Riding Tall (5 page)

“W
HERE
’
S
MY
daddy?” Austin asked, taking a break from building a tower with his mashed potatoes. He was looking at Joe, of course, his trusted source for all questions, and Joe was staring back at him like a deer in the headlights.

“Who do you mean, buddy?” Joe finally asked, and he’d managed to make his voice level and calm. “You’ve got a lot of people who kind of split that job up. Can you use a name? Who are you looking for?”

Austin looked impatient. “My
daddy
,” he repeated. Then he looked around the table. “Lacey and Vannah’s daddy is in heaven. Ally’s daddy is in heaven. Where’s
my
daddy?”

“Toronto,” Joe said simply.

“Practically the same thing, really,” Mackenzie suggested, but Joe just made a face at him and then turned back to Austin.

“Like I said, you have lots of people who act like daddies. Lots of people who help take care of you and love you. But technically, Nick’s your father.”

“Nick?” Austin looked confused. “The one who visits?”

“Yup,” Ally said, jumping in happily. “It just shows how
technical
titles aren’t really all that important, you know? Technically, Nick’s your daddy, but really Joe or Will or even Mackenzie do a lot more to look after you, right?”

Austin nodded.

“Some might say
Griffin
does more to look after you,” Ally continued, her tone sweet.

“Ally,” Joe warned.

“Griffin saved him from a blue jay this afternoon,” Ally responded. “That’s more than—”

“Ally!” Joe said. His voice wasn’t loud, but there was a tone in it that demanded respect. He waited a moment to be sure she was done, then turned to Austin. “Was a blue jay being mean to you? Do you want to tell us what happened?”

Austin certainly did, with much hand waving and excitement. It was an absolutely epic tale, especially when Savannah joined in with her own version of events. Joe watched the kids, and Mackenzie watched Joe. He was so good with them: patient, affectionate, supportive without being overprotective. He was a perfect father to this brood, only two of whom shared any blood at all with him. It made Mackenzie want to see Joe with a baby, someone of uncomplicated parentage who could just be Joe’s kid, not his sister or his nephew or an orphan he was taking care of. Instead of adoption, maybe he and Joe should look for a surrogate. Mackenzie didn’t have a strong urge to see his own genes replicated, but Joe’s? Yeah, Joe should definitely reproduce.

Possibly Mackenzie was getting a little ahead of himself. But they loved each other. They’d said it, and they’d meant it. It had only been a few days, but things had been perfect since then. Joe was busy, sure, but when he was with Mackenzie he was really
with
him, focused and attentive and loving. It was important not to rush things, especially with someone as skittish as Joe, so Mackenzie would keep his little dreams to himself, at least for a while. It wasn’t like he needed something to distract himself from reality, anyway. Reality was pretty damned sweet.

Especially when Joe asked Ally and Lacey what their plans were for the evening. It was Friday night, after all. But they smiled at him, and Ally said, “We’re going to stick around here. Cally and Jen might come over to watch movies. Is that okay?”

“No big plans? No parties?”

“Nope,” Lacey said. “And we can watch something G-rated until the little guys go to bed.”

“Which means you’re off duty for the night,” Mackenzie said to Joe. It hadn’t been hard to persuade Ally and Lacey to babysit, but Mackenzie was still proud of his achievement. “I was thinking we could go out.”

“Out?” Joe asked. He sounded genuinely perplexed.

“Out,” Mackenzie said in what he hoped was an encouraging tone. “We could have drinks, hear some music… you could catch up with some old friends, if you have any….”

“He doesn’t,” Ally said. “No friends. Everybody likes Joe, but he hasn’t got any friends. It’s a paradox.”

“Shut up, Ally,” Joe said.

“Maybe it’s because he’s kind of rude,” Ally suggested. “Even to those closest to him.”

“We could go over to Darton and see a movie, if you don’t feel up to conversation. Maybe get dessert afterward.” It was a bit sad that this was what passed for a big night out in Mackenzie’s new life, but he’d be with Joe, so he’d be happy.

“They’re watching movies
here
,” Joe said, apparently still resisting the
out
part of Mackenzie’s plans. “We have dessert
here
.”

“Joe,” Mackenzie said with as much calm as he could muster. “I’d like us to go out tonight. Away from the house. Together. Are you really going to turn down a request that reasonable?”

Joe paused as if considering his options, then seemed to accept that he really didn’t have any. “No,” he said. “I’m not.” Another pause, and then he said, “Thank you for thinking of this. I’m sure it’ll be fun.” He sounded a little robotic, but at least he was making an effort.

“It will be,” Mackenzie confirmed. “Now go get pretty and we’ll be on our way.”

Joe gave him another look, then stretched, his long arms covering almost the entire length of the table, his shirt riding up a little to give just a peek of his washboard stomach, his chest stretching its buttons almost to the popping point. “This is as pretty as I get,” he said. “I’m ready to go whenever you are.”

Mackenzie’s mouth was a little dry. “I should go clean up,” he managed to squeak.

“You look good,” Joe said firmly.

“I can look better.” But he didn’t move, frozen by the intensity of Joe’s gaze.

“Too much better and I won’t be able to stand it,” Joe said quietly.

“Stand what?” Austin asked.

Joe grinned at him, then stood and scooped the boy out of his chair. “Stand
up
,” he said, and he lifted the boy above his head. “Way up!”

“Ceiling!” Austin crowed, and he stretched up to brush his fingers along the surface.

“Get the cobwebs, buddy. Clean them up!”

Austin squinted around and pointed to a corner. Mackenzie was pretty sure there was nothing there, but Joe played along, carried the boy over, and let him grab at the imaginary filaments.

Then Joe dropped the boy, catching him when he was at about eye level. “Mack and I are going to go out tonight. Do you want Ally to help you with your bath, do you want to have a shower on your own, or do you want to go to bed
dirty
?”

Austin looked thoughtfully in Ally’s direction.

“We can play with the zoo,” Ally promised.

“Ally!” Austin crowed.

“Easy choice, when there’s a zoo involved.” Joe rested the boy on his hip and looked at Mackenzie. “Okay, then. You ready?”

“Yeah,” Mackenzie said. He stood up and looked at the older girls. “Thanks, guys,” he said.

“Have fun,” Lacey said. She rested her arm on her sister’s shoulders. “My slave and I will take care of the dishes.”

“I’m not your slave!” Savannah said fiercely, pushing Lacey’s arm off, and Mackenzie watched as Joe resolutely turned his back. The girls squabbled a lot, and Joe seemed to ignore all of it.

Mackenzie had no idea if that was a good plan or not, but he certainly wasn’t going to challenge it. So he walked over to Joe’s side and kissed Austin on the temple. “Thank you for letting me borrow Joe,” he said quietly.

Austin thought for a moment, then said, “‘Borrow’ means you give him back.”

“I could never keep him away,” Mackenzie promised. “And I’d never want to.”

He was treated to one of Austin’s patented ‘can I trust you?’ stares, followed by a bright grin. “We can share!”

“Fantastic idea,” Mackenzie agreed. “That’ll make us both happy.”

“And make
me
happy,” Joe agreed. “Now, we should get out of here before someone develops diabetes.”

Austin gave him a curious look. “Diabetes?”

“It’s a disease. People get it from….” Joe caught himself and looked almost guiltily in Ally’s direction. Her passion for fact-checking generally seemed to focus on Joe’s statements. “Well, I guess I don’t really
know
why people get it. But we say it’s from eating too many sweet things. So when you said something sweet, and Mack said something sweet, and then
I
said something sweet….”

“But we weren’t
eating
the sweet things,” Austin said, still trying to figure it out.

“I was being silly,” Joe replied, and Austin smiled, satisfied with the answer. He was pretty used to Joe being silly.

Griffin disentangled himself from the pack of dogs waiting for table scraps and bounced over to join Mackenzie on whatever adventure he was planning. Joe set Austin down next to him. “Have you thanked Griffin for the blue-jay save?” Joe asked.

Austin threw his arms around the dog’s neck, and Joe nudged Mackenzie toward the door. Griffin stared after them longingly but didn’t budge, too aware of the fragile human currently attached to him.

“Good dog,” Mackenzie said softly.

“See you, Austin,” Joe said at almost the same time. Then he raised an arm to the crowd in the kitchen, grabbed his jacket, and was out the door.

Mackenzie followed suit. “I think we got away clean.”

“I’ll believe you when we’re off the property.” Joe headed for the truck, but Mackenzie didn’t follow him and Joe turned around. “What?”

“
My
car,” Mackenzie replied. “This is my night. So I’m driving, and I’m paying.”

Joe raised an eyebrow. “Big talk. Do you have any idea how to get anywhere?”

“The role of navigator is an important one,” Mackenzie said archly. “It allows the captain of the vessel to focus his attention on the tricky technical requirements.” He walked to the secondhand Toyota he’d been driving since Nathan had canceled the lease on his regular car. It wasn’t the sort of statement vehicle Mackenzie would have liked to be in, but it ran well, and that had to count for something.

Joe followed him obediently and wedged himself into the passenger seat. Mackenzie glanced at him as they headed down the long driveway. “I don’t get it,” Mackenzie said. “You aren’t that much bigger than me. How do you take up so much space? How can you look so totally cramped when I fit in without any problems?”

Joe wiggled a little. “I’m not cramped. I’m fine.”

“It’s the shoulders,” Mackenzie decided after another quick look. “There’s room for your height. But you can’t really fit in side-to-side.”

“I am usually happiest on a bench seat,” Joe confessed. “But this won’t kill me. You’ll just have to massage out any kinks, okay?”

“Absolutely.”

They drove over to Darton and chose a comedy to watch, bought popcorn, and had a normal night out. Sure, Mackenzie’s friends in the city would have thought it was hopelessly mundane, but Mackenzie was surprised by how little he cared about that. He didn’t need to be unique, didn’t need to do special things in order to
be
special. He was with Joe, and that made him as special as he could ever want to be.

They were walking down the sidewalk toward the car, and Mackenzie grabbed Joe’s hand and leaned over to give him a quick peck on the cheek. “Thanks for my night out,” he said softly.

They both jumped a little when they heard the loud voice from not far behind them. “Fucking faggots,” a man said, his disgust clear.

Joe kept looking straight ahead and didn’t let go of Mackenzie’s hand. Mackenzie followed his lead, resisting the urge to either run or turn around and respond.

“Shouldn’t be allowed out in public,” a different voice said. Great, there was more than one of them. But the car was just ahead, and Mackenzie and Joe would be safe once they reached it.

Mackenzie forced himself to keep his stride even, but he almost balked when they got a few steps away from the car and Joe quietly said, “Keep going.”

What the hell? Why weren’t they getting in the car and getting the hell out of there? But this was Joe’s environment, and maybe he had a secret plan.

There was an all-night convenience store and gas station on the corner, and Joe led Mackenzie to it. As they crossed the tarmac by the gas pumps, Mackenzie saw the shadows of the men following them, lit from behind by an overhead security light. Four of them. And they took the same turn Joe and Mackenzie had.

And when Joe stopped just under the canopy of the pumps, the shadows stopped as well. Joe turned, his face calm, and Mackenzie found his view of the four men mostly blocked by a pair of broad shoulders. “Call the cops,” Joe said quietly over his shoulder. “We’re at the corner of
 
Fourth and Dawson.”

That was the first sign of sanity Joe had displayed since any of this started, and Mackenzie hurried to comply. But why weren’t they hiding inside the store? Mackenzie stared at the men as he waited for the call to connect. They weren’t all that big or all that tough-looking, really. Just farm boys looking for a little fun. Mackenzie looked at Joe, then heard the operator’s voice and started talking. “We’re at Fourth and Dawson in Darton, and some assholes are harassing us. They followed us down the street and now they’re staring us down. We need cops, now…. No, I don’t want to give you my name. They can hear what I’m saying, and I don’t want them to know my name.”

“Joe Sutton,” Joe said, loud and clear. Jesus, what the hell was Joe doing? He stared at one of the men and said, “You look like a Wallace. Are you Steve Wallace’s little brother?”

There was a glimmer of reaction from the man, and Mackenzie started to see some hope. It was all about community in the country: who people knew, the history and the complicated web of relationships. Joe was going to use that to get them out of this mess. But Mackenzie’s hope was dashed when Joe added, “Yeah, Steve’s an asshole too. He was always too much of a pussy to do anything about it, though. I figure you’re the same way.”

“Get them here
fast
,” Mackenzie yelped into the phone. Joe was trying to get them killed.

“What the fuck?” Steve Wallace’s brother said, and Mackenzie had to agree with the sentiment. “Are you calling me out?”