Educational Experience

Chapter Twenty-Nine

I felt Wyatt needed to finally assert herself--she's still not as clearly defined as I'd like. Here, she steps up and stands up for herself, a new experience for Colton, too.  Money isn't everything, and Wyatt pretty much says so. And demands respect.

Can he keep up with this little firebrand? Well...yes...and no...

We took the Rover to the Chihuahua lady’s house—you remember her from the night of the fire, right? The little yappy one with the curlers in her hair?

She was there standing on her porch. And her hair looked the same as when she’d had her curlers in it. Old ladies crack me up sometimes—I’d seen that before, where they just pulled out the curlers and left the curls in little rows like that.

So she looked like some kind of cartoon character standing there in one of those old 50s looking house dresses with her skinny little arms locked in front of her like she was trying to look all tough. I felt a little sorry for her, actually. She was like a little fist all balled up against the whole world. And that can’t be a fun way to live your life. Though, it probably kept that hard little heart pumping pretty good, I guess.

She had this good looking kid next to her up there waiting, too. Okay, not really a kid. He was older than me, but only maybe in his early 20s. Kind of “former frat boy” looking guy in this “office casual” ensemble he didn’t look all that comfy in, to be honest.

 But he was that “all American boy” cute—that he knew for sure. You know, the ones with all the smarmy charm that some women still can’t see through. Or don’t even try to see through. I mean, they know they’re only one of many, but it’s all good. They get on the “A-list,” being with guys like that because everyone’s hoping he’ll tag along with her.

This one still had that, “Yeah, you know you love me, baby,” smile down pat. Which made me want to slap him, actually. Not the effect he was going for.

But he turned it up a few watts when he saw me and the girls. Stuck out his hand before I was even up the walk way.

“Paul Brooks!” he said when I got there. And he grabbed my hand and pumped my arm up and down like it was a handle or something. But his eyes were glued to the girls. Such a guy, this guy.

So I just said, “Colton James and company,” hoping he’d let go, which he did.

“Oh, I know! I’m a fan! A big fan!” he said. And then he sort of didn’t know where to go after that, so he grinned up at me and said, “Damn, you’re tall, huh?  Wow.”

And the little Chihuahua lady barked, “Well, I guess you’re not going to be much help.”

Which made Paul go all red in the face. He looked like a kicked puppy hoping the girls would still pet him, maybe, despite the fact that he’d just had his balls snatched off right in front of them.

“Well, lovely ladies, this is my grandmother, Johnette Brooks—Johnny, we call her,” he said. “And she’s the owner of the property. Gammy, you’ve met Colton. But this is…these are his…friends…”

I could tell he was struggling to figure out how to define us in a tasteful way. Or if he should even bother. But his “Gammy” wasn’t impressed. She raised her chin, folded her arms and said, “He’s in law school.”

And Paul flushed a little bit and said, “Yeah, she…asked me to tag along. Moral support, mostly.”

I felt the girls get a little tense. They pick up on everything and this definitely didn’t sit well with them.