“More like Icould be,” he said with a chuckle. “And I’m pretty sure your dad could be too if the look on his face while you were talking was any sign.”
“Uh, hi Reggie, nice of you to pop up out of nowhere,” Jude said with a snort. “Are you telling me I should try to convince you guys more?”
“I’m sayingwecould, but your biggest hurdle is going to be your mom,” Reggie said as he walked over to the cabinet in the corner of my office. I didn’t even bother to comment on the fact that he was helping himself to my private stash, just like he helped himself to my office whenever he pleased. Currently, the only place in this resort that he respected as solely mine was my quarters, and some days I wondered when he would treat those as his as well. “Because your dad is right, you’re going to have to convince her, and even if you do, she’s going to want to talk to us. So, if you can convince her, that means you’ll have no problemconvincing us, and it’ll make our job of talking to her a lot easier because you’ll have done all the work softening her up.”
“Are you…using me to talk to her?” Jude asked incredulously. “Like a sacrificial lamb?”
I smirked at Reggie. “It’s called outsourcing; I’m sure I could teach you more about that another time.”
Jude groaned. “You guys are serious, aren’t you?”
“Completely,” I said with a shrug. It wasn’t as if I could deny that Reggie was right; I was already halfway convinced by Jude’s suggestion. Yet if Jude could convince his mother to go along with the idea with a minimum of trouble, then Reggie was right; Jude would have absolutely no problem convincing us.
“Great, now I have to think about what I’m going to say to her,” my son muttered to himself, and I chuckled. “I wasn’t ready for that.”
“Which is kind of on you,” Reggie said with a shake of his head. “You should have realized that freshly turned adult or not, you still have to get your mommy’s permission before you come to the big boy club.”
“There was nothing in what you just said for me to like,” Jude muttered, and though he couldn’t see me, I covered my mouth to conceal my smile. It reminded me of when he’d been about twelve, and accidentally damaged a neighbor’s window, and had learned that yes, he was going to work through the summer to make the money to pay it back and no, he would not see a dime considering we’d already covered the window’s replacement. To him, it had been an entire summer ‘wasted’, but he’d learned to be more careful in the future, so I considered it a win.
“You’ll understand one day,” I told him instead, trying to keep the smile out of my voice.
“Is there some great wisdom you get when you have kids or something? Some wisdom you can’t get without having a kid first?” Jude grumbled.
“No, just a better appreciation for ways to torture your kids,” I told him, giving in and smiling.
I could sense his frown along with the frustration. “I swear, you’ve gotten so much worse about fu…messing with people.”
I glanced at Reggie, smirking. “You might not be an adult yet, but I’m not your mother either.”
“Okay?”
“So, say ‘fuck’ if you want,” Reggie supplied, clearly understanding where I was going with this. “Or any variation. Just do yourself a favor and remember you’re not the kind of person who can get away with using it too often.”
“What kind of person can?” Jude asked with a huff.
“Not you, kid,” Reggie said with a roll of his eyes. “Look, I have no issue with your idea, and I’m sure some guys who come here would be down for it, because you know I’d talk to them about it first, right?”
“Right, of course,” Jude said, quick enough that it could have been suspicious, but I knew my son well enough to hear the eager earnestness in his voice. “I don’t want to use them, and I don’t want them to feel like they’re being used.”
“Good,” Reggie said seriously, but I could see the smile on his face as he said it, even though his tone didn’t betray it. I knew Reggie well enough to recognize that he hadn’t for a moment entertained the idea that Jude had considered ‘using’ other people for his own ends.
The thought took me by surprise, though I didn’t think it showed on my face as I sat there, watching Reggie take no small amount of pleasure out of tormenting my son playfully, but making sure he was getting his point across. It had never occurred to me before, not fully anyway, just how well Reggie knew Jude. Of course, Reggie was good at reading people; it was an expert skill, and I had never questioned whether he should be the one dealing with the guests at Arete.
Yet this wasn’t the same as being able to read someone and adjust; this was the behavior and reactions of someone who knew someone else so well they could act without thought. When I thought about it, he had been a part of Jude’s life often, even if it was just conversations over the phone with me. Yet I knew too that Jude and Reggie texted and occasionally had phone calls I wasn’t privy to. While Charlene had always been curious to the point of asking, I had never probed that relationship. I trusted Reggie so far that I never once felt I should figure out what they talked about, he would never steer Jude wrong…not on purpose anyway, but I had to admit that even if Reggie accidentally steered Jude wrong, it wouldn’t be intentional or detrimental.
“Fine,” Jude grunted, sounding fed up with both of us. “But if I get Mom on board, you both have to agree, right?”
“Oh, you’re going to tell us what the hell you said to your mom to convince us,” Reggie said with a laugh, and then looked a little evil as he added. “Because you will not convince her.”
“Wow,” Jude barked, sounding offended. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“It’s less a vote against you and more an understanding of just how stubborn and determined your mom is,” Reggie said with a shrug. “I’ll believe it when I see it…or hear it.”
“Fine, you will,” Jude said, his voice hard, and I covered my mouth. “You’ll see.”
“Mmm, we’ll see,” I said, adding just enough doubt to add to Reggie’s goading, but making sure I didn’t discourage him either.
“Dad!”
