Someone To Watch Over Me
by Purple Lacey
Part Three
Ezra was pulled from his nap by a gentle nudging of his shoulder and he opened his eyes slowly. He gave a big yawn and stretched.
“We’re home, buddy,” Buck told him softly while reaching down and unbuckling the boy’s seatbelt.
Ezra came awake all of a sudden as excitement filled him. Buck opened the car door and stepped out before reaching a hand back to help the boy exit. Recharged by his nap, Ezra bounced out and immediately tried to take in everything at once.
“Oh, WOW!” the little one gasped in awe looking at the guest house. “It’s bbbiiigggg!”
Buck chuckled and leaned over to swing the boy up into his arms and settle him on one hip. He closed the limo door and turned to the waiting Bob.
Without giving Buck time to speak Bob suggested, “Why don’t you go in with the boy, Boss, and don’t worry about this. I’ll get Tiny and Yosemite to help me bring in all the stuff. ”
Buck smiled, nodding in appreciation, and turned to walk up the four stone steps that led to the guest house’s front door. Buck reached down to twist the door knob and push open the heavy wooden door. He stopped before entering and looked down at the little boy in his arms.
His voice was rough with emotion as he said, “Welcome home, Ezra.”
Ezra’s grin could have lit up half the world. He grabbed Buck around the neck and hugged tightly before letting go and leaning back far enough to look at the man.
“It’s the best home ever!” Ezra stated excitedly.
“It is now,” Buck confirmed looking down tenderly at the child.
“Are you going to stand there all day letting the heat out, or are you going to come in and introduce me?” a woman’s voice suddenly called out from inside the dwelling.
Ezra turned his head curiously to look inside and Buck chuckled as he crossed the threshold and then kicked the door shut behind him.
“Spoil the moment, why don’t you,” Buck teasingly groused at the older woman watching them from the doorway of the hall that led back to the kitchen.
“I’m too old,” the woman replied sternly. “I don’t know how many moments I have left so I can’t afford to be squandering them waiting for the likes of you to make up your mind if you’re coming in or going out.”
“Old Biddy,” Buck said with a fond grin.
“Young fool,” The woman returned and grinned back.
Ezra had watched the exchange in silence, not knowing what to make of the pair.
“Ezra, this is Nettie Wells,” Buck told the child with a laugh. “She’s our housekeeper. She’s in charge of keeping this house and the big house in order and making sure we’ve got food on the table so we don’t starve. Don’t let the crusty exterior fool you. She’s really a sweetheart...once you get past the prickly pear on the outside.”
“Are you calling me a cactus, son?” Nettie looked at her boss fearlessly. “You must really be looking for a bad case of heartburn if you’re going to be insulting your cook like that.”
Buck snorted, “You can’t scare me. I lived through JD’s efforts when he was taking that Home Economics class to impress Julia Mullins. I have a cast iron stomach now.”
The lines on Nettie’s wrinkled face got deeper as she grinned then started to laugh at the memory of some of the absent JD’s culinary fiascos. She walked toward the man and boy as she chuckled.
“Welcome, Ezra. I’m glad you’ve come to live here. The ole house has been missing a little boy around the place for too long.”
“How do you do, Mrs. Wells,” Ezra said using his best manners because he wasn’t sure about this woman.
“Pshaw,” the housekeeper waved away the greeting with a smile, “Just call me Miz Nettie like everyone else does. If you need anything you just come to me. Don’t be afraid ‘cause I promise I don’t bite. And if you let me know what your favorite things are to eat and such, I’ll try to fix them for you.”
“Thanks, Miz Nettie,” Ezra with a shy smile.
”What’s for lunch, Nettie?” Buck asked. “You’re looking at two hungry men here.”
Ezra preened at being called a man.
“Well, not knowing the kind of things Ezra likes, I thought we’d play it safe and have hamburgers and fries,” Nettie told them, “How does that sound?”
“You’re in for a treat now,” Buck told the watching boy, “Nettie makes the best hamburgers around. And her spicy fries are out of this world. Wait ‘til you taste ‘em.”
“That sound alright to you, Ezra?” Nettie asked the child.
“Yes, ma’am!” was the enthusiastic answer. “I love hamburgers. With lots of mustard and catsup! And pickles.”
Hamburgers were a rare treat to the little boy. Maude disliked the things, seeing the food as much too common for her. Ezra had only been allowed them a few times in his young life, mostly when he had been left at a relative’s house while Maude had been off trolling for another husband, but he adored them.
“Well I think we can accommodate that,” Nettie informed him with a smile.
Buck set Ezra on his feet and looked down at him while he asked, “How about we dig into some grub then I’ll give you the two dollar tour. You can pick out the room you want, and then we’ll head down to the stables.”
“Buck is going to take me riding on one of his horses,” Ezra looked up at the watching housekeeper and explained brightly. “He promised we could yesterday and Buck always keeps his promises if it’s at all possible,” the little boy quoted.
The woman smiled down kindly at the boy and replied, “You’re exactly right. It’s good to see you’re already getting to know him so well. I think you’re going to fit in around here perfectly.”
Ezra gave her a glowing grin at the accolade.
“Well you two can stand here jawing if you want to,” Buck broke in, “But I’m heading to the kitchen before starvation overtakes me. Last one there is a rotten egg!”
The smirking man took off quickly with a laughing little boy following on his heels. Nettie trailed behind the pair regally, a contented smile on her face.
Lunch was a rowdy affair. Ezra had never been at meal quite like his first one in his new home. Buck had been funny and boisterous and encouraged Ezra to speak when he had something to say and laugh when he thought something was funny -- the complete opposite to his stepfather who had demanded Ezra sit silently at the table with his eyes lowered at all times.
They were halfway through their meal when Vin showed up. The policeman let himself in the back door and was received with good cheer by all. Vin stepped up to Nettie to give her a big hug the moment he entered the kitchen, and Ezra watched with interest as it was returned by the woman.
“You’re getting to be nothing but skin and bones, Vin Tanner,” the housekeeper scolded him, “Sit yourself right down at that table while I fix you a plate.”
“Yes ma’am,” Vin told her agreeably. “You know I never turn down one of your meals, Nettie.”
The long-haired blond turned to look at the boy watching him and reached out to ruffle his brown hair, “Good to see you, Ez. How’s my Mom treating you?”
Ezra looked between the woman and the man in surprise and asked, “Miz Nettie is your Mom?”
Vin chuckled and answered, “As good as. She raised me from the time I was about nine.”
“Got many a gray hair to prove it, too,” Nettie said as she set a plate loaded with two large hamburgers and a pile of fries in front of him.
“I wasn’t that bad,” Vin argued as he looked down at his food with a pleased expression before grabbing up one of the burgers and sinking his teeth into it.
“Ha,” Buck scoffed, “What about the time the flag got stuck on the casino roof and you decided the easiest way to get it down was to climb up and get it yourself, but then you got your belt caught and wound up dangling six stories above the ground for half an hour before the fire department could get you down. If Chris hadn’t shown up to keep a hold on you, you’d have been nothing more than a smear on the pavement.”
Vin’s face flushed a bit with embarrassment as he chewed then swallowed quickly. He said gruffly, “Okay, one time.”
“One time!” Buck exclaimed. “Did you just say ONE time? What about the time Chris dragged you outta the pool when you almost drowned trying to beat that frat guy in seeing who could hold their breath underwater longer? Or the time...”
Vin glared at the man and interrupted, “Enough already. You’re gonna give Ez the wrong idea about me.”
Buck raised an eyebrow but remained silent.
“So, you have known each other a long time?” Ezra asked before he popped another fry into his mouth.
“Yep,” Buck replied.
He pushed his chair back from the table and stretched his long legs out in front of him. He slouched comfortably and picked up his glass of soda for a sip before he continued, “Miz Nettie was working in Reno, Nevada at the hotel/casino that my Ma inherited when I had just turned nineteen. Nettie was in charge of Housekeeping and Food Management for the place.
She was real good at her job, and me and my Mom were coming into the business blind. Neither of us knew much about the running of a hotel, although Ma did have some inkling about the casino as she’d been a dealer in Vegas for awhile. Nettie did a lot to help keep the place afloat until we learned enough to be useful. The place would have gone under for sure if it hadn’t been for Nettie.”
“Psahw,” Nettie scoffed. “You make it sound like I did everything and you did nothing. The truth is, Ezra, Buck was a natural when it came to the business. He’s the one that pulled that place out of the red and got it back on its feet. Don’t let him kid you.”
“And Vin lived with you there at the hotel?” Ezra asked fascinated.
“Felt like it sometimes,” the man himself answered. “Nettie and me had our own place but since Nettie had to be at the hotel so much because of her job I spent almost as much time there as I did at home.”
“But Miz Nettie’s not your real Mama?” Ezra questioned.
“That’s right,” Vin told him. “My real Ma died when I was just a little tyke, no more than five. I didn’t have any other relatives that I knew of so I was sent into foster care.”
Vin’s eyes dimmed as memories resurfaced from that dark time.
“I didn’t care for it much,” he said with quiet intensity.
Nettie reached out and laid her hand on top of the one of his that was clinching into a fist. Vin’s hand relaxed and he turned it over to intertwine his fingers with the old woman’s.
“Anyway, I decided I had enough one day and took off,” Vin told the child seriously. “I snuck into the luggage compartment of a bus and wound up in Reno. I soon discovered it wasn’t so easy to live on your own when you were only nine years old.”
“What happened?” Ezra asked enthralled with the tale.
Vin grinned and said, “I had been scrounging around for something to eat in the dumpster behind a fried chicken place and found a wishbone. I made a wish...and got a friend.”
“Chris?” the child asked, excited to have something in common with his new friend.
“Chris,” Vin agreed. “He led me to Nettie and arranged it so I got to live with her. That’s where I met Buck. The others I met a little later.”
“That’s just like me! That’s so cool!” Ezra said, thrilled.
“I thought so,” Vin agreed with a grin. “It turned out to be the best wish I ever made in my life.”
“And mine,” Nettie said as she cupped a loving hand on the young man’s cheek.
Vin caught it in his and moved it so he could place a kiss on the gnarled fingers.
Ezra turned to look curiously at his new guardian and asked, “How did you get Chris as your Angel?”
Buck smiled and said, “I made a wish on my birthday candles.”
Ezra looked at him thoughtfully for a moment and then said “Vin and I were in bad places when Chris came to get us. Were you?”
Buck smiled sadly at the perceptive little boy and nodded as he replied, “Kinda. My mother had to work real hard to support us. To keep a roof over our heads she sometimes she had to work two, or even three, jobs.”
“Or even worse,” he thought to himself and remembered all that his mother had been forced to do to support them.
“She had to be gone a lot, and I was left by myself because she couldn’t pay for a babysitter. It was my fifth birthday and she was supposed to be getting off one of her jobs early so we could celebrate it. She made me a cake and everything.”
Buck looked lost in memories for a moment before he went on, “I remember it was a chocolate cake with chocolate butter cream frosting, my very favorite. She couldn’t afford to buy a gift, but she made that big ole cake for me and put five red candles on it. I waited all day for her to come home so I could make my birthday wish and blow them out. I was so excited I could hardly stand it. I must have looked in the refrigerator a hundred times that day just to stare at that cake.”
Buck shook his head and pulled himself out of the melancholia he felt start to come over him as he remembered that time.
“Anyway, my Mom called and told me she was gonna have to stay at work after all. Somebody had come down sick and her boss wouldn’t let her leave. She needed the job so she couldn’t just up and walk out like she wanted to. She said we’d have to do the cake later, like the next day.
Well, I was heartbroken. It was my birthday on that day not the next one. I didn’t think it would be the same. I figured a birthday wish would only come true if it was actually my birthday, so I decided I’d make my wish and save the cake for later.”
“What happened then?” Ezra asked engrossed in Buck’s sad story.
Buck’s face lightened with his grin when he answered, “I got the cake out of the frig and hunted down the box of matches my mother kept for the stove - and that I had been forbidden to touch, by the way - and lit the candles. Then I wished for somebody that could be there with me when my Mom had to work so I wouldn’t have to be alone anymore.”
“And that’s when Chris came!” Ezra stated with excitement.
“Not quite,” was his rueful answer.
“Huh?” Ezra asked confused.
“Chris came when I knocked one of the lighted candles off the cake before I could blow them out. It landed on the holder of paper napkins my mother kept on the table. They caught on fire, and Chris showed up just in time to keep the fire from spreading and burning the whole place down,” Buck informed him.
“So he saved you!” Ezra murmured, completely impressed by the tale
“Yep, that was the first time, but hardly the last one,” Buck acknowledged with a laughing glance at the grinning Tanner.
“See, I ain’t the only one,” Vin pointed out to him, feeling vindicated.
Buck laughed and reached over to pound the other man on the back.
“Never said you were,” he laughed. “There wouldn’t have been any reason for Chris to come to any of us if we weren’t all trouble magnets, now would there?”
“Amen to that,” Nettie threw in with feeling.
“And just think,” Vin tossed at the older man, smirking evilly, “You’re gonna be raising up Chris’ newest charge.”
Buck stared at the man blankly for a minute then looked down with a chagrinned expression at Ezra when Vin’s meaning dawned.
Buck sighed and ran a hand through his hair before shaking his head with resignation and replying, “I survived JD. How could it get any worse than that?”
Nettie gave an amused snort and answered, “If I were the superstitious sort, I do believe I would have to say you just jinxed yourself.”
Buck just groaned and answered, “I refuse to even think about it. I’m gonna pretend I didn’t hear that and go on in blissful ignorance. Shut up, Vin.”
Buck glared at the blond man who had already opened his mouth to zing him after the last remark.
“Whatever you say, pard,” Vin grinned and held up both hands in front of himself protectively as if to ward off the look Buck was giving him.
Ezra giggled at the men and said, “You’re funny!”
Buck laughed and swiped his thumb at a spot of catsup on the boy’s chin as he answered with a teasing smile, “Well, I’m funny anyway. He’s just funny lookin’.”
“Hey!” Vin protested with a choked laugh while a light of unholy amusement and the gleam of battle lit his eyes.
“Uh-uh,” Nettie stepped in, recognizing that look and knowing from long experience what was coming next, shook her finger at the two men. “There is no way I am listening to you two start in on each other like a couple of third graders at recess. You want to start acting like you’re in grade school again then you can take it out of my kitchen. I believe someone promised Ezra the two dollar tour, anyway. If you boys are done eating then now seems like a good time to get it underway.”
The woman glared at the two unrepentantly smiling men with her hands firmly planted on her hips.
Buck gave the woman a wickedly amused look and, deliberately sounding like a petulant child, said, “Vin started it.”
Vin began laughing and Nettie stifled her own laughter while she made a shooing motion with her hands toward the door, saying, “That’s it! Out with you! Right now!”
“Come on, Ez. I guess we know when we’re not wanted,” Buck said with a wink to the little boy who was giggling too hard to reply.
Buck swept the child up into his arms and left the kitchen.
“Since we’re already here,” Buck said looking down at Ezra, “why don’t we start the tour with the downstairs and work our way up?”
Ezra nodded agreeably and wrapped one arm around Buck’s neck as the man carried him.