Free See Me by Pauline Allan

“Yeah, she’ll be fine. I’ll drop her off.”
    “You can’t do that. You have to make sure she gets upstairs and locked in her apartment. She has this thing about the dark and locking her doors. She’s too messed up to do it. She’ll freak out if you don’t turn on the lights and lock the door.”
    “I can do that. She freaks out?” How bad could she really freak out? She could barely hold her head up.
    “Hellooo…I’m right here,” Abigail said. “I can hear everything you guys are saying. I don’t freak out. Well, I might freak out, but this one time when I was nine…I think I was nine, anyways, I went into my parent’s wine cellar and—”
    “Oh my God, Sean,” Ron interrupted. “Get her home in one piece.”
    “No problem.”
    Sean shook Ron’s hand first, then Eric’s. They treated him as if he was their equal. They shook his hand without examining his tattoo-covered forearm or squinting to see the scar on his chin. They were easygoing and easy to be around. He appreciated it more than they could ever know.
    Ron leaned over and gave Abigail a quick peck on her head. “Be good. I’m glad you came out tonight.”
    “Um, okay. Are you sure you have to go?” Sean noticed her gaze shift from Ron to him. “I mean, I want to hear another song. Then we could go. I promise. One more song?”
    Sean fought the urge to crack the table in half. She didn’t trust him.
    “You’re going to be fine. Sean’s going to take you home. He won’t let anything happen to you. He’s a tough guy.”
    Her eyes fluttered closed. “Yes, my tough guy.”
    My tough guy? Why did that sound like music to his ears? They both watched Eric and Ron walk hand in hand out of the bar.
    Abigail played with the straw in her almost empty glass. “I…I guess you have to take me home. I’m sorry. I don’t normally do this.”
    “Do what?” Sean rolled the bottom of his empty bottle on the table. He’d had four root beers already.
    “This, go out, drink. I mean I have wine in my fridge. Penelope and I sit and have pizza and a glass, but that’s about it. That’s on Friday nights.”
    “Penelope?”
    “My dog.”
    Sean had a dog once. Well, his second foster family did. German shepherd. He’d been the only one who the dog didn’t try to eat for lunch. “Friday nights, huh?”
    There, finally, the electric blue irises peered up at him. “Yeah, she likes to sit by the tub while I take a bath. She has these big ears and always looks like she’s smiling. It’s really funny. My sister has a dog too. Well, the kids do. Nathan said he wanted a dog that was kid-friendly, so they got a golden retriever. They bring Skipper to the lake house every year for the Fourth. I have to make deviled eggs for the party. Do you like deviled eggs?”
    Sean tried his best to follow the erratic thoughts that flowed out of her pretty mouth. At least she was a happy drunk. “Sure. Where’s the lake house?”
    “Upstate New York. That’s where I’m from. Well, where my parents moved to when I was nine. We were originally from Mississippi. My parents have a big shindig every year. It’s the only time everyone can get together anymore. I mean, the waves are great in California and Hawaii, so Jenny travels with the weather. She loves fish. Sandra, well… She works around PTA meetings and shit like that. And my Dougie, he has art openings throughout the year.”
    She had a big family. It sounded so strange to hear her list name after name. Sean listed one name—his own. The other two names weren’t worth much. Mommy and Daddy dearest could burn in hell. Abigail was working the tip of her pink tongue to lick a strand of pineapple on her lip. He leaned in and gently slid his thumb over the soft flesh. Her eyes melted closed as she let him sink the tip into her warm mouth. The rough edge of her tongue cleaned his finger. God, his jeans were too fucking tight. He adjusted in the seat. As he started to pull free from her wet mouth, he felt