Page 55 of IOU

“You weren’t losing sleep, you little shit. You had to give that poor girl cab money so we could leave.”

Their arguing has me craving a visit home. I miss both of them.

“It’s called Uber, Pops, and she was lost. I was looking up hotels for her when you called out that the Reaper was here to take you.”

“Maverick!” Pops hollers, most certainly disrupting other patients at the hospital. “Go to bed! I’m fine.”

My brother quickly jumps in. “Funny how you had no concern in waking me up! Where’s the concern for my sleep deprivation?”

“You weren’t asleep!”

I snort. “Sounds like he’s just fine,” I tell my brother.

“I told you he was fine in my text.”

Thunder rattles the window. “I know, but I needed to hear it from you.”

“You mean, you needed to make sure I wasn’t lying?” He’s not offended; he knows how I am.

“Exactly.” No sense in lying about it. I needed to hear my brother’s voice to make sure he didn’t sound bleak or stressed. With text, he and Pops could say whatever to ensure I did not come home.

“Sure you don’t want me to come down and help?”

It’s an excuse to see them, but I really do want to help more. Apart from what Pops thinks, I won’t drop out of school and work at the QuickMart. Sure, I’ve considered moving home and helping out more, but Pops has been downright vicious in keeping my ass firmly planted at Havemeyer. It’s always been important to him that we boys go to college. Cooper can beg Pops all he wants about joining the MLB, but he will go to college if Pops has anything to say about it.

“No, Mav. We don’t need your bossy ass coming down and telling us what to do, right, Pops? We got it. Stay there, get some sleep and pus—”

“Boy!”

I grin at Pops jumping in. They are like two old men arguing over a chess game.

“I was just telling him to have a Push Pop, old man. Why is your mind always in the gutter? Is that a side effect from the stroke or—”

“I will get out of this bed, Cooper Lexington.”

I laugh. “Don’t make him get out of the bed, Coop.”

“The doctor says he needs to move around more,” Coop argues, but it’s a joke. The fact is, Pops and Coop have a great relationship, one that I miss having with them.

“Stop gossiping to your brother and go home. You and him both should have been in bed hours ago.”

Cooper laughs into the phone. “Oh, I’m going back to bed. Don’t you worry, Pops.”

“I swear on your mother, Coop. You are not too old for me to tear that ass up with my belt.”

Pops is so full of shit. He’s never spanked nor laid a hand on Cooper or me, but it gets a laugh out of us, just as I’m sure he intended.

“All right, Pops, you scared us. Maverick is already tucked in, and I’m heading out. Behave yourself. I don’t want to have to sacrifice my virginity to convince these nurses to let your hateful ass stay here.”

Good Lord. “Bye, Coop. Bye, Pops.”

Cooper and Pops laugh. “Good night, Maverick.”

I toss the phone on my nightstand and stare out at the black skies, watching as the rain pummels the earth with its soothing ointment.

The fire extinguisher I left Ainsley is gone from the patio. Not that I can see it but because I watched her take it in, right after she set the picture of her and that fucker on fire. I might have smiled as she watched it go up in flames and flip it off, yelling something I’m sure sounded crazy to the neighbors.

But she was healing, and for that, I was proud to help with.

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