“Well, now that you’ve eliminated all the fun stuff...” Baylor saw the fire in Hobie’s eyes and laughed. “Kidding, kidding. Don’t worry so much.”
“Right. I feel much better.”
“Hey, Bubba,” Baylor called. “How’d you like to spend the day with me?”
“All right!” Noah jumped up and down. “Can I, Mom? Can I?”
Hobie looked worried but smiled. “Sure, sweetheart.” She leaned over and whispered into Baylor’s ear. “If anything happens to him, I swear I’ll hunt you down, Baylor Warren.”
Baylor wondered if it was Hobie’s soft breath in her ear or the whispered promise that caused a shiver to run down her spine.
They stopped at Hobie’s house first so Noah could bring along a few toys. The two women said nothing about their argument. In fact, neither said a word until they pulled into Evelyn’s driveway.
“You having company?” Hobie asked Baylor.
Two unmarked white vans sat in the driveway. Way to go, Tony, Baylor thought. “Uh, yeah. I’m just having a little... installation work done.” Baylor was thankful that Hobie’s good manners did not allow her to pry.
“Arturo!” Noah cried out as they entered the house. The pup barked excitedly, turning around in tight circles. Noah knelt down and Arturo licked his face.
“Let me give ya the lay of the land, Bubba,” Baylor said as she took Noah’s backpack and tossed it in a chair.
“Huh?”
“Where everything is.”
“Oh, I know already. Bafroom is over there, kitchen back there, and it’s not polite to go upstairs.” Noah smiled and pushed his glasses up his nose.
“So you’ve been here before?”
“Yeah, lots. Mom comes to see Mrs. Warren all the time.” “Really? How interesting. I think you and I are gonna get along just fine.” Baylor grinned at her little fountain of information. “Hey, come on into the backyard with me. I gotta check on something.”
“’Kay.”
“Hey there,” Baylor said to the two men working on settling into place a four-foot satellite dish.
“You Warren?” the taller of the two asked.
“In the flesh.” She shook hands with him. “You guys are fast. I appreciate it.”
“I’m Dave and this is Chuck. I got a call from Pete Giamatti up in Orlando. He says you’re a good friend of Tony Falcone’s. For a friend of Tony’s, I haul ass. Oh, sorry, kid.” He looked down at Noah, but the boy was too busy watching Chuck adjust the dish’s position with a remote-control device to have noticed.
“Can I get you guys something to drink, anything like that?” Baylor asked.
“Nah, thanks. We’ll have to get into the house, though, to set up everything in there.”
“You got it.”
Two hours later, Noah and Baylor knew a great deal about installing cable, legal and illegal, along with the ins and outs of the satellite dish business. Dave was more than happy to pass on his expertise. Baylor seemed as intrigued as six-year-old Noah by the whole process.
“You’re all set, Ms. Warren,” Chuck said.
“Thanks, you guys. You did a first-rate job.” She slipped a hundred-dollar bill into Dave’s hand. “Go have lunch on me.”
“You got it. You have any problems,” he handed Baylor his business card, “you just call me.”
Like a kid in a candy store, the moment the two men were gone, Baylor rushed over to the remote. Flipping through the 250-plus channels, she tousled Noah’s hair. “Welcome to heaven, Bubba.”
“Wow,” Noah said. “Ooh, Cubs!”
“Right you are.” Baylor stopped on Chicago’s local station. “We’re just in time, this is the pre-game show. You like the Cubs?” she asked, thinking of the baseball cap that Hobie was never without.
“Oh, yeah.”
“Your mother’s taught you well. Let’s get comfortable. You getting hungry yet? How about some baseball-type snacks?”
Noah nodded enthusiastically and pushed his glasses up. “Do you like root beer?” Baylor asked as she looked through the refrigerator. “Yup.”
“How about Cheez-Its?” “What’re Cheez-Its?”
“Here.” Baylor opened the box and handed the boy one of the orange crackers.
“Mmm, yeah.” Noah nodded as he spoke.
“Okay, Bubba. You go have a seat in the living room. You can flip through the channels and I’ll get our snack together.”
“’Kay.”
It took Baylor a little more than five minutes to assemble allof her usual snacks. She loaded a bowl of Cheez-Its, a smaller bowl of thick pepperoni slices, some pepperoncini, and two glasses of cold root beer onto a large tray, which she carried into the otherroom.
“Wow. Baylor, see this?”
She turned to the TV and her eyes went wide. “Whoa, yeah!” She grinned at the naked woman on the screen.
Quickly realizing who she was with, she reached over and plucked the remote from Noah’s hand. “Oh, man. Are you trying to get me arrested?” She sat beside Noah and rubbed her hand through his spiked hair. “What do you say we watch the game instead, huh?”
“’Kay,” he said with a red face.
“Now this, my friend, is the way television was meant to be watched.” Baylor pointed to the new fifty-two-inch TV that she had ordered along with the satellite dish. She knew it was an extravagance, but she rarely spent her money on such pleasures and it felt good to do so.
“It’s like bein’ at the game,” Noah said.
“You know it.” Baylor took a large swallow of root beer. “Are you sure you wouldn’t like milk instead?”
“Nope, I like soda.”
“Yeah, I guess they make you drink milk every day at lunch, huh? They used to make us, anyway.”
“I get milk sometimes.”
“Why only some of the time? Oh, man! Sammy, why’d you swing at that ball?”
“Sometimes I got money for milk, but sometimes I don’t.” Baylor wondered at that. Surely Hobie didn’t hurt for money—
or did she? “Why don’t you have money all the time?” “Sometimes I give it to Billy Crenshaw.”
“Why?”
“’Cause he says give it or he’ll slug me.”
“He takes your milk money?” Baylor sat up straighter. “He doesn’t take it, I give it to him.”
“But why?”
“’Cause I don’t want to get hit. It might hurt.”
“Why don’t you tell your mom or one of the teachers?” Noah scrunched up his face. “I’d look like a baby.” “Yeah, I see your point. Ever thought about saying no?”
“Then he’d hit me.”
“Maybe, but you could hit him, too. Bullies like kids that don’t fight back. If this Billy knows you’re going to hit back, he’ll probably quit bothering you.”
“But how do I hit him?”
“Haven’t you ever slugged anyone before?” Noah shook his head.
“We’ll work on it, okay? Remember, though, this is just between us. Your mom might not understand.”
“’Kay. Thanks.”
“You’re welcome, Bubba. Now let’s get back to this game, huh?”
Chapter 14
Hobie knocked on the door for the third time. “That’s it. She’s done something horrible to him, I just know it.”
She heard loud music coming from the front of the house where the living room was. A quick turn of the front doorknob showed that it was unlocked. She thought twice about entering but gave up feeling bad when she thought about what was going on inside. “She’s probably got the stereo on and no idea where Noah is at!”
Walking into the living room, she saw an amazing sight. Baylor and Noah were in the middle of the room, Noah on the coffee table and Baylor on the floor beside him. They wore black Ray-Ban sunglasses and they were dancing. Well, it was very nearly dancing. Noah was trying to imitate Baylor’s moves. Baylor, though hampered by her cast, did a very good job. As if on cue, near the end of the Sam Cooke song, Noah and Baylor went into a fair version of the Jerk.