“Yeah, I just rarely meet someone who compares. Might have to whip them out and see who’s bigger.” He winked at me again, and we shared alaugh.
I didn’t know if the conversation would ever lead to something more with him, but it was fun regardless. Jace Kruse was a charming motherfucker, no doubt aboutthat.
As we arrived in Jace’s mom’s neighborhood, I noticed the homes were spaced out a lot more than I was used to seeing in Los Angeles. We pulled into the drive of one of the two-storyhomes.
Jace grabbed Mac and brought him with us, lifting him over the front porch steps on account of the cast on his leg, I assumed. He keyed in a code under the doorknob before leading us inside, calling out, “Nance, we’re here!” as he guided me through a shorthall.
“Oh, hey!” a woman’s voice filled the place as we rounded the corner and entered the kitchen, and then I saw her, a short blonde in a pink apron. She closed the oven and set a casserole dish on the stovetop, then flashed a warm smile my way. A guy—I figured in his late teens—wearing a sleeveless black tee and a backward baseball cap, sat on the counter beside her. He licked a spoon, then put it back in the near-empty Ragu bottle he held. He must’ve been the brother Jace had been telling me about. He glanced up, a grin spreading across his face as he set the bottle down on the counter and hurried over to Jace, fist-bumping him before reeling him in for ahug.
Then he turned and said in a distinctively deep voice, “Hey, I’m Keegan,” and offered a firmhandshake.
Nance hugged Jace, then made her way over to me. “A hug’ll have to do until I get these mitts off,” she said, offering one. “Nancy, but you can call me Nance, if you want. These guysdo.”
We exchanged introductory pleasantries, and then she returned to her work at the stove. Keegan spent some time petting Mac and slipping him doggie treats Jace had given him. Nance asked for some help to get ready for dinner, so Jace and I chipped in, setting the table on the opposite side of the kitchen from the oven, while she and Keegan finished preparing the meal. As we all started to sit and Keegan began passing around the lasagna, Nance said, “So Jace told me you’re from Los Angeles and that a company wants to put him on billboards and incommercials.”
“Mom…” Jace said in that tone that made it clear he was embarrassed by the way she presentedit.
“That’s right,” I replied to her. “They’re very interested in working with your son, so I say if we both give him a little push, he’s looking at a really stable, securefuture.”
“Who you trying to pitch this to? Me or my mom?” Jace asked, seeing right through mytactic.
“Anyone who’ll get you to agree tothis.”
“I admire that approach, Dax,” she said. “I’ve always believed the Lord comes to the aid of those who arepersistent.”
“I have a similar philosophy,” I said. Minus the Lord stuff,though.
“But he’d need to leave his job at the fire station?” Nanceasked.
“He’d have to get some time off, at least. And he’d be at the beck and call of the company for a year, barring the need to renew his contract because the campaign has been so successful, they want to keep using him. But if you’re worried about themoney—”
“Oh, no, no. He told me about the money. It’s just, well, Jace loves his job. I can’t imagine him being content with anything else. When he was a kid, he was always running around telling everyone he was going to be a firefighter. Went to our local college for his BS in Fire Science.” I could hear her pride in the way she spoke the words. “You know how some people just know what they’re going to be when they grow up? Well, that was Jace. All he ever wanted to do in the world, isn’t thatright?”
He smiled, not seeming embarrassed by her revealing this much, but rather proud of his commitment to his work. “That’sright.”
“He hadn’t mentioned that,” I said. “Can I ask what about the job appealed to you,Jace?”
Keegan passed the casserole dish to him, and Jace stacked some lasagna on his plate. “As I mentioned, I was in the shelter until I was ten, and the guys from the station would volunteer together and come every other weekend and spend time with us. They encouraged us to participate in group activities with them. There was this guy, Crawford, who took me under his wing.” He finished piling the pasta on his plate, then set the dish in the middle of the table. “We’d play basketball and Skee-Ball, and he’d tell me about all the adventures he had on his job, all the people he got to help. Sounded like he was a superhero, or at least, it was the closest thing I knew of to one, actually getting to run around and save people’slives.”
“Butdangerous.”
“Wouldn’t be much of a superhero if you were never indanger.”
“Superman,” I muttered, reflecting on Hacksmore’s comment during ourmeeting.
“More like Batman,” Keeganinterjected.
“What?”
“Superman had superhuman abilities. He was an alien. Batman was just a regularguy.”
“Very true,” Inoted.
“Well, if you guys insist,” Jace joked, feigning arrogance, though he was clearly being far more humble than he was lettingon.
Jace Kruse didn’t run out of admirable qualities, didhe?
“Aren’t you leaving out something about Crawford?” Nanceasked.
