All Horns & Rattles: A Baxter Boys Novel

by Jane Charles

  After a while, Miguel added martial arts. However, anyone wanting to work for a belt did need to pay for the lessons.

  “You should give up the diner. Work here only.”

  “I can’t. I need the money more now than ever.”

  Concern floods his face and he narrows his eyes. “Why?”

  He knew I was losing my home when I turned eighteen but I promised him it would all work out. Miguel tends to worry about me when he doesn’t really need to. But, I do tell him about how my money was taken, even if I have no proof, and that I need to find a shelter to stay in.

  “You are not staying in a shelter. It isn’t safe.”

  “And sleeping on the street is better?”

  “Take Johnny’s room.”

  Is he serious? “What if it doesn’t work out and he comes back?”

  “That’s his problem,” Miguel grumbles. “Besides, he won’t be back. I checked his room. It’s empty of all his stuff. That good for nothing bum knew when he left on his vacation that he wasn’t coming back.”

  We knew Johnny and Bambi planned on celebrating New Year’s in Las Vegas. It never occurred to me that he wouldn’t be back. “Oh, Miguel, I’m so sorry.” That had to have broken the old man’s heart. He’d given Johnny everything, and if I ever find the son of a bitch, he’ll never be able to fight again, or fuck Bambi.

  “As long as you can put up with Tex’s country music,” his face scrunches with disgust, “the room is yours.”

  It’s been a war of music around here a couple of times. Tex and his country music, Miguel blaring classical or Johnny listening to his hip-hop. Well, at least there will only be a battle of two genres around here. For me, I just put in my earbuds and listen to my choice when it gets to be too much.

  “How much is rent?”

  “For you, nothing.”

  “I’ve got to pay something.” I don’t want a free ride.

  He leans forward and puts his hand on mine. “You work for me. You save your paychecks. You go to college and study hard. That is the rent I demand.”

  Tears sting my eyes. Why have I been so weepy the past couple of days? I don’t cry. Ever.

  “And, look for your brothers.”

  Miguel is the only person I’ve ever told about my past. “They don’t want me.”

  “How do you know?”

  “They would have come looking for me by now.”

  “You don’t know that, Nina. Until you try, you’ll always wonder.”

  Except, I already know. If Dylan or Noah cared, they would have found me. Jade’s too young to look yet. She won’t be eighteen for two years.

  I shove my phone back in my pocket and sigh.

  “What?” Julia asks.

  “I hope it was important.” Mom frowns at me. “You know I don’t like phones at the table.”

  We were in the middle of dinner, the entire family, when my phone vibrated in my back pocket. I just wanted to see who it was and intended to call them back, but when I saw it was a call from Miguel I had to take it.

  The old man doesn’t call me when I’m away so I knew it had to be important.

  “There are some changes at the gym.” I sit back down at the table.

  “Your boss called you about changes. During dinner?”

  “Well, it’s not dinner time in New York,” I remind them. “He needs my class schedule so he can make a work schedule.”

  Johnny, that fucking idiot. “One of the employees, also a boxer, took off for Las Vegas with his girlfriend.”

  And there it is, right on cue, the superior, disapproving look from Mom. “He is a friend of yours?”

  Not really. We got along okay but I never did see what he saw in Bambi. “We worked together.”

  “So, what’s that have to do with you?” Eliza asks.

  “Miguel needs to figure out how to cover all the shifts,” I answer. “I usually worked nights and weekends. Johnny worked days.”

  “Don’t you dare let this affect your education!”

  “I won’t, Pa. I promise.” I shouldn’t have said anything. And I shouldn’t mention the rest of the conversation, but it’s like a devil pokes me and eggs me on. “He also wanted to let me know that we are going to have a new roommate.”

  “That’s right, Johnny lived with you and Miguel,” Julia says.

  “Well, why can’t this new guy take over the shifts so you don’t work more?”

  “Because, she already works there.”

  “What?” my mother gasps.

  Julia nudges my knee under the table as she lowers her head. The hair may have fallen around her face, but I know she’s smiling.

  “You can’t live with a girl. I forbid it.”

  Well since I am twenty-one, she can’t really forbid anything I do, but I do have a lot of respect for my parents. I may not agree with them a lot of the time, but I’m not going to alter my life to live as they think I should. “It’s just Nina.” I brush it off as if it’s no big deal and she’s just a kid when that is so not the case.

  “That high school girl you’ve talked about?” my dad asks.

  “She graduated in December.”

  “What kind of parent lets a girl move into a gym with two guys?” Mom watches a lot of television, this shouldn’t shock her.

  “She’s a foster kid,” I remind them. I’m sure I mentioned it at one time. “She turned eighteen and was kicked out.” Eighteen and out is how Nina had put it, and the reason she pushed herself to graduate before she was cut loose.

  “Isn’t there some other place for her?”

  “Shelters.” That is pretty much her only choice since someone took all of her money, which pisses me off. It wasn’t much, but it would have gotten Nina by for a bit. I’m sick over the fact that she had no place to go last night and ended up sleeping in the diner she works at, though it’s better than in a shelter, I suppose.

  “What’s wrong with a shelter?” my mom demands. “That’s what they are there for.”

  “Seriously?” Julia asks. “Do you know what those places are like?”

  “Of course I do,” my mother defends. “We go and serve meals at them. The women are right nice and enjoy our Bible Studies.”

  Somehow I think the shelter in our county for people who are down on their luck or waiting for their home to be rebuilt after a tornado takes it out, is different from the overcrowded shelters in New York.

  “She should be there and not living with two gentlemen. It isn’t right,” my mother insists.

  “It’s not like we’re sharing a bed.” Though if it came to that I’d have no complaints. “She’s taking Johnny’s room.”

  “I don’t know what Miguel is thinking because it’s just not right.”

  Sometimes her narrow-mindedness just puts me on edge. “Miguel is a Godly man, Mama. I’m sure he’s thinking about Proverbs 14:31.”

  “Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him,” April says with a grin.

  All of us had to learn the Bible and memorize verses. We used to get quizzed and a lot of it stuck. I haven’t read a Bible since high school, but I still remember a lot of it.

  “Or maybe he was thinking about Deuteronomy 15:11.”

  “For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land,’” says Austin.

  “Then there is Matthew 25:35,” I say because I’m on a roll.

  “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” Julia grins.

  “She isn’t a stranger,” Mama snaps. She hates it when we turn the Bible back on her to point out her wrong thinking.

  “It just isn’t right and I don’t like the idea of you living with this girl.”

  She’d really hate it if she knew how I felt about Nina.

  “Son, it’s just that when a man is living with a woman, t
hey may start getting ideas, which of course are natural, but that doesn’t make it right.”

  Seriously. I’m about to be lectured on desire, lust and to keep my cock in my pants. Did they think I was still a virgin?

  Probably, but that ship sailed when I was fifteen when Sarah Douglas and I snuck off to the hayloft during a party. It may be cliché, but it was certainly a sweet night. I learned a lot from Sarah and will always have fond memories of that summer.

  “Don’t worry, Pa. Nina is a friend, a very good one, and I won’t be doing anything that’s wrong.”

  “That’s good to hear because you know how girls like that are,” my mother warns.

  With that, I’m pissed. They don’t even know her. For being such good Christians, my parents are some of the most judgmental people on the planet. “What do you mean girls like that?”

  “Just that she has nothing and you’re a wealthy young man.” Pa’s shaking his fork at me. “Don’t let her seduce you and then trap you into something permanent.”

  I can’t believe them. Just because if a girl around here finds themselves in the family way they are forced to marry or be shamed by the entire community, or at least shamed by anyone over fifty, doesn’t mean the rest of the world feels like that. “First of all, Nina has a lot going for her. She graduated with nearly a 4.0 GPA and will be going to college in the fall. Just because she’s a foster kid and poor doesn’t mean she’s going to find the first guy she can and get knocked up.”

  “Watch your language.” Mom motions to April, the youngest. My sister is fourteen and I’m pretty sure she has a good idea of what knocked up is and how one gets that way.

  “Further, she has no clue I have any money.” Not that I actually have it yet. I can’t touch my trust fund until I’m twenty-five and then it’s only a small bit. I get the rest when I’m thirty, after I’ve gained the maturity to manage the wealth.

  “Good. Don’t tell her so she doesn’t get any ideas of attaching herself to you.”

  I just shake my head and look at both of them. “You don’t even know her.” With that I get up from the table. They’ve judged and condemned Nina based on the one fact that she is a foster kid with no place to go.

  “Come back here,” my pa says.

  “Not hungry,” I call back and head out the back door.

  Even if they did have a chance to meet Nina, I doubt their opinion would change. They’d not be able to see past their prejudices to see what a beautiful person Nina is. Admirable too. So much has been stacked against her, but she rose above it. On top of that, she’s the prettiest girl to ever be born, spunky as a puppy and just the sexiest thing in New York.

  Mom and Dad don’t have to warn me about lust. It’s alive and well whenever I see or think about Nina and it’s only going to get worse with her living with me and Miguel. Yep, it probably is a very bad idea and for the reasons my parents believe. Except, it won’t be Nina trying to get me but the other way around, and the only thing that will come from that is me being shut down by her and Miguel kicking my ass to the curb.

  At least Nina is safe and will have a place to sleep. That’s all that matters and I’ll just have to pretend I don’t have a cock when she’s around.

  5

  “Miguel wants me to quit the diner,” I tell Betsy when she comes in for her shift. I stayed late just to talk to her.

  “Why?”

  Then I tell her about the conversation we had, Johnny, and that he gave me a place to stay.

  “Maybe he’s right.” Betsy says after a moment.

  I’ve been thinking about it all day, but Betsy and Barrett have always been so good to me. I kind of hate just leaving after they bought me meals.

  “You are only five blocks away. You can still come in and see me, it’s not like you can escape Barrett since he’s there almost as much as you.”

  “It just doesn’t seem right. I’ve been here for two years.”

  “Look, you work too hard. Relax and let the old man take care of you.”

  Miguel has taken care of me more times than I’ve ever told anyone. Little things and big things.

  “You are like a granddaughter to him.”

  That’s exactly it. Miguel is a grandpa. At least what I assume a grandpa would be like.

  “He and his wife were never able to have kids and he’s been lonely since she died.”

  I never met Miguel’s wife, Donata. She died of breast cancer a few years before I walked in his door. “Those who knew him when she was alive say that after her death, he put his heart and soul into the club because it was the only thing he had left to live for.” I can’t imagine that kind of pain. Maybe if they would have had kids it would have been different, but they didn’t. Instead, Miguel put everything he had left of himself, the part he didn’t bury with his wife, into the gym and his boxers like Johnny. That’s what gives Miguel a purpose. The rest of the gym, the leagues and all that, were for the neighborhood and he liked having kids around.

  I can’t believe that fuckjerk, Johnny, ran off like that.

  “Miguel needs you and wants to watch out for you. Let him.”

  “Maybe I should,” I finally say.

  “Look, you’ve had it rough. Now is your chance to relax and not worry about who is going to mess with you or where you are going to sleep. Plus, the apartment is right behind the gym, you practically live there already.”

  She’s right. “Thank you for the meals yesterday, and everything.” I hadn’t realized just how good of friends Betsy, Miguel and Barrett were until I had no food or a place to stay. Maybe I’ve just been so closed off for so long, self-preservation and all that, that I didn’t notice they were always here.

  “Just come by and see us sometimes, kid.”

  I smile. I guess to Betsy I’ll always be a kid, even if I feel far older than my years sometimes.

  “Are you sure Nina is just a friend?” Julia asks me while we stand in the security line at the airport. Mom and Dad finally left after dropping us at the airport. They came in to make sure we got our boarding passes and to escort us to the security line like we were six and traveling alone.

  Julia and I are sharing a flight to Chicago and then she’ll connect to Philadelphia and me to New York.

  “Of course she’s just a friend. Why?”

  “You were really defensive of her yesterday.”

  “They just got under my skin with their high and mighty judgment of a person they’ve never even met.” I take my laptop out of my backpack and put it in a tub, then empty my pockets into another and add my shoes and belt. I hate having to practically undress to go through security, but I get why it needs to be done.

  Julia puts her stuff in tubs and then drops her carry-on bag on the table.

  I enter the scanner and line myself up with the feet on the floor and put my hands up to be scanned. I’m given the go-ahead to get my stuff and get dressed again. Julia is pulled to the side. She blows out a sigh and stands there while they look through her carry-on. The culprit, a small bottle of perfume, just at the allowed limit.

  “I knew I should have put it in my luggage, but I didn’t want it to break and stink up all of my clothes.”

  “At least they let you keep it.”

  “They could have kept it,” she grumbles. “Did you smell it?”

  “No,” I answer. “Why do you have it if you don’t like it?”

  “Mom gave it to me for Christmas. It’s her favorite scent.”

  “Doesn’t the Bible say perfume is wrong?”

  She snorts. “I guess that depends on what verse she is picking and choosing that day.”

  Our plane doesn’t even start boarding for two hours but Mom and Dad wanted to make sure we got here in plenty of time, since security is so bad because of all those terrorists out there. Mom’s words, not mine. We tried to tell them that we had plenty of time, but she’d hear none of it. Of course, Mom has never flown anywhere and I’m pretty sure the only other state she’s visited is Oklahoma
since it’s a short drive. Dad should know better though. He’s traveled a lot for the company. But, he decided a long time ago just to let her have her way because it’s more peaceful for him.

  “Bar?” Julia asks.

  “Let’s find our gate and then see what’s around.” That’s usually my plan. Get to the gate, make sure there are no changes and then look around.

  A couple bumps into us coming out of a gift shop. “Texas tourist shopping is alive and well.” The airport is crowded with people rushing in every direction. Holiday travel at its best.

  There are a line of shops selling everything from coffee to clothes along the corridor, only to be broken up by bars and restaurants.

  “I need gum.” I stop at one of the generic stores that has candy, mints and magazines. My ears don’t always pop like they should when I fly and chewing gum helps.

  Then I see a small cactus under a dome. There are dozens of them to choose from. I pick up one that has a lot of sharp spines and take it to the counter with the gum.

  Julia lifts and eyebrow. “Taking a little bit of home back with you?”

  “It’s for Nina.” I shove it into my backpack and pocket the gum.

  “Because she’s just a friend.” Julia shakes her head. “Maybe you should have stuck around for that sermon on lust.”

  “It’s not like that.” But even as I say the words my face heats.

  Julia stops and points to my right. “There’s our gate.” Then she points further up on the left. “And, there is a bar. Pretty perfect if you ask me.”