“Thatch, Cassie,” he acknowledged when he finally released Kline, and then wrapped Georgia in a hug. “This is some shindig, huh? Not Maur’s usual charity scene.”
I glanced around the neon spectacle. “Yeah, I don’t think the crusty upper-class crowd is happy about it, but it seems to be a big hit.”
There were more people here than I’d ever seen at one of these things, and the atmosphere was really fucking cool. Glowing shirts and neon-looking water all the way down a giant Slip’N Slide that had to be five hundred feet long. There was nothing adults—especially ones like me—liked more than acting like a big fucking kid. Doing it for the good of someone else was even better.
“Thank fuck,” Dick snapped. “Only so many times I can sit through one of those fucking hoity-toity dinners.”
“Dad!” Georgia scolded.
“Hey, I’m with Dick,” I said, and Cassie agreed, “Me too.”
I raised an innuendo-filled eyebrow. Savannah noticed. “Wow. There’s some really great sexual energy between you two.”
I smiled, but Cassie didn’t stop there. She never did. “That’s because we’re banging like bunnies.” When other people got embarrassed, Cassie became emboldened. It was so fucking sexy.
“Fantastic!” Savannah shouted. Dick held out his knuckles for me to give him a pound, and Georgia dropped her head into her hands. “Why me, God?”
“Baby,” Kline said through a laugh, tucking her into his chest.
“Where’s your mom, Kline?” Savannah asked. “I want to say hi.”
“She’s here somewhere,” he muttered. All our eyes scanned the surrounding crowd to see if we could find her, but really, it was like looking for a little piece of conservative fluff in a giant lint ball.
“Oh!” Cassie pointed out, completely defying the odds. “There she is.”
“Maureen!” Dick yelled loudly. I shook my head and looked to the ground. “Here! Here! Over here, Maur!” Kline’s mom struggled to lock on to the face in the crowd calling her name.
“Goddamn these crowds,” Dick grumbled.
Cassie let go an ear-piercing whistle that silenced the entire crowd and made them turn to us. Maureen’s eyes found the group along with everyone else’s.
“I knew there was a reason I liked you, other than your rack,” Dick told Cassie.
Georgia sighed. “Oh, Dad.”
Cassie didn’t mind at all. “Thanks, Dick.”
I pulled her a little closer, and she laughed. Phil tugged on his leash occasionally but mostly just rooted around at everyone’s ankles. Normally, Kline would have reacted, but I guess a horse-sized dog and his asshole feline lover had really desensitized him to animal distractions.
Bob caught up to Maureen just as she shuffled over to the group.
“Good job on the one-dollar beers, Maur,” Bob said, lifting his cup in salute.
“Are you already drinking?” Maureen asked, aghast. “I still have things for you to do.”
“Relax. I’ll do them. But you can’t get a one-dollar beer anywhere anymore!”
“I know a place,” I put in, and Kline shook his head. Probably at the image of Bob and me out on the town together.
Bob wasn’t deterred, pointing to me with pizazz. “You’re on.”
“Bob, please,” Maureen said. “Can you keep your eyes on the prize?”
“Uncle Thatch!” I heard the scream just as a little body ran into the backs of my legs. Handing the leash to Cass, I turned and picked up my favorite girl. I had a favorite woman now too.
“Hey, hey, Princess Mila. Where are your mom and dad?” I asked just as Frankie and Claire came into view. She pointed anyway. The crowd was thick, and they didn’t have the same ability to run through people’s legs.
“She took off as soon as she saw you,” Claire huffed, out of breath, as they made it to us.
I smiled and looked at Mila. “You ready to do your slide thing, girlfriend?”
“I’m not your girlfriend,” she laughed. “Aunt Cassie is!”
“Who’s this?” Bob interjected.
“I’m Mila,” she said in answer. “I’m six years old, and those are my parents.” She pointed at Claire and Frankie. “I used to think I was gonna be a school crossemguard, but now I want to take pictures like my Aunt Cassie.”
“She better wait a few years to take pictures like you,” I whispered into Cassie’s ear, picturing the half-naked men, and she smirked.
“Welp,” Dick muttered. People had started to go down the slide in the background. “Just saw a nipple.”
I bugged out my eyes as Mila asked, “What’s a mipple?”
“A—” Savannah only got out one word before Georgia shrieked in panic. “Mom! No!”
“I got this,” Claire said as she stepped in and pulled Mila from my arms. Thank fuck.
Meanwhile, satisfied that her mom wasn’t going to corrupt any more youth, Georgia had gotten a good look at the nipple offender. “Is that fucking Leslie?”
“Good thing Mila’s gone,” Cassie muttered in an aside. I looked back to see Claire and Frankie taking her for a closeup view of the slide. She dipped her little fingers into the water and pulled them out to see them glow.
“What’s Leslie doing here?” Georgia went on.
“I had to invite her,” Kline defended cautiously. “I invited the whole office.”
His wife scoffed. “Ugh. Why does it have to be Leslie? How is it even possible you haven’t fired her yet?”
Kline shrugged.
Her eyes narrowed, and she started quizzing him. “Where’s Meryl?”
Kline kept his calm like he always did, assuring her in a very diplomatic tone that he was in no way paying favoritism to Leslie of all people. “Meryl said very explicitly that I’d see her here, and I quote, over her dead body.”
All of our heads swung back and forth with their verbal volley.
Dean popped up out of nowhere. “Did you guys just see that? The witch is officially wet. I’m hoping her skanky tits will melt.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t go down the slide,” I told Cass. She laughed and fluffed her tits higher with a squeeze of her arms for me. I groaned, bit my lip, and when my dick jerked in my shorts, I forced my eyes to safer locations.
“Dean,” I greeted.
“Hey, Mr. Man. Goodness, you are a tall drink of water. You wanna be my slide buddy?”
“Back off, Dean,” Cassie threatened teasingly.
“Shoot.” He turned to Kline. “How about you, BDB? You need somebody to grease your Slip’N Slide?”
“Dean!” Georgia yelled through a laugh. “He’s still your boss.”
Maureen had already flitted off to deal with something, but that was the last straw for Bob and Dick.
“I think we better go do that thing, Dick.”
“Good idea, Bob. You coming, Vanna?”
“Sure thing,” she muttered as she winked at Dean and spoke to him directly. “We’ll chat more later, sweetcheeks.”
“Kisses,” Dean agreed in dismissal.
I smiled and looked around us aimlessly, only to spot someone I knew. “Hey, it’s Clinton.”
“Clinton?” Dean asked.
“Thatch’s little brother,” Kline explained with a laugh.
“There’s a little mini-me version of you?” Dean asked with interest.
I turned to get Clint’s attention, but I heard Georgia explaining in the background. “Down, boy. It’s the Big Brothers Big Sisters program with the city. Cassie set it up for him.”
“Clint!” I called loudly to get his attention. He turned on a dime, eyes scanning the crowd. I was easier to find since I towered above almost everyone.
He waved as if to say, “Oh, hey, Thatch.” I wasn’t really sure if it was out of obligation or excitement. I wasn’t exactly used to being forced on someone by an organization. Forced on people by myself, sure.
“I’m glad you came out,” I told him as I got to him. “Looks like you’ve already made a trip down.” His skin and big white T-shirt glowed with the fluorescent water, neon green, yellow, and orange tingeing every exposed surface.
He looked down at himself and laughed. “Yeah.”
Cassie had set this up as one of her many jokes, but I had to admit I was having a blast. Helping Clint and mentoring him was one of the best things I’d ever done. I didn’t know if I was the best fucking example, but I was trying.
“How’d that math test go?”
“All right, I guess.”
“Just all right?”
He shrugged.
“Let me know when you want to get together, and we’ll go over everything again.”
“You don’t gotta do that,” he said. “You already taught it to me once.”
“I know I don’t have to,” I replied. “But I want to.”
His face seemed blank, but I knew he was actively thinking it over.
“You here with your friends?” I asked.
“Yep.”
They stood behind him, watching us with interest. I stuck out my fist for a pound. “Okay, man. I’ll let you get back to it.”
He nodded and turned to leave, but after a brief pause, turned back. “Thanks, Thatch.”