BAE BOY

2-27

"Okay, you have to be kidding me," I said. Somehow. With a mouthful of Kendall's wild waffles. She'd learned how to make the tie-dyed ones from Joie. Fruit flavored, too. Studded with butterscotch and walnut bits. Dangerous.

Kylie poured herself some coffee and said, "Nope! Handcuffs and all. Right there in the kitchen."

Aisha frowned real deep and said, "They didn't need to do her like that. Woman too big to run!"

We all sort of chuckled a little bit, but it wasn't funny. Lurleen had been hauled off by the cops that morning, right in front of all the kitchen staff at The Club.

Nia looked up from her phone and said, "Wowza. Fraud. A whole buncha fraud--federal shit, man. This looks bad."

"Is it that thing she did with her kids?" Kendall said. "Something at school?"

"They were getting Social Security and whatnot by saying they were all handicapped or something like that," I said. "Disability, right? I think that's how it works. If you say they're so incapacitated that you need all kinds of assistance."

"But they damned near gotta be in diapers, though," Aisha said. "Ones needs to wear a helmet cause they be runnin' into walls and shit."

"Who is this?" Brian asked. Also through a mouthful.

He could eat, that guy. So Kendall had piled it on that morning. Pancakes, ham, bacon, mounds of eggs with green chiles and chorizo in them, toast made out of that Mexican torta bread, watermelon and feta salad...a whole breakfast buffet running down the length of the kitchen island. Two rows of food, actually.

She was feeling strong and happy. You could see it in her eyes. And she wanted to do more. Run the house, at least, if she couldn't do all the things she really wanted to do. So she would choose one big "chore" to complete each day. Something to show us how good she felt, despite all the danger signs.

And it was great to have her father there to be part of the home stretch. We were taking him to the ranch, too. He'd be there with her when I wasn't, until his first grandchild arrived.

Kendall said, "Remember the kid who stabbed him? It's his mother they took."

And he nodded and said, "The ones he got all the lawyers for?"

"That's the one. Rick had her making all kinds of pastries and things at The Club. She's an amazing cook. She was getting famous, too. She's been on TV and everything."

"Was gonna have some bakeries and stuff," Aisha said. "Wit her own name on 'em."

"Man, everything he touches turns to gold, huh?" Brian said, giving me a wink.

His daughter gave me a smile and a kiss on the cheek.

Nia started scrolling her screen and said, "Well, we got some forgery...check cashing...mail fraud--wait. Oh, okay, I guess somebody was robbing mailboxes or something."

"That sounds like some o' her kids or sum. She wun out there doin' that," Aisha said.

"She let them take donations outside stores, though," I said. "That she knew about."

Cat looked up from repairing a chipped nail and said, "What was that again?"

"You remember," Mike said. "They pretended to be the Salvation Army or something."