Belonging (10 page)

While he did that, Chance gestured at
an old black and white portrait on the end table. “Is that your
grandmother?”

“Yup, on her wedding day. She was
twenty when that was taken.”

“Is her husband deceased?”

“No, but she pretends he is,” I said.
“He left Nana for a waitress who’s in her thirties, then came back,
oh, I guess it was a couple years ago now. He claimed he was a
changed man. My grandmother forgave him and they were happy for a
month or two. But then Nana found out he was still in contact with
the other woman and she kicked him to the curb.”

“Well, shit.”

“My granddad moved back to Florida and
got the waitress to forgive him. None of us is really in contact
with him now.”

“I’m sorry. He must have been like a
dad to you since you grew up in this house with him.”

I shrugged and looked at the drink in
my hand. “He chose that life over his family. If he didn’t
appreciate all he had here, what can you do?”

After a pause Chance admitted, “I
never knew my dad. He was just some guy my mom met in a bar. I
think about trying to find him sometimes, but why? It’s not like
he’d want me even if he knew about me.”

“But aren’t you curious about
him?”

Now it was his turn to break eye
contact. “Oh, I am. I’ve gotten as far as googling the bar in
northern Wyoming where she met him. It’s still there. But what are
the chances anybody would remember some guy that came in a quarter
century ago?”

“Someone might, if he was a regular.
Wouldn’t hurt to call and ask.”

“I tried that actually, a little over
a year ago. The bartender hung up on me. I guess he wasn’t a big
fan of people asking questions about his patrons.”

“So, maybe you need to go there in
person and explain why you’re asking.”

“But what am I going to say? ‘Hi, I’m
looking for a sperm donor from a couple decades ago named
Tony-something-Greek.’ The bartender would laugh me out of there,”
Chance said.

Mikey had rejoined us, and he said as
he sat back in the chair with a seven and seven, “You not only owe
it to yourself, you owe it to this man to at least give it a shot.
If I had a son out there somewhere, I’d sure as hell want to know
about it.”

“Well sure, you would, because you’re
a great dad,” Chance told him. “Every time I saw you on that
cruise, you were completely focused on your kids. There’s no saying
this man is anything like that. It’s a long shot that he’d care
about me at all, and even more of a long shot that I could track
him down.”

“Still,” Mikey said, “something that
important is worth a try.”

The front door burst open just then
and Nana, Jessie, Dante and Charlie swept in with a bunch of
shopping bags and the hyper puppy. Wookie Junior didn’t really
understand the concept of walking on a leash, so he was whining and
tangling himself up as Dante tried to hold onto him.

For reasons I couldn’t begin to
fathom, the four of them were wearing big, tremendously fluffy fake
fur boots. I pulled out my phone, and as I went to snap a picture,
Dante said, “Don’t you dare.”

“Too late,” I said with a huge smile
as I snapped three photos in a row. “What exactly were you going
for here?”

“It was Nana’s idea,” he told me. “The
puppy has a foot fetish and this was her way of thwarting
it.”

“He kept trying to eat my Ferragamos,”
Nana said. “We can’t have that! When I took them off, he was going
for my toes. Then I had an idea. We took him to the shoe store and
these were the only ones he wasn’t interested in chewing on. I
figure maybe he thinks they’re puppies like him on account of all
that fur. So now our feet are safe, but I gotta say, mine are
sweating like the devil’s nutsack. Small price to pay for keeping
all my toes, though.” She noticed our guest then and exclaimed, “Hi
there, Chance! Glad you could make it, sweetie!”

As he waved hello, I said, “So, the
rest of you went along with this furry footwear idea?”

“It was this or sacrificing my Pradas
to Tom Selleck,” Dante said, which made me chuckle and shake my
head.

“Besides, these are kind of cute,”
Jessie said, striking a pose.

Charlie came over to us and placed a
shopping bag in my lap with a grin, then handed bags to Mikey and
Chance. “Good news. We got some for everyone, including spares for
guests. Go ahead, guys. I know you’re dying to rock this
look.”

“Wouldn’t it have been easier to tell
the puppy no?” I asked.

“He’s a baby,” Nana said. “He doesn’t
understand no.”

“Why do you keep calling him a puppy?”
Mikey asked. “He’s the size of a Shetland pony.”

“He’s gonna get a lot bigger,” Nana
said. “Now I gotta get back to making dinner. Who wants to
help?”

“All of us,” I said and started to get
up.

“Hang on. I’m about to turn the dog
loose,” Dante said. “If you value those Adidas, you’ll go ahead and
suit up, Johnnie.” I sighed and pulled the huge shoe box out of the
shopping bag as my brother grinned at me.

The front door swung open just then
and Vincent called hello as he and his family came into the house.
“Vinnie’s going to love these even more than I do,” I said
delightedly, and got my camera ready.

*****

After a typical Sunday night dinner
made all the more insane with the addition of a huge, hyper puppy
(or possibly, a small, hyper baby Sasquatch) I hugged Chance and
said goodnight. We’d made plans to meet midweek so he could work on
his photography assignment. He’d changed out of his furry boots on
the front porch and as he slipped on his own shoes he said, “This
was so much fun. Please thank Nana for me when she wakes up.” She’d
fallen asleep on the couch after dinner, head back and snoring
loudly.

“I will. You need to join us for more
Sunday dinners. I’m officially inviting you to every one of them
from now on.”

His face lit up as he pushed his dark
hair back from his eyes. “Really?”

“Yup.”

“That’s awesome, thanks. This was the
most fun I’ve had in weeks.” He really meant that.

He’d been the last of our guests to
depart, so after he left, I went upstairs. Fortunately the dog was
out in the yard, so I could do that without being tackled. Just
moments after I’d changed into a t-shirt and sleep pants, someone
knocked lightly on my door. Before I could say, “Come in,” Jessie
burst in and flashed me a big smile. He was juggling a huge bowl of
popcorn, a couple cans of soda, a pack of red licorice, and a
laptop computer. Tonight’s flannel pajamas were covered in cartoons
of puffy white cats wearing tiaras.

“You should have asked Chance to join
our slumber party,” he said as he crossed the room and tried to fit
some of the things he was carrying onto my small nightstand. “I
like him, he’s a good guy.”

“I like him too, and I didn’t invite
him to the sleepover because it’s news to me that we’re having
one.”

“You got my note, right? It’s
underneath the popcorn now.”

“The note only asked if we could do
this again, it didn’t say you were planning on it tonight,” I
pointed out as I pulled back the covers and climbed into
bed.

“But then you didn’t say no when you
saw me, so here I am.” Jessie looked at me uncertainly, hugging the
laptop to his chest. “Is this okay?”

I folded back the blanket for him and
said, “Sure, why not?”

He scrambled into bed like an excited
kid and said, “Awesome. I downloaded a bunch of movies I’m too
scared to watch by myself. We can do a marathon!”

As he flipped open the laptop and
logged on, I said, “Something just occurred to me. If you’re a
street racer, why don’t you have a car?”

“I crashed it last month. Now I’m
saving for a new one. Sucks too, because I’d gotten Persephone to
the point where she was just about perfect.”

“You named your car Persephone?” When
he nodded I asked, “Why?”

“Because she looked like a
Persephone.”

“How’d you crash it?”

“A tire blew while I was going about
one-twenty. I would have probably been able to pull it out, but the
other driver was a real dick and tagged my fender when he saw what
was happening. I think Persephone rolled about ten
times.”

“Were you hurt?”

“Nah, it was fine. I was thrown clear.
All I did was sprain my wrist and get a little bruised up.” Good
lord. He settled in right beside me and turned the laptop so I
could see the screen. “What movie do you want to watch
first?”

I took a look at the list and said,
“Most of those are going to give me nightmares.”

Jessie hugged my arm and put his head
on my shoulder. “It’s okay, Gi. I’ll be right here with you.” I
grinned at that and made a selection.

Chapter
Six

The week passed fairly quickly. I went
to Zan’s on Monday and Wednesday and continued my cavalcade of
exotic fruits. I could tell he found it entertaining, even though
he was trying really hard to be annoyed with me.

I brought him a coconut on Monday,
then realized I had no clue how to get it open. When I came back on
Wednesday, the coconut was sitting beside him on the couch. He’d
drawn a face and written ‘Wilson’ on it. I thought that was too
cute for words, but I frowned at him anyway and saved my chuckling
for when I was outside.

On Wednesday I brought lychee fruit,
which I figured would really set Zan off. Instead, he said, “Now
these I like,” and took them with him to the den. He didn’t say
anything else to me, but he had a long conversation with my brother
when Vincent went inside to replace the shower head. So
annoying.

After leaving Zan’s house that day
(and complaining about him all the way back to the city), I dropped
my brother off and then met up with Chance. We spent a couple hours
taking photos in Golden Gate Park and bonding over a mutual love of
the California Academy of Sciences. We ended up visiting the museum
and staying until closing.

Something else happened that week,
which I discussed with no one but Yosh during our daily workouts.
Jason Jax texted me on three separate occasions and asked me to
come to his hotel. I always went when he called.

The sex was consistently rough, but he
was kind to me afterwards. That was the real reason I kept going
back. It was worth letting him do whatever he wanted to me, because
he always followed it up by holding me in his arms and stroking my
hair and being so gentle with me. I knew I was kind of pathetic for
needing that so badly, but I went anyway.

I really didn’t know what was
happening between us, if anything. Jason seemed to like me, but I
doubted I was anything more than a booty call to him. He’d be
returning to New York in a few weeks and I figured that would be
that.

When I got home on Friday night after
babysitting for Mikey (he’d gone out with Yosh’s chiropractor and
was home by eight-thirty), I found Jessie and Nana in the family
room in front of the TV. Nana was asleep and snoring, and both of
them were dressed in their furry boots, even though the dog was on
a leash that Jessie held. As soon as he saw me, the puppy leapt up
and lunged for my shoes. He was stopped short by the chain though,
so he sat back down and thumped his tail on the floor while he
stared at my feet.

I dropped into a chair to
watch the evening news with them, and was startled when Jason Jax
appeared on the screen. That was kind of surreal. It must have been
a slow news day, because the lead story was a celebrity gala at one
of the nicest hotels in town. It was a fundraiser for some charity
having to do with clean air or clean water or just clean things in
general. Jason looked so handsome in his tux and answered the
reporter’s questions smoothly. Meanwhile his date, a blonde with
big boobs in a dazzling beaded dress, hung on his arm, trying (and
failing) to look interested. I actually felt a little twinge of
jealousy as I thought,
that should be
me
. But then I did a reality check. That
would
never
be
me. Jason wasn’t out, so even if he liked me, he’d never take me to
an event like that.

“You okay?” Jessie asked.

“Fine. Why do you ask?”

“You just looked sad for a
minute.”

I had been, but that was stupid. I
dodged his question with, “I’m just tired.”

He said, “Can I ask you
something?”

“Sure.”

“Where do you go every night? I keep
hearing you sneak out and then come back really late.”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to wake
you.”

“You’re not. I don’t sleep very well
when I’m alone, so I’m usually awake when you’re coming or
going.”

I considered lying to him, but I liked
Jessie and figured he could keep a secret. “Don’t tell anyone
because he’s not out, but almost every night this week I’ve been in
that man’s hotel room.” I pointed at the screen, where Jason was
smiling at the camera and pimping the movie he was
filming.