The Wanderer (8 page)

They were under the visiting team bleachers. In the dark he couldn’t be sure of the number, but he thought it was four or five. Boys. Big boys. At least equal to him in size. He walked softly, wishing he had a gun, then relieved he didn’t—that’s how people get killed, misinterpreting some situation in the dark of night.

“I told you
exactly
what to do!” a guy said.

“And I told you that
wasn’t
going to happen! I don’t trip! I don’t fumble.”

Landon!

Cooper walked a little faster. Ten long strides under the bleachers brought them into clear view. Two guys holding Landon’s arms, two guys facing him, one doing the talking. “You don’t want to push this. I’m the team captain! You do what I tell you to do.”

“Lose the game,” Landon said. “You don’t see that as wrong?”

“We wouldn’t have lost! I had to get in that game, asshole, and with you showing off all the time—”

“Hello, boys,” Cooper said. He leaned against a strut, crossing his arms over his chest. “Just congratulating Dupre on his game?”

The boys holding his arms immediately let go. That’s when Cooper noticed a trickle of blood running down the corner of Landon’s mouth. He didn’t get that in the game. It was fresh.

“What are you doing here?” their ringleader, who Cooper now knew to be Jag, demanded. “You some kind of pervert, hanging around the high school after dark, under the bleachers?”

Cooper laughed. He rubbed a hand over his head, giving a lazy scratch. “Okay, let me see if I have this right. You’re about to kick the shit out of your quarterback for winning a game instead of fumbling, tripping and throwing it so you could get in the game in his place, and you wonder if
I’m
a pervert? Son, I’m going to save you a lot of trouble. Dupre, let’s go. I’m hungry.”

“Who
is
this dickhead?” the kid asked.

Cooper had to be a little impressed. He did ask it with a great deal of authority.

One of the boys who’d been holding Landon leaned toward Jag and said, “He owns the beach now.”

Jag was shocked for a minute, but then he laughed. “Well then, excuse me, your eminence. You actually own that shit hole on the beach. Well, hell, I guess you must be pretty important.”

Cooper frowned. “Dupre,” he said. “Let’s go.”

“We have business,” Jag said.

“Not anymore. You’re all done here.”

Jag stepped forward and got right up in Cooper’s grill. He jabbed a finger into Cooper’s chest and said, “We’re talking to Dupre. And you. Are. Excused,” he said, giving a singular jab with each of his last three words.

Cooper looked down at the finger, then up at Jag’s face. Then he leisurely grabbed that offensive finger in one hand and bent it back until the kid yelped and went down on one knee. Jag tried to wiggle out, but it was useless. With the other hand Cooper grabbed a handful of the kneeling kid’s hair. He looked over his head at Jag’s posse. “You’re going to want to get him out of here,” he said. “You really don’t want to get into it with me. I hate bullies. Hate fighting. But if I have to fight, I know every dirty trick.”

He released Jag with enough of a shove that he fell backward. Then he met Landon’s eyes.

“Let’s go,” he said again, in a controlled voice. “Now.”

Six

C
ooper and Landon walked briskly to the parking lot. There was no question Landon was jittery. “Stop looking over your shoulder,” Cooper said. “I’ll hear them if they’re coming.”

“What if you don’t?”

“I will. Where’s your car?”

“Behind the school, in the student lot.”

“And I suppose they have cars there, too?”

“Yeah.”

“There’s my truck,” he said, pointing. “I’m going to drive you to your car, then I’ll follow you out of here. I’ll follow you home, if you want me to, but I’d rather go somewhere we can get food. I’m not kidding, I’m starving.”

“And if I don’t feel like doing that?” Landon asked.

Cooper didn’t say anything. He waited until they got to the truck and said, “Get in.” Once they were both in the cab, Cooper turned toward Landon. “Here’s the deal. I know what happened tonight. I get it. The kid’s an ass, a bully without a conscience, and he seems to have a posse. I’ve been there, believe me. We’re gonna have a talk about your options—either over food or in your living room.”

“My sister is there!” he said. “I don’t need her all into this. She will seriously make it worse. Even worse than you have!”

He lifted eyebrows. “Did she go to the game?”

“She was there. But she takes her own car in case I have someplace to go. I never do, but in case.”

Cooper started the truck. “Call her. Tell her you’re going out for a burger and you won’t be late.”

“Can’t we do this some other time?” he said. “Like when the whole town isn’t packed into the joints? Just let me out at my truck and I’ll—”

“Call her. Drive to Cliffhanger’s and I’ll follow you. I doubt the whole booster club will be hanging out there. And we both know where most of the team will be. On the beach.”

Landon sighed, giving in. “Turn left into the parking lot. That’s my truck, the green Mazda. I’ll call my sister from the truck....”

“Make it a quick call, will you? I’m sure those boys are pissed off and trying to decide what to do to you next.”

He started to get out of the truck, then looked back at Cooper. “What if you
are
some kind of pervert?”

“I just saved your life. Now I’m going to feed you and give you a few pointers. Don’t make me regret it.”

“That’s what perverts do,” Landon said.

Cooper leaned toward him. “Perverts don’t let you drive yourself. You’re making me tired. After we talk about assholes like Jag, we’ll talk about perverts. Now go!”

* * *

Mac drove his aunt Lou and the younger kids home after the game. Once he got them all inside, he said, “I’m going to take a run through town, make sure all is quiet....”

“It won’t be quiet after a win like that,” Lou said as she reached into the refrigerator for a diet cola. “Don’t go sitting out on the hill, spying on the beach.”

“I don’t do that,” he said to her back.

“Yes, you do,” she said, leaving the kitchen.

He stood there in indecision for a moment. Then he reached into the refrigerator, grabbed two beers and left the house. The night was clear and cold and there were a million stars. He only drove about ten blocks, to a neighborhood perched on the hill right above the main street. He parked and walked up the steps to the porch and knocked, hanging on to the beers in one hand.

Gina answered in her plaid winter jammies and heavy socks. “What are you doing here?”

He gave a shrug. “I’m in search of adult company and I’ve had enough of Lou. I’m sick of her bossing me around.”

“What did she say?”

“She said, ‘Don’t go sit on the hill and spy on the beach.’” He held a beer toward her. “Come on out.”

She grabbed her jacket off the hook inside the door and slipped into it, turned off the porch light and then accepted the beer. “What were you going to do?” she asked.

“Sit on the hill and spy on the beach,” he said.

She laughed at him. “I guess you think no one notices you there.” She sat on the top step and twisted the cap off the beer. “Just what do you think is going to happen out there?”

He sat beside her. He twisted off his own cap. “I’ll know it when I see it,” he said, taking a pull on the beer. “My relationship with Lou...it’s getting to me. We’re like an old married couple.”

“Well, at least you recruited her,” Gina said. “And why wouldn’t you be like that? You’ve been together longer than most people our age have been married. Don’t be stupid. Don’t complain. You’d be lost without her.”

“I’d be lost without her,” he agreed. “Maybe that’s what annoys me. It’s unnatural.”

“Don’t cry to me. I live with my mother.”

“Here’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you,” he said. “Are you going to work at the diner for the rest of your life?”

“Probably. Why?”

“Aren’t you almost done with your degree?”

“Almost. I even have some credits toward a master’s. I’m a real speed demon. A short seventeen years to my high school diploma and almost a degree.”

“Shouldn’t you be looking for something better? Where you don’t have to wipe up after people?”

“Seriously?” she asked. “Are you seriously asking me that?”

“Hey, I have no degree at all. No almost about it.”

“Okay, first of all, Stu takes very good care of me. I make more money at the diner than I’d make a lot of other places. I’ve become indispensable to him, so he has to keep me happy. And I can do everything I need to do—go to school part-time, take care of Ashley and keep up with all her activities, help my mom in the deli, get the days off I need as long as everything else is covered. Second, my degree will be in social work. I’d have to work for the county. The pay is miserable.”

“But there’s benefits,” he said.

“I have benefits. Maybe not the best benefits, but...”

“Retirement?” he asked.

“A little,” she said. “Not that I expect to retire. What are you getting at?”

“I don’t know,” he said, slumping a little bit. “None of my business, really, but sometimes I think you work too hard.”

“You’re right about that,” she said. “But I have a good gig going, Mac. One kid with a granny backup, a decent if not extraordinary education, some benefits, a boss who lets me take any time I need.” She took a drink of her beer. “This was a good idea, a beer. Thanks. I could use better advice, though,” she added.

He chuckled. “I’ll remember that.”

“See that you do. It’s really beautiful tonight. You don’t notice things like that when you’re in the middle of a wild and crazy football game.”

“Have you met the new doctor yet?”

She shook her head. “Have you?”

“Briefly. He stopped in to say hello before he started ripping the boards off the windows next door. His wife is dead, he’s got a couple of little kids and he brought a babysitter with him. Very pretty.”

She sighed. “That’s an au pair, Mac. She’s from Mexico. In exchange for room and board, an education and, with luck, citizenship, she’s a full-time nanny. And she’s about twelve.”

“No...”

“Okay, she’s nineteen. And I hear the doctor is a hottie.”

“Where’d you hear that?” he asked.

She peered at him in the dark and lifted one brow. “Where do you think?”

“Ray Anne?” he asked.

“She’s keeping pretty close tabs on him.”

Mac grinned. “I think you stay at the diner because you have access to all the gossip there.”

She grinned back. “Just like at the cop shop.”

“True,” he said. He was quiet for a long moment. “Another year and our girls will graduate. Go to college.”

“Are you mourning that already?” she asked him.

“Ha! I’m counting the days! Think they’ll go to the same school?”

“No telling,” she said. “That depends on whether Eve wants to follow Ashley, who will definitely follow Downy.”

As Mac knew, Ashley had been dating her boyfriend, Downy, since he was a senior at Thunder Point High. Downy was now in his first year at State. In fact, Mac had been in his first year at State when he got his high school girlfriend knocked up. He shuddered. “Doesn’t that worry you?” he asked.

“No,” Gina said. “Downy is a good boy, and Ash is an ambitious girl. So far they seem to make a good team. They don’t want to get tripped up now.”

“I hope you’re right,” he said. He took a breath. “And I hope Eve doesn’t have a serious boyfriend until she’s thirty.”

“Why?” Gina asked. “Because that’s the way she’ll be most happy?”

Mac just looked at her. Gina was so pretty, so smart. If it weren’t for all the complications in their lives, all the responsibilities, now would be a logical time to pull her closer, kiss her in a way that left her trembling. But he wouldn’t. “That’s the thing,” he said. “You and I both know that the thing that makes us most happy at sixteen doesn’t work out to be so smart at thirty.”

“Or thirty-five?” she asked.

“Or thirty-five,” he confirmed.

After a long silence she said, very softly, “One of these days, Mac, you’re going to discover you have no regrets.”

“Huh?” he questioned.

“Nothing. I have to get to bed. I work early and I’m freezing. Done with that beer? Want me to pitch it for you?”

“Uh, yeah.” He handed it over. “Thanks. And thanks for keeping me company for a while.”

“Anytime. Buddy.”

* * *

Cooper called another one right—the town was packed with vehicles and people spilling out onto the sidewalks around fast-food restaurants and the diner, but Cliffhanger’s wasn’t busy. In fact, though it was barely after nine, Cooper wondered if they were thinking of closing. He went straight to the bar, “Looks kind of quiet,” he said to Cliff. “There’s time for a couple of burgers, right?”

Landon, wearing his letter jacket, walked in behind him. Now that they were in a well-lit restaurant, Cooper noticed the bruise on Landon’s cheek and wondered where that had come from.

“Come on, man,” Cliff said good-naturedly. “I want to find out about the game. Word is those Badgers finally got what was coming to ’em.”

“I can help with that,” Cooper said. He dropped an arm casually around Landon’s shoulders. “I promised the quarterback a burger.”

Cliff broke into a grin. “You got it.”

“And give me a draft—I’ve had a hard night.”

Landon shot him a look. “
You’ve
had a hard night?”

“My pleasure. Dupre? For you?”

“Draft,” he said.

Cliff smiled. “Nice try. Second choice?”

“All right. Coke.”

“Grab a table, boys. I’ll put in your order and get your drinks.”

Cooper pointed to a table, knowing a minor couldn’t sit up at the bar. When they were seated, Landon said, “That could’ve been a mistake. We might draw a crowd.”

“That’s okay. We just have to get a couple of things straight. It won’t take long. That kid, Jag, asked you to throw a game to get him back to first string, right? And when you said no, he threatened you. If I hadn’t come along, he was going to beat you up. You can’t let it go, Landon. Trust me.”

“I’ll handle it....”

“Maybe you would—eventually. Listen, this kind of bullying isn’t a first. It also isn’t rare, which ought to disgust the whole human race. In every junior high and high school, and sometimes even elementary school, there’s some idiot who anoints himself king. He gathers up some plebes who are either as mean as he is or stupid enough to think if they stick with the self-proclaimed leader, they won’t get hurt. Then they search out their victims and make a lifestyle out of working ’em over. Terrible things come out of it. At least you were important enough to be threatened, because
you’re
actually a threat, but that doesn’t make it easier. I have one question. Did you ever think about it? Just doing what he wanted you to do?”

Landon looked shocked. He shook his head. “You say you get it, but you don’t. I wasn’t the only one they wanted to cheat, I was just the only one they promised to beat up. That fumble? Right before the end of the first half? You think that guy lost control of the ball? He’d be one of the
plebes.
He dropped that ball for Morrison.”

Cooper couldn’t help it, he grinned. Jag Morrison had himself a gang that worked hard for him, even at their own expense. But instead of letting the fumble go—maybe letting the game go—Landon stepped up, recovered the ball and ran it. He brought his A-game.

“This isn’t just about me,” Landon continued. “You spend ten minutes in the halls at school and you get how much it means to them, beating those Badgers.”

“Even though you could get hurt,” Cooper said. It was not a question.

“You think the only way I might get hurt is being jumped in the parking lot or dragged under the bleachers? I have to play against my own team
and
the other team—they are not about protecting their quarterback.”