Page 22 of Dirty Dancer

Doc’s arrival had settled him once more. Since then, Theo had been attached at the hip with Doc, which Doc didn’t seem tomind. If anything, he’d been even-tempered iffirmwith the kid, particularly when Theo’s belligerent attitude reared its head.

It was weird how alike, and at the same time wildly different, from Milo he was. Then again, the only commonality they had was their sperm donor, a man Milo despised and I had no idea how Theo felt about the guy. Then again, I didn’t think Theo had ever met him.

“He’s with Jasper,” Doc said, one corner of his mouth twitching upwards in the suggestion of a smile.

I straightened. “Is that a good idea?”

“Eh.” Doc shrugged. “Theo wanted some ‘freedom,’ or so he said and Jas had a run up to Pennington. He’ll be back by dinner, so it was an easy run.”

“Let’s hope he doesn’t try to test himself against Jas’ temper.” Theo had been testing all of us. Doc more than most, but he’d attempted pushing my buttons a few times. If we were younger, I’d have probably popped him more than once.

Jasper definitely would have. The only one who ever seemed utterly unbothered by him was Doc. Then again, he’d put up with all of us for how long?

“He’ll be fine,” Doc said with a kind of confidence I envied, but then in the great grand scheme of things, a reckless, and challenging fourteen year old punk was hardly the worst thing he’d ever had to deal with, and he certainly had way more patience now than he’d had back in the day.

“You know what,” I said, double-checking the invoices and making sure the inventory had all lined up. I was waiting on three more parts and the last time I checked, they were on their way but it would be Monday or Tuesday before they arrived. “I’m just going to go with it. I promised Sparrow and Milo we’d keep an eye on him and we’re doing that. Course, we still need to get him into school.”

“We will,” Doc said. “Liam’s got a tutor coming for a few weeks so we can do a full assessment and see what he needs before we drop him into a school. He doesn’t want private school, but he might have to suck that up for a while.”

It wasn’t like we couldn’t afford it. “Has anyone told Theo that yet?” The longer this conversation went on, the more amused I was by all of it.

“Nope. One battle at a time.” His half-sigh made me shake my head. “It’s a push and pull right now, he’ll grow out of it eventually.”

“You sure about that?” Cause I wasn’t. His history wasn’t quite the same as ours. It might be closer to Freddie’s… That was a thought I didn’t want to contemplate or pursue any further. We could only hope whatever had happened wasn’tthatbad. Freddie’s past haunted him to this day and Theo might be a punk but no one deserved those experiences.

No one.

“You guys did.” Doc shrugged then glanced at his watch. “Finish wrapping up.”

“In a hurry?” I didn’t smirk but he just gave me a bland look. It wasn’t that late in the day. I liked shutting down around four unless I had a client coming in later. There was a dropbox for anyone leaving a car overnight for me to work on the next day.

“Hungry,” came his droll response. “I didn’t pause for lunch today since Theo was tied up with Jasper, I wanted to visit as many of the shelters and safe houses as I could.”

Made sense, he wasn’t all that comfortable with putting Theo into those situations when we were still trying to sort out his own history. I could almosthearMs. Stephanie suggesting therapy but none of us had followed up on that idea at all.

I talked to my guys if I needed to work shit out and so did they. Sometimes, I worried about Freddie but the handful of times he’d been “forced” into therapy had just not gone well atall. The less said about Pinetree, the better. So, no, we’d pass, thanks.

At least for now.

“Right,” I said, and slid the last of the papers away into their files. I might be my only employee, but I wanted everything in its place before I shut down for the night. I turned the phones off so it would provide the general message and a place for customers to record a message and then I was ready. “Let’s go. I could use something that isn’t pizza.”

Doc chuckled as he rose. “The kid likes it.”

“I used to,” I admitted. “But I like other foods too.”

I headed for my car as Doc diverted to his truck. “Follow me,” he said, over his shoulder. “I know a good place.”

Sounded like a plan. We could always grab takeout for Jasper and Theo. Liam came and went on his own schedule. Running his family business took a lot of time and energy. Course, it also meant travel and he took time to see Sparrow as often as he could.

I wanted to go and see her too, but that meant leaving her after a couple of days and I hated that more than just making myself wait for her to come home. Sometimes, I worried we were all just a little too fucked up.

But I’d take on every single damn challenge for Sparrowandmy guys. Doc waited for me to start the Charger before he pulled out and I was right behind him. Instead of heading toward the Clubhouse or even one of the places we liked over on fiftieth, he took us uptown.

There were a few restaurants here I liked. Most of them were overpriced with small portions and stuffy service, but the food was worth it—sometimes. I could go for straight bar food at the moment, my stomach had started grumbling the moment I got behind the wheel.

Doc wasn’t the only one who hadn’t eaten much today. I’d ignored it while I was working. We didn’t stop at any of those places. In fact, he took a turn that put us on the East Bay Road and heading toward the bridge.

It was almost forty-five minutes away from the shop, but the Hearthfire Grill, which opened up on the point, was not a location I thought about that often. We’d managed a few meals here over the years, special occasions mostly—like when Milo got accepted at law school.

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