Bad for You (Dirty Deeds)

by J. Daniels

  “Yeah. Do me a solid and confirm I’m not lookin’ to kidnap anyone and make a fuckin’ dress out of their skin.”

  “What?”

  “Here,” Sean grumbled, then not a breath later…

  “Did you send some stranger to pick me up?” Dominic’s voice was hurried and high-pitched. “Some guy I’ve never even seen before? You actually want me to leave with him?”

  “Dominic, calm down,” I said. “He’s not a stranger. I work with Sean.”

  “He’s a hair stylist?”

  “Do I look like a fuckin’ hair stylist?” Sean griped, sounding close by.

  “You look like you want to make a dress out of my skin.”

  “Okay. Nobody is making a dress out of anyone’s skin.” Two parents whirled around to look back at me. My eyes narrowed. “Do you mind? Watch your kids,” I snapped, gesturing for them to turn around.

  “Watch whose kids?” Dominic asked.

  “Not you,” I told him. Assholes. Do some parenting. “Dom, Sean is…a friend. Okay? He’s my friend. He’s the cook at Whitecaps, and he very kindly offered to pick you up and bring you to me so I don’t have to leave Eli’s practice.”

  I began chewing on my cuticle like a maniac, hoping this was all the convincing I would need to do. I didn’t know what else to say.

  “He’s your friend?” Dominic asked incredulously.

  “Yes.”

  “Just your friend?”

  Oh, my God. “Who are you, Oprah? Just let him give you a ride. And don’t act like you haven’t been checking out his bike. I know you’re into that.”

  There was a short pause, then Dominic admitted, “It is pretty sweet. Looks like Dad’s, but I wasn’t really digging the blue on Dad’s Harley. I like that black-and-chrome look. Or all black. That’s badass.”

  “You into bikes?” That question came from Sean, and I knew we were all good then.

  Smiling, I said into the phone, “Okay, Dom. Go with Sean. I’ll see you in a bit.”

  “Yeah, okay. See ya.”

  Expecting the call to disconnect, I was pulling the phone away from my ear when I heard a gruff, “Hey.”

  My stomach clenched. Actually, my entire body clenched. Especially everything near my waist. That was clenching the most.

  Not only because this was the first hey I’d ever received from Sean—his typical greetings to me consisting of head jerks or other nonverbal cues—but also because of the gruffness in his voice.

  Gruff coming from men with deep voices was nice.

  Sean’s gruff, coming from Sean and his voice, was good.

  Real good.

  “Hey!” I chirped, pressing the phone back to my ear.

  “He seems convinced I’m not here to do some weird Hannibal Lecter shit to him,” Sean said. “We’ll be outta here shortly.”

  “Okay!”

  There was a pause, then, “You all right?”

  “Yep! Just happy.”

  Another pause, then, “Right. Gotta go.”

  “Cool. See ya!”

  “Later.”

  I ended the call, smiling, happy, really happy now thanks to that hey, set the phone on the bleacher seat beside me, and looked between the parents, asking “Anybody want to do the wave? I’ll start it.”

  Silence and strange glances were all I received.

  “Sheesh. Tough crowd.” I looked out onto the diamond and watched Eli bend down and brush dirt off the base. “Woo! Lookin’ good, number four!” I yelled.

  Eli raised his head and gave me a lopsided smile, which turned into a full-blown grin when I stood, launching into a one-person wave.

  I’d do waves by myself for the rest of the practice if it got me grins like that. Not only because I was here to support Eli and cheering him on was how I’d planned on doing that, take note, parents, but also because I was determined to make up for that missed field trip.

  And I’d make up for it good, too.

  “I didn’t embarrass you too bad, did I?” I asked Eli as we walked across the grass toward the parking lot after practice.

  “Nah. M-Mom does that,” he said. “Sh-She’s always the only one yelling and s-stuff.”

  I wrapped my arm around his shoulder and pulled him into a side-to-side hug. “So, did you think about what super special thing you wanted to do tonight?” I asked.

  When I picked Eli up from school, he didn’t seem to be upset anymore, telling me he knew it wasn’t my fault we got stuck in traffic (it was, and I’d argued that point), and also sharing how stupid his classmates said the botanical gardens turned out to be (apparently, flowers were boring), but I wasn’t going back on my promise. I’d told him we’d do something special, and I meant it.

  Walking pressed together, we both stepped over the curb and onto the graveled lot.

  “I’m s-still thinking.”

  “It can be whatever you want,” I reminded him. “Just nothing illegal. I don’t care how special it is. No dancing girls for you. You’re too young.”

  He giggled.

  When we reached my car, I popped the trunk and dumped his baseball equipment inside while Eli took off his cleats, exchanging them for his sneakers he wore to school. Then after setting those in the trunk, along with his hat, which was covered in a thin dusting of dirt, I slammed the trunk closed and turned at the sound of Harley pipes in the distance.

  “W-We g-going to get D-Dom now?” Eli asked.

  “Nope.” I grinned at him, then tipped my head at the bike as it pulled into the lot and made its way down the row of cars, slowing to a stop in front of us.

  Eli stepped closer to me as Sean cut the engine and toed the kickstand down. “Sh-Shay, w-who’s that?” he asked.

  “That’s my friend,” I told him, no hesitation this time, since I was going with the flow of things.

  Dominic swung off the bike and took off the helmet he was wearing, handing it over to Sean.

  “How was it?” I asked my brother.

  He smiled. He actually smiled, without me getting injured.

  Pure elation filled me.

  “Great,” he said. “Sean goes way faster than Dad.”

  I cut my eyes to Sean, who was slouched over the handlebars and looking directly at me.

  I ignored how good he looked positioned like that, which was a difficult task, considering the faded jeans he had on were clinging to his thighs, and the sleeves of his heather-gray thermal were pushed up, revealing magnificent forearms decorated in ink. Plus his hair was styled in one of my favorite ways Sean ever wore his hair—a little messy. Pieces had fallen out of his pony and were hanging in front of his ears, framing his face.

  Sean had amazing hair. I wanted to touch it more than I wanted to breathe.

  “Not too fast, I hope,” I said to him.

  “He got here, didn’t he?” Sean answered.

  I cocked my head as most of that elation I’d been feeling left me. Mm. Not sure how I felt about that answer.

  But he had done me a favor, so I decided not to press, and instead wrapped my arm around Eli, who was staring at that bike and nothing else. “Sean, this is my brother, Eli. Eli, this is Sean.”

  Sean jerked his chin.

  I looked down at Eli and watched him return the gesture.

  Holy Lord, that was cute.

  “The car unlocked?” Dominic asked.

  “Yep,” I answered.

  He dug the phone out of his pocket and looked back at Sean. “Thanks for the ride, man. It was cool,” he said.

  “No problem,” Sean replied.

  Dominic walked to the car, opened the back door, and dumped his book bag inside before climbing in himself.

  When I turned back to Sean, he was looking at me again.

  “S-Shay.”

  I put my attention on Eli. “Yeah, buddy?”

  “I know w-what I w-want to do now,” he said, half of his mouth lifting.

  All that admiring he’d been doing, it immediately dawned on me what my brother was referring
to.

  And although I wanted to give him the world right now, there were certain things that were just out of my control.

  “Oh, um, I don’t know, E. I think Sean has to get back to work.”

  “What’s the problem?” Sean asked.

  I looked at him, mouth open to reply, but Eli stepped forward and spoke first.

  “I w-want a r-ride,” he told Sean.

  Sean’s brows lifted. “Yeah?”

  Eli nodded his head so fast, I feared it would detach from his body.

  “E, Sean has to get going,” I said, reaching for my brother.

  “I do?”

  I quit reaching for my brother and looked back at Sean. “You don’t?”

  His one shoulder gave a quick jerk. “Gotta be getting back, but I got a minute,” he shared.

  “Oh. Well, okay!” I stepped up beside Eli and ruffled his hair. “One quick ride around the parking lot. How’s that sound?”

  Eli tipped his head back and wrinkled his nose. “B-But Dom g-got a long r-ride. I want that t-too.”

  “E…” I began.

  “C-Can you t-take me back to S-Shay’s?” Eli asked Sean, cutting me off.

  “He’s gotta go to work, E,” I said. “Just go for a ride around the parking lot. That’ll be fun.”

  “B-But th-that’s not special, Shay.”

  I pinched my lips together. Well, shit.

  “You live around here, or closer to Whitecaps?” Sean asked, drawing my head up.

  Oh, my God. Was he actually considering this?

  “Uh…closer to Whitecaps,” I said. “I’m at Pebble Dune Apartments.”

  Sean nodded once, then held out the helmet to Eli, telling me, “Don’t know where that is, but I’ll follow you.”

  Oh, my God. He wasn’t only considering this. He was doing it.

  Helping me out was one thing, but Sean didn’t even know my brother. He could’ve insisted parking lot ride or nothing, but he wasn’t.

  Wow.

  Wow.

  “Yes!” Eli punched his fist into the air. “C-Can I go, Sh-Shay? C-Can I?”

  I pried my smile off Sean and gave it to Eli. “Heck, yeah, dude. Go for it.”

  “Yes!” he cried again before breaking into a sprint.

  I walked over to the bike as Eli was fastening the helmet, stepped up beside Sean, and quickly admired the jewelry he always wore on his arm—bracelets made of different colored thread. Single pieces. Not three or more strands braided together.

  Friendship bracelets. That’s what the thread reminded me of—my childhood. I’d made bracelets using thread like that all the time.

  Then I bent down and told him with a hushed voice, “Not too fast. He’s only eight.”

  Sean smirked behind his short, thick beard. “Sure thing, Mama Bear.”

  “Mama Bear? You cracking another joke? That’s twice today.”

  He stared at me, confused.

  “The not everyone should have pets comment,” I reminded him.

  His face hardened, making him look regretful. “I was talkin’ about me when I said that.”

  “Didn’t sound that way.”

  Somehow, his face hardened even more, causing little lines to form in deep, tanned grooves beside his eyes. Now he wasn’t only looking regretful. He was looking mildly pissed.

  “Relax. It was funny,” I told him, smiling.

  His gaze lowered to my mouth, and he instantly quit looking pissed, but that regret was slow to leave him, keeping the tenseness in his jaw until a soft giggle escaped me.

  I couldn’t help it. I was thinking about that pet comment.

  It really was funny.

  And even though I missed Ombre, my fish, I still appreciated a good joke.

  “I’m r-ready,” Eli said at my back.

  I spun around and helped him swing up onto the bike. “You remember how you gotta hold on, right?” I asked, guiding his arm around Sean’s waist and pressing Eli’s hand to Sean’s belly. “Like this. Tight.”

  I felt hardened muscle contract beneath my fingers.

  I looked at Sean, breath catching in my throat.

  Sean looked at me, his eyes more intense than I’d ever seen before.

  Then I looked back at Eli before I passed out, doing this at the same time as he muttered, “I g-got it.”

  He slid closer to Sean and wrapped his other arm around him, which prompted me to step back since he did, indeed, have it.

  The bike roared to life.

  Eli’s face lit up, and the smile he was wearing rivaled Dominic’s, which brought that feeling of elation back on, but this time tenfold, seeing as I was making up for that missed field trip in a good way, the way I had been hoping to make up for it.

  And I had Sean to thank for that.

  The bike backed up a car length, leaving room for me to pull out of my parking space.

  I gave Eli a thumbs up, got one in return, met Sean’s eyes and got that head jerk I always found hot in a broody sort of way, but was beginning to find cute too now that I’d seen Eli do it, waved at the both of them, and then got in my car.

  “So, how was tutoring?” I asked Dominic once we’d both pulled out of the parking lot, Sean staying close behind me.

  “It was tutoring,” Dom replied curtly.

  Eyes already in the rearview, I looked from Sean to the top of Dominic’s head, saw his attention on his phone, and told him, “Hey, you know we all care about how well you do in school, right? Mom and Dad, they love you a lot, Dom. They just have—”

  “God, I don’t care,” he interrupted me. “Seriously. We don’t have to talk all the time.”

  Annnnd King Attitude is back. Awesome.

  I rolled my eyes away and put them back on the road ahead of me after taking one last glance in the rearview at Sean. I kept my mouth shut and finished the drive in silence, but not because I wanted to.

  Part of this whole going with the flow thing meant picking my battles with Dominic.

  I’d gotten a smile out of him today. A real smile. I wouldn’t push my luck.

  When we got to Pebble Dune Apartments, I parked in my usual space while Sean pulled up along the curb, allowing Eli to hop off onto the sidewalk.

  “My l-legs are sh-shaking!” He giggled, unhooking the strap under his jaw and removing the helmet.

  I closed the driver’s side door and walked over, asking, “How cool was it?”

  “So c-cool!” Eli handed the helmet over to Sean.

  I ruffled his hair. “What do you say?” I prompted.

  “Th-Thank you.”

  Sean jerked his chin.

  Eli smiled, then returned the gesture in an exaggerated way, so his head tipped way back.

  I laughed. “Go get your book bag out of the car,” I told him. “Leave your baseball stuff. We’ll need it for tomorrow.”

  “Okay.” Eli stepped away and hurried to the car.

  “Can I get your house keys?” Dominic asked at my back.

  I was going to tell him I’d just be another second, but remembering his smile and how I was picking my battles, I tossed him the keys instead after hitting the lock on the key fob.

  Dominic caught them, then he and Eli went inside the apartment.

  I turned back to Sean. “Thanks again for getting Dominic for me, and for what you did for Eli. That meant a lot to both of us. You didn’t have to do that.”

  “I didn’t do it ’cause I had to,” he replied.

  He didn’t, and I knew that, which was another reason why I was so grateful to him.

  Just like the guy who bought my tacos the other day, Sean did a good deed just because he wanted to, and he wasn’t expecting anything in return for it.

  I thought that said a lot about him.

  “Well…” I paused, not sure what to say next, besides a hundred more thank-yous and an invite inside, which I was too terrified to offer for fear he’d shoot me down.

  “Gotta get going,” Sean muttered, letting me off the hook.

>   I was grateful for that as well.

  “Right. Okay, see ya.”

  “Later.”

  I waved as I turned, took the three steps down to the basement level, and paused at the door, looking back toward the sidewalk when the bike engine revved.

  Sean and I locked eyes.

  Then I watched him pull away.

  Before I went to bed that night, I’d decided on writing out a thank-you note to express my gratitude to Sean.

  Even though I’d verbally expressed this gratitude already, I believed written words held more meaning. Growing up, my mother instilled in me the importance of writing thank-you notes. It was an older tradition she’d said was becoming nonexistent, thanks to technology. People made phone calls nowadays, or worse, sent texts. (Mom thought texts were the most impersonal.) And I wasn’t being raised like that. Not if she could help it. As soon as I could write, my mom had me sit down and make out cards for my friends and family the day after birthday parties or any special event where gifts were given.

  Now I wrote thank-you notes for different reasons. I didn’t have to receive a present from someone. If I felt inclined to send a note of appreciation, I did.

  And that night, I was feeling more inclined than I could ever remember feeling, let me tell you.

  What Sean did for me meant a lot.

  After dinner with the boys, one walk-in haircut, several loads of laundry I not only washed but took the time to fold and put away, and some social media time, I got started. And two rough drafts later, I’d polished up the note I’d written out, proofread it three times, and fancied it up with doodles along the edges of the card.

  I also might’ve sprayed it with my perfume. With a light hand. Nothing crazy.

  Then after sealing it in an envelope and addressing it to Sean, I stuck the thank-you note in my purse, made sure the boys were in bed, and turned in myself, considering it was already after one a.m. and we had a busy day tomorrow.

  Both Dominic and Eli had sports stuff going on.

  Dominic had a scrimmage, and Eli had practice. And both just so happened to be going on at the same time, at two different athletic parks.

  Go figure.

  It was a lot, but I had a plan. I’d split my time between the two, driving back and forth so I wouldn’t be choosing between my brothers, and I figured depending on the length of Dominic’s scrimmage, I could stay for the end of Eli’s practice and take him to the other field so we could both watch Dom.