“We’ll be back,” Jai called out over the yelling. She grabbed a set of keys for one of the family SUVs and continued to push Cella out the door and into the backyard.
“You should let me kick her ass for that last shot!”
“You promised,” Jai reminded her before catching hold of Cella’s arm and dragging her toward the car. “Besides, you cannot beat up an old woman.”
“In the seventies that old woman was the Malone Bare Knuckles champ.”
“Right. Which is also why you can’t afford to be beaten up by her, either. Your fragile Malone ego would never get over that.”
They stopped by a dark blue SUV. “She’s just going to keep at me, Jai. She has nothing to lose because she didn’t promise anything. But if I fight with her, I end up breaking my word, which a Malone never does ... to one of our own, I’m not talking the general populace, of course.”
“I know, hon.”
“So what am I supposed to do?” Cella demanded.
“You’re going to get on the phone and track down that bear. I’ll drive.”
“Okay,” Cella said, when Jai pulled to a stop in front of a nice little house in Queens. “This is the address MacDermot gave me.”
“It’s cute.”
“Whatever.”
Jai put her hand on her friend’s shoulder. “It’ll be okay, Cella. I promise.”
“She’s just trying to get between me and my kid.”
“And so far she’s failed.”
“Has she?”
“Hey, listen to me, Meghan loves you. She will always love you. And nothing Deirdre does will ever change that.”
“If you believe that, why are you here with me?”
“Because I’m your wacky sidekick?”
“The wacky sidekick with advanced medical degrees who can repair arteries and heart valves?”
“You say tomato ...” When Cella groaned and began to rub her temples, Jai reminded her, “You know this could be a lot worse.”
“They’re trying to match-make me with a cousin, Jai.”
“Not a close cousin.”
“That’s not the point!”
Realizing she wouldn’t calm Cella down with words, Jai pointed at the bear sitting in a chair on the front porch. “Is that him?”
“Yeah. That’s him.”
“He doesn’t look that cranky.” Cella had told Jai the bear was cranky. But he seemed rather pleased with himself sitting there. And he was handsome. A big boy with white hair and black eyes, a Rangers baseball hat sitting on his head.
“Well, he is cranky. So wish me luck.”
Jai killed the engine and looked at her. “You want me to go with you?”
“Why else would you be here?”
“My knowledge of the Queens area?”
“Look, I’ve got one shot at this. So I’m asking you as a friend ... don’t let me blow it.”
“Yeah, but are you going to be okay lying to your dad ... ?”
“No, I hate doing that.” Jai had no doubt that Cella adored her father and vice versa. Like Jai and her father, Cella was Butch’s protégée and pride and joy. He loved his sons, but it was his daughter who could do no wrong.
“But,” Cella went on, “once the kid’s on her way to Israel with her dad, I can have it out with Deirdre, and I can tell Dad the truth. Trust me, it’ll be easier to wrangle this difficult bear than it will be to get the family off this matchmaker thing now that they’re all onboard.”
Jai realized her friend was right. “All right. Let’s go. Just remember ... cool and calm.” Two words most Malones didn’t know. “You need this guy’s help, so don’t let him goad you into one of your ‘moments.’ ”Cella nodded. “I’ll do my best.”
That was all Jai could ask for.
They stepped out of the family’s SUV and walked to the house, stopping at the bottom of the stairs.
“Hi,” Cella said and gave a little wave.
The bear’s head slowly turned, his black-eyed gaze focusing on them. With a lazy smile, he said, “Hi.”
And that’s when Jai saw Cella’s entire body tighten—and not in a good way.
Cella’s eyes narrowed. “How are you?” she asked, walking up one of the steps and resting her hand on the railing.
“I’m doing great. And you?”
“Good.”
He took a deep breath like he was just enjoying the fresh Queens air this Sunday morning, his gaze looking around before he moved back to her. “So what can I do for you?”
When Cella didn’t answer, Jai moved a little closer. “We need a favor.”
“A little favor or a big favor?”
“Well ...”
He swung long legs off the banister and rested his elbows on his knees. “Why don’t you both come closer and tell me what you need? I’d be more than happy to help you out.”
Jai took another step, but Cella swung out her free arm and placed it against the other rail, preventing Jai from going anywhere. She waited a second for her friend to get the message. Then Cella walked up the steps herself, stopping at the top.
“You seem in a better mood today,” she observed.
He gave a little laugh. “I know. I know. I can be a dick sometimes. I try not to be, but I can’t help myself. I just get so ... uptight.” He looked Cella over from head to toe and back again. “Maybe I just need something to relax me.”
Before Cella could respond to that little bit of not-too-subtle innuendo, the bear’s cell phone went off.
He growled a little, looked at the caller ID, and grimaced. “I gotta take this. Be right back.”
He walked to the front door, but looked back at her before going in. “Don’t go anywhere.” With a wink, he stepped into the house and closed the door.
“Why are you so tense?” Jai asked her, following her up the steps until she reached the porch.
“I don’t know.”
“Well, stop it. You’re going to put him off. I thought you wanted his help.”
“I do but ...”
“But ... what?”
Cella shook her head. “I don’t know. He’s just acting weird.”
“In what way?”
Cella almost laughed. That was so Jai. She loved to talk shit out. To analyze. Without any of the Malones realizing it at first, it was good to have the Davises as part of their family. They were the rational to the Malones’ irrational.
“Look, the guy I met the last couple of times was a total uptight fussy-jeans. He looked like a mass murderer but underneath the scowl and barely tolerant nature was this ... this ... Boy Scout.”
“And this guy?”
“Smiles too much and seems like the kind of Boy Scout who would help an old lady across the street so that he could chuck her back and let her get hit by a truck.”
“Why don’t you just say you don’t know how to deal with a nice guy?”
“I know I don’t know how to deal with a nice guy. That’s why I’ve been torturing the man every time I’ve seen him. But I don’t feel like torturing him at the moment. I feel like shooting him in the head.”
“Do you ever have small emotions, Cella? Little ones? That don’t involve either sex or death?”
“I’m a tiger. I’m either fucking or killing something. I can’t be all sitting up in a tree, lounging like you people.”
“Mountain lions don’t just sit in trees and lounge. We’re looking for our next meal.”
“Hey.”
Cella looked over at the far end of the porch. The bear, now without his Rangers hat and his hair combed off his face, stood on the outside of the banister, watching her and Jai.
“What are you doing?” Cella asked him.
“Enjoying the beauty of the day. And you?”
Cella glanced back at Jai and her friend gave a small shake of her head. She didn’t like this anymore, either.
“Where’s your hat?” Cella asked.
“My hat?”
“Yeah. The one you were wearing two minutes ago? That hat?”
“Oh. My hat. Yeah, uhhhh ...”
The front door opened and the bear—you know, the one that had just come from around the house—walked out, offensive Rangers hat back in place, so that there were now two bears. Two exact copies.
“So ... where were ...” The second bear stopped, glanced over at the other end of the porch and the lookalike bear standing there. When he looked back at Cella and Jai, he grinned and said, “I can explain this—”
“What’s going on?” another, more cranky voice, said from behind her.
Cella looked over her shoulder and she felt nothing but relief at seeing that searing scowl, those ancient jeans, and a goddamn Islanders hat on his head. The Rangers? Really? At least her bear understood loyalty.
“I said”—the bear she’d woken up naked with stepped closer, a bag of groceries in his hand—“what the hell’s going on?”
“Can’t we just come visit our brother?”
“Not and live to tell about it. No.”
“Can you believe the way he treats us?” the one with the Rangers cap asked Cella. “Born just a few minutes apart and he never has any time for us. Isn’t that unfair?”
“You never mentioned all that,” Cella observed, “when you were pretending to be him.”
Crush threw his bag of groceries down, his scowl turning worse, his big body vibrating. “You’re still doing that?” he bellowed.