Page 8 of Whiskey

Hennessy pulled the pan out of the oven. Vivi wiped her mouth to make sure she wasn’t drooling.

“Do you like crust or inside pieces, Vivi?”

Hennessy’s words had her puzzled. How did you get non-crust pieces with pizza?

“I want both, and I’m sure Vivi does too. Hennessy cuts the pizza in squares because he’s a big baby about how fastidious he is with pizza.”

Hennessy slid a plate of the most amazing smelling pizza she’d ever had. Of course, pizza hadn’t been on the menu at their previous place. It had been years since Vivi had eaten it.

“Just because I don’t like the cheese stretching between my mouth and the piece of pizza, then eventually dropping into my beard, doesn’t make me a baby. You, Crewe, and Schaefer are disgusting the way you let food drop into your beard and don’t clean it out until the end of the meal. Nobody wants to see that.”

Vivi listened to the men argue as she took a bite of the steaming hot pizza. Herbs, tomato sauce, mushrooms and meat had her groaning at how good it tasted. She chewed and then couldn’t keep quiet.

“I don’t care how the pizza’s cut. This is the best thing I’ve eaten in forever.”

Whiskey smiled and then high-fived Hennessy. “Oh yeah, I’m so telling Crewe that when I see him. He’ll decide to prove us wrong. We’ll have pizza available for a week.”

Vivi tried to figure out the brothers. The dynamic wasn’t something she’d seen. “So you enjoy teasing each other?”

Hennessy wiped his mouth before replying. “Beautiful, we not only enjoy it, we look for ways to do it. I can’t remember when my brothers or my cousins weren’t teasing us about something.”

Whiskey picked another piece of pizza up off the tray and laid it on her plate. “Have some more. With all the boys in the family, we were always competing about something, but at the same time, we’re family. It’s not mean-spirited. It’s just how we show our affection.”

Vivi took a bite of the piece of pizza, marveling at Whiskey, noticing she had finished what was on her plate. He was winning her trust with each action. She didn’t understand what she was feeling toward him, but she liked it.

Chapter Six

Whiskey watched Hennessy, Schaefer, and Crewe try to teach Ezra a country line dance. Ezra had on jeans and the cowboy boots Hennessy bought him. Whiskey was still a little salty about that. He wanted to be the one buying things for Vivi and Ezra.

Ezra was trying to follow along, but he was stumbling over the steps. Whiskey grabbed his cowboy hat before hopping out from behind the bar. He walked over and bumped Hennessy out of the way.

“Ezra, I think you just need to get into the mindset of a cowboy to get the steps. You’ve got the boots. Let’s try my hat on until I can buy you one.”

He plopped the hat on Ezra’s head, tilting it a little back. The smile spreading across Ezra’s face warmed Whiskey’s heart.

“Okay. Let’s turn the music off. We’ll work on the steps first.”

He showed the steps to Ezra, counting them off as he did them. “Now, let’s try it together.”

This time, Ezra followed the steps with only one stumble.

“Way to go!” Whiskey fist bumped Ezra and motioned for Hennessy to turn on the music. A loud banging on their door had them pausing. “Hennessy, take Ezra to the office. Let me see who this is.”

Ezra’s face had gone white and Whiskey hated that. They’d made such headway this last week, providing a safe place. Whiskey, Vivi, and Ezra had settled into a routine each evening. He took the early shift and when he came upstairs, he’d bring supper. They’d eat while letting Ezra pick TV shows for them to watch. Ezra was intelligent and when he picked Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune, he knew most of the answers.

Whiskey paused until the door to the office was shut. He glanced around the room one more time to make sure there wasn’t anything to give away that an eight-year-old boy had been there.

Whiskey unlocked the glass door. They’d bought a double-paned glass door with blinds within it. The blinds were closed unless they were open for business. Their big windows had black blinds with heavy curtains in front of them, so there wasn’t any way someone could have seen in.

Cracking the door open a little, Whiskey took stock of the two men standing in front of him. Their tailored suits, expensive watches and gold nugget rings screamed I want to be noticed.

“Can I help you? We don’t open for another hour like the sign says on the door.”

“My son and I need to come in.”

Whiskey chuckled. Who the hell did they think they were?

“I just said we’re closed. I don’t know you. Why would you think you need to come in?”