TWELVE
Rip
“Uncle Rip, I hungry.” Viera tugged at my shirt, looking up at me with adoration in her sparkly blue eyes. “Did you bring snacks?”
She was always hungry.
Always.
But the problem with Viera was that when she was hungry she was mean—as in make-a-grown-adult-cry-real-tears mean. So I’d learned to prepare for every possible scenario.
I reached into the diaper bag right when the jujitsu match was starting. Ben was down on the floor looking nervous as hell in his gi. He was going to be grappling with a kid who was a few inches taller, and even though Ben was really good, the kid had at least ten pounds on him.
With a sigh, I pulled out three different brands of fruit snacks, a protein bar, a Zbar, Cheerios, and my secret weapon—Takis.
Monica had loved Takis, and Viera had wanted to be just like her mom, so when she was old enough to start snacking on different foods, she’d immediately taken to the Takis. Despite their spice, she was obsessed, but Monica had always been careful not to let Viera have too many since it wasn’t necessarily a healthy snack.
“Takis!” Viera clapped her hands, then held them out. “Gimme!”
I held them out and moved my hand back and forth—her eyes followed left, right, then back to left again.
“Ah, hypnotism by way of Takis,” came Colby’s voice. “Smart man.”
Before she even sat, she snatched them out of my hands, dug into the bag, and pulled a few out, then handed them to Viera and popped one in her own mouth.
“You like Takis too?” I asked, a bit surprised, like I was a monster who didn’t understand junk food.
“Who do you think introduced Monica to them?” Colby grinned. “Let me guess, they’re too messy for you, too spicy…”
She licked her fingers, and for some reason it didn’t make me want to scowl or hurl.
It made me want to lick her fingers too.
And then lick something else.
What the hell? Had I accidentally hypnotized myself with the bag of Takis?
I gave my head a shake. “I don’t mind them.”
“Prove it.” She held out the bag.
With a sigh I dug in and crunched down on a chip. Colby reached for my fingertips and looked like she wanted to lick off the remnants, then looked away toward where Ben stood on the mat.
“Look, Viera, Ben’s about to go,” she said, her eyes widening. “Whoa, that kid’s huge.”
“Yay, Ben!” Viera clapped. “Look, his turn!”
We watched as Ben did a little bow to his instructor and then to the kid he was fighting.
“Are we sure Ben’s in the right weight class?” Colby’s voice wobbled, and I knew she was thinking exactly what I was thinking. Ben was in trouble.
The kid immediately tried taking Ben down.
I flinched as Colby squeezed my thigh. “Go, Ben! Take him down! Flip him!”
“You know nothing about jujitsu, do you?”
“I tried googling on my way over to the bleachers and nearly got taken down by a ten-year-old with popcorn.”