The Last Thing He Needs (22 page)

“Goddamn it,” Tommy muttered and looked at Judy. “He thinks you’re a social worker.” 

T
HE
AIR
was still warm, not quite autumn, as Tommy chased after Collin like his life depended on it. He knew his little brother could outrun nearly anyone, and he was no exception. “Collin Joseph O’Shea!” he screamed. “You get your ass over here now!”

Tommy had a stitch in his side, and he had to stop running to catch his breath. He took a few steps and looked around. His brother was nowhere to be seen. In their neighborhood, Collin knew the back alleys and bushes to hide behind like no one else. If he ever wanted to disappear, he wouldn’t have any trouble doing it.

He heard Collin’s voice from somewhere behind him.

“You gotta get back in there and get Max!”

 “Jesus,” Tommy muttered, his voice full of desperation and irritation. He thought he knew why Collin ran, and it hurt on too many levels. “That’s Bobby’s mother in there, Collin, now come here!”

He was shouting into the afternoon sun because he still couldn’t see his brother.

Movement caught his eye and Tommy saw Collin duck his head from behind a storage shed in one of the neighbor’s yards. He examined the area like he was waiting for an ambush and then took a tentative step out from his hiding place before coming to Tommy.

Tommy could feel his nostrils flaring. He was angry, and he let it out in his voice as he said, “You think someone’s come to take you away from me and you
run
?” He was fighting the urge to shake Collin. He got down on one knee in front of him. “You leave your sisters and Max to fend for themselves?” he asked, knowing his eyes had gone dark while looking at Collin. “That ain’t right, Collin. You never turn your back on the family. I thought you were better than that.”

He expected to see Collin look down in shame at his words, but instead his brother lifted his face and met Tommy’s eyes.

“I wouldn’t do that!” he shouted and balled his hands into fists. “I’ve got a plan, Tommy. If they come for us again, I’m gonna run. We’ll need someone on the outside to get ’em all back.”

Collin chewed his lip while he waited for Tommy to say something. Tommy was wrestling with his emotions and wasn’t sure how to respond to any of it. On one hand, he was damned proud of Collin. The kid was a fighter and always had been. He was willing to do anything it took to keep his family together, and he wore his loyalty like a badge of honor. At the same time, though, Tommy hated that they had the kind of life where a ten-year-old felt the need to make that kind of backup plan.

He gathered Collin in his arms and hugged him tightly. “That’s what you’ve got me for, kiddo.” He could feel Collin nod against his shoulder, and he went on. “I’m the one that’ll get you guys back if it ever needs doing, okay?”

When Tommy pulled back, Collin nodded again. “I thought you might need some help, though.”

“I will,” he insisted, pointing his finger at Collin’s chest. “I’ll need you to be with Max and Zoe and look after them. You three are the youngest, and they’d try to keep you guys together, right?” When Collin looked doubtful, Tommy continued. “I got Mike and Davey to look after Carrie and you’re it for Max and Zoe, all right? I got it figured out, okay?”

It was a lie, and Collin probably knew it deep down inside, but Tommy remembered from experience the value of a comforting lie over the harsh truth sometimes. He figured Collin wanted to believe him, so he did.

He hugged Collin one more time before he stood up. “We should get back there before Judy starts cooking again.”

When Collin shot him a questioning look, Tommy said, “You’ll see.”

W
HEN
THEY
got back to the house, Bobby was sitting with Carrie and Max. It sounded like Carrie was telling him about her first day of school. She looked excited, but really, Tommy thought her excitement was over Bobby being there rather than the hospital.

He could hear noise from the kitchen and guessed the rest of the family was in there. Collin broke off from him to visit with Bobby as Tommy continued through the house.

Davey sat at the table holding a bag of frozen peas to his eye while Mike and Colleen munched on carrots from a vegetable tray Judy had brought. Zoe was sitting happily in Judy’s lap while she and Colleen and Mike caught up—they apparently remembered her from when she was their teacher.

Tommy took a seat next to Davey. “Now that I’ve dealt with your brother, you gonna tell me what happened?”

“Some guy jumped me after school, Tommy.”

Tommy was skeptical and his suspicions were justified when Colleen tapped Davey on the back of the head from across the table. “Ow!”

“Now tell him the rest about why some guy randomly decided to jump you.” She looked like she might hit him again for good measure.

Davey slumped down in his chair and looked at Tommy with one eye. “He was some kid’s older brother. He found out I beat his brother at dice every day last week and got his allowance off him.”

“Which kid?” he asked, knowing it wasn’t really the top priority, but he was curious.

“How the hell should I know? I played a lot of kids last week.”

Tommy huffed a frustrated breath and rolled his eyes. “So the brother came to get his money back for him, or did he just take it out of your hide?”

“He wanted the money, but I told him I already spent it.”

“Did you?”

“
No
. It’s in the emergency fund.”

“So you took a beating rather than just give it back?”

Davey looked at him like Tommy had asked the dumbest question possible. “Of course, Tommy. That’s our electricity this winter. What would you have done?”

It was a fair point, and they all knew it, but Tommy said, “I wouldn’t have swindled little kids with loaded dice to begin with.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a deep breath. “Can you figure out which kid it was?”

“Probably.”

“Do it, then, and give him his money back.” Davey looked like he was about to protest, but Tommy cut him off before he got going. “Don’t give me any shit, Davey. It’s one thing to lift something we really need, but stealing from people—from
kids
—is worse. I can’t explain it, but it’s personal, and it hurts a person in a way that toilet paper off a shelf doesn’t, okay?” Davey nodded, but he still looked like he disagreed with the logic. “Now go get me your dice and any trick playing cards or anything else you got stashed.”

Davey got up like he was going to comply, but first he said, “It’s a good lesson for them. They’ll know not to gamble.” He turned and stalked out of the kitchen.

“Or it’ll turn ’em into gambling addicts or set ’em up to be victims for the rest of their lives!” Tommy called after him. “You want that on your head, Davey?”

He didn’t get an answer, but he hadn’t expected one. Tommy leaned forward and thudded his head on the table. “He’s gonna turn into some bank robber or something, I swear to God.”

Tommy had forgotten Judy was sitting right next to him until he heard her voice.

“It’s a phase,” she told him. Tommy jumped at her words and Judy laughed. “Bobby got expelled in the fifth grade for bringing a dirty magazine he’d found in a dumpster to school.”

He lifted his head as Mike and Colleen laughed. Tommy grinned. “I’m so in love with that story, I can’t thank you enough.” Judy laughed too, but Tommy went on. “This ain’t a onetime thing for him, though. This is his MO, ya feel me?”

Judy nodded like she understood and—to Tommy’s surprise—let the nonword “ain’t” go without comment, but she said, “He does these things for the right reasons, Tommy. He just makes poor choices in how to achieve his goals. That’s something that can be dealt with, and you’re doing that. He won’t be a lifetime criminal if he has you as an example.”

Tommy wasn’t willing to admit how much he appreciated her words, but he did give her a small smile.

T
HE
WEATHER
got colder and the days got shorter. Bobby was back on regular duty, and Wyatt had made good on his threat. He came home for Thanksgiving and didn’t let Colleen off the hook with her excuses. They were back together, even with him living so far away.

Much to Tommy’s chagrin, Judy started dropping by more and more often. He remembered Bobby turning up uninvited on his doorstep one night, a lifetime ago, with movies and beer. Judy didn’t even bring beer. She would drop in to see how things were going. She would drop in because she baked cookies and there were too many for her to keep. She would drop in because Bobby had mentioned a school project one of the kids was working on and she had an idea to make it pop for extra credit. She would drop in because she missed the babies. She would drop in because she wanted to bring over something for Colleen. She could make up an excuse for any occasion, and she did it with ease.

The first few times it happened, Tommy bit his tongue and tried not to be rude. After several more visits, he tried to say something to politely illustrate he didn’t like surprise visits from anyone. His protest—which was admittedly weak—was met with an arched brow and a shrug.

“If I called first, you’d have time to make an excuse,” Judy told him.

“Isn’t that the point of calling first? To let someone out of it if they don’t want to deal with someone?”

Judy tilted her head as if she were considering Tommy’s words. “I suppose that’s true. But just between you and me, how often would you say you were free and I could stop by?”

He didn’t answer because they both knew what he would say if he had the balls to admit it. “Then why do you keep doing it if ya already know I don’t like it?”

She laughed in response. “First, I think you’re less bothered by it than you would admit.”

That much was true, but no way was Tommy going to say it out loud. Judy would try to move in next.

“And second, I think you do a fantastic job with these kids. Your life is a little rough around the edges, but there is a lot of love and an odd kind of respect at the core of this family.”

She paused, and Tommy could sense a
but
….

“However, I don’t think it’s a bad thing for your kids to know they have other reliable adults in their lives that they can turn to if the need should arise.”

Tommy took a breath and was about to protest when Judy stopped him. “Things happen. People get sick or hurt, and who is there for them if that happens?”

“Colleen and Mike would run the show until I was back on my feet,” Tommy told her firmly. He hated this conversation, at least partly because Judy was right.

“And if you didn’t bounce back? If something serious happened to you? If you were hit by a car or… fell down an elevator shaft, what would they do then?”

Tommy could feel the muscles in his jaws twitch and grind. “Colleen would take over and Mikey is right behind her. We’ve been doing this for as long as we’ve been alive, lady.”

He knew he sounded irritated, but things were getting out of control.

Rather than back down or start a fight as Bobby would have done, Judy nodded her head and said, “And now you’ve all got another resource you can depend on.”

Obviously things were as simple as that in Judy’s world. She didn’t acknowledge that she could change her mind at any time and leave people who started to trust her high and dry. She hadn’t even met Cal and Cheryl and didn’t know the world of complications and headaches she was offering to open herself up to. She thought she could step in and offer a hand to seven “adorable” children. She didn’t know how bad it could get, and Tommy quit trying to change her mind. Sometimes it was better to give someone enough rope so they could hang themselves.

He never said the words “you win,” but he and Judy both knew she had.

Her victory was clear to everyone when Christmas rolled around. It was never a big deal in their house. Even when his mother was alive and his father was still a happy, chatty drunk, they didn’t do much for the holidays. Halloween costumes were whatever the kids could rustle up on their own. Thanksgiving was a dry turkey and green bean casserole that no one liked, but they always ate anyway. Christmas was a fake tree his father had found in someone’s trash at some point, with plastic ornaments and a few knock-off dollar-store toys wrapped up in colored butcher paper.

For the last few years, it had been a little better. Mike and Davey always managed to get a real tree, and Tommy and Colleen went out of their way, knocked themselves out, to make sure the younger kids had at least one new thing to open Christmas morning. Colleen and Mike were better cooks than their own mother had been, so dinner was ham if they could afford it or a nice turkey Colleen usually got as part of a Christmas bonus from her boss. There were yams and mashed potatoes, honey-glazed carrots, and real dinner rolls—not just white bread with butter on it. It was something they did once a year, something Tommy felt proud of. The tree still had the old plastic ornaments, and there wasn’t much to get excited about under it, but it was hard work, and Tommy hoped they would remember as they got older, something nice and special—even if it wasn’t much of anything.