Only In His Sweetest Dreams(42)
“Oh. Can we come see you there?”
“Uh...” The request surprised him and again he checked with Mercedes, seeing a slightly panicked widening in her eyes. “If you’re still living with your Auntie M after school finishes,” he said carefully. “And if Auntie M is allowed to leave her work for a while. I’d love it if you came to visit me. Meanwhile, you can call me. Anytime. Face call, even.”
“But cell phones are ‘spensive,” she said, her eyes wide.
How would she know that, he thought cynically, unless Porsha had used the phrase a thousand times to cut short Ayjia’s calls.
“I don’t mind,” L.C. said. “I’m going to soak Zack’s Uncle Sterling when it comes to consulting fees.”
“With a hose?” Ayjia asked, brows quirking.
“It’s just an expression,” L.C. said, grinning.
She hugged him, her spindly little arms sweaty and her narrow body frighteningly fragile in his arms as he hugged her back. He held her a long time, not wanting to let go.
But Zack brought Dayton over, dangling from his forearm. Dayton dropped his feet to the ground with a slap and said, “Are you going to come back with Zack when he school starts again?”
“I don’t think so, sport.” L.C. cleared his throat and gently released Ayjia. “And Zack’s free ride is over. He’ll have to pay his own rent somewhere here in town.”
“But if you guys are still here, I will definitely come see you,” Zack promised, clicking his tongue and shooting Dayton with his finger and thumb. “I’ll babysit for home-cooked meals,” he told Mercedes.
She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. Tension pulled at her cheekbones and around her eyes.
“Meanwhile, you keep playing ball like a pro,” L.C. told Dayton. “If you play again this Saturday, like you did last Saturday, I’m gonna see you on T.V. one day.” Kneeling, he held out a hand to shake, since Dayton wasn’t one for physical contact unless it involved a wrestling component.
Dayton surprised him by darting in for a quick hug, then stepped away to squint one eye closed. “Do I have to keep going to Mrs. Garvey’s if you don’t?”
“Hey, you heard her. She said I should do homework and email it to her. I’m not off the hook and neither are you.”
“She is so damn strict, isn’t she?” Dayton said, folding his arms and hitching his weight onto his hip, making Zack choke and Mercedes screech, “‘scuse me?” in a voice thinned by outrage.
Mock outrage. She was laughing under there, but wasn’t about to show it.
“My fault,” L.C. said, scratching his neck. “That one was supposed to stay between you and me. Remember? What goes on the Ring Road stays on the Ring Road.”
“Oh yeah,” he said, ducking his head away from L.C.’s ruffle of his hair. “But she is, isn’t she?”
“She’s a little bit strict,” L.C. agreed, climbing to his feet to face the hardest goodbye.
No, it was all hard. The kids, the seniors, the sunshine and red, naked cliffs. He would miss it all.
Especially Mercedes.
The hurt started behind his collarbone and extended in a hollow ache all the way to the joints in his hips. He cupped her freckled face and set his thumbs against the corners of her mouth, steadying them since she couldn’t seem to decide on whether to let them lift or fall.
He kissed her, keeping it short and chaste but letting her know that if he never saw her again, he would love her for the rest of his life.
“You call me too, ‘kay? Anytime.”
She nodded and he kissed her once more on the forehead, wishing Harrison were alive at least, to keep an eye on her.
Zack moved in to hug Mercedes and L.C. climbed behind the wheel of his truck, already pointed for leaving. The door slammed beside him as Zack climbed in. Dayton waved and Ayjia turned her face into Mercedes shoulder as he drove away.
Every roll of the tires peeled another strip of skin from his heart.
Chapter 22
With everything that had gone on in the last few weeks, Mercedes had failed to close out April on the complex’s books. Here it was almost the end of May and she had an Annual General Meeting looming tomorrow at ten. She frantically pulled together a current statement since the new President was liable to want to see it.
The last manager had let the books fall unacceptably behind, Mrs. Garvey had reminded Mercedes just this morning.
Mercedes knew, she knew, and even though L.C. and Zack had submitted every single invoice for expenses incurred with all the work they’d done, the pieces of paper were stained, crinkled, out of order and covered in notes she still had to find allocation codes for.
And she was due to pick up the kids in an hour.
Where was Zack when she needed him?
Working for his Uncle Sterling and chatting online to his girlfriend, according to Holly. The sweetheart had come by on the weekend to introduce herself and offer her babysitting services, but since Mercedes had yet to sign papers at the daycare, authorizing her to pick them up, there was no way she could call Holly and beg the favor of fetching the kids today.
At least all this work kept her from eating her heart out over L.C.’s absence. She wondered how he was.
“Oh, that’s okay,” she heard a female voice saying outside, as Mrs. Corbett swooshed open the automatic doors behind Mercedes and entered the foyer. “I won’t bother her,” the distant yet familiar tone said. “I’ll just pick up the kids. Do you know which unit she moved to?”
“Porsha?” Mercedes stood and turned to look through the windows. Her sister stood in the courtyard, at the patio of Mercedes’s old unit, talking to Mrs. Garvey.
Mercedes hit the button on the closing doors, batted when the doors didn’t move fast enough, and pushed through to trot across the bricks so quickly her sandals clapped. “Porsha!”
“Oh, hey, you’re here.” Porsha tugged off her sunglasses and held out her arms. Her blond hair was big and stiff with product, her pink halter and white capris snug and bright on her tall, curvy body. “It’s so good to see you! Where’re the kids? And since when did you move?”
“Huh? Oh, a few weeks ago. The kids are at after-school club.” Mercedes pushed back from the scent of cigarettes and minty fresh gum that may or may not have been masking the scent of gin.
“Oh, God, it’s not one of those church clubs, is it? Shit, I did that once and Ayjia was trying to help me find Jesus for months after.”
“No, it’s with the Y, but— Why didn’t you want to talk to me?” As if she didn’t know. “Come have a coffee.”
“Oh, I can’t,” Porsha said with a regretful little bend of the knees. “Ray and I have to get going. Just tell me where the kids are and we’ll grab them on the way out of town.”
“Ray?”
“Ray. Isn’t he incredible?” She pointed toward the parking lot where a mile-long gold convertible sat, a husky Italiano-type at the wheel. The man was smoking a cigar, watching the world through mirrored sunglasses. He hitched his chin in an arrogant greeting when he saw both women looking his direction.
“He’s really excited to meet the kids.”
“He looks it,” Mercedes said.
“Oh, don’t even,” Porsha said, putting up a hand. “He’s waiting in the car because I knew if you were home, you’d want to lecture my ass off. So okay, fine. Get it over with so I can grab the kids and we can go.”
Mercedes opened her mouth, but nothing came out.
“No?” Porsha said after a couple of seconds. “That’s refreshing.”
“I’m speechless,” Mercedes said. “Utterly, fucking, speechless.”
“Language,” Mrs. Garvey said in a shocked gasp, reminding Mercedes she had an audience.
Digging into her pocket, Mercedes felt for a quarter but only came up with a couple of bills. She handed a five to Mrs. Garvey. “For the language jar. I have a feeling I’ll need a few credits.”
Porsha snorted. “Gonna chew me a new one, are you?” She sent a spare-me gesture to Ray and jammed her sunglasses back over her blue eyes. “Look, I knew you’d be pissed that I dumped them on you like that, but I’m here now, okay? I’ll get them out of your hair and I won’t ever do it again. It was just that Ray was so sweet, and we needed time before getting the kids involved. You know I do that all the time, let them start bonding to guys. You should be happy I had the sense not to do that this time.”
“You want me to be happy you abandoned them? You barely even talked to them on the phone, Porsh. Come here. Come down to my unit.”
Porsha groaned and said, “Do we have to do this? Really? Listen, I didn’t phone because I knew Ayjia would start crying. Then I’d be crying and telling Ray we had to come get her and he wasn’t ready for that.” She pointed and called to Ray, “Honey, we’re going down this way if you want to bring the car.” Grabbing Mercedes’s arm, she added, “Slow down, I can’t move that fast.”
Mercedes couldn’t move fast enough. Everything in her wanted to push and jerk and swing. “Just because you couldn’t hear her doesn’t mean Ayjia wasn’t crying, Porsh.”