How It Rolls (2 page)

             
My cell phone buzzed and I reached into my pocket to see the message.             

             
Family dinner tonight. 

             
We had family dinners every single Tuesday night without fail and had since Owen and Nellie got married.  Mom had demanded it since we were all growing up and leaving the nest.  Maddox acted like it annoyed him, but I knew he loved it.

             
I showered and got dressed for dinner.  I put on a white t shirt, jeans and Doc Martens.  I combed my hair straight back, not willing to put in the time or the effort in spiking it up.  I went downstairs and got into my 1976 Ford Truck.  It had tons of miles on it but ran like brand new. 

             
I got to the restaurant and pulled around the back, wanting to enter through the backdoor.  I quietly made my way in but they were waiting for me, the lot of traitors waited for me. 

             
The whole damned restaurant started a silly rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ at once, complete with my brothers interjecting their own moronic phrases in between chorus lines.

             
After they finished and I was thoroughly embarrassed, we ate Mom’s lemon cheesecake and that was my only birthday wish.  They gave me presents but I chose to open them later on.  We sat there until Owen yawned a very loud, very fake yawn and we all knew it was his cue to get his wife home.  My parents followed afterwards and I left before Maddox could beat me to it.  I was usually the last one out, but not tonight. 

             
I got into my truck and fired it up after piling the presents on the bench seat.  As I drove I shrugged my shoulders to myself.  I guess I am an old man after all.  What guy goes home alone on his 20
th
birthday? Me, that’s who. 

Chapter 2

Falcon

             
There’s nothing in the world that can make you get all riled up like a Roller Derby bout.  Hot girls fighting and clawing at each other?  Yeah, that’s my idea of a Saturday night. 

             
Cindi ran her hand over my Mohawk for the tenth time and even though she always did it, it was getting on my last nerve. I tried to shake her off,

             
“Cindi, come on, if you keep fondling my hair, the ladies are going to think I’m taken.  Plus, aren’t you the coach?  Shouldn’t you be out there?”

             
She retracted her hand immediately and turned red, “Sorry Falcon, I just love it. It’s just an exhibition bout.  And I’m one of these coaches who lets the team coach themselves.  Like a silent business partner.”

             
“Oh, nice,” I shrugged and smiled at her.  At least she had quit rubbing my hair.

             
I looked to my right and Mom looked positively green like she always did at Nellie’s bouts.  And she’d squeal and cover her eyes like she was at a horror movie instead of a roller derby match.  It cracked the rest of us up.  But she insisted on being here for Nellie. 

             
Nellie came out first, in front of her team, and she was a stunner.  Any red-blooded male came to attention when she entered the room.  And I loved to watch the sweetest, most giving and kind person I knew whip every girl’s ass in the rink.  It was a testament to the word ‘irony’.  I was also lucky that my brother’s wife was my best friend. 

             
Nellie smiled at the family and then stuck her tongue out at me.  I stuck mine back out and got an ‘Ewww’ from a prim and proper girl standing off to the side and it set Owen off.

             
“I told you Falcon, those venom piercings throw the girls off.  It looks like your tongue has eyeballs, like that chick on Beetlejuice.”

             
“Well, I’d prefer they hold judgment until they’ve experienced them instead of looking at them.”

             
“Yeah, but you’d actually have to go on a date to know that wouldn’t you?”

             
“True,” I shrugged and agreed.

             
He was right, of course.  I’d gone on a handful of dates since Kate and even those were only first dates.  One of them was a date that Maddox set me up on when I’d lost a bet to him.  He set me up with some girl he knew from school and when I went to pick her up her dad informed me, at the front door, that if I was going to sleep with his daughter that he preferred I bring her back to his house and do it there.  I turned around, got in my truck and sped off without even looking at the girl.  That was the last attempt I made at dating.

             
We watched as Nellie pummeled into a girl after she elbowed her in the gut.  Owen’s knuckles were turning white as he held on to the barricade.  It was all he could do not to jump on the rink and throw her over his shoulder and bring her home. 

             
“She’s cool man.  Chill out.”

             
“I know.  I just thought watching this stuff would get easier but I swear it gets worse every time.”

             
Nellie and her team eventually won, like they usually did. Everyone split up after the game.  Nellie and Owen went home, Mom and Dad and Maddox went home and I went to the bookstore to work.  My phone rang and I answered it.

             
“Yeah?” I balanced the phone between my face and my shoulder so I could talk and continue working.

             
“Why are you working?”  It was Nellie and she had taken on that motherly tone.  She always knew when I came in because the alarm system notified her when someone came in the back door.

             
“Because there’s work to be done.”

             
“It’s Saturday night Falcon, go home or go out or something.  That stuff can wait. Come up and watch some movies with us.”

             
“Nah, I’m good. But thank you.  And you hired someone and didn’t tell me.”

             
“Oh, crap—I meant to tell you yesterday but I forgot.  They don’t start until Monday anyway.”

             
“Well, I’ll go ahead and get them into the system now so we won’t have an issue come payday.” I heard some fumbling on the other line and then Owen clearing his throat.

             
“Falcon, come up and stay with us tonight.”

             
“I’m just gonna finish up here and then go see Mom, okay?”

             
“Yeah, ok.  Meet me at the diner tomorrow for breakfast.”

             
“Ok. Bye.”

             
I hung up and entered the new payroll information for Nellie’s new employee Reed Wolfe.  He sounded like a dork to me, but I really didn’t have room to talk.  But if Nellie hired him, then he must be ok. 

             
I closed out, set the alarm and went to see my mom.  My mom was the absolute best.  I didn’t know what I’d ever do if some girl I dated didn’t like my mom.  Bullshit, I know what I’d do; the girl would be gone in a tenth of a heartbeat.

             
I walked into the restaurant through the back, into the kitchen.  Everything had been cleaned up and my mom sat on her barstool near the prep counter, showing bunches and bunches of basil who was boss.

             
I pulled up my own stool across from her and grabbed a knife and a cutting board and put it on the counter.  I rolled up my sleeves and washed my hands and started in on my own pile of basil.  She didn’t look at me or even acknowledge that I was there.  That was the thing about my mom.  She let us come to her, waited for us to talk.  She never pried or accused, and there had been a time or two that just being in the same room with her had cured my ails. 

             
“I work too much,” I said never looking up from my chiffonade.

             
“You do.”  She cleared off her board, scraping the green ribbons into a metal bowl. 

             
“But I don’t want to quit. Everyone I work for is someone I love.”

             
“True.” She switched to chives and got up to get a different knife.

             
“I’m lonely Mom—even sitting in a room full of people. But I don’t want to be one of those guys who scours college parties and malls looking for a date.  I’m not that guy.”

             
“No, you’re not.  Owen wasn’t looking either when Nellie walked into his life.  It just happens.  How’re the stocks or day trading or whatever going?”

             
“It’s good.  I put it all in savings, high interest accounts.  I’m upwards of two hundred thousand dollars.” 

             
That made her stop cutting.

             
“I’m so proud of you Falcon, I am.  But what good is money if there’s no one to spend it on?”

             
“Tell me about it.” We continued to chop until she shooed me out at midnight.  I felt better, just talking to her about it.  Nothing was solved but my chest didn’t feel as tight anymore.

             
I got home and decided to go over Dr. Glusman’s notes before heading to bed.  He was a tricksy little snitch and he loved to give pop quizzes.  Plus, I had nothing better to do. I lay in bed thinking of a legitimate way to spend my money and came up short.  I was a runaway train.  On a track to nowhere, no destination, no purpose.  And wasn’t that just cheery? 

Chapter 3

Falcon

             
Mondays were the only days that I didn’t have classes and so I spent the day getting a massage and taking a cooking class, along with a full manicure and pedicure.  Plus, I brushed my unicorn.  Ugh…

             
I spent the morning in my mom’s restaurant finalizing payroll for the week and then I packed up a to-go box and went to Nellie’s to work with her on the derby team’s finances.  I walked through the front door, box in hand and Nellie spotted me from across the store and squealed and bounded over to meet me.

             
I put the box behind me and tilted my chin up in rebellion.

             
“No food until I am greeted properly.”

             
“Give me the damned food Falcon.  How’s that for a greeting?”

             
“It sounds like a greeting from someone who can manage their own team’s finances.”

             
She squinted her eyes at me and I squinted mine right back.

             
“Oh dearest Falcon, brother-in-law supreme and all around heralded best friend, greetings from,” and she changed her voice from fine English proper princess to very angry derby girl, “the woman who is gonna kick your ass if you don’t hand over the Sylvia food now!”  She finished it off with a killer smile and friendly-ish punch to my shoulder.

             
I handed it over and she hugged me.  We walked together to the back office and she gave me a boot box filled with paperwork and I could see cash in there too along with checks and random receipts.

             
“What the hell?” I said and she whistled and looked at the ceiling.

             
“Yeah, you totally need me. When do you need this by?”

             
“Um,” She sat at her desk and cleared the paperwork to see her calendar. “We have fresh meat try-outs on Saturday so whoever makes it would need to get their registration and fees, plus their team uniform money in by the end of the month.”

             
“Ok, I will have it done by Saturday.”

             
“Sit Falcon.” She said.

             
“Ugh…my mom needs to keep her mouth shut.”  I groaned.

             
“We love you Falcon.  That’s all I wanted to tell you.  Your parents, Owen and I, even crazy ass Maddox, we all love you.”

             
“I know.  By the way, your new employee needs to sign paperwork and fill out some forms today.  So let me know when he gets in.”

             
“He?” She said and looked confused.

             
“It said Reed Wolfe, I just thought it was a guy.”

             
“Do me a favor Falcon, go into the inventory room and tell me if you think that’s a guy.”

             
I got up and took the stupid boot box with me and walked the short distance to the inventory room.  I saw Huxley stacking books on shelves and she gave me a tight smile.  And then through books on the metal shelves, a flash of orange moved across my line of vision.  “What in the name of…” 

             
I turned the corner and got my first glimpse of what I would call not a guy, in fact, she was the opposite of male in every sense of the word.  Long, milky white arms held a bundle of some kind of books and legs that went on for days and days.  She wore ratty jeans and a light blue tank top and a pair of flip flops that looked like they had seen better days. And I wouldn’t dare say this out loud to anyone, but the girl had a million dollar ass.  Seriously, the nicest backside I’d ever, ever seen.  If I were an insurance agent, I’d insist she take out a policy on it.  I cleared my throat hoping she would turn and God in heaven, please let her face match that body.