Page 14 of Dirty Puck

Luckily, the timer on the oven pinged. “Let me just go get that.”

“Saved by the bell,” Mrs. Grazia muttered under her breath while snickering at my less-than-subtle exit from the room and the conversation. My stomach grumbled and my mouth watered. I pulled the glass dish from the oven, setting it on the burner to cool. While it rested, I threw together a salad for us. To give myself a little more time before having to deal with Mrs. Grazia’s questions, I set a place with a plate and fork for each of us and a knife for me and Mrs. Grazia. Then I moved the lasagna and salad to the table and set out the dressing before calling them to eat.

Mostly, Benny used his fingers to pick up the pieces of food from his plate. I still tried to encourage him to use a fork, but Rome wasn’t built in a day. Just another thing he’d get eventually.

Now, I wouldn’t pretend to be Julia Child in the kitchen, but the things I knew how to make, I made well. And this—chef’s kiss. I groaned from my first bite.

“I have an appointment on Tuesday for a new school for Benny. His therapist thinks he’d do better there. It’s full day, Monday through Friday. School and therapy.”

“Is there a reason you’re considering changing?”

I set my fork down. “Well, we basically got fired. I was told that with the new issues, they don’t think they can help Benny as well as this new place can. If he isn’t accepted, then they’ll try to figure something out.”

“When it rains, it pours.”

“No truer words,” I answered. We went on like that with light conversation. She thankfully decided to take pity on me and not revisit the whole Reece debacle.

After the best lasagna in the world and those deliciouscream puffs from the store, I cleaned up from dinner and walked Benny across the hallway to Mrs. Grazia’s place.

“Be good for Mrs. Grazia, buddy.” I drew him into a giant bear hug. He kissed my cheek. I peppered his with as many as I could fit in before having to leave, then I stood, taking Mrs. Grazia’s arm. “Thank you, you know. For everything.”

She nodded, smiling as I walked away.

Another day. Another dollar.

CHAPTER

FOUR

REECE

“You weren’t very nice to that lovely young woman today.” My mother folded the kitchen towel she’d just wiped her hands on, hanging it over the oven bar when she’d finished and then she just stared at me, waiting me out, attempting to make me sweat, but all she succeeded in doing was pissing me off.

“The fuck, Ma—holding it in all day, were you?”

“Well, I was waiting for you to explain yourself, but since you haven’t, I need to extract the information, given I know I raised you better than that.”

“We aren’t dating.”

“So you’ve said.”

“Listen, I don’t know what you want from me. She was out of line talking to me today.”

“A work colleague who saw you out was out of line for sayinghi? Is this how you treat your teammates? Coaches?”

I glared at her. “No. But she’s not a teammate or coach. She cleans the damn locker rooms.”

“And that makes you better than her? Is that what you think?”

Shit.Why wouldn’t she drop this? My mother didn’t needto know my reasons and it pissed me off more that I felt I had to defend myself. “She dances. At a place called Slits.”

“And?”

“What do you mean and? She strips, Ma.”

“I can’t believe my son is such an elitist asshole.”

My head jerked. “What?”

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