Page 91 of Beneath the Stain

“Well,” Mackey drawled, “I could have said I was only bi when I was high, but if I was gonna stay sober after rehab, that would mean I never got laid again.”

This time the laughter was louder, and Mackey nodded, touching Blake’s shoulder. Off-screen, Trav had been giving everyone the wrap-it-up signal, and they’d moved back into the center and out of the limelight.

“Did we dance well enough, Mr. Music Box Man?” Mackey asked dryly as they cleared the foyer.

Trav had no choice but to nod. “You did great, guys. Do you want a banana, or would you settle for a ride home in three days?”

“God, I want to go home,” Blake burst out, and Mackey seconded it.

“You weren’t shitting about the gym, right?” Mackey’d asked, and Trav had to smile, thinking back on it. Apparently working out was part of their daily regimen. When Trav had put Kell in charge of setting up a gym in the second garage, Mackey and Blake had about wagged their tails and lolled their tongues in gratitude. Well, good. In Trav’s experience, hard-worked bodies were bodies that kept out of trouble.

He’d said good-bye and come home, to where Kell was recording the press conference onE!. After watching it with the gang, he felt a little thrill of warmth in the pit of his stomach.

“They look good,” Kell said avidly, and Jefferson and Stevie concurred.

“I hope we’ve practiced enough,” Stevie said, sounding worried. “Man, he kept sending us songs and shit—if we don’t hit the studio sounding prime, he’s gonna lose his fucking nut.”

“Yeah, well, I’m sort of missing the studio,” Jefferson admitted, throwing himself back on the couch. “I missthe band. This is the longest we ain’t played since Mackey gathered us in a circle in our living room, you know?”

Trav couldn’t keep his curiosity contained. “Mackey formed the band? How old were you?”

Kell closed his eyes like he was setting the date up in his head. “Yeah, it was a couple of months after Cheever’s dad left. Mom went on a religion kick for a year—she was cleaning the organ player’s house anyway. So she had us go learn guitar and piano while she was working.”

Trav nodded, seeing the scene clearly behind his eyes as Kell talked. Mackey in the middle, ordering all the older kids around, the older kids desperate for a diversion, and the song about fighting just spilling out of Mackey’s agile brain.

“God,” Trav said when Kell was done, “he’s really something, your brother. You know that?”

Kell squinted at him. “Yeah, but straight guys don’t usually say that about other guys.”

“I’m sayin’,” Jefferson agreed.

Shelia stated the obvious. “Well, it’s a good thing Mackey’s not straight,” she said. “Next time Trav can say it tohim!”

Trav’s face went hot. “I’m gonna go start dinner,” he muttered.

“Don’t worry, Mr. Ford,” Shelia chimed in. “Astrid put stuff in a Crock-Pot for us tonight. I’ll put the buns in the oven in an hour. We’re good.”

Trav sighed. “Then I’ve got work to do in my room.”

Anything, anything, but think of three days and Mackey walking through the door, and what the hell they were going to do with themselves then.

TRAV’SBROTHER, Heywood, had two kids. Trav remembered asking once, “What’s it like? You go to the hospital with your wife and come home with a whole other person?”

Heywood, who grew his carrot-red hair to his shoulders and did the same wispy beard thing Blake did, smiled shyly. “It’s the weirdest thing—it’s like you spendmonthsgetting the place ready for the baby, right? Stacking the clothes, buying the dump truck of shit that goes with this little person, studying baby, taking baby classes, just preparing to change your life for the frickin’ baby. So we get the baby home, Nina goes into the bedroom to sleep, and it’s just him and me, right? He’s asleep. He’s gonna sleep for the next three hours. So there I am, a clean house, nothing to do but take care of the baby. Would you believe I watched football? Hadn’t caught a game in weeks, but I saw the whole damned thing before Ian woke up and needed to be fed. It’s not always like that—most of it’s not like that—but changing your life is really weird. Nothing’s the same with kids except us. We’re still the same people. It’s all you got.”

That was Mackey’s first couple of days in the house.

He arrived and looked around in appreciation. “All this?” he asked quietly. Blake was loud—he toured the outside with the swimming pool and the downstairs with the gym, whooping and hollering the whole time.

Mackey just looked around with big gray eyes, and Trav wondered what was going on behind them.

“Yeah, Mackey. I had control of your finances for a bit—you can look at the numbers, but with all of you here, you still have plenty to manage.”

Mackey smiled faintly. “Would you believe I didn’t even think about that?” he asked, full of self-deprecation. “I’m just so damned excited we have a house.”

Trav smiled back the same way, because Mackey was beingdamnedquiet, and he didn’t want to scare him. “Would you like to see your room? I ended up ordering the furniture myself, but—”

“Thank you,” Mackey said, tilting his head. “I’d love to see it.”