Page 149 of Slew Foot
He could see the tightness around his eyes though and knew he needed to do something for Mickey to cheer him up. He thought about all of the things Mickey liked before suddenly remembering what he’d said about his grandma’s plum cake.
But how to find it? Rafe might remember Mickey talking about it but not well enough to be sure he didn’t mangle the name. He couldn’t google it either because he sure as fuck couldn’t spell it.
Obviously, he could ask Mickey, but that sort of defeated the purpose of it being asurprise.
So, Rafe kept thinking. That didn’t really get him anywhere because no one had ever said thinking was, like, hisstrongsuit or anything. But one afternoon, after he had practice and Mickey’d had a virtual meeting with someone from TheBlueliner Initiative, they stretched out on the bed to talk and nap.
The tinnitus had been pretty bad today, so they’d been sending each other messages on their phones. Mickey had passed out with his phone still on and Rafe was gently prying it from his hand when a message came in from a Katrin Schmidt.
It was in German, so Rafe didn’t have a clue what it said. He wouldn’t have had a clue who shewaseither, except he and Mickey had added each other as emergency contacts for the Harriers’ organization. When Rafe had seen Mickey’s mom’s name on the paperwork, he’d told Mickey he thought the name Katrin was pretty.
Mickey had smiled and said that was his mom.
Now, Rafe touched the screen and stared down at the message.
Was it snooping if he pulled up her contact and saved her number? Would Mickey be mad if Rafe messaged her?
He only wanted to ask about the plum cake and see if there was some way of getting one to Mickey. He bit his lip and carried the phone out into the living room, quietly closing the door behind him.
Tanner was sprawled on the couch, headphones on and watching something on his laptop.
Rafe waved but got no response, so he grabbed his sock-covered foot and wiggled it to get his attention.
Tanner shot upright, nearly dumping the laptop on the floor. “Shit, what was that for?” he asked, pulling the headphones down.
“I have a question.” Rafe glanced at the phone, saw the screen start to dim and swiped his finger across it to wake it up again. He didn’t actually know Mickey’s passcode. “Does it make me a bad boyfriend if I snoop on Mickey’s phone?”
“Uhh,” Tanner said. “Well, we both know I’d be a shitty boyfriend so I dunno why you’re asking me.”
“You’re the only one here,” Rafe pointed out.
Tanner nodded like that made sense. “Umm, I guess I’d wanna know why you’re doing it? Do you think Mickey’s cheating on you or something?” He sounded doubtful.
Rafe laughed. Yeah, right. Like Mickey wouldever. “No, I want to buy him a cake.”
Tanner squinted. “Why do you need to go through his phone to do that? And I thought he didn’t even like dessert much.”
“He doesn’t, but there’s one cake he likes. One his grandma used to make. I want to text his mom to see if she can help me figure out how to get one.”
“Ohhh, dude you’re good then. If it’s snooping with good intentions, it’s totally fine.”
Rafe squinted back at him. Was that actually a rule? Or was that something Tanner had made up?
He asked Tanner, who shrugged. “I dunno if it’s like arule, but my dad always said it.”
“Aren’t your parents divorced?” Rafe asked.
“I mean, yeah.”
“Right.” Maybe he should talk to someone whoactuallyknew something about relationships.
“Screen’s going dark again,” Tanner said.
Rafe yelped and swiped his thumb across it.
“Dude,” Tanner said with a roll of his eyes. “Fucking save Mickey’s mom’s number in your phone, so you don’t have to keep doing that. You can decide if you’re going to do something with it later. If you decide not to, you can delete it.”
“Okay, that’s a good call,” Rafe said. Tanner wasn’t always helpful, but when he was …
