Wayward Son (17 page)

“Oh, nothing much.” Mikey licked salt off the rim of his glass. “I’m just imagining telling them I’m sleeping with not one, but
two
guys.”

He drained his drink as Kitty dissolved into laughter. God, he’d missed her. If it weren’t for the whole Disney-dream-job thing, he’d try to get her to move to Atlanta too. She definitely needed to come for a visit, though.

Kitty’s phone buzzed, and she reached for it, still giggling. “Pizza’s here!” she said, pushing the button to open the front gate for the delivery driver. She climbed to her feet and picked up their glasses. “I’ll get more drinks and some napkins. Same for you, or you want something different?”

“Same.” Mikey didn’t much care if he got trashed. The pizza would help offset some of the alcohol, and Kitty would keep him from doing anything stupid. Worst case, he’d end up with a hangover in the morning. He felt warm and safe and happy here, and with the chaos that had become his life, he couldn’t ask for anything more.

T
HE
BED
was shaking.

No, it was the pillow.

No. It was his cell phone, vibrating under the pillow, where he’d shoved it when he fell into bed. He knew the last thing he’d need this morning would be the noise the damn thing would make.

Mikey didn’t attempt pry open his eyes yet. Even the light that seeped through his eyelids was too bright. He scrabbled around with one hand until he got hold of the phone and got it up to face level, then squinted at the screen enough to unlock it. Three text messages, two missed calls, and at least one voice mail.

Fabulous. It was setting up to be a wonderful day.

Still keeping his eyes mostly closed—though his head hurt less than he’d expected—Mikey glanced toward the nightstand, relieved to see that, yes, they’d been wise enough to leave water and painkillers for themselves. Well, one of them had, at least. Mikey hoped Kitty had the same relief waiting for her. Carefully, Mikey sat up and reached for the bottle, cracked it open, and took a few small sips before downing the little orange pills with another swallow of water. He put the bottle down and flopped onto his back on the mattress, one arm slung across his eyes to guard against the evil, horrible daylight.

His phone vibrated again. “Ugh.” Mikey did not want to deal, not without another hour or four of sleep, but he dragged his phone up to see who was bothering him this time. The four texts were all from Jimmy, one late last night and the others this morning.

Booked my flight. Delta 2169, gets in at 12:22. See you tomorrow, honey.

On MARTA. Flight’s on time so far.

At my gate. I hope you’re actually getting these! Gonna be fun trying to find you otherwise. :)

Boarded. I’ll text when we land.

Mikey sighed and typed out a quick response:
Just woke up. At my friend Kitty’s.

The reply came in moments:
I’m gonna rent a car when I get there & you can text me the address. Gotta go. Flight attendant giving me evil eye.

Mikey smiled as he set the phone aside and then forced himself to sit up. A wave of dizziness washed over him, but it faded quickly. He grabbed the water and took another, longer drink, since it seemed his stomach wasn’t going to rebel. He was hungry, in fact, so he pushed to his feet and headed toward the kitchen, hoping for something more than leftover pizza—though he sure wouldn’t turn that down.

The smell of toasting bread wafted down the hallway and into his nostrils, and Mikey pictured one of the dozens of cartoons he’d seen over the years that featured moments like that. He resisted the urge to “float” on tiptoes into the kitchen, but he still gave an exaggerated, healthy sniff.

“Something smells good,” he said, and Kitty yelped and jumped a foot into the air. Mikey laughed and felt guilty at the same time. He’d forgotten Kitty had such a strong startle reflex.

“Good God, give me a heart attack, why don’t you?” Kitty glared but then turned back to whatever she was cooking. “I have coffee and toast and eggs. No bacon and butter. I’m all out. I do have some jam. And I only have grape juice, no orange.”

“Anything’s good. I’m just glad I’m not tossing my cookies.” Mikey crossed over to the coffeepot and opened the cabinet above to retrieve an oversized mug. They’d bought both pot and mugs together when they moved into the apartment, and a number of the other kitchen items and pieces of furniture had been joint selections. Mikey had taken almost none of it with him when he moved, just his clothes and personal stuff, movies and art supplies and such, and it didn’t look like Kitty had added or moved much.

“Any word from back home?” Kitty slid eggs from a skillet onto two plates at the same time that the toaster popped.

“Yeah, Jimmy’s coming down.” Mikey moved to the refrigerator. “He’ll be in around noon. I have voice mail too, but I haven’t checked that yet.” He found the juice, three kinds of jam, and a little carton of half-and-half, all of which he transferred to the breakfast bar, along with his coffee mug. The apartment’s living space was too small for a dining set, so they’d always just eaten sitting on stools at the bar.

Kitty slid their plates into the spaces in front of the stools and opened a drawer for flatware. “Any idea what comes next with everything?”

Mikey shrugged and climbed onto a stool. “The lawyers are working on stuff.” He picked up his fork and poked at his eggs, which were perfectly over medium and dusted with a bit of salt and pepper, just the way he liked them. Kitty had worked in food service at Disney before she made it to the performance cast, and although her repertoire wasn’t extensive, what she did make, she cooked well. Mikey pierced the yolk and watched it run before cutting off a piece of the white with the edge of his fork and scooping it up into his mouth.

“Mmmmm.” He played it up a little for Kitty’s benefit, but the eggs did taste great. He wolfed them down, sopping up yolk with the triangles of toast on the side and washing it all down with coffee. When he pushed back his plate, Kitty gave him a wry grin.

“Feeling better?”

Mikey rolled his eyes and ignored the question. He stood and headed for the coffeepot. “Definitely need more coffee,” he said, then relented. “That was awesome, Kits. Thanks.”

“Welcome.” Kitty’s fork scraped across the plate. “So your guy will be here in, like, three hours. I’m on the late shift today, so I don’t need to be in until four. Want to do lunch together? I wanna meet this guy.”

Mikey bit off his first instinct, which was to make an excuse of some kind to keep that from happening. It was just that: instinct. He had no real reason to keep Kitty and Jimmy from meeting, though he figured they’d either love each other or hate each other. Their personalities were too alike for anything lukewarm.

“Sure, sounds good.” He turned back to face Kitty and leaned his hip against the counter. “One thing you should know about him, though.”

Kitty raised her eyebrows. “That sounds dire.”

Mikey nibbled on the corner of his lip. “Not dire, just…. Crap. I should just come out and say it.” He huffed out a breath. “Jimmy used to do porn.”

Kitty’s mouth fell open. “Like, real porn?”

“Yeah, like real porn. Real gay porn.” Mikey cupped his hands around his coffee cup. He couldn’t quite look Kitty in the eye. “He was a lawyer but he got sick of it, so he quit and went to massage school. And he did porn to pay his way through school. And I think a little longer than that.” He shrugged. “Then he bought this resort place outside Atlanta, and he runs that now.”

In his periphery Mikey saw Kitty shove her plates across the counter toward the kitchen side and then hop off her stool. “So you’re dating a porn star.” Her voice sounded half intrigued, half amused. “Is he any good in bed?”

Mikey rolled his eyes. “Already told all I’m telling on that. And he’s not a porn star anymore. Well, I don’t even know if he was a ‘star’ at all. I know I watched a lot of online stuff for a while there, but I didn’t see him at all. I was, like, barely legal when he quit.”

Kitty moved around the kitchen, rinsing off their plates and loading the dishwasher. “Well, he must be good at something to get you into bed. Found your Prince Charming, Cinderella?”

That made Mikey laugh. “Trust me, neither of those two is nearly innocent enough to be a Disney prince. I think they were born corrupted.”

“And now they’re corrupting you, and you’re loving every single minute of it.”

Mikey couldn’t deny it, so he didn’t try. He just sipped his coffee while Kitty fixed herself another cup. “C’mon,” Kitty said. “We’ll go curl up and watch Hoda and Kathie Lee drink wine while we finish our coffee, and then I’ll let you have the shower first. Does your man like Indian food? I’ve got a craving for a big pile of naan.”

“Sounds great.” Mikey’s phone buzzed in his pocket, and he sighed and dug it out. Another text, this one from Cory:
Just making sure jimmy got holda you

Mikey’s mouth curved into a smile at Cory’s haphazard texting skills as he typed out a response:
Yeah he’s coming here when he lands.

The reply came back in seconds:
good, worried about you. Miss you

That made Mikey’s cheeks warm, but he made himself reply with his first instinct:
Miss you too. Back as soon as I can.

While he had his phone out, he dialed in his voice mail, going through the prompts until his father’s voice filled his ear: “Good morning, Son. When you’re up and about, how about coming by my office? I came across something that might be of some help. I’ll be here all day except from about noon until two. I’ll be speaking at a ladies’ luncheon then. Talk to you later.”

Mikey sighed and deleted the message. He looked up to see Kitty watching him instead of the morning show that played silently in the background. “News from the A-T-L?”

Mikey flushed and grimaced. “Yes and no. The text was Cory checking in, but the voice mail was Dad. Something he found that he wants me to see. I guess I’ll see if Jimmy can take me over there after lunch.”

“Wowzers.” Kitty hugged her coffee mug against her chest. “You’ve got him meeting the best girlfriend and the father the same day? Have to mark this one on the calendar.”

“Ugh.” Mikey leaned to the side and rested his forehead on the arm of the sofa. “I didn’t plan for any of this. I thought I had everything all figured out. I’d just come down and talk to Dad, and we’d figure the whole mess out, and that would be it. But every time I think I’ve hit the bottom, there’s another layer to dig through.”

“Screw that.” Mikey tilted his head far enough to see Kitty’s mouth curled up into a sneer. “The only bottom of anything you’ve got to worry about now is the bottom of that coffee mug. We’re gonna have lunch with one of your men, and then you two are going to go deal with your dad together. And it’ll all get worked out, you’ll see.”

Mikey wished he had her confidence, but he figured he could fake it for a while, at least. He drained his coffee mug and pushed reluctantly to his feet.

“Shower,” he announced.

“Enjoy,” Kitty replied, lifting her mug in a mock toast.

After a quick detour to the kitchen to rinse his mug and slide it into the dishwasher, Mikey headed back down the hall toward the bathroom. He had two hours to get his head on straight before Jimmy would be there to scold him for leaving and try to take over running the show. Mikey couldn’t allow that. He’d let Jimmy help him, but Mikey needed to be the one in charge. He had to find his own footing, especially when it came to facing down his father.

Mikey cared a lot about Jimmy, and about Cory. Hell, he’d probably even fallen a little in love with them. He’d let them support him, help him find his way, but he couldn’t become a real part of their relationship if they couldn’t see him as an equal. He couldn’t do anything about being so much younger than them, but he could at least start acting his age instead of like a lost teenager.

W
HEN
M
IKEY
opened the door to Jimmy a couple of hours later, Jimmy did two things in quick succession: kissed him, then smacked him on the back of the head.

“Don’t you ever run off like that again,” he said. Then he kissed Mikey again. “That one’s from Cory. Just be glad I’m not giving him what else he told me to give you or you wouldn’t be sittin’ down for a week.”

Equal parts embarrassed, relieved, and aroused, Mikey grabbed Jimmy’s hand and squeezed. “Thanks for coming down. I shouldn’t have come alone.”

“Good thing you had me,” Kitty piped up from behind him. Mikey laughed.

“Yeah, whatever. Kitty Chapman, this is Jimmy Black. Jimmy, this is my best friend, Kitty.”

“And a proper introduction too.” Jimmy grinned and let go of Mikey’s hand to reach for Kitty’s, though instead of shaking it, he lifted it to his mouth for a kiss. “Delighted to meet you, m’lady.”

“Wow.” Kitty nudged Mikey with her elbow. “Are you sure you didn’t steal this one out of the Disney Prince vault?”