Tripp raised an eyebrow at him, hoping to remind Winter of the fact that whatever tactics he used, he likely learned them from Winter.
Huffing, Winter narrowed his eyes at him. “Fine! I thought it moved, like the ones we saw in Vegas. I went down there to try and figure out how to turn it on.”
That…Tripp opened his mouth, snapped it shut, then opened it again, squeaking out an unintelligible sound because that was such a Winter response Tripp didn’t know why he hadn’t thought of that before.
“I always figured you snuck down there to take a nap,” Tripp admitted.
“Nope.”
“Damn. Say it was sailable. You don’t know how to steer a ship.”
“What was there to steer? The canal wound around the whole course. I figured once the ship was moving the sides would guide it where it needed to go.”
“There is some logic to that,” Tripp admitted.
“Thank you.”
“But dad would have had your head if you’d succeeded.”
“There is that.”
“And yet, you went for it anyway.”
“Of course I did. It’s what I do.”
Tripp brushed tendrils of hair back from his eyes and undid the elastic he’d been using to tie it back. “What are you going to do if this kid is yours and turns out to be a carbon copy of you?”
“Have a bail fund ready.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
“And beyond that?”
Winter shrugged, flipping his palms to the heavens. “If they’re me, then I should be able to head off some of the more epic mishaps, and the ones I can’t, well, they were a learning experience for me, so I guess they’d be a learning experience for the kid too.”
“Doesn’t that worry you?”
“What?”
“That someday the cops might be knocking onyourdoor explaining to you thatyourkid got caught in the middle of a drug bust because he was someplace he shouldn’t have been.”
“Wasn’t like I set out for that to happen,” Winter pointed out. “And you have to admit I shot some amazing video footage of the place before everything jumped off.”
“True, but you could have gotten shot.”
“How was I supposed to know someone was dealing out of the building?”
Tripp threw up his hands in disbelief. “By looking at the god damned thing. What else would someone be doing there?”
“I was there, and I wasn’t dealing.”
Typical Winter reasoning. Tripp pinched the bridge of his nose and began to count backwards when it dawned on him that he was doing it again. When he opened his eyes, he saw Winter still sliding his finger over the screen, unperturbed by the memory of a moment that could have been deadly for him. Must be nice to be able to take things so lightly.
“All I’m trying to say is that having done a whole lot of shit would give me some unique insight into how to talk to the kid.”
“And if it’s Tavis’s?”