Her dad wasn’t quite as quick getting settled, the swollen gut that came as a byproduct of his failing liver just one of the sad realities he had to face. “Now,” he said once he was in his recliner with his feet up. “Tell me what brings you here.”
Seriously? They were going to dance around this? Usually he was all get-in-and-get-out with money business so he could get back to sipping whiskey on the sly. “Um, bills?”
Her dad—or Buzz as his buddies called him since he was always on the search for a good high—waved her comment off and smiled. “No more with the bills. Those high-and-mighty assholes have already said they ain’t givin’ me a transplant. No point in either one of us bailing water with a thimble anymore if I’m just gonna kick it in the end. Now...tell me how that new job is coming.”
New job?
Which one? Answering phones at the TV station, or the dive bar where the owner had practically handed over managing everything? And how the heck he’d call either one of those new considering she’d been doing both for over six months was a stumper.
“Well, uh...” She dared a glance at Kevin, who’d lifted one of the blinds and stared out at the empty lot next to the house like all the answers to the universe were gonna roll in any second. “The TV station is good. I sit on my butt, answer the phone and don’t let crazy people through the front door. It’s easy money so long as I don’t lose my shit with anyone.”
Her dad laughed. Or tried to. It came out as a mix of a cackle and one hell of a smoker’s cough. “Public relations. You were always good keepin’ people in line. That’s why we rely on you like they do.”
Rely on her? From her side of the coin she’d call it taking advantage of her. But hey—she’d never found the courage to tell anyone in her family no, so who was she to complain? “Yeah, they don’t call it public relations. They call it a receptionist. But it’s a desk job and I haven’t had a fight break out yet. Can’t say that for most nights at the Dusty Dog.”
“Oh, yeah.” From the look on her dad’s face he’d forgotten all about the bar gig. “How’s that place doin’ anyway? Last I heard, that rusty old bastard who bought the place was about to go belly up.”
Okay. Something was seriously wrong. Dad wasn’t the conversational type. Not unless he was trying to sugar someone up for a con.
Bonnie gave up pretending and aimed her attention on Kevin. “You wanna tell me what’s going on?”
Kevin shot their dad a nasty look then bit out, “Like he said. Nothing.”
Nothing her ample white ass. She was just about to say as much out loud when Kevin muttered something she couldn’t quite make out under his breath and stalked to his coat thrown across the well-worn club chair. He reached underneath it and pulled out a slim, shiny laptop. “Here. I brought your computer back.”
“Hallelujah and praise the Lord!” She was on her feet and cradling the hand-me-down MacBook Pro Cassie had given her several months ago in less than a heartbeat. “I was starting to think you’d pawned it.”
Kevin scoffed at that, moved his jacket out of the way and dropped into the seat. “You gonna pile on and give me shit, too?”
“I don’t know,” Bonnie fired back, easy-as-pie. “Depends on what Dad was giving you shit for.”
“Nothin’ you’re gonna get involved in,” her dad answered before Kevin could. “If the two of you were smart, you’d steer clear of all that techno mumbo jumbo. It’s all gonna backfire on the lot of us one of these days and then what are you gonna do?”
Bonnie ducked her head to hide her smile and smoothed her hand over the top of the computer. Prepping for Armageddon or just a good old-fashioned technological revolution had been her dad’s favorite topic since Kevin had first shown him the internet. That said, he’d never put one iota of effort behind his Prepper ideas.
Rather than give her dad any more to chew on, she focused on Kevin. “I still don’t get why you needed a Mac. What was wrong with that new Windows machine you got last year?”
Her dad grunted and wiggled in his recliner.
Kevin cleared his throat and sprawled a little deeper in his chair. “I just thought I’d try my hand at doin’ some app front ends. Lots of demand for people who can do that kind of work—especially stuff that goes on an iPhone. Can’t do that with a Windows machine.”
“Yeah? How’d it go?”
Kevin rubbed the back of his hand across his nose and aimed his answer at the coffee table. “Not my kinda gig, apparently. Gonna have to stick to networks and databases, I guess.”
“Or you could stay the hell out of all that nonsense and get yourself a real job like your sister,” their dad said.
Kevin clearly wasn’t done with the arguing. “Just because I don’t clock in and out of some dead-end, boring-ass corporate gig doesn’t make it nonsense.”
“Oh, right,” Dad said. “It’s not nonsense. It’s the thing that’s always landing you in deep shit.”
Mmm. Fair point. What Kevin called networks and database work, most other people referred to as hacking.
Kevin shrugged the comment off rather than debate it and focused on Bonnie. “A word to the wise—I turned location services off on your computer. If you’re smart, you’ll keep it that way.”
“What the hell’s location services?” Dad said.
Bonnie chimed in before the two of them could start going at it again. “It helps you find your computer if you lose it or someone steals it.”
Dad snapped his attention to Kevin. “That true?”
“Hell, yeah, it’s true. Phones, too. It’s the way things work today.”
“Well, that’s bullshit.” Dad flicked his hand toward her computer. “You do what your brother says and keep that location thing off. Government’s got no business messing in your affairs.”
Bonnie raised both hands in surrender. “Fine. Fine. I’ll leave it off. Now can we focus on these damned bills so I can get back home and enjoy my one day off?”
Her dad crossed his hands over his swollen belly. With the blind Kevin had raised, the jaundice in his skin was even more evident. “Already told ya. Not gonna worry about bills and medicine and doctor’s appointments anymore. Gonna live my life the way I wanna live it with the time I have left. So, don’t go giving me any grief about it.” His stare slid to Kevin and he added, “Not either of ya. Understand?”
No. She didn’t. Not even a little bit. She’d already lost her mom to booze and partying. Just sitting back and accepting her dad giving up wasn’t even remotely in the cards.