“Riding in long skinny boats,” Carly replied.
“Like a canoe? Like Indians?”
“Yes, like on that picture you colored me for Thanksgiving.” She turned her attention to me, and added, “Never been kayaking.”
“It’s settled then.” I angled my rearview mirror so I could see Trent’s face. “I hear it’s a hard workout, but I think you can handle it. You ready to build some pecs of your own and have fun, T-man?”
He flexed, grinning. “Mom can’t build pecs. She has boobies.”
“My God, Trent,” Carly groaned, shaking her head. “You’ve got to stop saying that word in public.”
“But it’s just me and you and Wasp,” he defended, sounding genuinely confused.
Looking exasperated, Carly faced me. “He homes in on inappropriate words, topics, actions. Those are the ones he repeats. All the time. I tried to stop reacting to them, pretending they’re no big deal, but he still seems to know.”
“He’s a smart kid, babe. There are worse things.” I glanced in the rearview mirror and Trent gave me a thumbs up.
Carly navigated to her apartment building and she had me park in her roommate’s spot. Before I put the Jeep in park, she had the door open. “You two stay here, and I’ll run up and grab the seat.”
Not a chance in hell. I was too damn curious about her to miss out on an opportunity to see her place and maybe reveal some of her secrets. Thankfully, Trent had my back.
“I have to go potty, Mom,” he said.
Carly looked over her shoulder, preparing to hurry around, but I was already climbing out to get him.
“I got you T-man. I’ll take you up.” I opened the back door and unbuckled him.
She looked like she wanted to argue, but bit her lip and led us into an older building with peeling paint and a musty smell. The security keypad leading in from the garage was broken, and the elevator jerked and squeaked, making me want to grab the sides, as if that could somehow stabilize the piece of shit and keep us from plummeting to our death if it gave out. I knew it wasn’t my place to say anything, but I didn’t like them living here. It didn’t seem safe.
Carly’s apartment was located on the third floor. She led us down the hall and unlocked the door to let us in before herding Trent toward the bathroom. Alone in the living room, I began nosing around. The place was dated, but clean. Big windows let in plenty of natural light, showing off used but comfortable-looking light-colored furniture and a few pastel paintings on the wall. I don’t know what I’d been expecting Carly’s place to look like, but this wasn’t it. It seemed too airy and upbeat.
“That’s Jessica’s family,” Carly said when she returned and caught me looking at a big group picture.
I’d been so engaged in the task of trying to find her in the photo that I hadn’t even heard her come in. I glanced around the living room. “Is anything in here yours?”
“Why?”
“Because I’d like to get to know you.”
“And you expect to do this by snooping around my apartment?”
“Investigating, not snooping,” I corrected. “Usually people have personal shit lying around. Books, hobbies, music, decorations. But none of this is yours, is it?”
She glanced around the room and shook her head. “Nope. I don’t put my life on display. My stuff stays in my room, and you’re not going in there, Wasp.”
The entirety of her possessions fit in a bedroom? How was that possible? She had a kid. Surely, she should have all kinds of shit. “What about your family?” I asked. “Don’t you have any pictures of them?”
She shrugged. “Nope.”
Certain I must have heard wrong, because everyone had family pictures, I asked, “Pictures or family?”
I thought I was being a smartass, but she answered, “Both.”
“How do you not have family? Where are your parents?”
“Your guess is as good as mine, but we need to table this. Trent’s coming.”
He rounded the corner and she pasted on a big smile for him. “You ready to go?”
