Page 111 of Joey

But I notice it now.

I try to picture what it will look like tomorrow surrounded by kids. There will be tables, and chairs, and presents. Probably hundreds of people by the looks of it.

“Can we go back now?” Huck asks. “I’m fucking sweating my balls off out here in this suit.”

“Yeah, let’s head back,” Wald says. “It’s been a while. If the visit isn’t over, then at least the stressful preliminaries are. We should be fine.”

We head toward the terrace where we exited earlier and just as we get to the top step, Joey comes bursting through the doors.

“There you are,” he says. “I’ve been fucking looking everywhere for you guys.”

“What’s up?” Huck asks.

“Yeah, what happened?” Wald says.

“Did you see her?” I add.

Joey takes a deep breath. “I saw her.”

“What’s she like?” I ask.

He smiles. “Perfect,” he says. “She’s just… lovely. Sweet, and pretty, and good-natured.”

“So why do you look so pissed off?” Wald asks.

Joey starts shaking his head. “He’s not gonna let me take her.”

“Take her?” I ask. Confused. Because… “Were we going to… take her?”

“Not today,” Joey says. “But he means not ever.”

“Well, that’s not happening,” Huck says. “She’s your daughter. You deserve to be in her life.”

“Tell Conner that,” Joey says, running his fingers through his hair. “He doesn’t believe us, and he asked me if I bought you two rings, and he brought up a bunch of shit about Johnny, and Jesse, and… what we do.”

I raise my eyebrows. “What you do?”

“Never mind,” he says. “Let’s just go.”

“Go?” Wald asks. “What do you mean, go? We’re staying the night.”

“I don’t want to stay here,” Joey says. “This place…” He looks around, shaking his head. “Does it creep you out?”

He’s looking at me. “Creep me out?” I ask, looking around. “What part of this creeps you out? It’s completely amazing. Like something out of a movie set.”

“I don’t want to stay. Let’s just go. I’ll call the lawyers and have them handle things.”

“Lawyers?” Wald asks. “Really, Joe? What the hell happened that we’ve already devolved into legal action?”

“Excuse me?”

We all turn to see Thomas approaching from the open double doors. “I just wanted to let you know your suite is ready.”

“What?” Joey asks. “We’re not staying.”

Thomas crinkles his brow. Clearly this is news to him. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t told that. Mr. Conner just instructed me to give you four a suite so you can get comfortable and change before dinner.”

“Dinner?” Joey asks.