Page 58 of Gator

I was sitting in Wolfe’s office with him and Hawk, complaining about just that.

Hawk shook his head. “Dude, at least it’s shoes. I now have an entire room dedicated to yarn. I’ve never seen anything like it.” He could complain all he wanted, but he wasn’t fooling either of us. If having a whole house filled with yarn made Mika happy, Hawk would smile while he helped his boy organize it by color.

“So Julius is settling in okay then?” Wolfe asked.

“He is. I’m thinking I might want to build an aviary for Trixie up on the roof. As long as the weather’s favorable, she could spend time up there while Julius and I are both at work. He hates leaving her in her cage.”

“You should put one in the lounge, too. I know the guys love interacting with her,” Hawk suggested.

“Oh hell no. I’m not leaving her unsupervised with those miscreants. There’s no telling what they would teach her.”

“Are y’all coming down to watch the game tonight?” he asked.

“We’re planning on it. Julius is looking forward to hanging out with Mika.”

Hawk nodded. “Yeah, Mika is excited to have someone else in the building who doesn’t carry a gun.”

“So, back to business,” Wolfe said, looking at me. “Now that you have Axel and Maddox swapping off while Julius is at work, are you up for some tracking training out at the camp?”

I shrugged. “Sure, why not. I didn’t know he had anyone out there right now.”

“He doesn’t, but a new group is coming in next week, and he was asking who I would recommend to do the training while you weren’t available. Usually, Knox does it if you’re on assignment, but he isn’t here right now.”

“I can do it.”

“I was thinking of having Diego go with you. He’s supposedly pretty good, so maybe you can evaluate his tracking ability and how he does as an instructor. If he’s as good as I hear, he might take some of those classes for you.”

“Sounds good. I like him.” I stood. “I have a ton of things to get caught up on since I have been out of the office for a couple of weeks. I’ll see y’all tonight for the game.”

A few hours later, I was up in the condo watching Julius get ready to go watch the game and trying not to laugh.

“I don’t do the whole sports ball thing.” He rolled his eyes. “I mean, I understand the game, I was raised in Texas after all, but what I don’t get is why people like watching it.” He was flipping through his closet trying to find something to wear when he finally stepped back and sighed. “I don’t have anything to wear that’s game night appropriate.”

“Julius, they aren’t going to expect you to dress up. Just throw on some sweats and a t-shirt.”

He stopped, put his hands on his hips, and raised one eyebrow. A look I was starting to understand meant I was clueless. “I would never show up at a party in sweats and a t-shirt. At least tell me what team we’re going for, and I can put on something in their color.”

“Well, the game is between the Saints and the Bills.”

He stared at me blank-faced. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Okay, who do we want to win?”

I chuckled. “We pull for the Saints anytime they play, unless they’re going against Detroit.”

“Cause they’re the best?”

“Oh no, they almost always lose. Well, they did great last year, but most of the time they aren’t all that good.”

“Then why would we cheer for them?”

I didn’t really want to talk about Moe tonight, but I was the one who opened the door, so I had to explain it. That didn’t mean I had to tell the whole story, though, but I could at least tell him enough.

“Maurice Johnson was a guy I served with. We called him Moe. He was from Detroit, and he was a good man. He loved the Lions with a passion.”

“Loved?” he said quietly.