Ch 121 Who is that man?

        

  One thing popped into Donny’s head after he and Tristan left the gift shop and he glanced across the street to where May Lyn stood. Who is that man talking with her?

           He unwittingly felt a twinge of jealousy when the man hugged May Lyn and she kissed his cheek. Just great, he sarcastically thought. Would every woman he became even remotely interested in belong to someone else?

Apparently so!

          Tristan, on the other hand, couldn’t care less what his mother was doing. He, after all, was enthralled with the collection of vintage cars Donny just bought for him. He carried the bag as if it held all the precious jewels of the world, instead of small metal and plastic cars.

“Thanks for da present, Mr. Bashan. Can you tell me da name of all da old time cars?” Tristan asked as he placed each one on the hood of Donny’s car.

          “Gees, kid, you make me feel old when you call them that. They’re classics, okay?” Donny said, as he watched May Lyn and the unknown man while pretending not to be doing so. His curiosity, however, got the better of him and he casually asked, “Tristan, do you know that man talking with your mom?”

          “Uh-uh,” he said, barely looking. “Waz dis black one called?”

          “Trans-Am Firebird. It was my favorite when I was a kid. Man, I would’ve done anything for one of those back in the day,” Donny answered as he racked his brain for the man’s name. He had seen him somewhere. He just couldn’t remember where.

          “And dis one?”

          Donny pointed to each car in turn and named them all. “GTO, Mustang, Chevy Nova, Model-T Ford, Thunderbird…” Donny rattled off absently. “Sam…no, Steve London!”

          “Dis car’s name is London…like my name?” Tristan asked, making a funny face at the red Camaro in his hand.

          “What? Oh, sorry, no, that’s a Camaro,” Donny said. “Are you sure you don’t know that man? I think he’s related to you….a cousin or uncle maybe?”

          “Uh-uh, never sawed him before,” Tristan said.

          “You sure your mom never mentioned Steve London, the guy that runs the lumber mill in town?”

          “Waz dat?”

          “A lumber mill?” Donny said, as he surreptitiously watched the couple across the street. “It’s a busy, noisy place, Wes tells me. Full of huge trucks and cranes for lifting logs and giant shredders that turn whole trees into nothing bigger than toothpicks and sawdust.”

This got Tristan’s interest. He stared up at Donny with his huge blue eyes and said, “Can we go see da cranes and big trucks?”

          “Hmm, I’ll bet you will… sooner than you think,” Donny said, sighing and mumbling, “Starting over sure sucks when there’s too much competition.”  Already seeing his time with his little buddy growing shorter, he put May Lyn being his date for the gala out of mind for now and said, “How about some ice cream, Tristan?”

          “Mommy will get mad,” he answered, eagerly scrambling off the hood despite his warning.

          Donny shrugged. “Doesn’t matter much now,” he said picking the boy up and they headed down to the ice cream shop, leaving the cars all lined up on the hood of the car.

          By the time they came out with ice cream cones in hand, Donny saw May Lyn sprinting across the street away from Loverboy London as Steve was known around town. Donny fleetingly wondered if he should tell May Lyn this, but realized it was none of his business.

          “Before you yell at Tristan, he warned me you’d be mad at me, but… the kid needs his calcium and so do I!” Donny adamantly said.

          May Lyn laughed. “What? And I don’t get any?”

          Donny put his hand in a pocket and pulled out a frozen yogurt bar. “This do?”

          Her mouth fell open in delighted surprise. “Yes, it will!” she said, grabbing it as eagerly as Tristan would have done.

          “See? I’m not so dumb,” Donny whispered to Tristan, just before setting him on the hood of the car to finish the last of his cone.

          “You’re da smartest man ever!” Tristan said, his face hidden somewhere under all that chocolate.

          May Lyn cringed and searched her pocket. “Oh, Tristan! How do you manage it?” she said, handing him a wet nap, before taking a bite of her own frozen treat. “Mmm, yummy. Thank you so much, Donny. This was awfully nice of you.”

“T’is nothing. I wanted ice cream and he’s my ticket,” Donny replied pointing his thumb at the boy. At the confused look on her face he added, “The girl at the ice cream shop gives me an extra big scoop when I bring this little cutie in. He’s a gold mine, I’m telling ya!”

She laughed. “I should have known. Even so, thanks for watching Tristan for me. I saw Uncle Jeffy, Tristan. He wants to see us. Maybe we can say hello to him later at his shop.”

“I sawed him ebery day before you got here, Mommy. Mr. Bashan got me at the jewwee shop eberyday,” Tristan said, munching on his cone.”

“Oh, I forgot, Sorry,” she said, noticing for the first time the toy cars lined up on the hood. “Hey, where did you get those?”

“Mr. Bashan got them for me. Dis is my favorite!” Tristan said, holding up the Camaro.

“Donny, you shouldn’t have.”

“He promised I could play with them, too,” Donny said.

“Boys and their toys,” May Lyn mumbled as she took the Camaro and looked at it. “Hmm, I had an old boyfriend with one of these. He always tried getting me into the backseat.”

“Every guy with one of those would, especially with you,” Donny said, smirking. “I think it was a prerequisite for having one.”

“That a fact?” she said, trying not to laugh.

“Why didn’t he want you in da front seat, Mommy?” Tristan asked.

“Oh, I’m pretty sure he wanted her there too, Buddy,” Donny said. May punched him playfully on the arm making him laugh.

This was lost on Tristan who took the Camaro from his mother and went back to playing with his cars.

“That wasn’t who you were talking to before, was it? Jeff,” Donny asked, hoping he sounded casual.

“No, that was my brother-in-law, Steven London,” she said. “And, oddly enough, the old boyfriend with the Camaro.”

And the plot thickens! Donny thought. “Old boyfriend and brother-in-law? There’s a story there… I can tell, but I won’t ask.”

“Not much to it, really. Steven was my boyfriend in high school and at a dance he decided to be an…” She checked herself and glanced to Tristan before continuing, “a jerk and there was Chad to rescue me.”

“Ah, the brother switch. I thought that was him, Steve London, I mean.”

“You know him then?”

“ I met him once at a chamber of commerce meeting or something.” He was a breath away from telling her he hadn’t liked him worth a lick, but thought better of it. “Told you, you were related, kid. Should’ve listened to me.”

“I did listen to you,” Tristan said. “I still never sawed him before.”

“You must have as a baby. You don’t remember, is all,” Donny said.

“No, that’s not it,” May said, bracingly. “They’ve never met.”

Donny opened his mouth ready to ask the question, but thinking it rather personal, he shut it again. “Sorry, didn’t mean to stick my nose where it doesn’t belong.”

“You’re not,” she said, lowering her voice and glancing at Tristan who was now making v-room-v-room sounds with his cars and totally ignoring them.

“Chad and Steven had a falling out long ago and…”

“Over you, I’m guessing,” he said before he could stop himself.

“Guilty,” she said with a grimace. “Steven never got over that…didn’t want anything to do with us after we married, and that was that. Wouldn’t even acknowledge they were brothers anymore which really upset Chad. They had been so close… it wasn’t good.”

“Yep, real jerk,” Donny said, a tiny smirk on his face. Hey, it was all right now to say it, because she said it first! “Which begs the question… no, forget it.”

“Yes, I know, but... Steven seems to want to make things right now.”

“Bit late, isn’t it? For his brother, anyway,” he said, sounding slightly bitter.

She shrugged. “Chad’s death has affected him it seems, changed him… for the better. He… he wants to be a good male influence for Tristan since Chad isn’t around anymore to do it. Maybe things will be good now.”

Donny didn’t know quite what she meant by that, but it didn’t matter. At least it shouldn’t matter to him. He saw the way Steve had been looking at her and knew precisely what was on his mind, more than friendship--much more--and perhaps she knew, too, and obviously was okay with it. Yep, Donny’s luck with the ladies apparently died along with Margarita.

“I see,” he said. “That’s good for Tristan… and you, too.”

“Yes, I hope so,” she said, pausing slightly before adding. “He asked me to the gala and I said I’d go. Jeffy said I had to go or else Janet would implode or something so… I have a date! First one in… ten years or something.”

“You’re doing better than me then. My date for the gala is Cindy,” he said with a shrug.

“She’s awfully cute, though!” May said, smiling as she bit into her yogurt bar.

“Yeah, but a bit young, don’t you think?” he said.

She laughed, and suddenly wondered why he never thought of asking her. Perhaps she wasn’t his type. Pity, he seemed nice—no, was definitely nice, incredibly so-- and always made her laugh, but perhaps he had a crush on Wendy. Oh, well, she was used to that.

“So, want me to take you to my brother’s car dealership? He’ll give you a good price. You’re practically family.”

“I am? How do you figure?” she said.

“You’re Janet’s aunt and Janet is Wesley’s girlfriend, and Wesley’s his favorite nephew. That’s as good as family for my brother. He’s kinda weird that way.”

She laughed again. “I like him already. Hey, he’s your brother, so he must be wonderful.”

“Half-brother, and he’s okay,” Donny said, popping the last of his cone into his mouth, wiping his hands on a napkin.

“Chad and Steven were also half-brothers. Same mother, different fathers.”

“Same here, but...they both had the same last name?”

“Chad's step dad adopted him,” she said. "Anyway, Steven may have found me a good used car I can have cheap.”

Donny glared at her and stepped closer. “If it’s a Camaro I want a ride in it!”

She burst out laughing, then stared at him and suddenly wished he was interested in her. “Will you do me a favor, Donny?” she asked before she could stop herself.

“Sure,” he replied readily.

“May I have one dance with you at the gala?”

Donny’s eyebrows shot upward. “Um…you sure you want to do that? I mean, will your date be okay with that? You do remember what happened the last time you slighted Steve at a dance, right?”

“You afraid you’ll end up married to me and getting shot down by enemy fire over Afghanistan?” she said, flippantly.

He smiled sadly and shook his head. “I imagine being married to you is nothing to fear and rather something to expressly wish for, even with the prospect of an early and unwarranted death in enemy territory on the horizon,” he replied soberly. He then turned to Tristan and helped him gather up his new toys.

          His answer stunned her into silence and made her fervently wish she’d never agreed to go anywhere with Steven London.