“Ah,” I say as I realize Brooke and I are in the same boat. “Hey, I know all about taking care of other people's brats.” Even better. No kids. Even less chance of any sort of … I don't, complications or whatever. “So where's your sister at?” I realize as soon as I say it that there's a chance her sister could be dead, and I could be stirring up awful memories.
“She … left the country to be with her boyfriend.” There's a long pause before she looks up at me. In the background, a bunch of kids dart into the forest with foam swords and full suits of plastic armor. Heh. “They're both addicts. It's not a good situation. My sister was an awful mother, but the girls miss her like crazy.”
“No dad?” I ask and Brooke shakes her head again, that long hair of hers fluttering defiantly in the breeze, no matter how hard she tries to stop it. It hits all the way down to her ass. It'd be perfect to pull …
“She doesn't know who the girls' dads are.” Brooke rolls her eyes and sighs, glancing over at the blond kid. “Or if she does, she won't tell anybody about them.”
“So that leaves you to shoulder all the responsibility? That's rough for a twenty … three year old?” I guess.
“Close. Twenty-two. I was seventeen when I graduated.”
“Ah, so you really are a smarty-pants, huh?” Brooke smiles and shrugs her shoulders, but I can tell she's proud of herself. I lean in close and let my mouth get enticingly close to Brooke's ear, enjoying the way her body shivers and her hands curl into fists. “So, Smarty-Pants, tell me, what else do you do?”
“Do?” she asks, jerking back from me like a frightened rabbit, all jumpy and twitchy all of a sudden. “Like, as in a job?” I nod and she bites her lip, glancing away toward the forest to her right. It's a protected swath of redwood trees and trails, one of which leads to a hundred year old stone fireplace and a duck pond. The others … well, I've always been kind of a lazy gamer asshole. It's not like I've hiked a single one of them. “I have an interview for this evening. I know it's … weird to have an interview in the evening, but I guess the manager wants to make sure I can actually show up? I don't know.”
“Where at?”
Brooke's cheeks flame as I lean back and watch her with my curiosity—and a few other things—piqued.
“That gas station down on Broadway, the twenty-four hour one.”
“Aw, a Smarty-Pants like you?” I ask and she sighs, digging her nail into the wood of the table.
“I'm getting a master's degree in biostatistics, but I've got a whole year left and the few grants and loans I get won't cover everything the kids and I need.” Brooke closes her eyes for a moment, a heaviness pulling at her shoulders. “I … have a job lined up, but I'd really like to get this one instead. It makes half what the other does, but …” She pauses and shakes her head to clear the thought. “Forget it.” She slaps her palms on the table. “You ready to walk down to the pond?”
I shrug my shoulders and lift my fingers to my lips, whistling for my brother's brood. The twins shockingly decide to show up, but Kinzie … she looks over at me and then turns away to talk to some other girls near the slide.
Oh fuck that.
“One second.” I get up and jog my way over to her, sending the other girls scattering from the base of the redwood tree stump where the slide is located. When my niece looks up at me, it's with a certain level of distaste on her features. I wonder briefly if she's this big a brat all the time, or if it's just me that brings it out of her. “Come on. We're doing an activity, just like you asked. Let's go.”
“I'm happy playing here. I don't want to go meet your new girlfriend.”
“Aaaaand earlier, you told me you hated the park and didn't want to come at all. Now, I'm telling you we're leaving. Let's skedaddle.”
“No.”
I blink down at her in her blue sundress, white tights, and sneakers. Her outfit choice, not mine.
“What do you mean, no?” I ask as Kinzie glares up at me, brown pigtails ruffling in the breeze.
“I mean I'm not going with you. You're not my dad. I don't have to listen to you.”
I stare down at her for a minute and then reach out and tuck her under my arm, dragging her away from the slide while she screams. Parents turn to look, but I'm not hurting the kid. I'm just letting her throw a fit in my arms.
When I get back to Brooke, it's starting to sound like Kinzie's about to have a seizure or something. My new friend looks up at me with a grimace on her face as I try to smile my way through this.
“Maybe we should reschedule?” she asks, and I feel my jaw clench. Great. But I take a breath and nod, trying to talk over my niece's violent screeches. Even when I put her down, she doesn't stop, throwing herself into the grass as I fight the urge to toss her over my knee and spank her. Apparently, Mercedes doesn't believe in spankings. Maybe that's what got the kid to this point in the first place?
“Sure. Um, same time tomorrow?”