“Physics,” Ben told her. “Bullet goes forward, your hands go back. You’ve got to brace your entire body so that your hands remain steady. Try it again.”
She emptied the chamber. All her shots were wide. “This sucks. I suck.” She handed JD the empty gun. “Put some more bullets inside. I want to try again.”
JD smiled. “Sure thing, sugar.”
“You should try my gun,” Ben told her. “It has a little less kickback. Might be easier.”
“I can handle this one, thank you very much,” Ro barked. “I just need practice.”
“We created a monster,” JD said.
“Nonsense,” Ro said. “I still loathe guns. But I have my pride. I will quit as soon as I get a bullet on the target paper.”
After another try, she managed to hit the paper but not on the target area. JD held out his hand for the gun.
Ro balked. “Give me another round of bullets. Just let me get one on the body.”
“Ammo ain’t cheap.”
“Just give it to me.”
Another round, and she hit the body—twice.
By the time they left, she had peeled off a clean head shot and felt good about it.
Ben thought, Good for her, good for JD, and good for me.
Good for all of us good guys.
A week later Ben was cleaning up three years of an obsession; it was liberating, to be sure, but just like a drug addict, he had twinges of longing. Just one more file; just one more fix. The shredder was going full force. When he was done, the family would have a hell of a compost pile.
“You know, you never answered my question,” Ro said to him. She was wearing jeans and a T-shirt and heels. She looked good, as always.
“What question?” As usual, he was listening with half an ear, rereading the file on Kevin Barnes, trying to figure out his next move. “I sure hope we have this right.” He looked at her. “Do you think we have it right?”
“Probably, but now it’s Shanks’s problem.” She ripped the file out of his hand and placed it in the shredder. “Stop second-guessing yourself and answer my question.”
“What question?”
“On prom night, you disappeared.” She was couching her anger in a saccharine-sweet smile. “You were gone for quite a while.”
“That’s not a question.”
“Okay. How about this? Where were you?”
“I was dealing with slashed tires, Ro. I wasn’t looking at my watch.”
“I’m just saying that it took a long time to examine four flat pieces of rubber.”
“What do you want me to say?”
She walked over to him until they were nose to nose. Her eyes were smoldering. “You don’t have to say anything because I already know.” She pushed him hard. “You dumped me as a date after you promised to take me to the prom. And then you go ahead and screw that skank?”
“I told you I didn’t screw her.”
“To paraphrase someone we both know: You may not have screwed her, but you did something! Because her description of you was way too accurate to be chance!” She pushed him again. “Okay, bud.” She wagged a finger in his face. “Now we’re even!”
“Not quite.”
“You’re right. We’re not even. You didn’t take on a menial, thankless job and suffer through sleepless nights just to help me out. As of right now, you owe me one, Mr. Big.”
Ben liked the moniker. It made him smile and that made her angrier. She threw something at him and it whizzed past his head. It crashed into the wall and fell with a thud.
“Okay, okay,” Ben said. “We’re even.”
“No . . . we . . . are . . . not!” This time she threw his calculator.
Ben caught it with one hand. “Okay, now that’s expensive. Can you stop destroying my room?”
“This is the deal. I want both you and JD to take me to grad night! And if you stand me up again, I will kill you.”
“What about Lisa?”
“The poor dear will just have to go stag.” She kissed him hard on the mouth. “Understood?”
He was breathless from her kiss. Whenever he felt out of control, he obsessed about one thing. “Can we finish up with this? It’s making me anxious. Plus, the solstice is only a few days away.”
She broke away and plopped down on the papers that were covering his bed. “Ben, it’s over. Shanks is monitoring the situation. You should be writing your speech for graduation, not playing detective when we have a real detective. And stop trying to wriggle out of grad night. You’re going.”
He changed the subject. “What kind of speech should I be writing?”
She was incredulous. “Aren’t you valedictorian?”
“Salutatorian.”
“Salut . . .” She frowned. “How’d that happen? You’re the smartest person in the school.”
“JD’s done way more for the school than I have. I’m fine with it.”
She was quiet. “That doesn’t seem fair.”
“Ro, I don’t give a rat’s ass. I am so over high school. I don’t even know why I’m going to graduation. It’s meaningless. And so is grad night. Just go with JD. I’ll stay home. I’m tired of tailing after you two lovebirds.”
“We’re not lovebirds. We’re dates of convenience, and as soon as we graduate, it’s so, so over. How can I ever be serious with someone who cheated on me?” She realized what she said and put her hand to her mouth. “Strike that.”
Ben laughed.
She walked over to him and played with his curls. “I hate to admit this, but you’re right. It’s stupid for me to have two dates for grad night. Or any date at all, for that matter. Let’s all go together as a group: you, me, JD, Lisa, Shannon, Chelsea, Mark, and Weekly. It’s fun that way.”
“Great.” Ben winced. “It’ll be one big happy orgy because, apparently, there has been lots of swapping that, in my perpetual haze, I’ve not been aware of.”
She slapped his shoulder. “Stop it.” Then her eyes misted up. She blinked back tears. “I’ll miss you, Vicks, even with all your quirks and craziness. I’ve never met anyone like you.”
“I’ll miss you too, Dorothy.” He meant it with every fiber of his being. “But right now, I’m still here and I’m still obnoxious. I’ve got three years of a fixation here. Help me clean it up.”
She said, “You’re still speaking at graduation, right?”
“Yeah, I think I welcome everyone.”
“What are you going to say?”
“It’s like a couple of sentences. I’ll wing it.”
“You can’t wing it, Vicks. You’ll have to say the same thing at rehearsal and at graduation.”
“We have a rehearsal?”
“Yes, we have a rehearsal.” She mocked his voice.
He put down a stack of papers. “When?”
“In three days, Mr. Space Cadet, the day before graduation.”
“That’s June twenty-first. It’s the day of the solstice. I can’t be there. I’ll be watching Haley and Lilly.”
“You have to make it or the school won’t graduate you.”
“Then I won’t graduate—”
“Vicks, stop it!” She put her hands on his shoulders. Her voice was soft. “Griff and Ezra will watch the girls. We’ll keep them locked up in the house until we come back. They’ll be fine.”
“No way—”
“Shanks is on it. Albuquerque is on it. You’re done with this.” She stared at him. “I’ll be really upset if you don’t come to graduation.” She paused. “And if you’re with the girls . . . who’ll be watching me?”