good idea, especially not in a city like Boston. Just thinking about the kind of damage that her boys could do in a city this size had her swallowing nervously and sharing a horrified look with the man, who, only two hours ago had announced that he was divorcing her when she’d refused to change the boys back into the plain, at least in her opinion, Yankees jerseys that he’d dressed them in this morning.

            “Here and there,” Johnnie said with a careless shrug that his brother matched.

            It was so damn wrong to be afraid of your own children, Zoe mused as she handed the two phones she still held over to Trevor, who was now scowling down at the boys.

            “
Where
?” he demanded with a look that told both boys the trouble they would get into if they didn’t tell him the truth and quickly.

            “Fine,” Sebastian mumbled as he pointed towards…..

            Zoe released a little whimper as she realized that her sons were pointing towards the players on the field. If they had been any other children, she would have rolled her eyes and explained to them that it wasn’t nice to lie and asked them once again where they’d got the phones from, but they were her children, her frightening intelligent children and she knew without a doubt that they weren’t lying. Somehow they’d managed to lift the phones of five Red Sox baseball players without anyone figuring it out.

            “Oh hell no,” Trevor said, groaning as the realization of what their sons did, hit him.

            “When did they get a chance?” she asked no one in particular as she tried to figure out how they were going to return the phones without getting arrested, kicked out or banned from Fenway Park.

            Not that her husband or his cousins would really care if they got banned from Fenway. They’d just shrug it off since they hated the Red Sox. The only reason they were here now was because Uncle Jared hadn’t been able to get his hands on Yankee stadium tickets to watch the Yankees play the Red Sox. He’d been forced to settle for these tickets, something that the rest of the men in their family bitched and whined about, but reluctantly accepted since it meant that they had a chance of watching the Yankees cream the Red Sox on their home turf.

            Jason groaned, long and loud. “I think they did it when we were helping security drag this one away from the wall,” he said in an apologetic tone as Haley added a sheepish, “Sorry.”

            “It’s okay,” she mumbled even as Trevor cursed, grabbed the diaper bag and searched through it only to find-

            “Please tell me that’s not what I think it is,” Uncle Jared said, leaning forward to grab the black leather binder out of Trevor’s hand while he sat there, looking stunned.

            “We need to give this back,” Jason said, swallowing nervously.

          “Why would they take this?” Haley asked, looking adorably confused while everyone else looked horrified to discover that the two little boys had somehow managed to steal the Red Sox playbook.

            This was so not good…..

            “Because we were bored,” Johnnie admitted with a shrug only to have Sebastian add, “And we bet Tommy his cupcakes that the Yankees would win.”

            “So you were fixing the game?” Zoe found herself asking, when in reality, she really shouldn’t be shocked by anything that her twins did by this point, but she was.

            “They’re really good cupcakes,” Johnnie pointed out with Bradford logic that had the rest of the men groaning and her wondering how they were going to get out of this without ending up on the ten o’clock news……again.

Part II

Fenway Park

Boston, MA

            “Looks like Trevor’s getting arrested.”

            “Uh huh, that’s nice,” she said, not bothering to look up from the iPad mini that she felt was rightfully hers now.

            “Marybeth-” the betraying bastard once again started with his bullshit apology, but after twenty years of friendship she knew the tone that he was using a little too well.

            “Not going to work,” she said, absently swiping her finger over the iPad’s screen, sighing heavily when the new page didn’t look any more promising than the last one had.

            “But, I’m really sorry,” Darrin, the bastard that she couldn’t seem to shake, said, sounding like he was pouting, which he most likely was since his charming tone hadn’t worked.

            “Rot in hell, you selfish bastard,” she said, trying not to cringe when she saw the asking price for a basic one bedroom apartment on Royal Ave, which wasn’t exactly encouraging since Royal Ave was located in one of the worst parts of the city.

            “I can’t believe that you’re still mad,” the asshole muttered, grabbing her beer and finished it off.

            “Believe it, you male whore,” she muttered, once again swiping, cringing, and swiping again.

            “But, she attacked me!” Darrin said with the typical Bradford arrogance and drama that she was, unfortunately, used to.

            “Uh huh, that’s nice,” she said, wondering if she should look for a new roommate only to dismiss the idea seconds later. There was no way that she was going to be able to go through that again, not unless she cut the jerk stealing her hotdog out of her life and after twenty years of friendship and bullshit, she just couldn’t do it. She’d put too much time in training this one and at her age, she really didn’t like the idea of breaking in a new best friend.

            “What if I told you that I could make it up to you?” Darrin asked, putting his arm around the back of her seat so that he could lean in next to her and look at the screen.

            “I’d call you a lying bastard,” she said, not bothering to shove him away since it wouldn’t do any good. The bastard simply didn’t understand the concept of personal space, at least not where she was concerned.

            He’d always been that way. When they were kids he’d grab her by the hand and drag her everywhere, demand to sit next to her at lunch or in class, and he always had his arm thrown around her, always. If he’d been any other guy, she’d probably shove him away or kick him in the balls, but….

            It was Darrin, her best friend for twenty years and by this point she barely noticed it anymore. She did notice when the women that he was dating took exception to it, mostly because they got all bitchy and pissy and thought to try to lay claim to Darrin and shove her out of the picture. It never worked, but she did appreciate the entertainment. She was a permanent fixture in his life and if a woman couldn’t accept that, Darrin dropped her without a second thought.

            She would like to say it was the same way for her, but Darrin really didn’t give her a choice in the matter. If any guy that she was dating took offense to their friendship, Darrin, the asshole that was currently eating her chips, would take it upon himself to show the guy to the door. It still pissed her off when he did it, but at this point it just wasn’t worth bitching about, not when he did other things to piss her off, other things that caused her roommate to have a meltdown, had the swat team breakdown her door, her landlord getting a restraining order against her and being forced to sleep on her brother’s ratty old sofa. With Darrin Bradford she learned a long time ago that she had to pick and choose her battles or deal with his glares and bitching.

            “I was going to tell you that Trevor had a townhouse for rent, dirt cheap, but since you’re not interested……,” he let his words drift off, shrugging as he sat back in his chair.

            She had to snort in disbelief, she really did. “You’re forgetting that he swore that he would never rent to either one of us again after what happened with that delivery kid from Papa Ginos.”

            She still hadn’t forgiven Darrin for that one. Trevor had been the best landlord that she’d ever had. He wasn’t a jerk, never raised her rent, always took care of his properties and never rented to any assholes, well, any assholes that he wasn’t related to anyway. She missed her old apartment. It had been large, newly updated, weather proofed and cheap, really cheap, but the bastard next to her had ruined it for her, because of a late night craving he’d had for buffalo wings.

            “He’s looking to sell it, because it’s not bringing in much money. He’s just looking for a tenant to stay there while he tries to sell the place, to make it look occupied. He said it’s harder to sell a place if it’s empty, looks less attractive to perspective buyers,” Darrin explained as he signaled to a vendor passing by their row.

            It was tempting, very tempting but…..

            “I need a place longer than just for a month or two,” she pointed out, knowing that it wouldn’t take long for Trevor to sell the townhouse. All his properties were in perfect condition.

            “True,” Darrin said, handing the vendor five dollars for a cold Coke, “but I was thinking that he might finance you if you wanted to buy the property.”

            She had to roll her eyes even as excitement bubbled inside her at the prospect of finally owning her own home. It was tempting, really tempting. She would love having a place of her own, love to be able to work on it without having to ask her landlord’s permission for every little thing, love to have the peace of mind and security that owning a home would bring, but she knew that it would never happen. As a single woman in her twenties with only a GED, decent, not perfect, credit and none of her family willing to co-sign for her, she probably would never own her own home. It also didn’t hurt that her savings, while decent, was nowhere close to being enough for a twenty percent down payment.

            “He’s not going to finance me,” she sighed, finally looking up from the iPad’s screen so that she could swipe the Coke from his hands.

            He narrowed his beautiful green eyes on her as she made a show of opening the soda bottle and taking a long, satisfying sip, trying not to smile as he, still glaring at her, signaled the vendor for a second bottle. As she took a second, and just as satisfying, sip of her soda she couldn’t help but appreciate the man now glaring at her. With short, messy black hair, a golden tan, perfect masculine features, even the slight bump on his nose, incredible build, he was a woman’s walking wet dream, not hers, but that didn’t mean that she couldn’t appreciate a hot guy when she saw one.

            “If he doesn’t, then Uncle Jared probably would,” he said with a shrug, finishing off his soda before grabbing hers and finishing that off as well.

            “Uncle Jared isn’t going to help me,” she mumbled, looking past Darrin to watch as Trevor was shoved down to his knees by three cops and handcuffed while Zoe frantically tried to explain something to the officers, probably something to do with the twins, she thought with a yawn. She looked over to find Uncle Jared holding the twins, who were looking a little too innocent as they ate ice cream cones. She knew without a doubt that whatever was going on, the two year olds were definitely behind it.

            “Of course he would,” Darrin said, watching the little scene to their right unfold, looking bored.

            “I’m just an employee,” she pointed out, trying not to wince when Trevor was shoved down to the cement staircase, face first.

            “Don’t let Uncle Jared hear you say that,” Darrin said, shifting back in his seat to get more comfortable.

            “Shouldn’t you help him?” she asked, gesturing towards Trevor as several more cops raced towards them since she didn’t feel like arguing about her boss and her weird place in the Bradford family.

            “Probably,” Darrin said around a yawn.

            “Are you going to?” she asked, watching as Trevor was yanked back up to his feet.

            “In a minute or two,” Darrin said, signaling for another Coke as they watched Zoe gesturing wildly between her twins, her husband and the field.

           
“What the hell?”
Jason snapped as he was suddenly grabbed by two cops and shoved to his knees next to Trevor.

            “Do you think the twins planned this?” she asked, taking the Coke from the vendor and gesturing for him to step aside so that she could watch the show.

            “It’s hard to say,” Darrin said, taking the Coke from her and taking a long sip before handing it back to her.

            “It’s kind of frightening,” she mumbled around a sip, watching as Haley walked over to join the drama.

            Darrin chuckled, taking the bottle back as Haley, smiling hugely, pulled out her cellphone and started taking pictures of her husband as a three hundred pound cop patted him down. After a slight pause, Marybeth pulled her cellphone out, deciding that she might need a good laugh later tonight when she had to fight with her brother’s dog, affectionately named Killer, for space on the couch.

            “I guess I should give them a hand,” Darrin said, taking one last sip before handing her the now-empty bottle.

            “Hold up,” she said, reaching out and stopping him by placing a hand on his arm. “I just want to get this……shot,” she said, angling her phone to just the right angle so that she could capture this momentous occasion. “Got it,” she said, with a satisfied sigh as she sat back and put her phone away.

            “Text them my way,” Darrin said, standing up as he reached into his back pocket and pulled out his badge.

            “You know my fee,” she said, signaling to the vendor for another beer as she leaned back in her seat and watched as the Yankees creamed the Red Sox.

            Darrin chuckled as he pulled out some money and paid for her beer. “I’m not doing your laundry.”

            “We’ll see,” she said, knowing that the need to rub his cousins’ noses in this later would be his downfall. She might not have a place to stay yet, but at least she wouldn’t have to worry about doing her laundry for a week, she mused, sipping her beer as she took advantage of Darrin’s absence and bought another hot dog.