Water splashed against the edges of the pizza slice as Mach twisted to see what Tanner was going on about. What the hell was his problem? Tanner was dressed like he always was, he didn’t even have trunks on or a towel, so why did he need the pool?
"For what?" Mach asked, sitting up on the float, his legs dangling off the side of the pepperonis.
"For this whole thing." Tanner gestured to the floating pizza slice and the pool. "You’re done." Again, he sounded firm, like he knew what he was talking about, but it made no sense at all.
Before Mach could even roll off the plastic into the pool, Dan’s voice came through the yard. "Mach, get out of the pool."
Son of a bitch—
"You brought Dan?" Mach asked, both appalled that Tanner would bother Dan like this, bring him all the way out here for nothing. And, also, a little ashamed that Dan would have lots of things to say to Mach about how disappointing his behavior had become.
Dan always had lots of things to say when his boys got up in their own heads. He approached the side of the pool, crossing his arms beside Tanner. "Out, Mach. Time to talk."
He said this in the same tone he’d used when Mach was fifteen and had just landed himself an in-school suspension for the third time that semester. That time he’d found himself in the principal’s clink for organizing an unauthorized concert in the school cafeteria where everyone beatboxed to the old-schoolI’m Too Sexyby Right Said Fred, while Mach stood on one of the tables doing hip thrusts and singing the lyrics. The disruption got him suspended, but the legend of the cafeteria concert probably still lived on.
Mach rolled off the slice and swam to the edge of the pool, extracting himself from the water. He may have been an adult who made his own decisions, but he knew Dan would happily pull him off the pool float by his ear if that’s what it took.
"You met a girl and it got serious?" Dan asked, hands on his hips and getting straight down to business.
Mach nodded. "Serious is probably an appropriate word."
"You didn’t think to tell me about it?" Dan asked, and he wasn’t being mean, he was being a dad. All these years later, and that still made Mach feel weird inside. Sort of happy, but also scared, because the other shoe would drop.
"It happened and then it was over. Didn’t take long," Mach said, looking everywhere but at the man he called his dad.
Dan was twenty years older than Mach and Tanner, but other than the gray hair he’d earned from being their foster dad, he didn’t look it. Dan worked with his hands, so they were perpetually stained no matter how much he scrubbed at them. And the guy could hold a tune—he’d been the one to encourage Mach and Tanner to live their musical dreams.
"You broke it off with her?" Dan asked, handing Mach a towel laid out on the patio furniture.
Mach took it, and wrapped it around his waist, nodding.
"You broke it off with this Darla, who I never got to meet?" Dan was going in circles here.
Clearly, he already knew, since he was there.
"He broke it off because she makes him happy," Tanner accused, filling in an unnecessary blank.
"Why is this happening?" Mach gestured to the circle of them.
"Because we’re your family and when you are hurting, family backs you up," Dan said, and the weight of his stare was enough to make Mach look up.
"Can’t believe I have to explain this, yet again," Dan whispered, totally exasperated. "But I’ll keep explaining it until it sticks."
"I did it for her." Mach pushed his hair back out of his face, using the water to hold it there. "It’s what’s best for her so she can be happy."
"Did you take idiot pills this morning?" Tanner asked. "Is that what happened?"
Dan stared Tanner down like he needed to shut it. But Tanner didn’t shut it.
"She’s not happy, man," Tanner said, sliding the knife into the kidneys. "Sam and Courtney, Becca and Irina? They’ve all been checking in on her. She’s getting through her days, doing what she does, but she’s not happy."
"She will be," Mach assured. She only needed a little time. "Happier than I can make her."
"You take yourself away from people who care about you," Dan said, matter-of-factly. "It’s got to stop because, now, you’re hurting people. And, worse yet, you’re hurting yourself."
"Because that’s what I do. I hurt people." Mach forced his chin not to tremble, but standing here with Dan and Tanner, who had seen him at his worst? He knew they caught the small show of weakness. These guys also understood the destruction Mach left in his wake. "I’m saving her from the hurt."
Eventually, these two would get tired of him, too. But every time he’d tried to scrape them as a kid, they’d held on tighter.
