Cleats in Clay Read online

  “It was okay. Managed to clear the air a bit, I think.”

  Tuck rushed back over. “Don’t get all riled up, Odie. I just had to say my piece and give ya an apology. I’m headin’ out right now.”

  Odis looked up. “Apology for what?”

  “For all that shit the other day. Let’s not let it get in the way. Please?” Tuck grabbed Bobby’s hand and shook it firmly. “Nice meetin’ ya finally,” he said with a smile as he left through the sliding door.

  Bobby still felt a lingering tingle in his hand as he watched Tuck climb the stairs. “So, from what Tuck was saying in the car, some serious confessions went on after I left.”

  Odis pointed to the wrought iron table, then hurried into the kitchen and prepared two of the mocha mugs while Bobby took a seat. Odis brought the drinks back and gave one to Bobby. “Yeah, some intense shit. What all did he tell you?”

  Bobby glanced at Odis as he sat down. Hoping he had his most charming smile on, Bobby said, “Before or after he kissed me?”

  “He kissed you? That bonehead,” Odis said with a smirk. “Then I guess he told ya he kissed me too.”

  “Yeah, he did.” Bobby stood up. “Speaking of kiss,” he said as he walked around the table and pulled Odis to his feet. “We never said hello.” Bobby leaned down, and the two embraced and brought their lips together. Just as before, the warmth of the kiss surrounded them like a fuzzy fleece blanket.

  Bobby nearly sighed as he shared his mouth with Odis. Being with this man felt so nice and comforting. But his thoughts soon turned to his kiss with Tuck. Bobby pulled away from Odis, trying to forget that sparking fizz of earlier in the evening.

  “Hello, stud,” Odis said as he hugged him close. “This just isn’t the same as a phone call.”

  “No.” Bobby squeezed Odis tighter. They stood for a moment, neither wanting to break the embrace.

  Bobby looked down. “I kinda feel bad for him, though.”

  “Who, Tuck? Why?”

  “He feels kinda left out. Like I bested him somehow.”

  Odis chuckled. “I never reckoned he’d be jealous of ya, but I guess he would be.”

  After a final squeeze, Odis pulled away and sat back down with his drink. “So how was the trip? I got the feelin’ there’s some things you didn’t wanna talk about on the phone.”

  Nodding, Bobby sat down and grabbed his mug. “Yeah, a few more surprises.”

  “Oh? Like what?”

  “Found out Nate had a secret life as a psychic.”

  “What? Holy shit.” Odis chuckled. “And just when ya thought it was all figured out. How’d ya find out about that?”

  “Well, found out the secretary at the landscaping place was the one sending the postcards, and she gave me my last one, by the way. And she fessed up about Nate seeing threads or some shit. Then I found out Sharon already knew and was keeping it a secret too.”

  “Damnation.” Odis took a sip. “And what about the last postcard?”

  “Pointed me to a key that opened a box Sharon had been holding.” Bobby fished in his jeans pocket and pulled out the key, then held it up.

  Odis stared at the brass key. “Oh. What nationality did you say Nathan was?”

  “I don’t think I ever said. East Coast mutt like me. A lot of Scottish, I think. Why would you ask that?”

  “Because.” Odis took the key and set it on the table. “I was wondering why he’d pick a key with a Nordic rune on it. If maybe it meant something personal to him.”

  “Nordic? Oh fuck me,” Bobby sighed. “Nathan? What the fuck?” he yelled.

  Odis waited until he had Bobby’s attention again. “This is algiz, one of the Elder Futhark rune alphabet. It originally represented an elk and was ascribed the meaning of ‘unity’. But in later times it came to be thought of as the life rune, like the Egyptian ankh.”

  Odis retrieved his reading glasses from the kitchen and came back to the table before putting them on his nose. He turned the key in his hand and studied the brass rune closely. “This is exquisite detailing.”

  “Oh,” Bobby said, jumping up to look for his suitcase. “You should see the box it fits. It has a bigger one on it.” Bobby retrieved the heart-shaped brass box from his suitcase and brought it back to the table.

  Odis glanced down at it. The larger lines and knots weren’t fashioned from snakes like he had expected to see. Instead, the lines and curves appeared to be antlers intertwining. In the lower branch of the rune, the fretwork subtly formed an elk face. “Definitely elk, so it has the unity meaning.” Odis looked up at Bobby. “What’s in the box?”

  “Just a bizarre-assed note. Some weird math shit. We couldn’t make heads or tails of it.”

  “We?”

  “Oh. Sharon was there when I opened it the first time.” Bobby inserted the key and retrieved the note. “Have a look.”

  Odis unfolded the paper and gazed over it.

  A+C= typical :(

  B+A= rich?

  B+C= intense?

  B+A+C= jackpot

  Odis scrunched his brow as he puzzled over the strange equations.

  “His final words,” Bobby said. “And it’s more cryptic garbage.”

  Odis sat back in his chair. “I don’t know about final words.”

  “What do you mean?” Bobby asked as he got up to go pee.

  “I told ya he wanted me to make that bust for July, but I never told ya the inscription he wanted on it.”

  Bobby glared at him as he leaned down onto the table. “Not you too. I’m tired of everybody keeping secrets.” Bobby pushed away from the table and stomped to the bathroom, then closed the door firmly behind him.

  Odis studied the printout again. He jumped up when a sudden inspiration hit him, and he compared the letters vertically. He headed to the kitchen as Bobby returned from the bathroom. Odis glanced over at him. “I think I found something,” he said as he grabbed a pencil from the kitchen drawer and took it back to the table.

  “Oh?”

  Odis set the printout down and vertically circled the first three letters of each “answer,” spelling out TRI. Then, next to the first A, he wrote rtist.

  “I see,” Bobby said as he watched Odis work.

  Next to the first B, he wrote obby.

  “Humph,” Bobby grunted with a sort of agreement. “Then what about the C?”

  Odis smiled. Beside the first C he wrote op.

  Bobby stared down at the new scribbles. “No way.” He shook his head. “No fucking way.” He glanced up at Odis. “Nate can’t be suggesting all three of us together?”

  “Yep.” Odis chuckled. “The man must’a had a huge ego to think it takes two of us to replace him.”

  “No.” Bobby dropped down into his chair and grabbed his mug, then nearly drained it with a huge gulp. “How would that even fucking work?”

  “I’ve heard of the hippies tryin’ things like that. Don’t know how many actually worked in the long run, though.”

  Bobby looked back at the printout. “But that’s not the only option.”

  “No, but he’s got that frowny face after the ‘typical’ configuration of me and Tuck. I’m guessing because that one doesn’t benefit you any.”

  “But you and I would be ‘rich’, possibly? What does he mean by ‘rich’? In a financial sense, or more metaphorical? God damn you, Nate. Why’d you hafta be so cryptic?”

  “Maybe,” Odis mused. “Maybe Nate was hoping to see more and leave a better note but never did, or didn’t have a chance to.” Odis went over and grabbed his mug. “What could he mean by ‘intense’ next to you and Tuck?”

  Bobby chuckled. “Well, I might have a clue about that.”

  “Oh? Do tell.”

  “Well, the kiss, for one thing. It was, almost electric. Full of sparks. And all the other emotions in the car as we argued and joked and talked were, like, they didn’t have a low setting on the volume, all cranked up.”

  Odis nodded. “And you don’t feel anything when you kis
s me?”

  “Hell yes, I do. It’s just totally different. It’s all warm, like getting cuddled up in a fuzzy blanket.”

  “Humph,” Odis said before chuckling. He stood and grabbed their empty mugs. “I feel the same thing. That warm blanket thing with you, and Tuck’s kiss was all full of fireworks.” He took the mugs into the kitchen for a refill before returning them to the table. “What did you argue about?”

  “Oh, mostly about me coming to town and how he can’t hate me.”

  “Hate you? That bonehead.”

  “Well, when you look at it from his perspective, if he hated me, it’d be easy for him to discount me and try to push me out. Or at least, he could feel like he had that option. I think he’s prob’ly too honorable of a guy to actually do that kind of thing, though.”

  They both drank their mocha and quietly mused over the note on the table.

  Odis nodded. “Right, then.” He gazed up at Bobby. “I guess we should call Tuck.”

  “Are you sure we should drag him into this? I mean… I still don’t see how such a thing could work.”

  “Tuck isn’t really attractive to ya?”

  “Oh, it’s not that. The guy is very appealing. But I think you and I have something that could stand on its own.”

  Odis nodded. “I think so too. But now that this”—he motioned to the note—“is on the table, kinda can’t get it outta my head.”

  Bobby just looked at him and sighed heavily.

  Odis got up and leaned down in front of Bobby, wrapping his hands around his shoulders and pulling him into a soft, brief kiss. He pulled away and rested their foreheads together, peering into Bobby’s eyes. “Okay, then, ‘no’ on Tuck.”

  Bobby gazed back but didn’t think he could hide the traces of doubt lingering in his mind.

  Odis stood. “I’m hungry as a racehorse. What say I grab my shoes and we run into town for some dinner?”

  “Sure,” Bobby said as he stood. He watched Odis as he got some socks from the dresser and pulled on his moccasins. “Those look almost like leather crocks.”

  “My elf shoes? I think they’re comfy.”

  Bobby chuckled. “Elf shoes?”

  “Well, that’s what I always call ’em. Seems like somethin’ the elves would wear in one of those Tolkien stories.” Odis headed into the kitchen and retrieved the car keys from a kitchen drawer.

  “If you say so.”

  “Ya makin’ fun of my footwear, boy?” Odis asked as he took Bobby’s arm and led him through the sliding glass doors.

  “Nah, they seem kinda fun, old man.”

  As Odis led up the stairs, Heim trotted up and tagged along. “I’ll hafta back out first. Won’t be enough room for ya to squeeze in,” he said as he slid open the barn-style door on the garage.

  Bobby whistled when he saw the shiny black El Camino. Heim ran to his feet. “Nice car. Must be a classic now.”

  “It’s an ’87.” Odis got in and backed the car up. When Bobby opened the passenger door, Heimdalla jumped in and claimed a spot in the middle. Bobby scooted in next to her.

  Odis chuckled. “Goddamn dog.”

  Bobby hesitated before closing the door. “She’s not allowed in the car?”

  “Oh, I don’t care. She just never wants to ride with me.”

  After Bobby pulled the door closed, Heim slurped him across the cheek with a wet tongue and lay down half across his lap. “She seems friendly to me.”

  “Well, you take her, then. She’s never seemed to like me much. Tina took all the furniture and left the dumb dog.”

  Bobby jumped out to open the gate. As he waited for the car to pull through, he tried to avoid thinking about Tuck, yet his thoughts kept drifting back to that kiss they had shared in the SUV. He still couldn’t really perceive the logistics of how a threesome would work, but like Odis said, once the possibility had been mentioned, the idea of it kept invading his thoughts. Bobby pushed the button to close the gate before getting back in the car. Heim claimed his lap again.

  Odis started driving toward town. “What kinda music do ya prefer?”

  “Don’t really care,” Bobby said. “Just no gangsta rap, please.”

  Odis fiddled with the stations and found a swinging rockabilly song. The female singer kept whining something about 3:00 a.m. Bobby tried not to think about Tuck and Odis in the same bed, waiting for him.

  The next song was a male singer, crooning about three more days until he made it to Abeline. Bobby flipped off the sky, thinking, Fuck you, Nate.

  Bobby rubbed at Heim’s head and ears, trying to distract himself from the song lyrics. “Tell me about Tina,” he almost yelled over at Odis.

  “What about her?”

  “Gertie, John, and Tuck didn’t seem to like her much. There must have been something you saw in her.”

  “Don’t rightly know. I never did see much in her, either. Guess the biggest thing was that she liked me.”

  “Did you love her?” Bobby asked, relieved that the next song from the radio was about honkey-tonkin’ and didn’t mention any threes.

  Odis shook his head. “I tried ta convince myself I did, but no. Not really.”

  Bobby frowned as he looked down at Heim. “Is that what it’s like with me? Just because I showed interest in you?”

  “Oh hell no. I made the first move on you, if ya recall. I held your hands when I gave ya the pipe while you told me about the Series. I wanted to hug you too, but I left ya your space. You seemed to be having a moment, so I didn’t wanna crowd ya.”

  “Sorry, I was kinda in my own head at the time, didn’t really notice.”

  “It’s okay.” Odis grinned as he turned onto Main Street. “You flirted with me after, so it worked out.” He reached out and patted Bobby’s knuckles. “I felt closer to you talking to ya on the phone this week than I ever did with Tina when she was right in the dining room with me.”

  “Then why’d you stay with her?”

  “Guess having half a something seemed better than having nothing at all,” Odis said as he pulled into the restaurant parking lot. He steered into an empty slot near an alley before turning off the headlights.

  Heim sat up when the car stopped and Odis rolled down the window about six inches before he opened his door.

  Bobby patted her head. “We just leave her in the car?”

  “It’s a nice April evening. She’ll be fine as long as we bring somethin’ back.”

  Bobby followed Odis into the red brick uptown-style 1900s building, and they soon found a table. An older waitress carrying a nearly empty tea pitcher hurried over. “Evening, Odis. Who’s your friend?”

  “This here’s Bobby.”

  “Hey, sugar. Ya boys want the blue plates?”

  Odis nodded. “Two of ’em. And tea for me.”

  The waitress looked over at Bobby. “Sure, tea for me too.”

  As she wandered away to the next booth, Bobby glanced across the table. “What’s the blue plate?”

  “Catfish and fixins. Kinda their specialty.”

  Bobby nodded. “Sounds good.”

  Their waitress brought over two glasses of tea. “Just a few minutes, sugars.”

  Bobby reached over for the sugar packets on the table, and Odis put his hand on top Bobby’s. “Taste it first. It comes sweet.”

  Bobby took a sip, glad for Odis’s intervention when the syrupy tea oozed down his throat. “Wow, I’d say so.”

  Odis chuckled.

  Bobby glanced around the restaurant. The renovations to the older building had been carefully done, maintaining the character of the previous space, which looked to have started out as an old feed-and-seed store. He spotted the back of a man wearing a sheriff’s uniform sitting over at a corner table, but knew right away from the balding black hair that it wasn’t Tuck.

  Once again, the suggestion in Nate’s note crossed his mind. Bobby found himself suddenly curious about what Tuck looked like underneath that uniform. The man seemed to be taking care of himse
lf. He probably looked very good for a guy approaching fifty.

  Odis cleared his throat. “Can’t keep Tuck off your mind either, huh?”

  Bobby smirked. “No. It’s like having something caught between your teeth. Can’t keep from picking at it.” He gazed over at Odis. “Maybe if I could understand how such a thing works, I could give a more definite ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the whole idea.”

  “Well, from what—”

  The waitress brought over a big tray and set a blue plate down in front of Bobby first, then one in front of Odis. Bobby looked down at the small plastic plate with only two slices of fried catfish and a few french fries and pieces of okra. “Kinda skimpy on the portions,” he said with a smirk.

  Odis chuckled. “It’s all ya can eat. She’ll be by with more as soon as ya finish it.”

  Bobby took a bite of the fried catfish. It was so fresh from the fryer, the food nearly burned his tongue. He fanned the front of his open mouth and grabbed his tea.

  Chuckling, Odis told him, “Careful, stud, it might still be hot.”

  Bobby flipped him the middle finger as he swallowed some tea.

  “Anyway, as I’s sayin’, when the hippies did this sort of thing, they’d set up some ground rules ahead of time,” Odis said as he took a bite of fish. “Just to kind of define what everybody could expect.”

  “So would it always have to be all three of us? Or would we break off into pairs?”

  “That’s part of what we’d figure out with the rules.” Odis stabbed some of the okra with his fork. “Would ya be jealous if Tuck and I…?”

  Bobby sort of shrugged as he chewed on a mouthful of french fries. “Would you, if Tuck and I?”

  Odis thought as he ate some more fish. “Would kinda depend, I guess. If ya started makin’ out right in front of me and shut me out, I would. But if I’s busy and you two… prob’ly not then.”

  As Bobby put the last piece of his fish into his mouth, the waitress showed up with a big basket on a tray. Using metal tongs, she dropped more fries, okra, and two more pieces of steaming fish onto Bobby’s plate. She moved around and did the same for Odis. “Anything else ya guys need, Odie?”

  Odis glanced over at Bobby, who shook his head. “Not right now, Cin. Thanks, hon.”