Troy has managed to get to his feet and is reaching for Tanner. “You’re coming with me, goddamn it! You’re my son! Get in the goddamn car, Tanner!”
I step between them, and press my hand into Troy’s chest. “I’m trying to do right by these boys and not let them see me beat you fucking senseless, but you’re testing me.”
Troy smirks, and looks between Tanner and Rawley on the lawn behind me.
“No need to fight. I came for my son, and I’m not leaving until my son gets in the car.”
I don’t know why, but it grates on my nerves that this man hasn’t acknowledged the fact that he has three sons, and yet he’s only here for one of them.
“You think Tanner is gonna get in a car and just go with you? Do you even understand how stupid that is? How stupid you are?” I take one step toward him, and catch his fist in my palm when he throws another punch. “No more. You’ve had enough now. See I was trying to showmyboys that real men don’t resort to violence, but you’re testing menow, Troy, you and your goddamn mouth and your bad fucking manners. Now if you keep calling Tanner your son, and keep insisting on shit you have no business insisting on, then I’ll have to teachmyboys the only exception to the rule about no violence.” I grab Troy's jaw, and he grunts. “No holds barred when it comes to protecting the ones you love.”
I drive my knee into his groin with the force of my entire varsity football field, and Troy folds in half, collapsing on the lawn. I take the knife from his boot and let him writhe in pain. At the end of the street, police sirens whoop.
I turn and look at Tanner. “Can you two go sit with Archie at Mrs. Salingers?”
Tanner nods and walks off, but I hear his sniffles, and see the way his chest wracks silently. Rawley closes the distance between us, still out of breath from trying to fight his father. I don’t waste time. I pull him into a hug. “The way you were protecting your brothers was damn honorable. You make me proud, Rawley, and your mama is gonna be so proud too.”
We pull back. It’s the first time we’ve ever hugged. He looks up at me with wide eyes. “He said he’d hurt Archie if that’s what it took to get Tanner in the car.” He shakes his head, clearly in shock. “I didn’t know what to do.”
I place my hand on his shoulder. “You did everything right. Why don’t you go check on Tanner and Archie, over at Mrs. Salinger's place, okay?”
He nods. I can see he needs distance from this. He starts heading in that direction, casting a second and third glance at Troy on the ground. “Should I call mom and tell her?”
I shake my head. “No, she’s gonna be home shortly anyway. I don’t want her driving in a mad panic while crying. Everything’s okay. We’re okay, alright? So let’s let her get home safely, then we’ll talk.”
He nods as two police cruisers pull up. “Thanks, Dean.”
With all three boys next door, I let out a shaky breath, rattled as hell. The police officers stride toward me, and I introduce myself as we shake hands.
Dash Foster, the Bluebell police officer who responded to the call, cuffs Troy and puts him in his partner’s cruiser right away. We stand on Clara June’s lawn as I tell him everything that happened, and then he heads to Mrs. Salinger’s to talk to Archie, Tanner and Rawley.
After an hour, it’s all over. The cop cars are gone. Troy’s car has been towed to impound since he had seventeen unpaid parking tickets and a warrant out. The boys and I sit around the kitchen table, Archie with a mug of hot chocolate, me with a whiskey, and Tanner and Rawley with water.
We’ve talked through what happened, and the older two boys are considerably less shaken up now. Archie, on the other hand, doesn’t remember Troy and didn’t understand what was going on, not at all.
“He used to live with us, Arch. He was married to mom. And he left us the day you were born, and the only reason he came back is because he saw articles in the paper about Tanner, and was looking to take Tanner’s money.”
Archie scratches his head. “Tanner doesn’t have any money.”
We laugh, and it’s much needed. And I’m glad to see Archie is no longer crying and clinging to me. I had him in my lap for the last hour. Only when Rawley started calmly explaining it to him did he slide off into his own chair.
“Not yet, but when he gets famous for playing football, he will, and that man wanted to take it,” Rawley explains, and I’m pretty impressed because I didn't know how to explain this portion to a five year old.
But Archie seems to understand.
“Why didn’t you knock him out?” Rawley asks, thenamends his question before I can answer. “I mean I heard you tell him you’re trying to set an example but… I would’ve knocked him out.”
I lift my hat from my head, and set it on the table, stroking my fingers through my sweaty hair. “I meant what I said. I don’t want you to see me hit someone because I’m angry and think it’s okay.”
“This wasn’t about anger, though. He had Archie,” Rawley says, and Tanner nods along, agreeing.
“I know but if I hit him, and the police came, guess what? I’d be in that cop car, too, even if he’s the bad guy. The law doesn’t care if you’re a good guy at heart. If you hit someone, you go to jail. And the last thing I wanted to do after all that is have you three watch me get arrested. If it meant taking some punches from him, that’s what it meant.”
Rawley and Tanner just stare at me for a moment, and then finally Tanner says, “You’re so solid, Coach. Seriously.”
Solid is good, in case you didn’t know.
“Thanks,” I say, pushing the words out around the very manly lump of cry baby that has appeared in my throat.
