188 - Bowling Shirts

188 - Bowling Shirts
Every kid is one caring adult away from being a success story. – Josh Shipp

The women planned to eat at Cognac and would then go over to the Cowboy Cabaret with Sam going to her brother’s house for the night. Reese was glad that Neo and Jolene had taken the girl in and filed for custody. They had received temporary guardianship pending an investigation and  judge’s decision. Just as Neo was walking into Reese’s home office, the new children’s services case worker had called. With a confused look, Neo had answered the call on speakerphone.

“This is Charles Neosho.”

“Mr. Neosho, this is Charles Griffin.”

Neo grinned, since they had discovered that they both had the same first name, they had been using full first and last names with each other. Just as Charles Neosho was Neo to those close to him, Charles Griffin was Griff to his friends and family. To each other, the two veterans used their first names like a rank or title.

“Yes, sir,” Neo sat down in the guest chair in front of Reese’s desk, placing a large brown paper kraft bag on the floor next to him. “How can I help you?”

“The judge has ordered that the younger boys be removed from the Sanderson house-“

“When do you want us to go get them?” Reese demanded.

“I’m… I’m sorry?”

Neo chuckled at the other man’s confusion. “That’s my father-in-law. I’m at his house for his bachelor party. He and his wife are finally having a formal wedding tomorrow night.”

“Well, um, we can place them with a temporary family until you can come get them on, say, Monday…”

“Or we can come get them now,” Reese told the man.

“I don’t think it would be good for them to be picked up and then left alone or with more strangers while you go… to the strip club or whatever.”

“We’re going bowling,” Neo told him with a little laugh. “It’s the women who are going to the club. They are headed to the Cowboy Cabaret after dinner.”

“Oh, well…”

“We can come get them tonight,” Reese said. “Hell, we can come get them right now.”

Stopping in the doorway with CJ asleep in his arms, JD asked, “Who are we going to go get?”

“Sam’s younger brothers,” Reese said holding his arms out for his grandson.

“Cool,” he said walking in and handing the sleeping newborn over. “They’re on my team, you get Coop.”

“Are you two fighting?” Neo asked.

“No, he just sucks at bowling,” JD smirked as his partner entered the office.

“I can roll the prettiest gutter ball you’ve ever seen,” Cooper declared.

“You really are going bowling for your bachelor party?” Griff asked with amusement in his voice.

“I am, how good is your game because apparently my son-in-law sucks.” CJ whimpered in his sleep and Reese adjusted him to lay against his shoulder and made soft noises at him. “I’m sorry, little guy. I still love your daddy; he just needs to improve his game.”

“He’s in full grandpa mode now,” Neo laughed. “Are the boys at the house?”

“No, they are here at my office. They are hanging out in one of the rooms playing video games with one of the interns.”

“Great, I’ll text my other brothers-in-law, pry the baby away from his grandpa and we’ll head that way.”

“What about your wife?”

“Does she need to be there?”

“No,” Griff drew the word out about four times longer than the single syllable. “But do you need to talk to her?”

“Ha!” JD scoffed. “My sister would kick his ass if she found out that he had the chance to rescue Sam’s brothers and did not do it.”

“Not to mention what your mother would do,” Cooper pointed out as he approached Reese to take the baby from him.

Reese glared at Cooper. Standing up, he declared, “You guys make the plans for getting my new grandsons, I’m going to take this little guy down to Candi.”

He took the diaper bag from Cooper before leaving the office. Neo made arrangements to meet the case worker and do whatever else needed to be done for them to take temporary custody of the two boys. When he returned to the office, Neo was on the phone with Jaxson. He and Ty were already at the bowling alley and had reserved three lanes.

“Okay, we’ll probably be there in about an hour or so,” Neo said as he looked up to see Reese coming back into the room.

“Sounds good,” Jaxon replied from the other end of the call. “We reserved all three lanes for the full night. Ty is going to go to the sports shop and request that they make two more shirts.”

“No need, I had a minimum order, I have plenty,” Neo looked down at the bag next to him. “More than plenty.”

“What shirts?” Reese asked.

“Later,” Jaxon laughed as he ended the call.

Shaking his head, Neo grabbed the bag and pulled shirts out. He tossed a black shirt to JD and then Cooper. “If they don’t fit, let me know, I have more of these. Only one of yours.”

Reese caught the white shirt and unfolded it as the others changed shirts. He discovered that other than the color, the big difference was on the back. A bowling ball rolling down the lane had LET’S GET THE BALL ROLLING written in a circle around the ball, all printed in black. The other shirts had a pin screen printed in black on the back with EMOTIONAL SUPPORT PIN written underneath.

All the shirts had white pins with a red line at the neck with TEAM GROOM written above. The front pin had a jacket collar around the neck and running to the waist on its front. Beneath it had Reese’s Bachelor Party and the date. On the right sleeve was the bowling alley logo.

“If it’s too tight,” Neo grinned at his friend as Reese pulled his shirt off, “suck it up, buttercup. That was the biggest size that they had.”

Reese pulled it on and it stretched tight across his chest and around his upper arms. He tucked the shirt in and then grinned at the other men. “Let’s go get my grandsons and then go see how bad Cooper really is.”

“Horribly bad,” Cooper admitted and JD agreed.

Just shy of an hour later, Neo escorted two nervous preteens into the waiting room where Reese and Dean’s men waited. Neo had a hand on each of their shoulders. “Gentlemen, this is Gabriel, he’s ten, favorite color is dark red, loves American football and is a fan of the Falcons.”

“That’s my boy!” Reese declared as he looked for his Falcons tattoo. Cooper rolled his eyes as he touched the tattoo on the back of Reese’s left bicep.

“And this is Abraham, he’s twelve, favorite color is bright red, prefers soccer football and what is your favorite team?”

“Manchester United,” he said quietly.

JD grinned, “Our brother-in-law works for Man U.”

The boy’s eyes went wide with excitement, “Really?”

“Yup,” Cooper agreed. “He may already be at the bowling alley.”