Beckham giggled. “He has Trouper’s hair. I fell in love with that hair when he was seventeen.”
And those words ‘that hair’ won Six, Beckham’s loyalty forever.
I didn’t know what it was about the hair that she loved, but she did. She was overly fond of my longer locks, which Hiro just so happened to have.
“You know,” the man at Six’s side said. “You could let them in instead of being all uncouth and making them stand at the door.”
“Come in, come in,” she urged as she stepped back, opening the door wide and turned to the man at her side. “And Bruno, when did you learn the word ‘uncouth?’ Was it your word of the day on your calendar? I’ll bet you’re so proud to be able to use those. Did they use it in a sentence for you, too?”
My lips twitched.
I liked this girl.
When I glanced down at Beckham, I could tell that Beckham liked her, too.
“Children,” another man said from the living room couch. He had a kitten in his lap and a dog at his side. “Must you fight all the time? It was cute at first, but now it’s just getting old.”
Six rolled her eyes. “Fuck you, too, Laric.”
Damn, the girl didn’t pull her punches.
The men outweighed her by at least a hundred pounds, but it was more than obvious that his size didn’t make her afraid of him and definitely didn’t curb her smart mouth.
Six turned back to us where we were standing. “Bruno, this is Beckham, Trouper, and little Hiro Aoki. Y’all, the one at my side is Bruno. It’s okay to hate him. The one on the couch is Laric, he’s likeable once you get past his crusty demeanor.”
“And I’m Lynn.”
I turned woodenly at someone coming up from behind me.
Spending time in prison had let me know rather quickly to always, always, always watch my back.
I didn’t present it to anyone ever if I could help it.
But the man coming up from behind me seemed like the type of man that excelled at being a ghost.
There was one other man in prison that I’d met that had those kinds of eyes. He’d been an assassin.
Literally, he’d been an actual full-blown hired out killer.
I hadn’t realized at the time that his stories were real until the warden had told me that he’d been caught assassinating someone and that’d been why he went to prison.
From that point forward, I made it a point to always avoid the man.
He’d really freaked me out.
It hadn’t been that I was worried about him hurting or killing me, I could handle myself, but it’d been because it was like sitting next to an emotional void.
The man had zero conscience.
“Lynn,” I greeted him, switching the car seat from one hand to the other and then offering him my hand.
The baby grunted in annoyance at being jostled again just as Lynn took my hand very briefly and then let it drop.
Lynn’s eyes went down to my son sleeping in his car seat and stared.
His lips twitched after a while and then he looked back up at me.
“He looks like you,” he surmised.
I nodded. “All me.”
“All of him, and none of the mother that carried him for nine months straight. Fed him whatever he wanted and gained thirty pounds for it, and ultimately he is just like his father.”
Lynn’s eyes went to Beckham, and they sparkled. A smile didn’t crack his carefully constructed veneer, though.
He offered her his hand, too. “Beckham, nice to finally meet you.”
Beckham’s head tilted slightly as she took his hand and shook it twice before releasing him just as quickly. “You act as if you know me.”
“Come sit down.” He gestured to the chairs where Laric was already sitting. “Would y’all like anything to drink?”
“We have sweet tea, grape Kool-Aid, bottled water, tap water, and every kind of liquor that you could ever want or desire. I recommend the grape Kool-Aid.” Six stood off to the side, her hands on her hips.
Beckham snickered. “As much as I’d like to go back to my childhood for a while and try some of that grape Kool-Aid, I’m on a diet. I’m trying to lose some of this baby weight before he decides he wants another baby and knocks me up again.”
I looked at my wife with a gleam in my eyes.
How had she known that I’d wanted to do that?
Her eyes showed her understanding.
“And Trouper will have some sweet tea, but he’s very particular on who pours it, so if you don’t mind, I’ll do that,” Beckham smiled.
Six waved her into the kitchen.
“Come on, I’ll show you where everything is,” Six waved her through as the two women detoured to the kitchen.
I hadn’t told her that I’d been particular about who poured my drinks, but it wasn’t surprising that she’d picked up on that fact.
After getting a razor blade in my food twice over the course of my stay in prison, I’d become very thorough about checking my food first before I swallowed it.
“She’s delightful,” Bruno muttered as he dropped down onto the couch.
“She’s right here,” Six snapped from the kitchen, which happened to be not so far away.
Moments later, she returned to the sitting area and I was taking a seat next to Beckham, and taking a drink of sweet tea, a delicacy I hadn’t had in a very long while.
It was amazing.
“Now, who wants to start?” Six curled her legs up under her on the couch and leaned into her man. Lynn and her looked like total polar opposites.
Lynn was in a suit and tie, while Six was wearing black cut-off jean shorts, fishnet stockings, and a black t-shirt that had so many holes that you could see the sparkly purple sports bra underneath her clothes.
Lynn threw his arm around Six’s shoulders, looking very comfortable with the act.
The two were the most unlikely of pairings.
It was odd, but it worked.
“Let’s start with Beckham,” Lynn suggested as he pulled his wife in closer. “If it isn’t the pain in my backside.”
I frowned hard at Lynn.
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” I questioned.
“That means that this is the woman that’s been doing her level best to get you out of there,” Lynn said. “She’s also using a very skilled woman that I know through a mutual friend. I tried to recruit her as a tech guru and said she didn’t have time for me. Beckham, do you want a job as well?”
My brows rose at Lynn’s words, and I looked over at Beckham who didn’t look appalled at the idea of a job.
“I guess it depends on what kinds of jobs you have, whether there’s health insurance involved, and whether or not I can bring my kid to work,” Beckham countered. “Plus, I need to be behind the scenes. I’m not doing any field work anymore. Ever.”
The relief those words poured through me was nothing short of extreme. That feeling of relief didn’t stay long when I saw the haunted look in my wife’s eyes.
I pulled Beckham into my arms and pressed a kiss to the side of her head. “You’re good, baby.”
“I’m scared, Trouper,” she whispered right back. “But I can’t live underneath a rock.”
“No adventure education?” Six asked, leaning against Lynn’s chest and crossing her feet out in front of her. “Being a park ranger sounds pretty cool.”