Page 31 of Playing for Keeps
“Yeah. You’re right,” he said. “Listen, I’m just gonna head home. I’ll call Andy and let him know that Clark called me and then I’m not thinking about this mess anymore until I absolutely have to.”
Which in Del’s mind meant the moments before he walked onto the witness stand. He was through giving up parts of his life to a system that had given him nothing in return. Not when he was a teenager and accused of vandalism—the original cause for him ending up at the Grace House for Boys—and then again when he’d graduated from college despite his haters doubting he ever would.
“You did your job, Del. Don’t let them make you doubt that,” Lance insisted.
Del nodded as he approached the door. “I know. I did my job and I stood up for what I thought was right. I can live with those facts. Thanks, man,” he said before opening the door and heading out to the bar so he could go home.
Lance didn’t say anything in return. There was nothing else to be said. They were always there when the other needed them. Del hadn’t told anyone about the phone call, but Lance had known something was wrong and had come to assist. For all the times he’d done that, Del would love his brother eternally. He just wished that none of the things that had happened to him and Lance while they lived in D.C. had ever happened. But the reality was that if those things hadn’t happened in their lives, neither of them would be here in Providence now, running this bar with their friends.
And Del wouldn’t be sleeping with Rylan. He couldn’t explain why that was also a plus to being back in Providence, or why he took his phone out of his pocket as he climbed behind the wheel of the second SUV he’d rented, and sent her a text inviting her to his place for dinner tonight. Nothing involving the two of them made sense but being with her made Del feel good. He hadn’t felt that way in far too long and he wasn’t yet ready to give it up.
10
“This will be so much better than grilled cheese. Did you smell that onion gravy?” Rylan asked as she and Del walked out of Margie’s carrying their bags full of the dinner Margie had prepared for them.
They were almost to their cars when Rylan heard her name being called. She turned so fast, thinking instantly that someone was seeing her and Del together. Camy already knew about them, that didn’t mean Rylan wanted to risk anyone else finding out. She also didn’t want Del to be angry that someone was seeing them together.
“Hey!” Naomi said as she fast walked across the parking lot. “Mom’s been calling you. We need to schedule a date and time to go look at dresses and to think about Christmas dinner. Aunt Belle is bringing her new boyfriend and he has four kids.”
“I’m spending Christmas with Dad and Uncle Larry.” Rylan had planned to tell her mother and Naomi this in the next few days, but that announcement certainly wasn’t planned to take place in the parking lot at Margie’s.
Now, she moved until she stood directly in front of Naomi, hoping to block Del from Naomi’s view. Her sister never could focus on more than one thing at a time, and the one thing Naomi loved to focus on was herself.
“What? Why? Neither of them can cook. And you barely cook without Mom’s help, so what do you plan to eat Ramen noodles?” Naomi asked, her tone tinged with sarcasm.
Naomi wore a houndstooth coat with black leather gloves. Her hair was neatly curled this time, her make-up light and natural. Rylan gripped the bag she was holding in her hand and tried not to feel like a bum wearing her work boots, jeans and sweatshirt beneath a coat that looked as if she were ready for the next snowball fight. Normally these things didn’t bother her—okay, well they did a little—but now that she was with Del, she sort of wondered if he thought about women who dressed and looked like Naomi as more his style.
“He’s our father,” Rylan said. “I don’t want to take sides and you shouldn’t either.”
“He’s a thief,” Naomi snapped.
Rylan was just about to respond when Del touched her arm. She hadn’t realized he’d come up from behind to stand next to her. She also hadn’t told him to go on to the truck to wait for her while she talked to her sister. So, looking over to see him standing close with a smile already in place shouldn’t have been a surprise.
“Hi Naomi,” he said. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen you.”
“Oh. Del. Hello,” Naomi said and looked from him to Rylan and then back to Del. “What’re you doing here? Did you just come from Margie’s too? Thursday’s smothered pork chops and onion gray. It’s the only night that I bother to eat any kind of take out.”
“It’s the night Mom works late at the school so she’s not home to cook dinner,” Rylan corrected her sister.
Naomi shot her a quick, heated glance.
“Anyway, I haven’t seen you in a while either,” Naomi said to Del.
She’d already switched from the slightly irritated look she’d been given Rylan to the sweet and sultry look she was now giving Del.
“I heard you and your little friends opened a bar. I just haven’t had time to get over there,” she was saying.
Del just nodded. “It’s okay, we plan on sticking around for a while.”
“Oh, I know! Do you book private parties?” Naomi asked, her brown eyes now alight with glee.
“Yeah we do. We have an upper level called The Skybox especially for private parties. You havin’ a party?” Del asked.
Naomi nodded and with one hand snatched the glove off her other. She thrust the left hand into Del’s face so fast it was a wonder he didn’t get scratched by her long pink-painted nails.
“I’m engaged!” Naomi said and did a little happy dance right there in the parking lot.
Rylan rolled her eyes, but she’d turned her head so that nobody would see that’s what she was doing. Her mother had sent her text two days ago announcing Naomi’s great news. Rylan had, in return, sent her sister the obligatory congratulations. It wasn’t that she wasn’t happy for Naomi, she was. Her sister deserved happiness just like everybody else, even if Naomi wasn’t good at making people feel particularly happy herself. But the tone of her mother’s message had implied that once again, Naomi was doing so much better than Rylan.
