Rason & Eliza - Cee Bowerman Page 0,48
met him?”
“You may have,” Hank mused. “He may have known where you were this whole time.”
“What is he like?”
“Hard. Calculating. Nicole has known him her whole life, and she’s seen a different man than I’ve seen. He’s friends with her grandfather.”
“Poppy?” I’d met Nicole’s grandfather just a few hours ago when he came over for dinner. He was a really nice man. He was funny and personable but had such a commanding presence that I’d just felt like I needed to sit up straight and pay attention while he was around. “I liked him. He’s just . . . I don’t know how to describe it. His demeanor is very imposing.”
“He’s a federal judge, which I think is funny as hell since I’m an ex-con.”
“How does he know our father? Are they friends? I can’t imagine that a man who would knock up a hooker twice and leave her with a son and a drug-addicted baby is the kind of man that would be friends with a judge. It doesn’t really fit, you know?” I thought about what I’d just said for a second and then flatly said, “Wow. My mother was a hooker. That’s not something I ever thought I’d say.”
Hank’s laugh was so loud that it rang out over the big backyard.
“Our illustrious sire is also a federal judge. That’s how he knows Nicole’s grandpa.”
“No way,” I whispered. “Are you serious?”
Hank laughed. “As a heart attack. He was married to a really sweet woman for years and years. They’ve got two sons that are my age or maybe a little older. His wife is divorcing him though. She’s dating Poppy now.”
“What?”
“Yeah, isn’t that some shit?”
“He’s really a judge?”
“Yep. He’s considered quite the upstanding pillar of the community who eats lunch at the country club and is an avid golfer.”
“I wonder if he’d know who I was.”
“Well, he saw you when you were a baby, so I know he knew about you. He held you for a few minutes.” Hank took a deep breath and then sighed. “He handed you back to me and then ruffled my hair and told me to take good care of you.”
“That’s so messed up.”
“I went to school that next week and asked the librarian to help me find a book on how to raise a tiny baby who cried all the time.” Hank held his hands out not much more than a foot apart and glanced over at me. “You were about this big. I remember holding my hands out like that to show the librarian what I meant when I said a tiny baby. She was appalled. That afternoon, child services picked me up from school. They’d gone to get you from the house already and I never saw you again. I always wondered if you even lived. And then I wondered what your life was like assuming you did live.”
“My childhood was great. My parents were awesome. They’d always wanted a baby and then they got me. My dad was the kind of man that knew everything. He read voraciously, just like my mom. I remember him reading a book about carpentry and then he spent weeks building me a playhouse in the backyard. It looked just like our house. It was painted the same color and everything. I spent hours there playing with my dolls. Then it was my reading nook as I got older.”
“I’ll have to build one of those for Janis.”
“Yeah, but watch out. That’s also where I took a drag off my first cigarette, got my first kiss from Tommy Watson, and hid my beer when I was a teenager.”
“No playhouse for Janis. Got it.”
I laughed as Hank shook his head back and forth, in total denial that his baby girl would ever grow up and do anything like I’d described.
“I was a wild one. I never got caught though. I always wanted to break the law, just once, just to see if I could get away with it.”
“Seriously?” Hank drawled. “I broke the law. I did not get away with it and I spent some time in prison. Twice. Let’s just say that I’m glad you didn’t give any of that a try.”
“It’s never too late.” I laughed. “Maybe I’m a crime lord in the making.”
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“Your friend came by and picked up the books you asked me to gather up.” I could hear Mom banging pots around in her kitchen. “Your cats are going to be the death of me. I woke up this morning when