Tess tossed Rusty a pack of White Chocolate Reese's. He caught them one handed and stuffed them in a coat pocket. "You look great. How's the kid?" He patted her stomach.
Tess smiled and a gave a little gasp. Probably had something to do with the kick Rusty felt under his hand. "We're fine." She smiled and stood up a little straighter, put her hands to the small of her back. "Ready to split up, though." She turned to walk inside, and over her shoulder asked, "How's Isabel?"
He shrugged and dug a pack of licorice out of his other coat pocket. "She's good. She's whipped the hotel into shape, better than I ever managed." He offered her a rope of licorice.
She blanched and waved him off. "He's been waiting to see you. He's in the back."
Danny sat in the lobby with the baby and the bags. Kevin was going through a period where he liked Danny better than Tess, so she left him with the kid at the slightest excuse.
"Danny."
Danny looked up from Kevin's unconscious burbling to see Isabel. "I like the service in this place. I thought the owners only dealt with the high rollers, but…."
She shrugged, smiled slightly. "Millionaires still count for something. Especially when they're personal friends." She looked down at Kevin, and her face froze, insouciant, warm, and false. "May I?" she said and reached for him.
Danny hesitated, just a second, but he said, "Go right ahead," and handed over Kevin slowly, so as not to wake him up.
She pulled him in close to her and sniffed his head. People were always doing that and it drove Danny crazy, so he was glad when she wrinkled her nose and handed Kevin right back.
"Time for a diaper change?"
She nodded."
Danny shrugged. "It was a pretty long trip." He smiled, stood up, and grabbed the diaper bag. His stomach rumbled, loudly enough for Isabel to hear.
She smiled and handed him a Reese's peanut butter…pumpkin?
"What's this?"
She shrugged. "Halloween may have been a week ago, but we bought about twice as many of these as we needed. So, take it, with my blessing."
He said thanks, but he ditched the egg in the men's room.
Kevin was crawling by his first birthday, so the party was something of an adventure. Also highly amusing was watching Danny and Tess's new 'parent' friends interact with the old gang. Particularly funny was watching the confusion of the hippie liberals as they tried to figure out the exact relationship between the Mormon twins and the three women who had accompanied them. Personally, Rusty was a hell of a lot less surprised by those five than by the pretty young man Linus had brought to meet and greet. It still wasn't any of his business, and by the end of dinner he didn't care.
Rusty walked out on the back porch while the presents were unwrapped. He'd been able to stop smoking, right, but the habit of leaving the party and shivering outside at least once or twice an evening was pretty well entrenched now. Also, Tess was on some weird organic kick and the food had sucked so far tonight. He was wondering how he was going to face the cake.
He didn't turn around to look when the sliding door opened. He knew who it was.
"You're missing the cake," said Danny.
Rusty laughed and pulled a tin of spearmint Altoids out of his pocket. "Tess is a great girl, Danny—you're lucky to have her—but considering how dinner went," he popped open the lid and pulled out a mint, "I'll stick with these."
Danny put his hand on Rusty's, knocked the mint back in the tin, and closed the lid. "Put that that away." He reached in his pocket. "I made other plans." He pulled out a pack of Reese's peanut butter cups and a car remote. "Someone carelessly turned off the ice maker this afternoon, so I have been sent to replenish our supply. Luckily for you, there's a drive-thru on the way."
Rusty nodded, unsurprised. He opened the Reese's and poked the centers out of both cups, stuffed them both in his mouth and smiled. He carefully stuck the rings back in the plastic wrapper and the bundle in his pocket, and headed inside.
From behind him, Danny said, "Kitchen's on your left, deep freeze is on the opposite wall as you head in. They should be frozen by the time we get back."
Rusty stopped himself from laughing so as not to choke.