asked. Had Emma told April something about them before he knew it himself?
Always the detective, April reached a conclusion and smiled. People with babies still did it. She glanced at Mike. Enjoying Jason's discomfort, too, Mike let a little grin peek out from under his mustache. They caught each other's eyes.
Jason got the joke. 'Very funny. Don't change the subject. I really appreciate the way you handled Dylan and kept her part out of the story. She's going to need even more help now.' He shook his head. 'This is a therapeutic nightmare. A nightmare.'
Then his mood lightened. He smiled and shook Mike's hand. 'To look on the bright side, it could have been much worse, very much worse. Gotta go. Believe it or not, I have a patient in ten minutes.' He waved and took off, looking pretty good for someone who was in a lot of trouble at his own shop.
Mike put his arm around April and gave her a squeeze. 'I love you.' He tickled her ear with his mustache. 'Home,
April had washed her hands and face but otherwise didn't look or smell very good. Her lovely suit and blouse of yesterday were not that clean either, after the long day she'd put in. She raised a hand to her hair, flat as a pancake and definitely in need of a stylist.
Five is a very important number to the Chinese. Five flavors, five elements, five humors. Five times Skinny Dragon called on April's cell phone to yell at her about it. Skinny had seen an earlier news clip of April and Mike on the way to the hospital in Mike's Camaro. The Dragon said all her friends had seen April with blood on her face sitting next to the man Skinny Dragon had already told them was history. Why show up on TV looking so bad? Why cause poor old mother to lose face. Why so thin? Sai's friends had said April look too thin.
And by the way, if worm daughter and Spanish ghost planned to get married, she would hang herself in shame was her final jab.
April was actually pleased with the fourth call. The suicide threat meant the Dragon was in the final stages of resistance. In the fifth call came the bribe. Skinny told April to come home right away. She would make dinner herself. Very good dinner. But April wouldn't go anywhere near it.
The only hunger she was aware of at the moment was for Mike and a quiet place to be alone. Frankly, she didn't think it would be so terrible to sit across the breakfast table from him and hear him try to get out of whatever happened or didn't happen with Carla for the rest of his life. She could bone up on the Chinese cure for excessive heat. Maybe it was something really nasty.
'Home,' she agreed.
Leslie Glass
