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Idle Hands

Sitting on Oliver’s bed, Stan put the phone down, giving it a good long glower. He and Sam had been together for over ten years and he could tell there was definitely something wrong, something very wrong. What? Obviously, it had something huge to do with Oliver but why would Sam say he was in more danger than their son was? It did not add up.

“Everything okay?” asked Deacon, voice tentative.

Stan slowly shook his head, “I don’t know,” he replied. He trusted Sam implicitly. Something about Oliver coming to the school seemed to have pushed her over the edge resulting in that completely out of character emotional meltdown about losing her son. He wondered if it had something to do with her own family, the one she rarely ever spoke about other than to say it was complicated and fucked up. She let him know she was essentially estranged from her mother and a handful of older sisters. There was never ever any mention of her father and Stan wondered if there was something ugly there, something so traumatizing or shameful and dark she did not want to revisit. Respecting her, he did not push. How did that play into what was happening now? What did she know she was not sharing and why? Why keep him out of the loop? Thinking more about it, why would she tell him to go get a motel somewhere and not go home? She seemed nonplussed not only by the notion the gray haired woman did something mystical like to him, but also by the fact she could. Odd.

Too many weird things were going on and he really did not like being in the dark. Curse Sam for being right though. What could he do? Go over there and start punching out sorority girls? Brought up in foster care, he learned never to raise a hand to a woman. Not his style. He could he just sneak over there and sniff around, see what might turn up? That would make him a lurker or a stalker or something equally as creepy. He already got the third degree vibe from the cop. Wait. The cop. Reaching into his shirt pocket, he pulled out the police officer’s card and re-read it. She seemed to be pretty into him. Could he maybe play her somehow, get her to divulge some of what was going on?

Breaking the mounting silence, “Are you formulating a plan?” Cady asked.

Stan looked at her, eyes narrowing. Who was she again? “You and Deke here boyfriend girlfriend kind of thing?” he asked, slipping the cop’s card back into his pocket. Color touched both Cady and Deacon’s cheeks.

Eyes drifting down to his hands, “Friends,” Deacon replied, bashful.

A touch of color in her cheeks, Cady nodded but said nothing.

Eyes on the girl, “Tell me about that sorority, who are they?” Stan invited.

Cady shrugged her shoulders, “I really don’t know,” she started, glancing sideways at Deacon. “Like I told him, they come in to the shop where I work sometimes, which isn’t really too strange because I think the owner Carol used to belong to that house back in the day, but mostly it’s their attitude, they just come across as, I don’t know, bitches?” she finished.

Nodding his head, “Entitled,” added Deacon.

A wolfish grinned appeared on Stan’s face, “This Carol used to be one of them hey? Where do you work?” he asked. Could he maybe somehow squeeze some information out of her? Might be easier than trying to get the chick cop to up with the skinny. Besides, coffee shop chick was not packing heat, or more cops. Interesting. While he would not hit a woman, Carol would not know what he may or may not do.

Cady wobbled her head back and forth in a noncommittal fashion, “Across the concourse over at Cup of Joe’s. As for Carol, I think so but I’m not really a hundred percent,” she answered.

“Uh huh,” Stan replied absently. The broads at the sorority house did not seem to bat an eye at him, meaning they were not worried about him in the slightest. That fact did not escape his notice. Did they all have the crazy ability to make him woozy, or just the gray haired dame?

“What do we do?” Deacon asked.

Stan held up a hand, “First off, I don’t think this is a ‘we’ type deal my young friend. Don’t get me wrong, I totally appreciate everything you’ve done, but right now I think you need to keep back a bit, you know, be my ace in the hole if this thing spins out of control,” he said. He still had no clue how those women were able to affect him the way they did and the last thing he wanted was to be worrying about this stand up kid.

Deacon looked a little crestfallen.

Stan grinned at the boy. “Right now, we need to take it slow and easy, you know, there is something odd going on over at that chicken ranch and someway Oliver is balls deep in it. I think your initial assessment was bang on, he needs our help, the problem is we don’t know what the shit is going on and the last thing we want to do is run over there with our dicks in our hands,” he started, pausing to raise his hands and smile at Cady, “figuratively speaking of course.”

Cady gave him a half smile, “Thank goodness,” she replied.

Feeling more and more himself, Stan pushed himself up off the bed, nodding at the two younger people, “I’m just going to go and get a little intel, see if I can’t get some of these pieces to match up,” he advised. Glancing at Cady then back to Deacon, “You remember what we talked about concerning the phone, that thing only me and you know?” he asked, inclining his head and raising an eyebrow.

Deacon frowned a moment before catching onto what Stan was talking about. “I got it,” he assured.

Cady glanced from boy to man and back, “I presume this is like some secret handshake stuff between you two,” she stated.

“Just a precaution,” Stan said with a friendly grin. Honestly he did not care if she felt a little put off by the code, he still was not convinced she was uninvolved.

Cady smiled back and chuckled, “Sure,” she replied.

“So what am I supposed to do?” Deacon asked.

Spreading his hands, “Just act natural, be yourself, maybe take this lovely young lady out for lunch or something,” Stan suggested.

Deacon nodded and glanced at Cady.

“I’d love to,” she said without being formally asked.

“That’s settled, I’m off,” Stan stated, before bidding the pair goodbye and setting off to find the café.

  

 

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