Where to Find Love (MXM) ✔

Chapter 18

Adam Graham

I watched as Isabelle interacted with the other dance students. They stretched with each other. Moved with each other. She still wouldn't talk to children her age, but at least in the dance class she would smile at them, follow them, do what they do. In kindergarten she still ignored the other students.

Romano and I stood next to the wall by Tatyana. Tatyana had a smile on her face as she watched her daughter copy the dance movements of the teacher and the other little girls. Marino and Myers were outside standing near the entrance. I still hadn't seen any sign of trouble. Maybe Mr. Marcello's fears were unwarranted. I wondered - and not for the first time - how long this job was going to last. Brick and Sy contacted me almost every day wondering when I was going to make a decision on the house. I told them I was too busy guarding Isabelle to think about it, but the truth was, I didn't know what to do with it.

Once this job was over I'd go back home. I'd been staying in the house ever since I was discharged from the military. I didn't have an apartment. I didn't need one when in the marines. I had been sleeping on the living room couch since my parents got rid of all my belongings when I told them I was gay. Their room had been empty since they had gone to the nursing home and then died, but I couldn't sleep in there. I just couldn't. The place didn't really feel like home anymore, but sometimes I would look around and remember the good times. I would go in the kitchen and remember baking cookies with my mom or go into the family room and remember watching sci-fi shows with my dad. Or the three of us sitting at the kitchen table eating dinner. And Sunday nights when we would play board games at the table. I didn't have good memories of them as an adult, but I had plenty of them when I was still a child. Was it wrong for me to want to keep those memories?

Isabelle turned along with the other children. She and the girl next to her bumped shoulders. They giggled together and then followed the teacher's next move.

Tatyana's smile widened as she watched. "I knew dance would be good for her," she said quietly.

I had put my phone on vibrate so I felt it when it vibrated against my hip. "I'll be right back," I said to Tatyana and Romano. Romano nodded at me, but Tatyana ignored me as she watched her daughter. I stepped outside and nodded at Marino to take my place inside. He immediately complied.

I pulled out my phone and saw that Mr. Marcello was calling. I immediately answered. "Hello," I said.

"That guy you were worried about at the school..."

"I wasn't really worried, just concerned," I said.

"Right," Mr. Marcello said in a tone that told me he noted my interruption. He was trying to intimidate me, but I wasn't easily intimidated. "Anyway, my men looked into him. There is nothing to worry about. He is the kid's uncle and moved in recently with his sister and her family."

"Okay," I said. Brick had already relayed that to me, but what Mr. Marcello left out whether on purpose or because he didn't know - I assumed the former - was that the uncle was from the same town as Mr. Marcello. It seemed unlikely that Mr. Marcello's people wouldn't have known that and relayed that to him.

"So you don't need to worry about him," he said again which only raised my suspicions even more.

"Got it," I said.

"How is Isabelle doing with her ballet class?" he asked.

"Great. We are here now. She is smiling and does pretty well for a five year old."

"Take a video and send it to me," he said.

"Will do," I said.

"Keep me informed," he said and hung up.