Page 102 of The Woman By the Lake

I turned out the last lamp down in the living room, then climbed the steps back to the kitchen.

I didn’t take a stool.

I stopped at the end of the bar, close to him, and asked quietly, “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not sure guys categorize this shit like women do. But I took time to think about it, and I wouldn’t say Bubbles was my best bud. That’d go to Harry, in town. But actually, Murphy, who I met in third grade, and we were tight from the minute we met. I was his best man at his wedding. He was in the hospital the entire time I was in with Angelica when she had Ledger. He moved to Oakland a few years ago. It sucks he’s gone. Still, I’d put Rus before Bubbles, even if I’ve only known Rus a few months, because Rus is a solid guy, and he would never put me in a position where I had to go against everything I never wanted to be to take his back. And Bubbles is a mess.”

I wasn’t entirely sure why he was telling me this, outside the obvious of Bubbles being foremost in his mind for a variety of reasons that day, but still, I said, “Okay.”

“He threw Ledger in my face today. Bubbles did.”

I pressed my lips together.

“Said I knocked someone up, got a great kid out of it. I thought he was just talking about what he thought was my good luck, when he thinks his is bad, because he has to think that way or he’d have to admit he’s a mess. But now I’m not sure. Now I think he got some sick thrill outta putting me where I was back then with Angelica. Which was not a good place.”

“I don’t know him, so I can’t say,” I replied carefully when he stopped talking.

He took a pull from his beer, then said, “Well I do know him, and I heard his shit today, so I can say. I think he wanted to watch me stumble. I think he was hoping I would fall. I think he’s so twisted with jealousy, he wanted to take a piece out of me. And then he brings over a bottle of Jack, like he’s my good friend, looking out for me.”

I couldn’t imagine someone I considered a friend doing something like that to me.

“That is really messed up,” I agreed.

“Yeah, so when he said that shit today, it was about him being pissed that I got Ledge out of it. I got the best thing life ever gave me, and that wasn’t his intention.”

It did sound like his ex-friend Bubbles did that.

“Damn, Riggs, I don’t know what to say.”

“Nothing to say.” He took another drink from his beer. “He’s a piece of shit. And that’s what dogs me in my life. I get wound up with pieces of shit.”

“You were just being a good friend. You’re a nice guy, Riggs.”

“Yeah.”

He didn’t sound like he thought that was a good thing.

“I have to ask, it seems pretty clear it’s true, but considering you’re you and I can’t imagine it’s easy to pull one over on you, did Bubbles actually get your wallet?”

“Thought it was weird but had my mind on other things seeing as Angelica was all over me, though I remember clear that night, one of Bubbles’s waitresses handed me back my wallet that I ‘lost.’ Never done that shit before, or since, and when I checked, nothing was taken from it. What I know is, Bubbles could pickpocket a pickpocket.”

Damn.

“So, while you were out, all you thought about was Bubbles?” I probed as kindly as I could.

“Nope,” he said, popping the p, which would be the only mildly cute thing I’d ever seen Riggs do, if he didn’t do it because he was hurt and angry. “I gave lots of thought to what a piece of shit my baby momma is too.”

I reached out and covered his hand on the counter with mine.

“But I can excise Bubbles,” he said. “Her, I gotta deal with for the rest of my life.”

“Do you think she listened to you? What you said on the phone, I mean.”

“Oh yeah. She listened to me. She’s shitting her pants, she’s so freaked.”

“It’s not mine to say, you didn’t ask, but so you know, I believe she should be. I’ve been teaching for ten years. I’ve known hundreds of parents, and you’re a good dad, Riggs.” I wrapped my fingers around his hand and squeezed. “A really good dad. I’ve known fathers who live in the same house as their kids all the time, and they’re less engaged than you are with Ledger.”

Some of the tension seemed to ebb from his broad shoulders before he said, “Honey, I know. I don’t question that.”

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