Page 9 of Higher Notes

“We’ll take care of dinner for everyone. What do they like on their pizza?” Sikes had his phone out ready to place the order. “Need your address for the delivery and GPS, too.”

“Pepperoni is good, I’ll text you the address. Easier to copy and paste it into the app that way.” Jason fired it off in our group chat. “I don’t live far from here but it’s good for you to have it in case we get separated along the way.”

Jason locked up and we tailed his vehicle out of the lot.

“I may not know much about the greater Tacoma area, but this side of town doesn’t scream safe to me,” Sikes said what I already thought as we drove past rows of broken down travel trailers and piles of trash.

“Agreed.”

What could we do? This was a new relationship and pushing our way in and telling Jason they were moving wasn’t a choice we could or should make for them. Sure, we could voice our opinions, but carefully and delicately. Sadly, delicacy wasn’t a gift either of us possessed.

Jason waited beside his car for us after he’d parked. “Well, this is home.”

“Lead the way.”

Sikes and I weren’t rich by any means, but Fizzbo paid us well. Basically, we were on call twenty-four-seven and Mastersonconsidered that when negotiating our contracts. We rented an apartment together and hadn’t touched our savings since we retired from the service. We had a nice nest egg and right now, that nest egg screamed to be released in the form of helping Jason’s family.

The boisterous voices inside were heard well before Jason opened the door.

“Jason!” a young boy and girl screamed as soon as they saw him.

“Jason, thank god you’re—” his mother slammed on the brakes as soon as she saw us. “Is there trouble, Officers?”

Sikes smirked. “No, ma’am.”

“Um, Mom. These are Chaotic’s guards, Sikes and Snipe. They’re, um, also my boyfriends.”

Her eyes reminded me of one of those cartoons where they popped out of the character’s skull then got sucked back in. The two little ones began singing, “Jason’s got a boyfriend.” Then it dawned on them that wasn’t right.

“Wait, how would the song go for two boyfriends?” the younger boy asked. The girl shrugged her shoulders and went back to playing with her doll.

“Jase, I never question your judgment but that’s a whole lot of man. Do we have enough food for them?”

“We ordered pizza for everyone, ma’am,” Sikes replied.

“I bet they eat a lot of pizza,” the littlest boy said. Sikes and I grinned at the child’s honesty.

“We do but we ordered more than enough. I’m Hayden and this is Wyatt.” Might as well give them our real names.

“Jase said Sikes and Sniper,” the little boy repeated. Little did he know being a military sniper was how the nickname came to be.

“Sikes and Snipe are our work names. What’s yours?” I knelt beside him to appear less scary.

“I’m Nolan, that’s my sister, Nicole, and our brother, Gabriel, is playing Xbox.”

“Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you both. Now, how can we help Jason and your mom?”

“Umm,” he tapped his bottom lip. “We can clean up our toys and set the table.”

“Good call, Nolan,” Sikes told him. “I bet you’re really smart.”

His head bobbed up and down. “But not as smart as Nicole. She’s the smartest one in our class.”

“Gentlemen, excuse my surprise but Jason’s never brought a date home before, let alone two.” She shook her head at herself. “That didn’t come out the way I intended. Welcome to our home. In case you didn’t guess, I’m Jason and all the other rugrats’ mom, Dana. What can I get you to drink? We have water and juice boxes.”

“We ordered soda with the pizza, ma’am,” Sikes said, “but thank you for asking.”

Throughout this conversation, the older boy, Gabriel, never once stopped playing his game nor bothered to look up and acknowledge anyone.

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