TOUGH BREAKS
"Didn't peg this for your kind of place," Billy Melrose said as Lee opened the door to the Pie Plate. Cool air wafted towards them, welcome relief from the almost stifling heat that had already started building even now, at ten-thirty in the morning.
Lee tried not to frown. Amanda had said the exact same thing, after all, the first time he'd brought her here. So he said to his boss what he'd said to her. "I have diverse tastes. And the pie's great."
"The pie is outstanding," Billy agreed. "Just don't let Jeannie hear me saying that."
"I can keep a secret," Lee said, nodding at the waitress, who told them to sit anywhere they liked. "Though I'm sure if you brought her here, she'd agree."
"She would, but first she'd give me an exhaustive lecture about my diet, and after this morning I'm not so sure I'll be up for lectures of any kind for a long time."
"Yeah, that was quite the meeting," Lee admitted.
Billy's eyes widened in agreement and he let out a slow breath, nodding. He settled into the booth across from Lee and unbuttoned his suit jacket. "Smyth was on a tear."
"I'm sorry about that," Lee said, contrite. "He could've called me in without letting you have it, too."
Billy waved a hand dismissively. "I'm your superior, I'm accountable too. And for the record, I agree with the way you handled it."
"Well, thanks." Lee saw the waitress approaching and flipped over his coffee cup before she reached them. He felt a wave of exhaustion roll over him, the after-effects of the "exhaustive lecture" Dr Smyth had subjected them to that morning — an hour of thinly-veiled barbs about Scarecrow's perceived proclivity for thumbing his nose at the rules and Billy's ineptitude as a section chief for allowing it. In the end, though, the two knew the whole thing would blow over. Scarecrow had brought in his man and two others they'd been looking for, too.
"Well hello," the waitress said, filling his cup. Her name-tag said 'Brenda,' Lee noticed. "Where's Amanda today? Haven't seen her in a while."
Lee saw Billy's eyebrows shoot up, questioning, as he nudged his cup toward the middle of the table. "Uh, yeah. She's been busy with her, uh, kids. Summer holidays, you know."
Brenda nodded nodded. "Tell me about it, I've got four of 'em underfoot." She filled Billy's cup. "You both want your usuals? Pecan and…" she narrowed her eyes at Billy, trying to remember. "Blueberry? I haven't seen you in a while, either. Months."
"It's blueberry," Billy said, grinning. "With a scoop on the side. Good memory."
She nodded and moved away toward the kitchen, and when Lee looked at his boss he saw Billy chuckling softly.
"Speaking of Amanda," Billy said, sipping his coffee, "how's her son doing? Jamie?"
"She says he's fine. It was a clean break. He should get the cast off the first week of school." Lee made a wry face. "So much for camp." And so much for most of their time together, he thought, though of course he didn't say that. He'd been trying to keep himself from even thinking it, since thinking it wasn't fair either. It wasn't the poor kid's fault he'd fallen off the ropes course and snapped his wrist.
"Sounds like it's going to be a long summer at their house." Billy grinned up at Brenda as she appeared with two slices of pie, which she set in front of them with a bright smile.
"It wouldn't be so bad if her mother hadn't gone away for the month and her ex wasn't… well, anyway." He wasn't going to get into how irritated he was that Joe was working overseas for half the summer. He heard Amanda's words from that morning come back at him, How could Joe have known this was going to happen? He's not psychic. And of course he wasn't. None of them were.
She'd been too weary to be annoyed that morning. She'd spent the entire day before driving up to camp and then driving back to the hospital with Jamie, and then waiting for someone to see him. They'd kept him overnight in the end, because they were worried he had a concussion, too, so she'd come home late, well after midnight, and when Lee'd seen her, she'd looked exhausted. He'd found her standing on the patio in her nightgown and a big sweater, her hair still wild with sleep and her bare feet curled against the dew-damp brick of the patio.
"Well, you tell her to take whatever time she needs," Billy said, digging into his pie and ice cream.
Lee paused, surprised, his fork hovering over his slice of pie. "You aren't going to call her?"
"Sure, I'll call her later. But I know you'll talk to her before I do." Billy's eyes twinkled. "She's got a lot on her plate."
Lee nodded. "Yeah. She'll be worried about work, though. She was this morning."
"Well, we can find some things to keep her busy at home, if we have to. Wouldn't be the first time."
Lee nodded. "I'll tell her."
It hadn't occurred to Lee until just then what a bind Amanda was probably in — Jamie wouldn't be in any shape to be dragged along on errands for a few days and he knew she would never leave him alone. He knew she needed to take her car in to get the brakes checked. There were probably a thousand other things on her to-do list he didn't even know about. He felt like an ass, suddenly. He'd been thinking about how this affected him — their time together, sure, but mostly him — and not what it meant for her.
"Think Leatherneck would do her brakes?" he asked Billy, absently building a pyramid out of the tiny containers of cream on the table in front of him.
"Amanda's? In a heartbeat. Why don't you bring her car in and I'll sign off on it. Tell him it's priority one, though I'm sure he'd treat it that way anyway."
"Thanks."
Billy sipped his coffee, then added another packet of sugar. "And Beaman should push her training sessions back a week or two."
"She'll hate that. She likes to keep up with the class."
"I think it'll give the class time to catch up to her, if I'm honest." Billy's eyes twinkled. "She's not your average rookie."
"She's not your average anything," Lee said. "I learned that pretty early on."
Billy laughed, then — a real laugh, that rolled around in the room and made the other patrons look up from their plates. "You got that right," he said. "Finally."
Lee started to bristle, then relaxed with a grin. He knew Billy had seen the potential in Amanda from the first day he'd met her. He felt uncomfortable sometimes, thinking about how terrible he'd been to her when they'd first met. Hostile, even. And she'd hung in there, calling him on it — in ways both subtle and not — the entire time. He'd asked her about it a few weeks before, why she'd bothered, and she'd just laughed and given him a playful shove. "I really liked the work. And I knew that wasn't really you," she'd said. "It was just a costume."
He sat savoring a mouthful of pie, thinking about what Amanda would do if their situations were reversed. She'd probably descend on him with a week's worth of meals, all home-cooked, and little extras. Books. Magazines. She'd clean his apartment and sort his mail. Hell, she'd done those things, on more than one occasion.
He swallowed his pie and made a decision. He'd call her and make sure she was home, then he'd stop on the way to her place for a bag of groceries. And there was a comic book store right near the supermarket, so he'd stop in there, too, and pick up a few things for Jamie. He didn't even know the kid but Lee had a feeling he was probably miserable, sent home from camp and stuck in a cast in 100-degree heat while his brother had two more weeks of swimming, canoeing, and campfires. And maybe that night, after Jamie was asleep, he could sneak over and they could have a glass of wine on the patio.
Lee knew what Amanda would do. She'd make the most of a tough break, and so would he.
"Sometimes I'm slow, I guess," he said.
"Not so much anymore," Billy said, lifting his napkin to wipe crumbs from his moustache. "She's got you all caught up."
