“I’ve pulled up your coach’s email to the team and parents, but I haven’t looked.” Clint hands Reid his phone.
Reid should never play poker. His face explodes with glee and then turmoil and then delight again. His eyes scan, and occasionally his mouth moves with silent words, but he doesn’t make a sound.
“Did you win, maggot?” Erika calls out from the couch.
“Erika.” My words come automatically in the parental tone I’ve perfected. “Give him a minute.”
As the seconds bleed into minutes, I too become anxious to hear the outcome, but since I corrected Erika, I can hardly jump in. I look to Clint, but he seems content to give Reid time.
So annoying.
Finally, Reid looks up. “We won on speed and agility, but thePinepoint team won on creativity and efficiency. Which is totally wrong, because I wrote the code, and it was clean and logical.”
“So, you tied?” I ask. “That’s great. Right?” I look around the room. My family hates to tie. Every sport, every game, even an empty wager is met with a fight to the finish. I understand because I’m one of them.
“They don’t allow ties. A team has to win. They had to do a speed round. Just us and Pinepoint. Bobby was our lead programmer, and I wasn’t there to do any of it.” His face falls.
“Sorry, buddy. I wish you could’ve been there for your team.” Clint hugs Reid around his shoulders, jostling him against his hip.
“You’re irreplaceable.” I walk over to hug my little guy.
“No, I’m not.” Reid scrunches up his nose. “We won.”
Clint pulls Reid away and holds him by his arms. “Way to fake us out. Congratulations!”
“Yeah.” Reid smiles but with only half his face.
Erika flops over the back of the couch. “Sucks they didn’t need you.”
“Of course they needed him.” I swat at my daughter. “He got them to the finals and is an absolutely brilliant robotics kid.”
Reid wiggles away from his dad and walks right into Erika. Her arms wrap around his still-small body. She gets him.
Clint slides in next to me. Sometimes you just need someone to understand. The encouragement, even the celebration, can come later.
The sentiment surrounding the hug they shared doesn’t last long. Insults skewer the air as they settle into their twin beds. Exhaustion clear as they both curl onto their sides, Erika looking younger and Reid older, their age difference almost immaterial.
“Stop staring at me,” Erika grumbles from behind closed eyes.
I stumble away from the doorway.
At just after nine thirty, Clint and I are back at the island.
“Maybe it’s time to contact Betsey,” I say.
“Okay?” Clint pours us each a glass of water.
“Betsey said she found the sales data.”
“And Dave told you it was fake. So did Hardwin and Terrence, but then you overheard Hardwin and Terrence saying they lied.” Clint smiles as if he is proud of his ability to remember.
“Maybe the data was the insurance policy and not the payment.” I look up from my current list of what I know.
“You’ve lost me.”
“I’ve been thinking about the data as partial payment or perk for whatever securities were being lent, and what if...” I flip through the pages to find my notes from Alyssa.
Aunt May
