“Shoulda died in a ditch for all he was worth,” Leary said under his breath. “But that son of hers, he’s a real problem. If I had a two-by-four handy, I’d knock some sense into him with it.”
Muffy approached with a loaded tray, saying, “Who let my favorite cantankerous old cooter in here?”
Leary grinned up at her. “It’s good to see you, love,” he said, clasping her hand. “Keeping this crew in line, are you?”
“Doing my best, but you know how this one is.” She patted my head. “And the Barbie doll behind the counter? God help us. Thankfully Meara doesn’t mind cracking the whip so I have that on my side.”
“Leary’s looking for some part-time work on the wash station,” I said. “Think you can keep him busy?”
“Baby, I’ll do you one better,” she said. “I bet you peel a mean potato.”
“Heisa mean potato,” Mars said.
“You’ll have to forgive my grand-nephew.” Leary gave an exasperated shrug and motioned to the dishes Mars had all but licked clean. “He has three stomachs and doesn’t allow me a minute of peace. He thinks I’ll leave him something when I croak if he hangs around enough.” He shot Muffy a glance that saidhe’s getting a dime, if that.
“Well,” Muffy said with a laugh. “Anytime you want to prep the veg station, there’s a stool in my kitchen with your name on it.” She cleared the empty dishes and set down some fresh ones. “Are you circling back tonight for open mic? It’s going to be rockin’.”
“Wish I could,” he said, jerking a thumb toward Mars. “But the warden keeps a tight curfew.”
Muffy laughed, saying, “We’ll miss you, then. I have to get back to my poblanos but I wanted to leave a few new things for you to sample.”
“It doesn’t taste like health food,” Leary said.
“I sure as hell hope not,” she replied with a wave as she headed back to the kitchen.
I stood, collecting Leary’s mug. “I’ll grab some refills. Anything you’d like to try, Mars?”
While Mars studied the menu board, Leary said, “He doesn’t need anything special. Just back the trough up.”
When I returned with fresh coffee for Leary, tea for me, and three of Beth’s favorite pressed juices for Mars, the men were deep in a heated conversation.
“You can’t say you want to hit him with a two-by-four,” Mars said. “I know he’s screwed up a lot recently but he’s going through a hard time.”
“And that’s a reason for him to start fights? Damage property? Drag his mother down to the police station to post his bail?” Leary folded his arms over his chest and shook his head. “No. He’s not a child and there’s no sense coddling him.”
Mars glanced up at me with a strained smile as I set the beverages down. To Leary, he said, “Maybe that was the wake-up call he needed.”
“I doubt it,” Leary said into his coffee. “He needs to bottom out and then dig a little deeper before he’ll even think about changing.”
In all the years I’d managed The Soggy Dog, I’d met Leary’s nephew and niece a few times and heard everything about them as well as his grand-niece and -nephews. Despite all of Leary’s bluster, Mars was the big achiever of the family. Always did well with school and sports, quick to succeed in business, good person all around. His sister was very similar. The other grand-nephew, Joey, had none of that.
I didn’t know the family dynamics well enough to figure out whether there was competition between Mars and Joey but it was safe to say there was tension.
“He better not come crying to me for money,” Leary said. “It’s his problem to solve.”
“He won’t make that mistake again,” Mars replied. “Trust me.” He grinned at the juices in front of him and it felt like a period at the end of the family conversation. “These look good.”
“Bethany’s best,” I said with a glance toward my squeeze queen. “So, Mars. What do you do? Other than taking this guy’s abuse?”
Some clouds parted and the sun streamed in at a blinding angle. When I shifted my chair to dodge most of the rays, I noticed Beckett walking the perimeter of SPOC with a gorgeous, business-y blonde at his side. Their heads were bent together as if they were deep in conversation and their elbows bumped every few steps. A flash of a smile even crossed his face while I watched.
That was rare. A true, honest smile from Beckett was like a solar eclipse.
Not that I’d spotted many of his smiles lately. Or even his scowls. The past week had been a busy one for both of us. I worked a bunch of mornings; he always closed the restaurant. While Meara and I were busy prepping for tonight’s event, he had marathon meetings with his dad’s attorney several days in a row.
So I didn’t get to see much of that absurdly beautiful face. He still scowled at my bike and found reasons to march himself across the driveway to argue with me about nothing. And he texted late at night to ask if I was walking the dogs alone.
The answer to that was always no, of course not, I had two dogs with me.
