Chapter 56
He needed to get a grip; it was their first goddamn date. Scooter took a breath and said, “Well, maybe Debbie will just keep him this time.”
“Debbie gets the Boy Wonder, and I get the dog?” Andy said. “Square deal.”
Not that Trick was the only one who missed Jeff; Andy filled a space, but not Jeff’s. Jeff was all sass and terrible habits and bad puns. Jeff was an adrenaline junkie who got off on base-jumping and had been arrested more than once for trying to scale the Rotunda. Who got tanked off his ass and started bar brawls out of boredom. It had been…quieter this summer, so far. Scooter eyed Andy, wondering if the two of them would get along; Jeff wasn’t easy-going and tended to steamroll anyone who couldn’t keep up with him. Jeff might be a little much for Andy. Or, Jeff might decide that he needed a little brother in his life. Jeff was an asshole, but when someone needed it, Jeff Tucker was right there, willing to lend a hand. Or a fist.
Scooter pulled the truck into one of the street-side parking spaces. “Make sure you have a hold of him,” Scooter cautioned. “He knows exactly where we’re going.” The air was full of smells; there was a bakery on the block, as well as Stella’s Coffee, but the aroma of pepperoni and tomato sauce, sausage and garlic was by far the most pungent and compelling.
Andy had to push Trick down off his lap three times before he could even open the cab door, and as predicted, the dog tried to take off running as soon as his paws hit the ground. Andy, having wound the leash around his arm several times, dug in his heels and laughed. “Brat-dog, c’mon, heel!”
Scooter waved at the blue-haired girl who worked the counter at the comic book shop and led Andy onto the patio at Cogan’s. A heavily tattooed waitress dropped a menu on the table and took their drink orders, and then cooed over Trick, who always knew a sucker when he met one. “Bring us two orders of knots, garlic for us, and plain for the garbage dog, would you?”
Despite it being the slow period between lunch and dinner, a few other tables were occupied; Cogan’s was always busy. A group of college-aged bears were clustered around their phones. A guy Scooter thought he’d seen here before was reading comic books with one hand and stuffing a monster slice into his mouth with the other. A lesbian couple was sharing a root-beer float, the tiny butch girl with her half-shaved head sitting in the lap of a Valkyrie of a woman. Nostalgia snuggled up in a corner of his brain.
“Used to want to move here, back when I thought my parents would live forever,” Scooter said. “Had it all planned out. I was gonna finish school, and then get one of those condos along the Hague. Managed a two-year degree before the money ran out, and it’s been running Dockside ever since. I don’t even get the chance to come hang out too often anymore.”
Andy hummed thoughtfully. “Looks like a nice neighborhood. Miss it a lot?”
“Not so much as to change anything,” Scooter admitted. The waitress brought out the knots, oily and cheesy and stuffed with enough roasted garlic to kill an entire coven of vampires. Shallow black bowls held more garlic butter, marinara sauce, and some sort of white, hot-spicy goo.
“What can I getcha?”
Trick was already nose-deep in his plain knots, snarfing them with abandon, flecking drool all over the patio floor.
“You are a disaster,” Andy told the dog with affectionate exasperation, not entirely unlike Kat talking to Scooter, come to think of it. He flicked a tentative glance at the waitress, then peeked at Scooter. “You order; I don’t know what’s good.”
“It’s pizza,” Scooter said, rolling his eyes. “It’s all good. Pick a topping, gorgeous.” One of these days, Scooter was going to find whoever it was that made Andy so terrified of his own opinion and punch them in the mouth a few times.
“Pepperoni, then,” Andy said. “Gotta start with the classics.”
“All pepperoni, and mushrooms on half, too, okay? Thanks.” Scooter grabbed a knot and ate it, then licked oil off his fingers; too damn good to waste it on a napkin. “Dunno if it’s up to your standards, but this is the best pizza place in the whole Tidewater area.”
“Yeah?” Andy grinned. “We’ll see, I guess.” He nibbled on a garlic knot, more interested in surveying the street than in the food. When he’d finished it, though, he caught Scooter’s eyes before licking off his fingers, slow and sensual, that maddening little half-smile dancing around his lips.