Chapter 16

(Dion)

We Are Not Doing This Today

"No inspection papers, no spot," Dion declared as he waved two wannabe venders to the side and gestured for the next person in line to step forward.

"Wait a minute, we're not moving anywhere until we get a number like everyone else."

"Everyone else provided paperwork to prove that they are legally able to sell food out of their trucks," Dion said as he pinched the bridge of his nose and willed himself not to lose his temper.

With less than eighteen hours to go before the start of their event the last thing he was in the mood for was a pair of guys who couldn't be bothered to read all the rules on the entry form they'd filled out. In bold lettering was the clear instruction that every permit had to be up to date, in addition to providing proof of a current health inspection sticker. The last thing anyone wanted was to showcase the community by making people sick. It certainly wouldn't help their ability to raise the funds they needed for the splash pad. In Dion's experience, anyone who would cut such important corners would shortchange in other ways as well, which could spell disaster for anyone who purchased food or beverages from them.

"We got permits!" the loudmouthed blond declared. He was really the one doing all talking while the other one nodded so much he was beginning to resemble a bobblehead doll.

"Then go get them and bring them here so we can get you registered, it's that simple and goes for anyone else standing in line too. If your paperwork isn't up to date, do us all a favor and step out of line. We've got too much to do to sit here arguing over something that was made clear right from the jump."

"Screw you man!" the blond said, lashing out to kick the leg of the table. It wobbled a little, while the idiot yelped and hollered, hobbling around bellowing like a pissed off bull because he'd forgotten he was wearing flip-flops.

Served him right, the asshole.

"Well, that was pleasant," Ms. Sofia said as she and her son Markie presented their paperwork, all clearly dated and arranged to make the registration process go faster. Most of the other venders had brought their paperwork in the same way, which was making his part of the process a mostly painless affair. "There's always got to be one worm in the apple, it never fails."

"Amen, hun. It's a shame too. It's too beautiful a day for being ugly."

"You can say that again," Dion said. "The forecast calls for more of the same tomorrow. Let's just hope they're spot on again."

"It would be nice," she said as she took her number, while he placed her donation check in the lockbox beside him.

In the distance, he could see Angel, his roommates and everyone from the shop, staging everything in the big tent for set up tomorrow. A couple neighborhood folks had offered to keep an eye on things overnight and Dion was confident that things couldn't be in better hands than Sampson's Security.

It would be a bit odd, not driving back to Bella's with Angel in the passenger's seat, but he and his roommates had planned a game night, probably to keep Angel from climbing the walls, since several of them, unlike Dion, were capable of functioning on little to no sleep. He hoped he got some before they had to come back at six to start setting up or his boy would be cranky and hell on wheels to deal with if anyone acting out like the bigmouthed blond did. With the event kicking off at ten it was a good thing registration was less than an hour from being over. Dion was already worn out and looking forward to falling asleep the moment his belly was full.

From her table several feet away, Bella rolled her eyes, having clearly heard the whole exchange. Her line was shorter and moving much faster than his since she had the advantage of having Kacen at the table beside her, helping move things alone. The two were well on their way towards reestablishing their old friendship and he couldn't have been happier for her. She deserved it. He remembered Kaia from the neighborhood, she and his sister had aways been kindred spirits. The things they'd gotten up to, like the time they'd gone around trying to catch the stray cats in the neighborhood so they could try to find them homes, had been responsible for more the a few of Pops and The Old Man's gray hairs. At least as adults, there was less chance of their exploits leaving them with claw marks on their hands and cut fingers from opening cans of cat food with a faulty implement. Or at least he hoped that was the case. Maybe he should buy her one of those thousand-piece first aid kits, so she'd have something for every contingency?

He handled the next registration with a plan flittering through her head of getting it but putting it in a different box. Something wild and fun from her online wish list. He'd get that item too, of course, but switch boxes and make certain not to give her the fun one until after she'd cussed him out for getting her hopes up. Yes, he knew that would be playing with fire. Yes, he understood how that might be breaking the truce and unleashing a series of interesting one-upmanships until one of them waved the white flag and conceded to their siblings' brilliance. It had been Bella begging for an end to things that time, so she owed him one, something she'd reminded him of often while he'd still been living in Toronto. Now that he was back, he knew it would only be a matter of time before she looked to even the score. He might as well get in the first shot since chances were she wouldn't allow him the last one.

Twenty-five minutes to go. Fortunately, there were no more problems and half his line filtered over to her once they noticed how fast it was moving, so they were able to shut down registration on time. By then, the vehicles carrying their equipment had left and Sampson's crew was in place around the tent. When Angel waved to him, Dion waved back and hurried his way, wanting to get in another hug before he and Bella headed back to Chili-Pops to pick up dinner on their way home.

His boy smelled of fresh cut grass, his mop of curls shimmering wherever the sun hit them.

"Thank you for all your help, Papi," Angel murmured as Dion wrapped him in an embrace. "Thank you for believing that we could do it."

Though it went unsaid, Dion knew that what his boy truly meant was thank you for believing in me . He also knew it would take a lot of deeds, not words, to prove to his boy that he would always be there to support him in whatever endeavor he dove into, provided there was nothing in it that would get his boy hurt. If it ever looked like things were headed down that path, Angel would just have to accept Dion hovering around questioning everything until he was assured of Angel's safety or shut the whole mess down completely and provided his boy with a full list of reasons why.

"I'm glad I could be here to see your creation come to life," Dion said, squeezing him a little. "You make sure you get some rest tonight, even if you just lay there with your eyes closed listening to The Golden Girls."

"I will. Ajay will make sure of it."

"He's a good friend, they all are."

"I'd better get moving before my good friends abandon me for the ice cream shoppe."

"Better get moving, then," Dion said, pinching his ass before releasing him. "And have something besides ice cream."

"We will, we just haven't figured out what yet," Angel replied. "It might take a game or two for us to figure it out, but Lazano's pizza parlor is open until one in the morning."

"And requires someone to go out that late to pick it up, too," Dion reminded him. "I don't want that to be you. Especially not alone."

"It won't be."

"I will hold you to that," Dion said before swatting him on the rear. "Now get moving."

The sharp hiss of breath his boy drew in was music to his ears. Pride in the marks he'd left, and the way Angel had pressed against him several times, just to feel the pressure and sting, surged through him as he watched his boy hurry to catch up to his friends.

"They ground me, Papi," Angel told him at the lake the morning after he'd left them. His tanned skin had already shown signs of bruising when Dion had rubbed cream over the welts. He'd worried, for a moment, that he'd overdone it, until Angel had sighed contently and spoken about how much they'd ground him and remind him that they were always connected, even when they were apart. It had been exactly what Dion needed to hear.

"Ready, bro?"

He glanced over to see Bella waiting several feet away and caught sight of the emblem on the back of Kacen's shift over her shoulder as he headed for a motorcycle parked on the curb.

"Please tell me you don't ride on the back of that thing with him," Dion groaned, thinking back to that first aid kit with the sudden fear that it wouldn't be big enough.

"Not yet."

"Not ever."

"Tell me you've never thought about it," she said as they headed for her Volkswagen.

"Fine. I've never thought about it."

"Seriously."

"Seriously, sis, I have never been tempted, not even once, to throw my leg over the back of one and go rocketing off without any metal around me to keep me somewhat safe from idiots."

"I bet it would feel like flying," she said with the same wistful tone as when she'd helped him cook up that scheme about riding their bikes off the roof.

"Right up until you hit the ground," Dion grumbled, aware of it being his Old Man Dion voice.

Oh well. Old Man Dion was needed in situations like this.

"Awe, don't be like that, bro."

Nope. A thousand-piece first aid kit was definitely not big enough for the longing he heard in his sister's voice

"Be like what, exactly?" he asked as he got in the passenger's seat and immediately reached for the oh shit handle.

"That," Bella remarked, immediately gesturing to his hand placement as she slid behind the wheel. "Worried that everything is going to end with disaster and someone getting hurt."

"What can I say, those big brother instincts are hard to lock away, but if you think they're bad, what do you think will happen when Pops and The Old Man find out about you riding on the back of that thing?"

"The only way they will find out is if you tell them," Bella said as she nosed out between a zippy kia and a slow-moving station wagon.

"You won't have to worry about me telling them anything," Dion said. "I didn't do that shit when we were kids, so I'm sure not going to run back to them now and tell them what you get up to. The rest of the block will take care of that for me, the same as when were little. Won't matter if you have him pull up in the alley, park a half a block up, or several streets away. Someone they know will see you get on or off that bike and will manage to work it into conversation. You know how that generation works. They'll walk right up and flat out ask Pops about the boy you're seeing and his noisy machine and bang, busted."

Bella just threw up her hands for a moment before settling them back on the wheel, her voice a bit whiny when she spoke. "Why's everyone always got to be so messy and up in each other business?"

"'cause they still think it takes a village," Dion pointed out. "Which it does. Everything we've been setting up in the park just proves it."

"I hope people come."

"They will."

"Why can't it just be tomorrow night, so we know if it was a success or not?" she grumbled.

"Because time doesn't work that way, unfortunately," Dion pointed out. "Should I have sent you with Angel."

"No, those guys need time together without partners. It was just them for so long, nothing serious with anyone, especially not after everything Billy and to a lessor extent, Ajay, went through. They both got hooked up with assholes which I still don't understand. It's not like either of them is lacking in the looks department, especially that Ajay, but off he ran into the arms of an idiot."

"You should remember that rant for your next performance."

"I might, with some longwinded embellishments on how hard the dating scene is out here and how we need to weed out the number of asshats somehow so we can all stop wasting time with them."

"Make ‘em carry cards," Dion suggested playfully.

"Annnnt! Annnnt! Warning, Warning," Bella squawked in her best imitation of an automated voice. "Card carrying member of the asshole club coming this way."

"Too bad sidewalk grates don't come with special buzzers you can push so they drop out from under the assholes and send them plunging into the sewers to be carried off to wherever waste goes when it's flushed down the toilet."

"Oh, ewe, now that would be the real way of spotting them right there," Bella said. "Covered in shit and reeking to high heaven. No chance in fucking up and choosing wrong then."

"Eu De Asshole," Dion joked.

"Literally and figuratively," Bella said, laughing. "I've missed you. I'm glad you're back."

"I wish I'd done it sooner," Dion admitted. "I haven't felt this energized in years. Even now, with my back aching from those chairs, all I want is to get to tomorrow and see everyone having a good time on the slip n' slides and visiting all the vendors."

"From your lips to God's ears."

"Amen."

Neither were much for church going, but they believed there was a force of pure love out there trying to drive the universe while thick headed morons ran around creating reasons to park the car and doll out ass whoopings.

"It's gonna be awesome, Bella." Dion said with every confidence. "You'll see."

"I'd better," Bella warned. "Or you are gonna have your hands full playing babysitter when me and Angel drown our sorrows in cheap tequila."

"Why's it gotta be cheap tequila?"

"Because the top shelf shit is for sipping," Bella replied like he should already know the reason behind her choice. "If tomorrow is a bust, Angel and I will be guzzling, burn bedamned, but even we aren't heathen enough to do that to the good stuff."

Shaking his head, Dion turned to look out his window to see the sheer number of signs displayed in shop windows, all proclaiming them sponsors of the extravaganza. Almost every shop had one, and that's how Dion knew it was going to be a success, because when this many people banded together, there could be no other outcome.