The Fix (Carolina Connections #1) (13 page)

Nate
just rolled his eyes at his dad. “You’re looking good, old man, but I still
think I could take you.”

“Yeah,
you just try,” he responded, the affection between the two obvious and so
heartwarming.

It
was then that Rocco bounded into the kitchen followed by Gavin who wore an
indiscernible expression. He approached Nate and said quietly, “
Dude.
I don’t want to alarm you but your mom just groped me in the entryway. I think
I might be pregnant.”

Nate snickered. “Ah, the pat-down.
She was just checking for contraband. Don’t worry – your virtue is safe.”

I didn’t even want to know what
that was about so when Erin re-entered the kitchen I quickly made
introductions. Rocco was shy, as usual, and I noticed a few nose wiggles but
with three familiar adults in the room and Erin’s innate warmness he was soon
emerging from his shell a bit.

The surprise of the evening,
though, was how taken Rocco seemed to become with Nate’s dad, whose name I
learned was Riordan. The older man held a seemingly endless store of kid-friendly
jokes and he soon had Rocco laughing out loud in fits of giggles. I couldn’t
help it when my eyes teared up a bit. Nate immediately noticed and laid a hand
on the small of my back, not removing it until his sister Bailey arrived with a
friend and we all sat down for dinner. Nate’s arm then moved to the back of my
chair and remained there throughout the entire meal.

Erin had set the flowers I’d
brought as the centerpiece to the table and she’d thanked me profusely for the
muffins I’d made using apple sauce instead of butter. Who knows how they’d
taste, but it was worth the effort.

Conversation over dinner was lively
and I couldn’t remember laughing so much in a very long time. The company
definitely made up for the almost inedible chicken and one look around the
table showed all parties’ creative attempts at hiding their uneaten chicken on
their plates using various strategies. Thankfully Rocco didn’t blurt out any
embarrassing comments about the food. Instead he just stuffed his face with
rolls and exchanged more jokes with Riordan. Within the flow conversation
around us, I noticed Bailey not so subtly checking me out throughout dinner. But
with Nate’s regular grazes of my shoulder and neck I maintained my composure
and just tried to smile back at her.

I could see some resemblances
between Bailey and the rest of her family. She shared Nate and Riordan’s blue
eyes, but her hair had clearly come from Erin. It was a beautiful shade of
blond and she wore it in a ponytail with a big swath of bangs angled across her
forehead. She was also fairly tall – I’d guess maybe 5’7” – which was no
surprise considering the height of her brother, and she seemed to share my
preference for casual clothes.

While Bailey conversed naturally
with everyone throughout the meal and entertained us with some stories (as well
as some incredibly well-timed insults at Nate’s expense), her friend Kia was less
than entertaining. She chattered like a sixteen-year-old girl on a caffeine
drip and seemed not to realize that none of her stories were hitting the mark.
We were all too polite to let it show, of course, responding instead with head
nods followed by a change in subject. I caught Nate shooting looks at Bailey
every once in a while, which she responded to with wide smiles. It was after a
particularly mind-numbing tale of a nail appointment gone wrong that Gavin
decided he was done being polite. Why he thought it was a good idea to provoke a
confrontation at his boss’s dinner table I have no idea, but as I’ve stated
before, Gavin is an idiot.

“Hey Kia, do you by any chance have
an off button, or maybe just a pause button. My head is about to explode.”

I was completely mortified. Kia’s
jaw hit the table in indignant shock. Erin covered her mouth with a napkin that
hid what I thought might have been a smile. Riordan stole another roll. Nate
and Bailey shared a look across the table and then simultaneously burst out
into gales of laughter.

Assholes!! What was going on here?

“You.” I pointed at Nate. “Hallway.”
I stood, and to the rest of the table I simply said, “If you could excuse us
for a moment we’ll be right back.” I could see Erin smacking Bailey on the arm
and Kia standing up in a huff to gather her purse. Gavin sat back with a smirk,
too damn cocky to consider he could have just blown his professional
reputation.
Ugh
!

Riordan and Rocco went back to
business. “Stop me if you’ve heard this one. A guy with a peg leg walks into a
bar–”

“What’s a peg leg?”

In the hall, Nate was ready for me
and was already defending himself before I could draw in a breath. “Look, you
have to understand Bailey. We live to torture each other and when I told her
she had to invite someone to dinner to make you feel more comfortable she decided
to choose the most annoying person on her contact list. I should have seen it
coming but I was so nervous about not freaking you out and about getting this
evening to go well I completely missed the opening I’d given her. It’s my
fault, but I promise everyone in there, with the exception of Kita or Kia or
whoever, thought that whole scene was fucking hilarious.”

What was I going to do with him?
Having no answer I decided to settle for punching him in the arm. He laughed
and pulled me into a hug.

***

After many thank-yous and another
round of hugs goodbye we all headed to the front door. Riordan opted to stay in
the kitchen to wash dishes but he fist bumped Rocco goodbye and gave us all a
wave.

“What is all of this?” Erin said as
we approached the front door and she saw a couple boxes and a tall cylindrical
case leaning against the wall.

I bit my lip. “I didn’t want to be
presumptuous but I had all of this fishing equipment from my parents’ house
that I was planning on using with Rocco. We haven’t had the time and it’s just
been sitting there so I thought maybe Riordan might be interested in trying his
hand at it. There are some great ponds and reservoirs around here. It’s
probably stupid, but I used to love to fish with my dad and he always said it
was one of life’s best pastimes. Like I said, it’s a silly idea but if you’re
interested feel free to use it,” I finished, suddenly feeling shy.

Erin wrapped me in another enormous
hug and whispered in my ear. “You’re an angel, Laney.” I guess it wasn’t such a
silly idea after all.

On the front walkway Bailey stopped
me for a moment. “Sorry if that whole Kia thing made you uncomfortable. I was
so focused on annoying Nate I didn’t really think about making it weird for
you. Honestly, that girl has had the biggest lady boner for Nate for so long
I’m actually relieved that I brought her here tonight. Hopefully she’ll leave
me alone about it now that she sees he’s officially taken,” she said.

I had no response. Luckily, she
seemed to not need one as she waved and jogged to her car.

Nate walked the rest of us to the
Jeep. He opened Rocco’s door for him and then mine. Before he closed my door he
leaned down toward me. “Text me so I know you got home safe.”

All signs indicated Laney Monroe
had just gotten herself a boyfriend.

Eek!

It’s
a Gray Area

Nate

Nate:
So what night is best for you this week?

Laney:
For what?

Nate:
For our second date?

Laney:
When did I agree to our first date?

Nate:
It was implied. You had dinner with my parents and a psychotic person. I really
should count that as two dates.

Laney:
Ha.

Nate:
Just so you know, Gavin is available to babysit on Wed or Thurs.

Laney:
You’re involving my brother in this? That’s extortion – you’re his boss.

Nate:
It’s a gray area. How about Wednesday? I’ll cook for you. Don’t worry, I didn’t
learn from my mom.

Nate:
I’m getting gray hair over here waiting.

Laney:
Wednesday. I can be ready at 6:30.

Nate:
I’ll pick you up. Later, Laney.

Laney sure knew how to get under my
skin. Not to be cocky, but I knew she was into me so I couldn’t figure out the
reluctance on her part. I’ve never had to work so hard to get a girl to date me
and there has never been a girl I was so eager to date before. She did things
to me I couldn’t explain. I must have replayed our two kisses in my head a
hundred times, many of those times occurring in the shower with my hand in full
participation, I am not ashamed to say. I also found myself thinking of her at
the oddest times – like when I went to the grocery store and saw some chocolate
chip cookies, it reminded me of the one’s she’d made (and the kiss that
involved). Or when I picked up some supplies at Home Depot, I bought a
flashlight because I’d noticed Laney didn’t seem to have one. This girl was
firmly rooted in my head.

Maybe the reluctance on her part was
because of Rocco – I suppose that made sense. I’ve never dated a single mom
before so it’s bound to be more complicated. I confess I don’t know the first
thing about kids, but I like them well enough. I’ve just never had the chance
to spend a lot of time with them. Rocco seems like a cool little guy – maybe a
bit shy and kind of unpredictable but that’s okay. It was becoming clear that
being a single mom was no picnic, but Laney seemed to be doing a stellar job
from my inexperienced viewpoint. Rocco was well-behaved and everybody seemed to
love him.

Hell, I was beginning to think
maybe my mom had the right idea about pairing up my dad with the kid. They’d
been having their own little club meeting at the dinner table last night. Truth
be told, I was a bit jealous. Huh, that was unexpected. I wanted Rocco to
prefer me to my dad – maybe that was a bit juvenile but there it was. I made a
mental note to look up some G-rated jokes on the internet.

But I’d gotten a “yes” from Laney for
Wednesday and I was determined to win her over. Crap, now I had to impress her
with my cooking, which I may have oversold a touch. Since spaghetti is just
about the only thing I can cook it looked like we’d be having Italian.

***

On Tuesday I got a call about
another hiccup with a project out on the east side of town so I spent most of
the morning there. Bailey and I had met with Doug yesterday and, just as my
mother had predicted, he was eager to step up and help us out with some of this
troubleshooting, paperwork, and scheduling. Today’s debacle sealed the deal in
my mind and I was determined to call Doug in on this new issue and have him
take it over. This new resolve had me grinning on my walk to my truck this
afternoon. That’s when my phone rang.
Laney
. My grin turned into a full
out smile and I believe I may have started to swagger.

“Hey, Beautiful, what’s up?”

“Nate, thank God.” She sounded
harried.

“What’s wrong?” I felt my stomach
drop.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to panic but
I’m in a bit of a bind and I didn’t know who else to call.”

My breathing returned to normal.
“I’m glad you called me. What can I do?”

“I’m completely stuck here at work.
We have a deadline that there is no way we can meet if we don’t all stay late.
Rocco’s daycare closes at 6:15, Fiona is out of town, and Gavin’s not answering
his phone. It’s already almost 5:00 and I have nobody to pick him up. Can you
please, please, please pick him up for me and stay with him until I can get
ahold of Gavin? Or can you somehow find Gavin and have him pick Rocco up?
Anything!” She was sounding panicked again.

“Calm down. I got it. I’m done here
so there’s no reason to involve Gavin. I can swing by and pick up the squirt.
Where’s the school?”

She sighed hugely. “Thank you, Nate.
Thank you so much. I’ll have to call the school and authorize you to pick him
up first, but that won’t take long. He usually expects me at about 5:15 so do
you think you can go soon?”

I told her it was no problem and got
the information I needed from her, including the spot where she hides the spare
key to her house – on the top of the door jamb, if you can believe that. That
particular hiding spot would be changing tonight.

Now that I knew she was feeling
better and all was well, I thought a little bit of ribbing was in order. “I
have to say I’m a bit surprised you called
me
, Laney. We’re not even
dating or anything.”

“Shut your face, Sparky.”

***

I drove up to Cornerstone Daycare
around the same time as every other parent in town, it seemed. I showed my I.D.
to the woman in the front office as Laney had instructed, and I found Rocco’s
classroom right where she said it would be. At least the teacher had told him
to expect me instead of his mom or I’d be more apprehensive than I already was.
It wasn’t like the kid and I were super tight yet.

When I walked in the room there was
a guy about my age directing his kid to get his belongings from the lockers
across the room. “Tucker, grab your stuff – we’ve got to go!” The kid was
wearing a bright pink shirt with the collar popped and dark blue shorts with –
were those fucking flamingos? I looked back to the guy expecting to find the mortified
look any man whose kid was dressed like that should be wearing, but no,
nothing. This guy’s wife must either have his balls in a vice or be a champion
at blow jobs.

I looked around for Rocco,
confident that whatever he’d be wearing would be cool because, let’s face it,
his mom was awesome. I wasn’t disappointed. Rocco was sitting at a table
building a giant Lego skyscraper and wearing a t-shirt that said “Support Our
Troops” and had a Stormtrooper on it.
Classic
. I also noticed he seemed
to be humming to himself and his nose was doing that twitching thing again.

“Yo, Rocco!” I called so he’d know
I was here. Before he could acknowledge me the pink-shirted kid approached him.

The pussy-whipped dad motioned to
the Lego table. “Is he yours?”

For some reason I didn’t want to
think about too much, I replied, “Yup.”

The guy crossed his arms and nodded.
“It’s really great that he’s in school with all the other kids…you know.”

What. The. Fuck.

“No, I don’t know. Please enlighten
me.” My voice grated and my body turned to stone.

He could not have looked more
uncomfortable if a dozen Playboy bunnies had been pointing at his dick and
laughing. “Just, you know, he’s got some issues, right?”

And just then, out of the corner of
my eye I saw the little flamingo bastard swing his hand and knock over Rocco’s
skyscraper.

We were done here. I used what I
like to think of as my Bruce Banner pre-Hulk voice and laid into him with the
perfect level of quiet power. “The only
issue
he has is that he’s at a
school with a bunch of stuck up pricks like you and your kid. Tell your kid if
he ever messes with Rocco again I’ll be giving my kid free reign to punch him
in the nuts. And while you’re at it, try growing a set of balls yourself and
tell your wife to shop where they sell boys’ clothes.”

I stalked over to where Rocco sat
dejectedly staring at his ruined masterpiece. “Hey kid. Wanna get out of here
and get some ice cream?”

His watery eyes came to mine and he
twitched his nose. Then he nodded and took my hand.

One stop at SweetFrog (by the way, what
ever happened to DQ?) and another at Home Depot and we were headed back to
Laney’s. Rocco remained pretty quiet but I’d gotten a few smiles out of him and
we’d exchanged a couple jokes. His were clearly made up and made zero sense but
I laughed anyway. I’m no idiot.

I retrieved the “hidden” key and
after unlocking the door I placed the key inside the fake rock I’d purchased at
Home Depot and set it in an inconspicuous place by the side door. I thought I
would see if Rocco wanted to throw a ball around or play something outside so I
went in search of outdoor toys. The coat closet by the door seemed to be the
best place to start looking, however, when I opened it an avalanche of purses,
coats, shoes, and, oddly, magazines spilled around my feet. Hmm. What to do
now? Since I didn’t spot any sporting equipment I decided to shove everything
back in and pretend I’d never been there. It seemed Laney didn’t mind a bit of
clutter, to put it nicely. After that I thought it best to enlist Rocco’s help
and we located a soccer ball in his bedroom.

I was no soccer player and it was
safe to say Rocco was even less of one but we still had a good time kicking the
ball around the yard and we made up our own game, the rules of which he changed
every time he started losing. I didn’t care one bit. The kid and I were having
fun. Rocco ran to the big tree in their backyard declaring himself the victor
and I finally lay on the ground in submission. I stayed there for a minute
looking up into the branches of the tree and then Rocco came over and lay down
right next to me. I put my hands behind my head and noticed that he mimicked my
movements. It may have been the single most adorable thing I’d ever seen and I
felt a tug in my chest. Then a thought occurred to me.

“You know what you need, Rocco?”

“What?”

“A treehouse.”

“For real?” His voice was filled
with awe.

“For real. Let’s build one.”

His little fist punched the air.
“Yes!”

And that’s when I lost the first
piece of my heart to that little kid.

***

When 6:30 rolled around we were
both starving and nobody else was home yet. We’d gotten dirty playing soccer so
Rocco’s solution was to shed all of his clothes. I opted to keep mine on,
despite the aforementioned “pants optional” policy in place at Laney’s house. I
fixed us some peanut butter sandwiches and threw in a banana to make myself
feel like a more responsible guardian.

Laney and Gavin both got home
around 7:00. They walked in the door at the same time and I heard Laney tearing
into Gavin about keeping his phone charged. He threw an insult back at her and
it reminded me so much of Bailey and me that I had to smile. Rocco and I were
on the couch watching some asinine show about a bald kid with some weird-ass
name I can’t remember and his overly touchy-feely family. I don’t even think
Rocco liked it but it was the only cartoon I could find.

“Hey Nate,” Gavin greeted us first.
“Sorry about the daycare thing. I didn’t realize my phone battery was dead.”

“No problem. Hey, things are
looking good at the new site. I hear you’re picking things up pretty quickly.”

Gavin scratched his head a little
self-consciously. “Yeah, they’re going pretty well. I’m learning a lot.” He
walked over to the couch and put his fist out for Rocco. “Hey dude.” They
exchanged a fist-bump and he turned and headed for the hall. “I’m gonna hit the
shower. I’ve noticed my luck with the ladies hasn’t been so great when I head
straight from work to the bars.”

“It’s a learning curve, my friend,”
I shot back.

“Hey Rocco,” Laney said quietly as
she approached next. She was wearing a sheer blouse with some kind of black
tank underneath and her ass was perfectly showcased, yet again, in a pair of
tight black pants. It took everything I had not to pull her onto my lap and cop
a feel. “I am so sorry I couldn’t come get you today, buddy, but I promise I’ll
be there tomorrow.” The guilt was plain on her face. Now I felt like a perv and
instead wanted to pull her in for a hug. “Did you have fun with Nate?”

Rocco’s head swiveled from the TV
and his eyes were bright. “Mommy! Nate and I are gonna build a treehouse!”
Laney cocked her head at me, eyebrows to the sky.

Maybe this is the kind of thing
you’re supposed to discuss with the mom first.

***