Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 135696 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135696 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
I wasn’t entirely sure why he was telling me this, outside the obvious of Bubbles being foremost in his mind for a variety of reasons that day, but still, I said, “Okay.”
“He threw Ledger in my face today. Bubbles did.”
I pressed my lips together.
“Said I knocked someone up, got a great kid out of it. I thought he was just talking about what he thought was my good luck, when he thinks his is bad, because he has to think that way or he’d have to admit he’s a mess. But now I’m not sure. Now I think he got some sick thrill outta putting me where I was back then with Angelica. Which was not a good place.”
“I don’t know him, so I can’t say,” I replied carefully when he stopped talking.
He took a pull from his beer, then said, “Well I do know him, and I heard his shit today, so I can say. I think he wanted to watch me stumble. I think he was hoping I would fall. I think he’s so twisted with jealousy, he wanted to take a piece out of me. And then he brings over a bottle of Jack, like he’s my good friend, looking out for me.”
I couldn’t imagine someone I considered a friend doing something like that to me.
“That is really messed up,” I agreed.
“Yeah, so when he said that shit today, it was about him being pissed that I got Ledge out of it. I got the best thing life ever gave me, and that wasn’t his intention.”
It did sound like his ex-friend Bubbles did that.
“Damn, Riggs, I don’t know what to say.”
“Nothing to say.” He took another drink from his beer. “He’s a piece of shit. And that’s what dogs me in my life. I get wound up with pieces of shit.”
“You were just being a good friend. You’re a nice guy, Riggs.”
“Yeah.”
He didn’t sound like he thought that was a good thing.
“I have to ask, it seems pretty clear it’s true, but considering you’re you and I can’t imagine it’s easy to pull one over on you, did Bubbles actually get your wallet?”
“Thought it was weird but had my mind on other things seeing as Angelica was all over me, though I remember clear that night, one of Bubbles’s waitresses handed me back my wallet that I ‘lost.’ Never done that shit before, or since, and when I checked, nothing was taken from it. What I know is, Bubbles could pickpocket a pickpocket.”
Damn.
“So, while you were out, all you thought about was Bubbles?” I probed as kindly as I could.
“Nope,” he said, popping the p, which would be the only mildly cute thing I’d ever seen Riggs do, if he didn’t do it because he was hurt and angry. “I gave lots of thought to what a piece of shit my baby momma is too.”
I reached out and covered his hand on the counter with mine.
“But I can excise Bubbles,” he said. “Her, I gotta deal with for the rest of my life.”
“Do you think she listened to you? What you said on the phone, I mean.”
“Oh yeah. She listened to me. She’s shitting her pants, she’s so freaked.”
“It’s not mine to say, you didn’t ask, but so you know, I believe she should be. I’ve been teaching for ten years. I’ve known hundreds of parents, and you’re a good dad, Riggs.” I wrapped my fingers around his hand and squeezed. “A really good dad. I’ve known fathers who live in the same house as their kids all the time, and they’re less engaged than you are with Ledger.”
Some of the tension seemed to ebb from his broad shoulders before he said, “Honey, I know. I don’t question that.”
“I’m glad.”
“And don’t worry about Angelica. I’ve never seen her like that, at least not since things smoothed out, but it wasn’t about me. It was about Ledger. She’s a female Bubbles in a way. She’s more scared of you than she is of me because she knows her strengths, and her weaknesses. She loves her kids, but she’s competitive, and again, she knows her weaknesses.”
“Ledger seemed pretty excited to see her.”
“He loves his mom. But Angelica had a problem with Kate. Mom, she doesn’t see as competition. She can’t steal one of Mom’s boyfriends or whatever it is that makes her feel like she’s come out on top. But she hated Kate. Tried to make a move on Kate’s man kind of hate. It pissed him off and made him sick to his stomach, and he told Kate immediately. That was fun times.”
Yuck.
“God, Riggs, this is awful.”
He drank the rest of his beer, then looked right at me. “I think you get I like to have a good time.”
“Yes,” I said, because I sure got that.
“I’ve never put anyone on Ledger’s pick-up list, but Mom, Kate, and now, you.”