She huffed out an offended breath. “Danny called me last night and said he wanted help figuring out how to convince you to let him go to the school.”
“And instead of encouraging him to have an adult conversation with me, you orchestrated this manipulative farce. Nice touch sliding the form across, by the way. You almost had me before that bullshit.”
She rose from her chair. “Screw you, Kate. Maybe if you were around for him, he wouldn’t have to come to me for help.”
The punch didn’t land like she wanted it to. I knew I hadn’t been around the last couple of days, but I knew she was being unfair just to knock me down. “Look, I know you’re lost right now, but that doesn’t give you the right to pull this kind of shit.”
She paled. “I’m not lost.”
“Yes, you are. You’re wearing the same damned yoga pants you had on four nights ago, for Chrissakes.”
Her face morphed into an indignant mask. “This is a different pair!”
I leaned back in my chair. “Regardless, I can’t have you coming in here trying to fix things because you can’t fix your own life.”
She crossed her arms. “That’s unfair, Kate.”
“No, unfair is putting me in a position where I’m ambushed and backed into a corner. You didn’t even check with me first to take my temperature. You just tried to steamroll me, and you dragged Danny along for the ride.”
She bent down and grabbed her purse. “I don’t have to listen to this.”
“Fine,” I said. “Don’t.”
With that, she stormed out the door and slammed it behind her. A few moments later, the sound of her car’s engine turning over reached me. Even that sounded righteously indignant.
“Kate?” Danny’s voice came from the living room. “Is everything okay?”
I took a deep breath before answering. “Yeah. Come on in.”
He looked around as he entered. “Where’s Pen?”
“She had to go home.”
“Did you yell at her?”
I nodded. “Kind of, yeah.”
“Crap, I didn’t mean to—”
“It’s not your fault.” I waved him over. “Why don’t you sit down.”
He moved carefully, as if he were afraid that one wrong move set me off. I kept my posture relaxed and tried to look unintimidating.
“All right, here’s the deal,” I began. “I won’t be signing that paper right now.”
He opened his mouth to argue, but I held up a hand. “You said your piece—now it’s my turn.” He nodded reluctantly and I continued. “The reason I can’t sign it yet is that I haven’t even seen this school. It wouldn’t be responsible of me as your guardian to send you to a place until I’ve checked it out first.”
“I guess that makes sense.”
“As it happens, I talked to the principal yesterday.”
His head jerked up. “You did?”
“Yeah, we’re trying to find a time to set up a meeting to discuss all of this and so I can see the school itself.”
“I—I didn’t know.”
“How about I plan it for a time when you can come with me?”
His face transformed, and for the first time in a long time, I got to see that dimple that used to charm me out of grounding him when he was younger. “That would be awesome.”
“I can’t promise that I’ll like it, but I can promise that I’ll give it a chance.”
He exhaled a deep, accepting sigh. “That’s fair, I guess.”
“In return, you have to promise me that you’ll stop recruiting Baba, Pen, Mez, or anyone else to help you when you want to work around me. We’ve been through a lot, you and me. I know things have been tough the last couple of years and there’s been a lot of changes, but we’re family, Danny.”
“I know,” he said in his best defensive-teenager tone.
“And I know I’ve been a pain in the ass about a lot of stuff. Right?”
His lip twitched. “Sort of, yeah.”
“I promise I’ll try to listen to you more. But you’ve got to meet me halfway and be honest. Okay?”
He thought about it a second before nodding. “Yeah, all right.”
I pushed my chair back and went around. “Stand up.”
He glared up at me. “No hugging.”
I held my arms open. “You’re not getting out of it. Might as well give in.”
He sighed the sigh of the put-upon. “Gawd, Katie.”
“Hug or no deal.”
He rolled his eyes like a pro before pushing out of his seat. The hug was probably the fastest ever recorded, but beggars couldn’t be choosers.
“Now, you want to help me send the email to Dr. Hidalgo?”
The corner of his mouth lifted. “Yeah.”
I threw my arm around his neck and pulled him toward the living room so we could use the laptop. “I have to give you credit, though. That speech was pretty good.”
He ducked his head. “Pen helped me.”
I pulled my arm away and felt some of my victorious feeling fade. “Yeah, I figured.”
“She was kind of intense about it, honestly.”
“That doesn’t surprise me.” I knew the topic wasn’t done with Pen, but I’d give her a couple of days before I called to hash it out. Pushing that aside, I prepared to take the next step in helping my brother move toward his future—whatever that held.
Chapter Fifteen
The next morning on my way into work, I swung by City Hall to check on Sweet Ray and Peewee. Like before, I found them on the top step. Well, I found Sweet Ray. There was a pigeon at his feet, but it was gray, not white like the one had been a few days earlier.
“Morning,” I said. “Do you remember me?”
He looked offended. “Of course. You’re Joan of Arc, right?”
“Very funny.”
He shrugged, which made the gold braid on the shoulders of his crushed velvet housecoat sway. “I gotta get my kicks where I can, because Peewee isn’t speaking to me.” He tipped the stained turban toward the gray pigeon.
“Um, I thought Peewee was white.”
“You racist?” he said sharply. “Because I won’t work for an intolerant person.”
“No,” I said, dragging out the syllable. “I just thought Peewee had white feathers.”
Sweet Ray spread his arms wide. “All of them are Peewee.”
I looked out over the dozens of pigeons strutting around on the shit-spackled steps. “All of those are Peewee?”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” He shook his head. “Every pigeon on earth is Peewee. They share a consciousness. Pigeons are very enlightened, you know.”
As far as conversations went, that one really felt like a dead end, so I let it go. “All right, so it’s been a few days. You got anything good for me?”
He shrugged and tossed a couple of imaginary crumbs toward the confused gray bird. “People come, people go.”
“Any particular people?”
“Mostly cheap assholes.”
“Fair enough. Did you see anyone from any of the covens come through?”
He tilted his head at the sky, thinking it over. The move was so birdlike, I had to smile. “Peewee says he saw one lady.”
“Adept or Mundane?”
He shrugged. “Peewee didn’t like her.”
Thinking of the lady that had Morales worried, I said, “Did she by chance have a horn?”
Sweet Ray looked at me as if I were the birdbrain. “You sure you’re not using, girl?”
“No horn, then?”
He leaned down to confer with the pigeon. “Peewee says no. She had brown skin.”
“Asian? Latina? Black?” I paused. “Wait, can pigeons even see color?”
“Duh. Of course they can. Their eyesight is excellent.” He flicked a feather off his hem. “And Peewee just said ‘brown.’ If he’d want you to know more, he would have told you.”
I crossed my arms. “You know, if Peewee is just fucking with me, I’m not going to be happy.”
He shrugged. “I’m just the medium here.”
“You’re also the guy who won’t get paid.”
He sighed. “Look, I don’t know what you want from me. A lady came by two days ago to see the mayor. She didn’t look like nothing special to me, but Peewee got all excited and told me to tell you about her.”
“All right, all right,” I said, “I got it. Anything else?”
“Yeah, actually, last night the mayor left about six o’clock like normal. But then he came back at like ten.”
“Sweet Ray, do you really sit here that long every day? Where do you sleep?”