Page 18 of From the Flames
The man approached boldly. “You need to quit opening your mouth. Keep it closed and you and your kids will be fine. But keep running it and you’ll wish you’d clammed up.” He tried to take the Lego box, and Willy kicked out. The man’s eyes grew wide, and then they watered before he grabbed himself and fell to the sidewalk. Willy left him and went inside, closed the door, and locked it.
“What was that about?” Kevin asked as he took the box and placed it on the table.
“Some guy. I think he was threatening me. Then he grabbed for the box, so I got him in the family jewels. I think he might be gone now.”
“What did he say?”
“Something about talking too much. He sounded like he got his lines from a bad gangster movie. He isn’t going to come back here. If he does, well, he’ll be walking really funny. I’m not afraid of some….” He stopped himself from swearing, but only just. “Anyway, we’ve got Legos.” He took the building sets out of the box, and Grant climbed onto one of the chairs before tipping the box over and spilling all the remaining loose Legos onto the table and floor.
“Buddy,” Kevin said, “now you have to pick up all the ones on the floor.”
Grant looked at Kevin like he was crazy.
“Grant, please pick them up.”
“But Daddy, I want to play.” He began putting pieces together, and Willy groaned.
“Fine, but you’ll still have to get them all off the floor.” He was trying to teach Grant to pick up after himself, and for the most part he’d been about as successful as getting a tornado to avoid trailer parks. Grant didn’t even look up from the Legos, instantly enthralled in whatever he was building.
Kevin, on the other hand, checked out the sets. “These were in the box?”
“Yeah. I didn’t pay much attention to them. I figured they could be used for blocks if they weren’t anything interesting. Why?”
“They were never opened.” He pulled out his phone as Willy peered over his shoulder. “This Mustang model has been out of distribution for years, and so has this one. These are pretty rare, judging by how much people paid for them online. I’d put these aside for now and let him play all he wants with the blocks.”
“Cool.” Grant didn’t seem interested, and if he were to open them, he would probably only add them to the block pile anyway.
“You play too?” Grant asked Kevin. Thankfully, he scooped up some of the blocks from the floor before sitting down.
“Grant, Kevin has to go to work in a few minutes,” Willy cautioned, and got a pout in response.
“No. He stay and play,” Grant said as though he had the last word. “Work is yucky. Legos are fun.”
Willy shared a chuckle with Kevin. “I know. Grant is going to grow up to be the autocratic ruler of a small country. Grantsylvania.” He rolled his eyes as Kevin handed Grant what looked like a blue frog. Grant smiled and set it aside. “What are you making?”
“Elephant,” he proclaimed and added more blocks to a multicolored lump.
“I really do have to go,” Kevin said.
Willy walked him to the front door. “Thank you. We had a great time and….” He felt at a loss for words, but he hugged Kevin and inhaled his clean, rich scent. Then he backed away slightly before placing his hands on either side of his face, looking into his eyes. “It was a really nice morning. Maybe you can come back after your shift.”
“I work until almost eleven.”
Willy nodded. “The kids should be in bed, and it will be just the two of us if we’re lucky.”
Kevin’s eyes darkened, and he slipped his hands around Willy before letting them slide down so they cupped his butt. Willy groaned softly, desire sweeping through him.
“I know you probably have things you need to do….”
“I’d love to. Maybe I could bring the dogs. They will have been alone all day, and….”
“Sure. The kids will love that, I’m sure.” Kevin was warm, strong, and it felt so good to be held for a while. “I know you have to go—”
Kevin took possession of his lips, cutting off whatever Willy was going to say, not that he could remember a word. Then Kevin pulled away and opened the door. “I’ll see you tonight.” He kissed Willy again quickly before hurrying off. Willy’s gaze followed him to his truck, and once Kevin was gone, he checked the area around the house to make sure no one was hanging around and then closed the door and locked it.
“Daddy, my elephant broke,” Grant yelled.
Then April hurried in, teary-eyed. “I lost food.” It looked like it was going to be one of those days.
