Ricardo nods. “What you thinking of running on it?”
I shake my head. “This is for personal use. Basic email and internet. I’m due for an upgrade.”
He heads over to his truck and brings back a laptop, new in the box. “This doesn’t have a ton of memory on it. You won’t be able to game or anything that requires a lot of processing power, but email and basic online shit, this’ll do you fine.”
“Add it to my total,” I tell him.
He waves a hand. “Consider it a gift.”
I shake his hand and clap him on the back, then head back to the compound.
On the drive, my mind bounces around like a tennis ball. I think about Claire and how she’s doing today.Stella has sent me a couple of pictures and texts, updating me on the clothes and shit they are buying, but I don’t care about what they buy. I care about how Claire’s doing. Is she quiet and withdrawn? Is she starting to talk more? Share more? I ask a few questions, and Stella is quick to answer.
Stella: No, not really. But she’s smiling a lot, and that’s something.
Stella sends me a selfie of herself with a giant, goofy grin and Tank looking incredibly bored as they wait outside a dressing room.
Stella: She also won’t let her baby out of her sight, which doesn’t surprise me. Even trying on clothes and shoes, Claire takes Aurora in with her, as if she is worried someone is going to take her.
That also doesn’t surprise me. I thumbs-up the post but don’t say more. I head back to the compound and get to work setting up the equipment. Shadow is there to help, climbing ladders to pull down the old cameras and attaching new, state-of-the-art, wireless equipment, when a thought occurs to me.
“Could we set these up in Claire’s room?” I ask.
Shadow gives me a glare so hot it could fry an egg. “You thinking about monitoring her room?” he asks. “That’s fucked, man.”
I shake my head. “Fuck no. My God. I’m thinking she can watch the baby on the security cams. That way,you know, she wants to come out and eat dinner or cook something, she can leave the baby sleeping or whatever.”
Shadow rubs his jaw with two fingers and laughs. “You clearly didn’t spend much time on Phantom and Poppy’s baby registry.”
I lift my hands at him as if to ask what the fuck that means. “No, I kicked cash into the kitty with everybody else.”
Shadow laughs. “Violet and I spent hours on that damn site. Consider yourself lucky. I don’t know if my old lady’s getting baby fever again or what. Anyway, point being, there’s such a thing as a baby monitor. You don’t need high-tech surveillance to check on a sleeping kid.”
I feel somewhat stupid for not knowing that, but how the hell would I? It’s not like I know shit about babies or how to monitor them. But the more I think about Claire being here, the more I want to do to make sure she’s safe. Comfortable. And that whatever she needs to spread her wings a little, leave her room if and when she wants to, she has it.
I nod at Shadow, and we head into Phantom’s office to test the equipment. That’s when I get a text.
Tank: We’re stopping for lunch at the diner. You want me to bring you something back? Also, that waitress got our table today, and she thinks I’m you. You want me to say something? So she doesn’t think I’m Savage?
I reply back fast.
Me: Nah, I’m good. And just let it go. She doesn’t need to know anything. You got cash to tip her?
Tank: Yup.
We go back to walking Phantom through setting up the new cameras. As soon as we’re done, I check the registry for Poppy and Phantom on my phone. I didn’t even bother reading it when Stella sent it a couple months ago, but now, I get in my truck and head to the store where they registered.
By the timeI get back to the compound, it’s almost dinnertime. I’ve got a couple more bags of shit in the back, but on a whim, I head back to the diner. It’s not likely she’ll still be there, but it’s not far out of the way. I park my truck in the lot and squint into the glare of the setting sun through the plate-glass windows.
I see her then, her thick white hair moving as she nods at a couple. She’s taking their order, and from this distance, that’s really all I can see.
I’m doing this for you, I think.For us.
I throw the truck in drive and head back to the compound, not letting myself think or feel anything. That’s how it has to be. That’s how I can put the past behind me and focus on moving forward.
Right here and now.
Not then.
