Chapter 24

Willa and I were getting ready to eat dinner. The buzzer buzzed. I answered it.

“Emma?” I said, completely surprised. Of course, she was going to be the one most surprised and that very shortly. “Come in, come in.”

“Sorry to just drop by like this, but I was nearby and decided to risk it,” she said.

“No, no, that’s fine. You are always welcome. Can you stay for dinner?” I said.

“I might be persuaded to do so; I mean if you’ve got enough for two,” she said, grinning.

“Three,” I said. “But for sure we do.” Just then a stranger, well to Emma, came striding in from the kitchen area.”

“Three...?” said Emma.

“Oops? A guest, I see,” said Willa, with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes, Willa my dear, this is Emma a very close friend, my nurse, from my long stay in Winslow at state expense.”

“Oh, I didn’t mean to interrupt,” said Emma.

“No, no, no interruption. You are always welcome,” I said.

“To kind clear things up, Emma, Willa and I are together. She used to play for pay, and now she’s retired and I’m the luckiest sonovagun in the state. She and I are an item and currently roommates,” I said.

“Oh my. I am so glad for you guys,” said Emma. She seemed shocked and a little something else, but maybe not that.

“I can see you’re surprised. And for the record, she does know about my lack, obviously,” I said.

“Yes, and he saved me,” said Willa. “And, though he has problems with trust, he is going to love me; he just doesn’t fully accept the reality of that yet.”

“Oh well, good. I mean really good,” said Emma.

The conversation got intimate and then heated with everybody talking at once; and kind of fun too over the next hour and a half during which dinner and drinks were consumed quite enthusiastically. Emma was one of the few people in my orbit who I did trust to be privy to my history and, uh, drawbacks: well, she knew almost everything anyway. The only others on my list of trustees being Horace and maybe Briana down the line.

And then it was nigh onto 10:00 p.m. and Emma had to hit then road.

“Yes, he has hooked up with a woman, a woman with a history,” said Emma.

“A woman! Just when we are set to introduce him to a woman who we have vetted to the nines!” said Riley.

“Yes, ma’am,” said Emma.

“You say the woman has a history. I mean is it a history worse than the lady you have identified for our man,” said Rodney.

“Yes, no, well kinda depends on what you mean by worse,” said Emma.

“Okay?” said Riley.

“She’s a prostitute, or actually and ex-prostitute according to them,” said Emma. “And...”

“And?” he said.

“She older than him. Did a few short-term stints in county jail for soliciting over her career. Even did the madam bit for a while, but it wasn’t worth it as she told me,” she said.

“Sounds like they outed themselves pretty good,” said Riley.

“Yes, the both of them did. Didn’t hold back a thing the way it sounded to me. No secrets, is what Adam said. Neither of them ‘give a shit’ were his exact words,” she said.

“How much older?” he said.

“That she didn’t say. But if I had to guess: five years, or ten years. She was older. But like I say, they didn’t mention that particular statistic,” said Emma.

“Jesus,” said Rodney, more or less to himself. Riley’s look was kinda negative.

“So what do we do about this lady that Emma here has identified?” she said.

“We do what we said we’d do. And if things don’t work out with this new hook up the man has apparently engineered for himself. Well...” he said.

“The other will be kept waiting in the wings,” said Riley.

“I guess,” he said.

“We need to talk to Horace, and maybe Emma’s candidate before we just accept things,” said Riley. “I mean in spite of what you said about not wanting to know anything about her.”

“Horace has done a lot to get her a release date which is immanent. But, I’ve talked to Adam a lot over the past few years. Messin’ in his personal life is a no-no,” said Emma. “When it looked like he might never have a woman of his own what we have been doing was likely a good idea. But now...” Rodney was nodding.

“Yes, you make a good point,” said Rodney. “Riley?”

“I guess I have to agree with you guys. But an older woman, maybe ten years older. That would make the lady almost sixty,” said Riley.

“Yes, but remember, he can’t perform, so to speak. That might be the reason, or one of them, why he seems so content as you say, Emma,” said Rodney.

“Yes,” said Emma. “And they, especially Adam, did look to be content with their situation.” The Barneses were nodding.

“What if we were to introduce Parker to Adam, just in case,” said Riley. “Just somebody who Horace helped out because that judge had him do the pro bono thingy. Kinda like what he did for that Leonard fellow, that friend of Adam’s from prison.”

“We could do that, or, have Horace do it, just a kinda accidentally on purpose thing. Then if this new thing of his doesn’t work out, well...” said Rodney.

“Yes, that does give us, him, a possible option if the circumstances call for it,” said Riley.

“Okay, anything else?” said Emma.

“No, I guess not, Emma. I guess we go with what we got,” said Rodney.

Friday and Saturday night were my nights to howl. But with my new woman in tow, I went a little lighter on the gin than had been the case in more recent times; and howling, well that’s an exaggeration, more like crying in my beer. At any rate, the past being what it’s been; things were looking up for me. The bad guys were staying the hell away from me for the most part. And I had a place and a job and a few friends—apart from Willa—and well things were looking up for me. But tonight Willa was actually shopping and wouldn’t be joining me. I would be meeting up with Leonard though. So at least I wouldn’t be tipping ‘em back alone.