Page 74 of Until Landon
“Let’s have a beer.”
Their faces look happier than expected for such a small suggestion. Shit, they’re nearly twenty. I would bet they have been stinking drunk a few times over the last year. That’s what you hear about the college experience, anyway. My one year of community college backs it up.
They follow me downstairs and head for the kitchen.
“Hey, grab one for me, guys. My cell’s ringing.”
I take Kim’s call, and flop on the couch.
“Hi. I may be dead. Your son and Bing are better equipped to lift shit. I feel like I’m a hundred.”
“Oh no. Who’s going to carry me to the bedroom now?”
I want to say something appropriately filthy, but the boys return with the beers.
“It’s your mother,” I say to Hunter as he hands me a cold bottle.
There is no reaction at all. He sits in the recliner, puts his legs up and reaches in his pocket for his own phone. Bing stretches out on the floor.
“Hello? You still there? Or did the thought of being in bed with me make you faint?” Her voice is like a tonic.
“Oh yeah. I’m opening a beer. We just finished for the day.”
“They’re going to want to have one too, you know.”
“I already offered them one. We’re unwinding.”
All four eyes look at me. They know Kim is questioning my good sense. Hunter shakes his head. The kid knows his mother thinks he’s twelve.
“Okay. Just don’t let them have more. They have a car remember!”
“You worry too much.”
As the words leave my mouth, Hunter smiles. There’s no eye contact, but he’s listening.
“So did you and Dad take the truck out again?”
“We took it on the frontage road this morning. Tomorrow we’re going to town. He wants to see Momma’s.”
“Great. That’s encouraging.”
“Ronnie wants to know if your motorcycle is in its new house yet?”
“No. We have a few things to bring tomorrow. I can’t wait to take it for a drive around the place. Scope out the scenery. But that’s for another day. You two just chillin’?”
“Oh noooo. For the last few hours we’ve been dusting. I have sneezed a hundred times. The photographs on the walls, the books, all of it. Sounds easy, right?”
“No. I’d hate the job.”
“The pictures have a film on them and the books have to be handled delicately. Tomorrow we clean out the office. If you can call that pile of old papers and Amazon boxes an office.”
“Okay, I have a job for you. Detective work.”
“I’m intrigued. Doing what?”
“I am still looking for the VIN number for the Galaxie. It has to be in an obvious place that he could access it. Dad isn’t the type to hide things under the mattress. If you run across an important papers file, or automotive paperwork he’s saved, it might be there.”
“I’ll keep an eye out.”
