“You’ve grown, like, seventeen inches since the Fourth of July,” Vera noted, giving Tripp a head-to-toe, skipping past the visit she’d made two months ago when Layne was shot and not answering his question.
“What’re you doin’ here, Gram?” Jas repeated Tripp’s question, Vera looked up at her older grandson and Layne could see she was searching for a lie.
She found it and it was lame.
“Surprise!” she shouted.
“Cool!” Tripp didn’t think it was lame.
“Surprise?” Jasper saw right through it.
“Surprise,” Vera repeated. “Can’t a Mama and Grandma surprise her boys?”
“Totally! Anytime!” Tripp replied enthusiastically but Jasper’s eyes cut to his old man.
Layne gave his son a “Later,” shake of his head and Jasper gave him a chin lift.
Vera cupped Tripp’s cheek, smiled big at him then walked into the kitchen and went to the cupboard over the coffeemaker, saying, “That Devin man is going to get donuts. I hope he’s smart enough to get them at Hilligoss and not a grocery store. The grocery store donuts are okay but nothing beats Hilligoss.” She opened the cupboard, looked in it, appeared confused for a second then shut it, moving across the kitchen, muttering, “I forgot. You keep your mugs across the kitchen. Crazy. Mugs should be close to the coffeemaker.”
Layne tipped his head back and looked at the ceiling not knowing whether to laugh or shout.
He righted his head and looked at Jasper. “Family reunion over, boys, what’re you doin’ here?”
Tripp looked at Layne then at Jasper then he ducked his head and moved to the door. “Gotta let Blondie in.”
Layne’s eyes sliced to Jasper and Jasper jerked his head indicating upstairs. Layne nodded and Tripp slid open the door. Blondie bounded in then ran back and forth between Tripp and Jasper, jumping up on both of them but not giving either of them time to greet her before she pushed off and headed back to the other one. All this company and all her boys home equaled heaven in the form of a house in sea of similar houses in a small town in Indiana and she didn’t know what to do with herself.
“Hey, where’s Rocky?” Tripp asked, sliding the door shut, crouching and capturing Blondie with both hands to give her a rubdown.
Vera’s eyes shot to Layne and her face set straight to disapproval.
Layne ignored his mother and answered his son. “Upstairs, gettin’ dressed.” He moved to the stairs and ordered, “Feed Blondie, Pal, okay? Jas and I gotta have a chat.”
“Sure Dad,” Tripp replied, straightening and heading to the kitchen.
Layne ignored Vera now giving him an assessing stare as he turned and headed upstairs and to Jasper’s room.
Jasper followed, closed the door behind him and Layne surveyed the room and tried not to breathe too deeply before he turned to his son.
“Do me a favor, Bud, take some time and pick up in here, change your sheets, vacuum and open a window to air this shit out. It smells like a fuckin’ locker room in here,” Layne said to his boy.
“Smells okay to me,” Jasper returned.
“Yeah, well, you eventually wanna study with Keira in here, it won’t smell okay to her,” Layne replied, Jasper held his eyes then he nodded and Layne realized Keira being Jas’s girl was going to make life a little easier on Jasper’s old man. “Now, tell me what you two are doin’ here,” Layne ordered.
Jasper pulled in breath before he said, “Mom’s workin’. She wasn’t supposed to but someone called in sick.” Layne nodded and Jasper went on. “Stew’s home and I didn’t want to be around Stew today and didn’t want Tripp around him.”
The muscles in Layne’s neck contracted as he asked sharply, “Why?”
Jasper didn’t delay in answering. “Stew got home late last night. He does that a lot. Sometimes Mom is cool with it, sometimes they fight. Last night they fought. It wasn’t good. It’s never good but last night it really wasn’t good. I think he’s steppin’ out on her.”
He’d be right.
“So you’re here to hang rather than bein’ there and hangin’,” Layne stated.
“No, we gotta go to the school and swim with the team and then we gotta go to Youth Group. There’s another reason why we’re here,” Jasper replied, Layne was silent and Jasper went on. “When they were shoutin’ last night, in the middle of it, Mom freaked. Said somethin’ about blood on Stew’s clothes.”
Layne took in a deep breath and let it out.
He wasn’t surprised that there was blood on Stew’s clothes. He’d beat the shit out of someone and then shot him at close range. The blood splatter was bound to hit him.
Gabby was cottoning on. Layne didn’t have much time.
“You say Stew is home?” Layne asked, Jasper nodded and Layne continued. “And your Mom is out?” Jasper nodded again. “How long’s Stew stay home on a Saturday?”
Jasper shrugged. “Stew doesn’t have a schedule but he got home late and they fought, like, for-freakin’-ever. I reckon he’ll sleep in.”
Layne nodded. “Good call, comin’ here, Bud. It’s showtime. I’ll do my thing today.”
“What do I do?” Jasper asked.
“Keep your phone close. Once I’m done, I’ll give you a brief.”
Jasper nodded as he said, “You got it, Dad.”
Layne looked at his son and made a decision.
Therefore, he shared, “You remember I told you Rocky didn’t know it wasn’t fake anymore?”
Layne watched his son’s eyes grow intense before Jas said, “Yeah.”
“Well, she knows it isn’t fake anymore,” Layne finished and Jasper grinned instantly, his grin huge.
“Cool,” he murmured.
“Your Grandma isn’t here as a surprise. She’s here because she heard about Rocky bein’ back in my life. She and Rocky used to be tight, she loved her like a daughter. She was not happy when Rocky took off, mostly because of what it did to me but also because she missed her. So that means she’s not happy that Rocky’s back. I need your help with that,” Layne told him.