“He said he was excited to see you,” Henry says with certainty.
“And what did your dad say?”
“He said, ‘Henry! Your favorite uncles are coming!’”
“Favoriteuncles?” Sergio questions. “I thought I was your favorite.”
“Mommy says it’s not nice to have favorites.”
“Fair enough.” Sergio shrugs; after all, trying to enshrine himself above Adrien in the hierarchy of Henry’s affections isn’t the point of this exercise anyway. “What did your mommy say about me coming?”
“Well, she told Daddy she couldn't wait. But she told Allison to ignore you. And she told Jeremy that if you tried anything on him this week, she was going to kick you in the nuts.”
“Like mother, like son,” he says, and ruffles Henry’s hair again. “Do me a favor, would you, kid?”
“Sure!” Henry says, eyes shining.
“Be my eyes and ears today? It’ll be our little secret,” he says with an exaggerated wink.
“Okay!” Henry agrees, giving his own version of a wink that looks more like a hard blink as he squeezes both eyes closed before he reopens them.
After breakfast, Sergio, Holden, Adrien, and Henry get into Holden’s Range Rover to head to the slopes for the day. Sergio nods his chin at Adrien and says, “Take shotgun.”
“Are you sure?” Adrien asks before opening the door and climbing in, not waiting for an answer.
“Yeah, I’m sure.” Sergio climbs in next to Henry in the backseat and waves Holden off as he starts to buckle Henry into his booster. He winks at Henry again, like he did earlier when he put this plan into motion. “I have important business to discuss with Henry.”
Henry hard blinks back at him and echoes his words. “Important business.”
Holden gets into the driver's seat. “Remember, Sergio, there are child labor laws for a reason. You better not be recruiting my son for work. His labor is only allowed to be exploited by me and his mother.”
“A little late to be trying to explain labor laws to him, don’t you think?” Adrien asks. “He’s been working me like a dog for years.”
Sergio, already knowing what’s coming once he and Adrien are alone on the slopes, ignores his jab.We’ll see how you feel after I fire you my damn self.
“Ignore them,” Sergio says to Henry. “Our business has nothing to do withthosetwo.” He raises his voice for emphasis. “This is uncle/nephew business.”
“Should I be worried about this?” Holden asks Adrien as he presses the ignition.
“They both read at a first-grade level. I think you’re safe,” Adrien says and turns on the radio, quickly finding a mellow station instead of the horrible stadium rock station Holden is prone to putting on when he has control.
As if the gods of fate are shining on him,Wicked Gameby Chris Isaak begins playing through the car’s speakers. The melody sends warmth through Sergio, as he immediately pictures Jeremy skating to the music in the forefront of his mind. He checks his watch. Hopefully, if today goes well enough, he’ll be able to catch that image in real life this afternoon.
But if he wants that to happen, he needs to get to work. So with the music drowning out any extra voices in the car, Sergio turnshis attention back to Henry. “Okay, here’s the plan,” he says softly. “I need you to do some digging for me today.”
“Okay.” Henry looks at him and nods. His lips are set in a hard line, and his eyes are wide as he waits for instructions. He looks as serious as a five-year-old can while being given directions.
“See if you can find out from your dad why your mom hates me—”
“Hey, Dad!” Henry yells before Sergio can finish giving him the instructions. “Why does Mommy hate Uncle Sergio?”
“Uncle Sergio! Wake up!”
“Oof … morning, buddy.”
“Hiss …”
“Okay, Henry, let’s try this again,” Sergio says to Henry while they ride in the backseat of the car withWicked Gameplaying over the speakers and keeping Holden and Adrien from listening in to Sergio as he works to temporarily corrupt his nephew.
