"She had you kidnapped."
"I didn't hold a grudge. You did."
"How could you not have been holding a grudge?"
"Because I knew what it was like to be Danny, to make the tough decisions, to step on some toes when it's needed to provide for your men. Besides, she made it right," he said, meaning by killing the man who'd kidnapped him, because his orders had never been to torture my father, just hold onto him for a while. "Besides, I liked her spirit. And I liked seeing someone take you down a peg or two once in a while. You needed that."
"Gee, thanks, Dad," I said, shaking my head.
"Hey, you want to be told how great you are, you go to your mother. You want real talk, you come to me. And real talk, you can be a dick sometimes. Not judging. I used to be one too when I was your age. But hearing Danny call you out on it was a real treat for me."
"You know what?"
"What?"
"You can still be a dick sometimes," I told him, sharing a smile with my father before Dezi suddenly made an appearance. Shirtless. Inexplicably covered in glitter. And wearing ten different colored beaded necklaces.
"I don't think I want to know," my dad said, snorting as Dezi stopped in the doorway, a hand on his stomach.
"Hm? Oh, this?" he asked, waving at himself. "This is what happens when you happen upon a Happy Divorce party."
"A Happy Divorce party," I repeated.
"Yep. Had a cake and everything. Had a woman pushing a dude off the side of the cake and said Problem Solved. You ever see a woman fresh off a toxic relationship out on the town with all her girlfriends who told her from the jump that he wasn't shit? Wild, man. Wild."
"Where'd the glitter come from?"
"Glitter," Dezi mused, actually having to think it through. "Oh, right. Gay bar."
"You went with a group of chicks to a gay bar?" I asked.
"They had some really good drinks there," Dezi said, sighing a bit at the memory.
"Did Sway go with you?" I asked, knowing the two of them liked to take off on adventures together.
"Last time I saw him, he was under a pile of naked women."
"And you?"
"Me? I'm a gentleman," Dezi declared. "I only brought home the divorcée. She and her dude hadn't shared a bed in years, man. Years. I think she almost broke me," he admitted, grimacing. "I came for some ice."
"Ice," my father repeated.
"Don't," I said at almost the same time.
But it was too late.
"For my balls," Dezi declared, getting a groan out of my old man.
"What'd you do now?" Danny asked, walking in behind Dezi, still wearing my shirt, her hair bed-messy, giving him a knowing look.
"Chapped my balls," he declared, getting a head jerk from Danny before she laughed, slapping him on the shoulder.
"Nothing like a recently-divorced woman, huh?" she asked.
"How'd you know?"
"Because I just passed her in the hallway. She had on a shirt that said 'I got my name changed back' on it."
"Oh, right. She had clothes on at one point," Dezi said. "She on her way in here?" he asked, glancing back.
"She's on her way out the door," Danny said, shrugging.
"What? No. She's supposed to take me to brunch," Dezi said, looking crestfallen.
"Sorry, man," she told him. "If there are still some, I can heat you up a frozen waffle."
"Will you heat up the syrup?" Dezi asked.
"No. Because you're not a child," she said, making her way to the freezer. She tried to hide it, but she totally heated up the syrup when no one was looking.
My dad was right.
There was a lot of soft there.
She just hadn't led a life that allowed her to show it without someone thinking she was weak because of it.
"Wish I didn't use all the whipped cream last night," Dezi said, sitting down to eat his frozen waffle with warmed-up syrup. "What?"
"How do you not need a crane to lift you out of the clubhouse?" Danny asked, shaking her head. "I've been here all of two days, and you've eaten enough food for an army."
"I choke down one of Cary's green drinks every day," Dezi declared just as the man in question came in, still sweaty from the gym.
"Yeah, that balances all that shit out," Cary said, snorting as he went to grab some black coffee.
"Did you get enough sleep?" I asked as Danny grabbed a cup of coffee as well.
"I don't think such a thing as 'enough sleep' exists for today," she said, shrugging. "That's why we have coffee."
"Have you figured out how to lure your loyalists out yet?" Cary asked.
"I've been thinking about that."
"Uh oh," my father mumbled under his breath.
"I think it might be easier for me to go in first," she said.
"What? No," I snapped. No fucking way was I sending her into a room full of enemies, some who might very well want her dead.