Some Assembly Required by Bru Baker, Lex Chase Read Free Book Online Page A

a hundred different directions.
    Patrick crouched at the edge and waited for Benji to emerge. He ran his teeth over his bottom lip. It was part delight and part of that prickly bothersome thing called concern.
    Agnes balanced herself on the lip of the ball pit slide, her lips pressed in a tight line between intense concentration and a disapproving frown. She held out her hand over the pit, waiting for Benji’s hand to come into range. Heaven forbid Agnes fall into the cesspit of grubby fingerprints, boogers, and piss. No. That was for Patrick and everyone else.
    Benji’s other hand clamored to the surface, and Patrick held the breath he no longer had any need for.
    Agnes snatched Benji’s wrist, and Patrick latched onto her opposite forearm and wrist, providing leverage.
    “Pull!” Agnes commanded, and together they yanked Benji from the plastic hellmouth.
    Patrick released Agnes, and she tottered on her feet. Once she’d righted herself, she adjusted her snooty bifocals and turned up her nose.
    At their feet, Benji writhed like a dying carp. He gulped in air, his eyes wide and wild and his chest heaving.
    Agnes’s gaze softened. “The poor dear. He’ll eventually get used to it.”
    Patrick crossed his arms as he took his sweet time studying Benji going through the stages of thinking he’d just drowned. “Nothing like a baptism from a children’s ball pit. God’s clearly a comedian.”
    Benji coughed and rolled to his side.
    Agnes buttoned her cardigan. “He does have a plan for all of us.”
    “I can’t tell if a baptism by fire is worse,” Patrick said as he shifted slightly to the left to avoid Benji possibly puking on his Nikes. He brightened. “Do you think they do that at Wallville?”
    Agnes shot Patrick a chilling glare. “Are you going to tend to him, or are you going to further affirm my utter disappointment in you?”
    He crouched over Benji, watching his eyes roll. Hmm. Patrick had always had a soft spot for brown-eyed boys. He also had a soft spot for his MILAN bed, which had better not be sold by now to some CASA hacker planning to make a fish tank out of the frame.
    “Now that that nasty business if over, I have a sweater to finish,” she said and smoothed down her cardigan. “Patrick.”
    “Agnes.” He nodded and then slapped Benji’s sweaty cheek. “Rise and shine, cupcake.”
    Benji blinked, the first welcoming sign of cognizant thought.
    Patrick slapped again. “Hey, hey, Benji. You need to stay with me, big boy.” He extended his middle finger. “How many fingers am I holding up?”
    “Where…?” Benji croaked and then coughed.
    “Ah, yeah.” Patrick smirked. “CASA. Bambini Mondo, in fact.”
    “What?” Benji’s lashes fluttered and his head fell back.
    “C’mon, shake it off.” Patrick slapped his cheek, and Benji’s head bounced before he drifted off to sleep. Patrick set his jaw. The gentle approach sometimes seemed hit or miss. Time to haul out the big guns. Patrick smacked him with a hard crack to the jaw. Benji gasped with the jolt to his system. “Wake up!”
    Benji blinked back to the present and swallowed. He felt over his chest, and Patrick nodded as he predicted Benji’s thoughts.
    “When you come back, you’re always in what you came in with,” Patrick said.
    “I smell like dog crap,” Benji responded, his voice thick, like he didn’t have full command over his tongue yet.
    “And that damned funk will never come out of the pit.”
    “I smell like dog crap.”
    Well, at least he was forming sentences. It was a start. Patrick hooked his hands under Benji’s arms and hauled him to his feet. Benji flopped against him and curled his fingers into Patrick’s borrowed shirt. The close contact sparked up Patrick’s spine. The fresh ones always had the strongest energy. But it definitely wasn’t spiritual energy that Patrick was feeling. He swallowed and tried to cough out the tightness in his throat.
    Thank God the smell of dog shit ruined the