“I had no idea you were measuring me for a suit!” The day before, when Molly had talked Bernardo and Esme into more shopping instead of going to the beach when it was cold and windy, she’d apparently used getting Michael fitted for some nice clothes as bait. It was supposed to be some sort of thank-you for showing the kids around during the week, but when Michael had been presented with the clothes after a quick trip to Navy Pier that morning, he’d been aghast.
“That’s real nice of you, Miss Julia, but you know, I’m the mechanic. I don’t know when I’ll dress fancier than jeans!”
“Tonight at dinner, if you please,” Julia had replied, smiling kindly. “And that way you’ll already look slick when you go to pick up Mr. Soderburgh—I mean, Cox.”
Michael squinted at her. “I still don’t know why you call him that,” he said.
“It has to do with a movie director,” Julia replied airily. “And Carl’s rather fortunate resemblance to a couple of movie stars. Anyway, you’ll look very nice when you go to pick him up, won’t you?”
Michael grimaced. “My hair’s a bit long,” he said. “And I probably need to shave.”
Julia waved her hand again. “Molly, love?”
“Yes, Julia,” Molly said sweetly.
“Can you direct our young mechanic to my stylist while the children are resting after lunch? I’ll phone him when you’re on the way over. While you’re quite presentable as you are, Mr. Carmody, a haircut never fails to boost the confidence.”
“Ooh, yes!” Molly gushed, grabbing Michael’s arm. “And Stefan’s the greatest! He loves baseball. You guys can talk about the game and how the team’s doing. It’ll be great.”
“I’ll have your clothes brought up to Carl’s room, where you spent last night,” Julia told him as Molly tugged him out the door.
Less than two hours later, he was back at the Salinger place, putting on a pair of black slacks with a slick red western-cut shirt and a handsome gray blazer to go over it. Molly burst in on him, showing exactly the same amount of respect for his personal space now that she’d shown over the last three days, which was none.
“Julia forgot a tie,” Molly said. “Grace stole this from Josh and said you should keep it.”
With that, her fingers made quick work of a bolo tie with a polished teardrop-shaped blue opal in the middle. She tucked the leather thong under his collar and straightened the stone, smiling happily.
“There, that’s much better.”
Michael gaped at her, stunned. “But… but… this is Josh’s!”
“No, no—it was never really his. His ex gave it to him, and Josh has been over that guy for months. Besides, Josh? In a bolo? This is just proof that Sean didn’t know who Josh Salinger was. But it looks very nice on you.”
“Josh dated a guy named Sean?” Michael asked, muddled.
“He dated a douche named Sean, and I think the whole reason he dated a douche named Sean was because he was in love with a married guy named Nick, but he didn’t want to be, so he settled. It was all very angsty and tragic, and Josh told nobody about it, not even Grace, which means that Grace had to steal all the artifacts from Josh’s room and disperse them among the rest of us so they weren’t just hanging out catching bad juju.”
“Was Josh aware of this?” Michael asked suspiciously.
“No. No, he was not. And he still isn’t. And the test of whether or not Grace was being a good friend or a misguided asshole will be if Josh recognizes this thing on your neck. Now come on. The kids are here, and if we don’t go talk to them, all they’ll have to do is smile at Felix and Julia, who seem to scare the crap out of them.”
“Where’s Danny?” Michael asked helplessly.
“Getting dressed. I think he was going to try to have this dinner wearing black yoga pants and a black turtleneck, but Felix put his foot down.”
Michael didn’t have a chance to say anything before she dragged him down to the little-used sitting room, but it was sort of a relief that he wasn’t the only one who was being gussied up and turned out to have dinner with Josh’s uncle.
But the kids were happy to see him and Molly, and given that both of them had changed for dinner, that made Michael feel better about dressing too. After they greeted each other with relief at knowing someone else in the room, Esme, the oldest, took Molly’s hand and led her and Michael to Leon, who was still standing by the couch.
“Papa,” she said, before launching into a brief spate of Italian that made Michael catch his breath. He knew quite a bit of Spanish because he’d lived in Texas and there was a big Mexican population in his town, but that kind of fluency always impressed him.
“Yes, Esme,” Leon di Rossi said, smiling kindly under his beard. “You’ve told me about them for three days now. I almost expected Mr. Carmody and Ms. Christopher to be able to fly.”
“No flying,” Michael said apologetically, sticking out his hand. “Just driving. Your youngsters have been a joy to tour the city with.”
Leon shook with a warm, firm grip as Bernardo said, “Papa, he was new to all the things too. Molly would tell him where to go, and he’d be like us! ‘Ooh, wow, that’s amazing!’ He was so much fun.”
“Are you new to the area?” di Rossi asked politely as Bernardo, Esme, and Molly deserted them to go talk to Josh and Stirling.
“Yeah. Uhm, I lived in Texas until just this summer.” He didn’t want to mention prison or bank robberies or any of the things that had kept him someplace else. This tall man with the beard and the imposing presence was scary enough without knowing all of Michael’s history. Suddenly he knew why Julia had taken such pains to make sure he was all gussied up and pretty. It had nothing to do with her comfort and everything to do with his own.
“I’m grateful. My children have been full of news about you and Ms. Christopher and your kindness.”
And Michael felt like it was his turn to say what the rest of the crew had been thinking. “Well, we’re grateful for what you did for Josh. I know you’ve been at the hospital for the last couple days, and that’s no way to spend a vacation. Anything we could do to make that easier for you, that’s no trouble at all.”
Leon looked across the room to where Josh, pale but composed, was sitting in a corner of the couch with Stirling next to him as they talked quietly to his cousins. Molly stood with them to help fill in any conversational gaps. He looked exhausted but also interested, as though discovering he had family he’d never known before was surprisingly exciting.
“We had a chance to talk over the last two days,” Leon said, his eyes growing sad. “I’m sorry my brother didn’t live to see him. He’s quite a fine young man.”
“The whole family is wonderful,” Michael said, keeping Carl’s words about things people didn’t know firmly in place in his mind. “Danny and Felix and Julia—they’re the best people. I’m… I mean, you know I’m their mechanic, right?”
Leon gave him a sudden, surprised smile. “No, I did not.”
“Well, yeah. I came out of a bad spot in my life, and my friend introduced me here, and they gave me a job. It’s like the best thing they could have done. Your kids are great. I got kids of my own, and I hope they’re half as kind to strangers when they hit the teen years. But I would have done it if they’d been monsters, because you don’t find the Salingers’ kindness everywhere, you know?”