“The hell you will. I want to see you in my office tomorrow. Bring Josie. If you’re not there, I’ll talk to Cassie.”
Mothersucker. He knew Cassie was my weakness. And really, I didn’t have much to lose at this point. “Fine.”
“Good. I’ll see you tomorrow. Now give the phone back to Gunner.”
“Fine,” I said again for good measure and handed the phone back. Josie had ignored the whole exchange, too busy covering herself in sand.
I brushed her hair out of her face to get her attention. “Let’s go home,Spatz. You need a bath and I need a drink.”
She shrieked in glee and got up on wobbly legs. “Bath. Drink. Bath. Drink.”
I took her hand and together we walked down the road. Gunner was following us at a short distance. So annoying.
“Are you hungry?” I called over my shoulder once we reached our porch. I was trying to leave as much sand as possible outside but Josie was covered. There wasn’t much else I could do short of hosing her off in the backyard. “There’s plenty of food. No need for you to creep everyone out by sitting in your car. Might as well come in.”
“I’m supposed to keep my distance to stop you from freaking out.”
“Well, I’ll be more freaked out if you continue to lurk around in dark corners.”
He seemed to debate the merits of a hot meal versus a cold car. I guess the meal won when he walked up to us and opened the door. “After you.”
I picked Josie up and walked inside. “Oma, this is Gunner. I’m just going to give Josie a bath.”
“Okay, Schatz.” She smiled at me and turned to our guest. “Hi Gunner. Take a seat. Do you like cheese?”
Josie took her time playing with her bath toys and after she was squeaky clean and sand free, I spent the required ten minutes talking her into getting out of the tub. The promise of food eventually got her up and dressed, and there was only a short wrestling match involved to get her into her clothes. When we came back out, Oma was busy chatting to Gunner and he was chuckling at something she’d said.
“Hey, sorry to interrupt. Have you seen Freddie?”
Since her last missed curfew, Freddie and I had had a few more disagreements. Mainly about her trip in a police car. Luckily for her, they didn’t press charges, but she was still delivered to our door in a squad car. Apparently she and her dumbass friends decided to have a few drinks at the old water tower. Not only were they trespassing but they were also all underage.
She knew how I felt about the tower and especially drinking. We knew better than most how much damage alcohol could do to someone’s life. We were still dealing with the consequences of our mother’s carelessness. So I might have overreacted a tad when I yelled at her and told her she wasn’t allowed to go anywhere for at least a week.
“She’s in her room. Refuses to come out. She’s aSturkopf,that one,” Oma said.
I decided to be the bigger person and went to talk to her. First, I knocked on the door to the room we shared. A shouted, “Go away,” greeted me.
I tried opening the door, but it was locked. Little did she know that I had a key. Same room and all.
“Get out,” Freddie yelled as soon as my head popped through the opening. “I’m not hungry.”
“You’ve gotta come out eventually. At least to go to the bathroom. I doubt you’d want to piss in a bucket.”
“You are so gross. I can’t believe you just said that.”
“Believe it. Now get up.”
“Stop telling me what to do.”
“Never. And Oma made your favorite.”
“Meatballs?” she asked, slightly less annoyed at my presence.
“With alphabet soup.”
“I guess I could eat.”
I stifled my smile. If only everything was as easily solved. “I guess you’re still mad at me then,” I said as we walked out of the room.
