Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 83167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Mo nodded.
He’d gotten that impression from Tex.
Though anyone who’d heard anything about Tex MacMillan knew that was the way already.
“She’s deep for you,” Eddie pointed out.
“Good to know, since I’m there too,” he muttered.
“Noticed that,” Eddie replied in a mutter.
Mo didn’t mind he did since he wasn’t hiding it.
Eddie continued.
“I probably don’t need to tell you we’ll put the hurt on you, you do that to her.”
That message had already been made clear.
“Nope,” Mo stated, hearing the channel change next door, now it was some baseball game, then he could swear he heard a door close.
“And—”
“Hang on,” Mo said, turned, walked across the porch, into the house, through the people in the house, out the front door, across the lawn, to the neighbors’ front door.
He knocked just as he felt Eddie come up behind him.
“Mo—” Eddie started.
The door opened and the woman who opened it took one look at him, her head tipped back, then she stepped back, and her face got white.
“Hey,” he said.
“Uh, hey,” she replied, her eyes darting to Eddie and back to Mo.
“Honey, who is it?” a man’s voice came from in the house.
“Um, come here a sec, would you?” she called, not taking her eyes off Mo.
“You watchin’ the game?” Mo asked.
“Sorry?” she asked back, and her gaze went beyond him again just as Mo felt more bodies at his back.
“You watchin’ the game?” he repeated as a man appeared from behind her.
He got a load of what was at his front door, his eyes got big and it took him a second to decide whether to join his wife or yank her away and shut the door.
He joined his wife.
At least that said something about him.
“Can I help you?” he asked.
“Are you watching the game?” Mo repeated.
“Erm…what?”
Jesus Christ.
“The game,” Mo bit off. “Are you watching the game?”
“I have it on out back,” the man said.
“I know. I can hear it. But are you watching it?”
“Well, uh…”
“He’s listening to it. I don’t like sports on in the house,” the wife said.
Like he suspected. This was why it was so loud. So it could be heard in the house.
“He got a radio?” Mo asked.
“I…I guess not really but he likes to pop out and look in on it when he can,” she explained.
“While he’s blasting it, but not even there to watch it, it’s disturbing his neighbors,” Mo pointed out.
“It’s a weeknight. No one’s outside,” the man said.
“I was outside.”
“You…do you live here?” the man asked, openly unhappy about the idea of Mo being a neighbor.
“No, but my woman does, right there.” He tipped his head toward Lottie’s house. “And today, she had a really tough day. Bad as you can imagine. She has her folks around her, but they’ll leave and then she’ll need peace and quiet. Not have to listen to the game. So can you shut it off or turn it down?”
“I wanna hear it,” the man replied.
“I don’t,” Mo returned.
“Right, I’ll go out and turn it down,” the man allowed.
“Awesome. Thanks. But have a mind. My woman says it happens a lot. I don’t wanna be comin’ over here all the time asking you to have a mind.”
The man glanced behind Mo, decided to save face and puffed up his chest. “I can do what I want in my own house.”
Mo nodded. “Yeah, you absolutely can. You can even decide to be an asshole and not give a shit about your neighbors in your own house, all because you wanna hear a baseball game. And I’m free to come to the door and ask you not to be an asshole. Somethin’ I don’t mind doin’ if it bothers my woman. I also don’t mind callin’ the cops and makin’ a complaint. Now, you can deal with that hassle, or you can decide not to be an asshole. Your choice.”
On that, Mo turned to leave.
And on that, the man called, “You know, it’s not cool to come over and try to intimidate me like that!”
Mo turned back. “I made a request, did it as polite as I could in the face of you not bein’ polite at all. And you decided to act your version of a man which is your call, but I’d argue it wasn’t the right one. I didn’t use intimidating language. I just asked you to turn your TV down and have a mind to that in the future.”
“You’re big as a house, you got ten big guys behind you and you told me you’re gonna call the cops on me for listening to a stupid baseball game.”
“I got ten big guys behind me because they’re all my woman’s family, and like I said, she had a bad day and needs her family around her and her neighbor not to act like a jerk. And I simply informed you what I would do if you continued not to behave in a neighborly fashion. Last, I can’t agree baseball is stupid, but if you think that, why would you go to the mat for it?”