Angel and I traded off baby-sitting duty during the long months it took for Jack to heal up. I worked as a bouncer at a bar at night. Angel worked construction for Jerry during the day. Jack rotted his brain watching TV.

Feeling the need to tough love the fairy, I started making him read. Got myself a library card for the first time in my life and picked up stuff for Cracker Jack in the early evening, before work. I got him a lot of music type stuff. CDs, books on guitars, comics, some romance novels... Surprisingly enough he took right to it. Reading, not romance novels—he chucked those at my head.

I was working behind the bar for once on a slow Tuesday night. I hardly noticed until she sat down right in front of me, but my old girlfriend, Tonia Collins, showed up at about eleven thirty.

"Bobby?" she said, looking at me like I must be a ghost, a slight smile shaping her features.

I smiled back. I hadn't even thought about this girl for years, yet I found myself glad to see her. Me and Ton had some heavy history going all the way back to high school. Ma had liked her, even thought I might settle down and marry her one day. That was part of the reason I'd left Detroit, besides the legal trouble I had and getting kicked out of the league. People saw me going steady with a real nice girl and started whispering about the infamous Bobby Mercer settling into a domesticated home life.

At first I just scoffed at the idea, but then it started to sink in as a possibility. The second it seemed plausible even in my mind I packed my shit and ran.

"Hey, baby," I said softly, drying a glass with a towel. "What can I get for you?"

Tonia never struck anyone as an extraordinarily good looking girl. I think it caught my brothers off guard when I started seeing her because I'd always come off as the shallowest of the shallow when it came to women. I ain't saying she's ugly, because she's not. I'm just saying that at one point a very fine La Vida Loca made a pass at me (long before Angel was legal) and I turned her down out of a sense of loyalty to my relatively plain featured girl.

Sofi didn't take the rejection well. Part of the reason she went after Angel before he became a buff marine was to get back at me. Heh, her loss.

I always suspected that part of my attraction to Tonia was the fact that she balanced me. She played things cool, never got worked up over anything. I'd asked her once why she never got angry and she'd just shrugged the question off, smiling like she was too mellow to even know why.

I'd almost forgotten how peaceful it felt to just shoot the shit with her. We chatted a little that night—small talk mostly. Usually a girl looks for a guy who can make her laugh, but Ton was always the one making me laugh. When we were in high school we'd sit together at lunch and she'd get me going until milk came out of my nose. For a long time that was the only reason I bothered to show up to school.

"Soo, you seeing anybody?" I broached after a while, my arms crossed, and both elbows resting on the bar. The only other customers in the place were two construction guys having a beer at the other end of the bar and watching the baseball game. If they needed anything, they'd holler, so I was free to sit there and talk for a while.

She shrugged one shoulder, her face not betraying an answer. "I got married a couple years ago. Got divorced a couple of months ago. He's a banker. Mom was proud when we got engaged, she was proud when I worked up the nerve to end it."

I whistled. A banker? Damn. Just a few years ago the whole neighborhood had this girl pinned as the type who should settle for a Mercer. I always knew she was better than that. I just never told her. I mean, come on... Why blow my chances?

"What, he turn out to be gay? Maybe you should give me his number so I can hook him up with Jackie. Ma would've loved to know her baby had a guy who could take real good care of him," I snickered, ribbing my brother even when he wasn't there to hear it. Either it's a habit or I'm an asshole, and the votes of my brothers don't count.

She grinned back at me, taking a sip from her beer. "Na, he wasn't gay. He loved his job. There's nothing wrong with that. I just figured if I had to eat dinner alone and spend holidays alone I might as well be single."

"And you missed me," I said jokingly, like I was stating the obvious. "You ever call my name while you were with him? If he knew me, that probably would've just about made him shit."

I'd taken my best shots at making Tonia blush while we'd been together, but I'd never succeeded until that night. She smiled, shaking her head and taking a drink, her cheeks turning the mildest shade of pink.

"Once," she admitted.

I cracked up. Leaning sideways, I started to shake from laughing so hard, slapping the bar with an open palm. She smiled with me, apparently taking pleasure in making me laugh until I had to wipe the tears out of my eyes.

Her eyes became distant after a moment. "It was the only time it got half as hot as you and I could make it. He happened to bite my ear like you used to, and it just sort of slipped. You're right, I think he did just about shit himself," she agreed amiably. "Not that he knew you. He'd just heard of you—from my little cousin, Jordan. Jordy scared the hell out of him with stories about the Mercers and the shit you guys used to pull, like burning down the neighbor's house. Jordy's still got a poster of you, from when you were in the league. I think you were his favorite player."

I couldn't remember if I knew this kid. I'd probably met him in passing after a game. Tonia and her family used to go to all my games. Her mother loved hockey. Her dad did too, before he died.

"If he's as a big a fan as your mom, he probably loved it that you dated a player in the league," I said.

"Yeah, he did. I think he really liked you, though. When he was ten or eleven you taught him how to pass and shoot. He never forgot it. You know, you really are good with kids, Bobby. Especially boys."

"Yeah? You think so?" I asked, smirking.

She grinned back. "Yeah. Really."

I shrugged. "Huh, I'll have to open a day care. Mercer Brothers Lock 'n' Load Baby-Sitting. I'll bet Jackie would get into that if I let him pick out the curtains and shit. Assuming he could actually get his ass off the couch at some point in the future."

"Yeah, I heard about what happened to him, and your mom," she said, no hint of emotion in her tone. She'd finished her beer and I popped the cap off a fresh one for her. She took a drink from the new one while I took the empty and tossed it in a box under the counter. "So, do I get to tell you I'm sorry for your loss?"

"Nope," I said, carefully avoiding eye contact with her. It amused me that she still knew me so well. She was the only girl I've ever met who could sense when to give me space; and had the patience to give it to me for as long as I needed it. That's probably why we stuck together so long. She didn't drive me nuts, and she didn't let me drive her away.

"Do I get to invite you and your brothers over to my place for dinner Sunday night?" she asked, quirking an eyebrow.

I grinned. "Yeah, as long as by 'your place' you mean 'the Mercer place.' For a fairy, Jack's a fucking load to drag around. He can't walk on his bum knee yet."

"What about crutches?"

"They hurt his shoulder too bad."

"What's he doing for physical therapy?"

"Sitting on his pretty fucking ass and watching TV all day. What else?"

Tonia shrugged, her eyes rolling up toward the ceiling and one slender hand making a 'you'll have that' motion. "Well, you know I did study for a year or so to be a physical therapist before I dropped out of community college. I had a three month internship with a trainer, so I might be able to suggest a few things he could do to strengthen those muscles while he's sitting around."

I started to edge my way over to the guys sitting at the other end of the bar, feeling I should probably make sure they were still doing good. While I backed up I smiled, never taking my eyes off of her. "That'd be great. Sunday, then. Eight sound all right?"

"Eight, perfect," she said, saluting me with her beer before killing it. She got up, pulling the strap of her purse over her shoulder. "I'd better get going, it's late."

"Hey, baby, let me call you a cab," I said, still slowly walking backward, following her progress toward the door.

"My car's just outside," she said, pointing in the direction of the lot out front.

"Then I'll walk you out. Just wait a minute.

"You guys cool for a few minutes?" I asked, ever so briefly turning my attention to the other customers. The guys on the end just nodded, their eyes never straying from the TV screen.

I met her near the door, hopping over the part of the bar made to flip up to let staff come and go while keeping patrons from wandering into the back. I didn't have a jacket on, but fortunately the temperature had risen into the high forties that week. Spring was finally melting away the hard Detroit winter.

The sixty foot walk to her car went by without incident, although a little too quickly for my tastes. I didn't really want her to leave. Living with my brothers was great, but we all needed a break from each other. Reminiscing with Tonia was the most fun I'd had for a while and Sunday seemed awfully far away.

When we reached her faded, light blue Chevy, she slipped her arms around my waist without any prompting, fitting all five feet, four inches of her frame neatly into my arms. One of her hands slid up my neck to the base of my skull and she pulled me down for a short kiss. She laughed against my mouth, pulling away and rubbing at her chin with the back of her hand. Her eyes were green. I'd forgotten; I remembered now that they were locked with mine.

Tonia smiled, stroking at my jaw line. "Rougher than I'm used to," she whispered.

My brow furrowed slightly. "Bad thing?"

She smiled. "Na. Tough Guy needs a tough girl. Either that or Tough Guy needs a shave and a haircut," she teased, running her fingers back through my hair.

"You liked it when it was short?" I asked, my eyes rolling up with the reference to my slicked back hair. For a while I'd kept up a longish crew cut when we'd gone together. She'd always liked to run her fingers through it when it was freshly buzzed.

"Hmm, yeah; but I think maybe I like you in general, Bobby Mercer." She kissed me again, and then pulled away reluctantly. I closed the door behind her when she got in her car, and then she drove away.

I slipped my hands into the front pocket of my sweatshirt and walked back to the bar, my grin all cheese.