The Comeback Route

by Jamie Bennett

“No, Brooklyn, but it’s all right,” my dad told her, and she left, still confused.

  I seated myself, because I wasn’t 100% healthy yet. It was taking me longer than I liked to get over the pneumonia. “I wish you had called me back. I didn’t want to come down here and make empty threats about your buildings, although, I guess I did enjoy it,” I admitted.

  “What do you want?” he asked me.

  “I just wanted you to know that I’m back home. I’m going to stay here for a while.”

  “And?” he pressed.

  “You’re my dad, and I wanted to see you. I wanted to talk about what happened when I left, for one thing,” I said. “That wasn’t cool, taking the car away. And my credit cards, and the money out of my bank account, all without telling me. What did you think I was going to do?”

  My dad didn’t answer at first, and then he said, “It was time for you to move out and to be on your own, Tatum.”

  “That’s true. I’m sorry I wasted so much time and money and everything else up until now, and I didn’t work hard in school or work hard at a job. And I had those car accidents, and made the corner of the house fall off, and had the small papal problem when we visited the Vatican. I needed to focus, and I have.”

  He was nodding. “We both need to move on.”

  It hurt to hear flat out that he had moved on from me. “Daddy, I’m not doing that. I’m not forgetting that you’re my father, and I’m not forgetting about what you did. What I would guess you’re still doing.”

  “Tatum—”

  “I think you made me leave our house and cut me off as a threat of your own,” I said. “Like, watch out Tatum, because I control everything. Or maybe it was payback because you’re embarrassed that I found out?”

  “I don’t know what you think you saw…”

  “You know exactly. I hope you changed your passwords, because eventually, Chelsea will find out, too.”

  “There’s nothing on my computer. Nothing at all,” he told me.

  I nodded. “Where was that taken?” I asked, pointing on his desk to a framed picture of himself and his fiancée on a beach.

  “Grand Cayman,” he said grudgingly.

  In my search for countries that wouldn’t extradite, I had learned about Americans involved in foreign financial chicanery, too. “Grand Cayman makes sense, if that’s where you’re hiding the money that you’re stealing from the Woodsmen team.”

  He slapped his palm on the desk. “Tatum Elizabeth Smith, watch what you say.”

  “You have to give it back, Daddy. It’s not right. All those trips we took, and the cars, even the redecorating? The team paid for all of it, and so much more. We didn’t do any football recruiting last summer when we went to Europe, and I saw that you had written that, submitted everything for reimbursement. I wouldn’t have gone with you if I had known that you were stealing from the Woodsmen.”

  “You’ll need to leave my office. And you have no evidence, absolutely none. I’ll tell you again, there’s nothing on my computer, despite what you think you saw.”

  I nodded again. “I copied it all, Daddy. I have it all, all the false expense reports you submitted to the team going back from before I was born. Even if you wiped everything on your end, I have it. I’m not going to the police or giving it to anyone, but you have to pay back the money to the Woodsmen. I mean it.”

  “I never thought I’d hear you lecturing me about morality. I don’t think you know what that word means,” my father said grimly.

  “I do, though. I know I’ve done some crazy things, like the ziplines on the Mackinac Bridge and that whole issue with the oyster farm and the counterfeit nacre, but I wouldn’t flat-out steal money from the place I work. It would be like me taking money behind Lucy’s back.” I almost laughed, it sounded so ridiculous. There was just no way! “I couldn’t do that, because it’s wrong, and I know that. I hope you’ll do the right thing.” I took a steadying breath and started coughing, pretty hard.

  My dad stood up. “Are you all right? Are you sick?”

  I took another breath and shook my head. “It’s just a little pneumonia.”

  “What? Did you go to the doctor? Do you need to go to the hospital?”

  “No, I’m good.” I waited a little until I had my breathing back under control. My dad did care in his way, and I was glad to know it. But there was one more thing I had to say. “I talked to Dan Dorbeek.”

  My father lost the color in his face, and sat back down.

  “I didn’t give him your name, but he’s going to be looking around.” Now I stood. “I’m going home now, but I hope I’ll see you sometime. Good luck with your wedding. Is it next month?” He nodded slowly. “I hope you’ll be really happy. Bye.” I waved to Mrs. Pedersen again on my way out, and I got a car to take me back to my apartment instead of going to Daisy’s cottage.

  Chapter 15

  Do what you love, and also do who you love!

  And re-subscribe, or suffer. Final reminder.

  Yours in warning, Mysti

  “There you are!” Nico walked over and took the bag from my hand as I unlocked our front door. “I’m glad you came home.”

  He had wanted me to come back the day before, and I might have, except that I had fallen asleep on Daisy’s sturdy couch directly after dinner and hadn’t woken up until this morning. “I’m home,” I agreed. “Is Teddy here?” I looked around for the quarterback.

  “Nope. I sent him off because I started to remember why little brothers were annoying.” Nico bent his head to look into my face. “You look tired, Tates. Come sit down.”

  I did, very gratefully, on the couch next to him, and he put his arms around me and pulled me onto his lap.

  “That’s nice,” he murmured, and rested his chin on my head. “How are you feeling today?”

  “A lot better now.” I snuggled.

  Nico kissed my forehead. “You’ve been on my mind. A lot. I was just thinking about when you waltzed into my apartment in Miami. Doesn’t it seem like years ago?”

  “I remember you thinking that I was the woman you had already screwed that evening, and asked me if I was ready for round two. And then I remember that you were secretly very glad that I was there. And so was I,” I said, and closed my eyes. I was very glad to be in his arms at this exact moment. He had been on my mind a lot, too.

  “I remember almost passing out, because I couldn’t believe my eyes that Tatum Smith was in Florida and not Michigan, and she was making herself at home in my apartment. I almost opened the door and showed you right back out of it. But then, yes, I was glad that you were there, very glad. Yesterday and today, when you were gone, all I could think about was you coming back.”

  “Well, I’m excellent company.” I yawned and curled into his chest. “Usually. But now I’m tired. I had a long day.”

  “What did you do?” he asked me. I felt him kiss my head now.

  “What did you do? You didn’t tell me much about your CompleteSports interview yesterday. I want more details.”

  “It was fine,” Nico said, which was the same thing he’d told me yesterday when we’d talked on the phone. “She only asked me a few things I couldn’t answer because of the lawyers, and I think I got my story out. As much as I’m going to tell.” He sighed. “She wanted to know who was with me that day at the house, the drug house, because there are all kinds of rumors. The biggest one going around is correct about almost everything, the names of the other two players and what they were buying, and I’ve heard the Confederation is investigating.”

  I nodded. I had heard that too, but I had also kept my mouth shut about their identities because Nico had wanted me to.

  “I didn’t say anything about them, and I didn’t say anything about Galen,” he concluded.

  “Galen?” I asked. “The guy I fell asleep on the date with, that Galen?”

  Nico was silent for a second. “I hadn’t mentioned that part to you.”

  I sat up straight. “What part?” I dema
nded.

  “I had a few words with him after the two of you went out that night. I didn’t appreciate how he had left you like that and went off to find someone else.”

  “You mean, how he went to hit on other women when I was with him? But I fell asleep at our dinner table! I mean, I might call that even.”

  “I didn’t appreciate it,” Nico said stubbornly. “He didn’t treat you right. I talked to him about it and it got heated. I think that was why.”

  “That was why what?” I asked, and took his chin in my hand so he would look at me.

  “I think that was why those guys took me there, to the drug house. They mentioned something on the ride over about Galen, how he wanted them to fuck with me a little. I’m sure they didn’t mean to almost get arrested themselves. The whole situation got out of their control when the police showed up.”

  I jiggled his chin with my hand. “Why didn’t you tell me any of this?”

  “What would you have done to Galen?” He shook his head. “I couldn’t tell you after I saw in your notebook what you were planning for the two guys who drove me there. I had to watch you like a hawk to prevent it. Cannisters of swamp gas? Does that ring any bells?”

  “Don’t read my notebook!” I said, incensed.

  “I had to, Tates. I knew you were up to something down in Miami. You get that look on your little face and I feel like trouble is brewing.” He leaned and kissed my forehead. “Now you tell me what you did today that made you so tired.”

  I collapsed back on his chest. “I went and saw my dad and it wore me out.”

  “It’s not the pneumonia, you don’t think?” He scratched my back and I arched a little, like a cat. “What happened with him? He talked to you, finally?”

  “Kind of. I’ve been telling you that I was disappointed in him. I went to discuss it face to face.”

  “You’ve been disappointed in him?” Nico asked.

  “Yes, I’ve said it a bunch of times. How it’s hard to make up with someone when you feel like they’ve let you down.”

  “I thought you were talking about yourself, that you had let your dad down. I didn’t get…what do you mean that he let you down? What did he do?”

  I thought about how much I should say, then decided I was tired of keeping this secret from Nico. “He’s been taking money from the Woodsmen. For years, it looks like, he’s been handing in false receipts and getting reimbursed for stuff that he shouldn’t have been. All our trips, and redecorating his house, lots of stuff. It was all right there in his computer, in a neat little ‘Expense Reports’ file. He really shouldn’t have used such an easy password for everything.”

  “Tatum, that’s theft. Your dad was stealing?”

  I nodded, nuzzling into him. “I told him he had to return it. That was why he kicked me out, when I left Michigan. He said it was because of my grades and the online beekeeping thing I was involved in, and he definitely wasn’t happy with me, but those weren’t the real reasons. He wanted me out because I knew what he was doing, and he was ashamed of himself and afraid I would rat on him.”

  “Beekeeping…ok, are you going to tell the police?”

  “I don’t think I’m going to have to. When I was in Florida, I saw a little about how Lucy ran the bakery, how she looked at her accounts and her money coming in and out. It made me think. And just lately, when I was figuring out how I would do things at El Asturiano Dos here in Michigan, I came to a conclusion. My dad taking that money—it went on for too many years, it was too large an amount to go unnoticed. Someone else had to be okaying it all, or at the very least, someone was very bad at their job for not seeing it. So then when I went to Woodsmen Stadium to open Archie’s suitcase and to talk about my business, I met with the CEO.”

  “The Woodsmen CEO?” Nico sounded stunned. “Dan Dorbeek?”

  “I had a few things I wanted to discuss. I gave him cookies, and he seriously loved them.”

  “What…”

  “I just let him know that I thought something was going on, something fishy was happening with whoever was in charge of approving the executives’ expense reports. He believed me and he’s looking into it. We talked about you, also.”

  “Me?” Nico took me by the shoulders and leaned me back, to look at my face. “What did you say about me?”

  “We talked about what an asset you’d been to the Woodsmen, how hard you had always worked, how you helped the community. I told him that you weren’t guilty of what you had been accused of, not any of it. He believed that, too. I know his daughter,” I said. “I helped get her out of a really awful yoga pose she was stuck in without calling in firefighters or even using peanut butter, so Dan and I have a bond.”

  Nico just stared. “What did Dan say when you told him those things?”

  “He agreed with what I’d said about you and told me that he would make some calls. He knew that the Leviathans needed a wide receiver, so he said that he would talk to them and put in a good word for you. That worked out just like I hoped it would, because now they want to sign you.”

  “Tatum Smith. You were the reason the Leviathans are making an offer to me?”

  “We can’t stop with them,” I told him. “As soon as I feel a little better, I’m going to keep on it. I’ve been talking with a contact at the Dukes, too, and a few other teams. I want to get them competing for you. There’s no reason to settle. And I’ve been really unimpressed with what I’ve heard about your agent from my sources at these teams. He’s definitely doesn’t hustle as much as he could.”

  “Tatum. Miss Smith.” Nico shook his head. “I knew you’d been busy, but I didn’t get…Tatum.” He started to lean down again. “You’re sick,” he said, as if reminding himself.

  “I feel a lot better, all of a sudden. The doctor said it was mild, after all.” But then I yawned, right in his face, and he laughed.

  “Even you can’t argue down pneumonia. Thank you.” Nico looked at me very seriously. “Thank you, Tatum. Don’t tell me that it’s just being a life coach, either.”

  “Well, maybe it’s a little more than that for me,” I admitted.

  “Yeah. But I did want to further cement our business relationship.” He levered up his hips and took something out of his back pocket, an envelope. “I’ve been carrying this around for you.”

  “What?” I opened it, and found a check in a very large amount, written to me. “What is this for?”

  “For El Asturiano Dos, or whatever you’re going to call it. So you can buy that building that you liked so much, and also the equipment for it.”

  “Nico…” Now would not be the time to tell him about the two investors I’d already lined up, including the CEO of the Woodsmen. He’d really liked the cookies I’d given him, and my business plan. “I thought you were saving! You have your family to think of.” Now that I was talking to them all, I had realized he helped them out even more than I had known.

  “I think this is a very secure place for me to put my money,” Nico told me. “I have no doubt that your business will be a success and I’ll be proud to be a part of it. A silent part of it, but one who can eat the product.”

  I was trying very hard not to kiss him with my germy mouth. Instead, I put my arms around him and hugged him as hard as I could. “I’m going to Miami with you on Thursday for your court date,” I told him, and I kissed his neck instead of his lips.

  “I know. I already have your ticket.” He hugged me back. “I want you there. I need you there with me.”

  I felt something welling up inside me, but it wasn’t phlegm this time. It was a whole lot of love.

  ∞

  “No, absolutely not.” Nico pointed to my closet. “The judge’s robe stays here.”

  “But what if I need to go into their chambers to get information about your case?” I argued. “I just had it hemmed! What if—”

  “No,” he said sternly, then laughed when he saw my face. “You’re not going to have to sneak around the courthouse. Let’s see…w
hat’s this?” he asked as he continued to dig in my bag.

  “Be careful with that! It’s a wax poppet of Galen.” I grabbed it from him, but he took it right back out of my hand and held it out of my reach.

  “I don’t want to know what you were doing with that, and it stays in Michigan. No scary puppets.”

  Grumpily, I returned to my packing my bag. “It’s a poppet, not a puppet. And we’re going to miss the flight to Miami if you slow me down by being my personal luggage police.” But we hurried after that and we did make it, just in time, with me practically flying off the ground as Nico ran through the airport terminal and pulled me along behind him.

  I was already nervous about what we were going to face in Florida, but Nico watched some game film, and part of a movie, and seemed totally relaxed on the way to Detroit and while we waited there in Metro Airport. “Why are you so calm?” I asked eventually, as we sat on the next plane for the second leg of our trip. Everyone had been very friendly so far, a large change from the last time we flew, but I was trying to prepare myself for a more hostile environment in Miami. He hadn’t left a lot of friends there.

  “I think this is going to go well,” he said. “And I know you have a boat on standby, if it doesn’t. I read your notebook again.”

  “I’m going to put a lock on that,” I told him. “A real lock, not some cheap suitcase thing. But yes, I’ve revised my plans again, and if things go bad, you and I are heading straight to Dania where Salvador has his boat and then on to São Tomé. Somos criminosos internacionais,” I practiced. “Portuguese has some things in common with Spanish, so at least we’ll have a head start there with the language.”

  “I’ve heard you practicing,” he commented. He picked up my hand and held it to his cheek. “Feeling better? You weren’t coughing, even when we were hurrying in the airport.”

  “I think I’m cured, except a little.” I looked out the window. “There’s the ocean. We’re going to land, soon.” I got even more nervous, escape plans notwithstanding. “What if we bargain with the police? We can give them the location of the Santa Maria; they can drop the charges.”