Page 57 of Lush Curves

Scars grabbed the whisky from the kitchen counter, poured the shots, kept the bottle on the coffee table this time. He stretched his long, jean-clad legs out in front of him and surveyed his kid brother. Sam looked like shit, and Scars knew that he didn’t need more than one guess to know why. He sighed.

“Positive for a match?” Scars asked.

“Positive for a match.”

“Fuck.”

“Fuck indeed.”

Both men threw their drinks back. Scars sighed again.

“So why’d she say nothing until now? Where the fuck has she been for going-on four years?”

“Miami.”

“With that guy?”

“Keith. Yeah. She told him from the get-go that Cindy mine, and he was totally OK with it, even when she left the ‘father’ part of the birth certificate blank. Raised Cindy like his own.”

“Doofus. Why would he do that without question or problem? Pussy whipped?”

Sam grimaced. “That’s my best guess, yeah. She didn’t really explain that part. All she said was that they were deeply in love, and I suppose he decided that if he wanted Kathleen, Cindy was part of the package, though it does sound from Cindy like he genuinely loved her.” Sam removed his glasses, rubbed his eyes. “He sounds like a really decent guy, actually.”

“And when he died – what? Kathleen needed you to step up?”

“You got it. She as much as said so. Told me straight-up that she’s after years of back-pay in child support.”

“Yeah?” Scars was surprised. He’d met Kathleen, of course, met her many times when he’d gone over to Sam’s all those years ago, and he’d always thought of her as a sneaky, manipulative little bitch. A beautiful one, of course, but still – the woman was a fucking snake, and the thought of her being honest aboutanythingwas astonishing. “She figured that she couldn’t hack it as a single Mom and came to cash in?”

“Sounds that way. She didn’t give the solo parent thing much of a shot, of course. She just sold everything on craigslist, sold the house they shared, bought two plane tickets, and packed Cindy up. Appeared on my doorstep and totally rearranged my world.”

“Well, yeah. I mean… you’re afather.” Scars stared at Sam as a thought dawned on him. “Shit, man. That makes me anuncle.”

Sam cracked a real smile for the first time in days. “I know, right? Doesn’t it freak you the hellout?”

“Christ.” Scars contemplated this. “So… now what? I mean, what’s the next step?”

“Well…” Sam poured more whisky. “They’re – they’re living with me.”

“OK,” Scars said slowly. “For now, or for good?”

“For now, for sure. I don’t know about for good. That’s what Kathleen wants –”

“Naturally,” Scars muttered. “Free rent for a fucking freeloader.”

“– and it’s cool for now,” Sam continued, as if his brother hadn’t said a word. “But the thing is, I can’t see me living with a woman that I don’t love. Hell, man, I don’t even reallylikeher. But…”

“But Cindy?”

“Yes. My – my daughter.”

“Your daughter.”

The two men gazed at each other. Finally, Sam looked away.

“I have no problem finding them a place to live and paying for everything. Taking care of money and bills and everything that Cindy needs. School in a few years, medical stuff, the works, you know. But I feel like – if I’m doing all that anyway, shouldn’t I be around my kid all the time? Bedtimes and breakfast, see her every day as such as I can? Maybe change my work schedule to be more regular, less on-call.”

“You’re thinking about doing the Dad thing for real, huh?”

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