Dead Drop by Jack Patterson (reading cloud ebooks txt) 📕

That’s not to say he didn’t experience his share of trials in the Emerald City. His knee gave him problems after a hard tackle in the first game of his second season there. It required a minor surgery, but the setback seemed almost overwhelming to Sid. He considered retiring, but he soldiered on through rehabilitation and emerged stronger than ever. His age coupled with the speed of recovery also raised suspicion about the potential usage of performance enhancing drugs (PED), an accusation he vehemently denied. But all in all, he couldn’t really complain about anything—almost anything.

A blaring horn a few feet away made him jump. Sid and Mason looked in the direction of the car to see Sid’s wife, Rebecca, angrily waving a magazine at him as she roared up the driveway.

“Son, you stay here and keep practicing,” Sid said. “I’m going to go check on your mum.”

Sid hustled after her Cadillac Escalade, just fast enough to duck beneath the garage door that was closing. Alicia climbed out of the vehicle and immediately flung a Seattle weekly tabloid at him. She slammed the door and stormed inside.

He picked up the tabloid and read the headline—“He Shoots, He Scores?”—above a picture of Sid cozied up next to local television anchor, Sadie Livingston. Sid followed Rebecca inside.

“Is this what you’re upset about?”

She didn’t turn around, instead responding with a mocking tone, “Sid and Sadie.”

“Come on. It’s not like that, and you know it. That picture was from a fundraiser where someone asked me to pose with her.”

“There were more pictures inside, pictures where you walked her outside.”

“It was raining. I had an umbrella and she didn’t. You know I'm a gentleman.” He sighed. “I hardly even know her.”

She rolled her eyes and shook her head, still refusing to turn around and look at him.

He grabbed her arms and gently turned her around so she could see him. “I swear. It was just an innocent photo.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Innocent or not, I look like a fool.”

He shoved aside the tabloid now lying on the kitchen counter. “Nobody believes anything in there. It’s all rubbish. If I had known it would be on the front page, I never would’ve stopped to pose. Besides, it doesn’t really matter—”

“It still matters to me.”

He took a deep breath. “What I was saying is that it doesn’t really matter what other people think. What’s most important is what we think of each other, something that’s far more powerful than a headline and a photo. We know each other—and I think if we’re honest, we both know it’s just a ridiculous insinuation.”

She let out a long breath and continued putting away the groceries strewn across the kitchen counter. “Did you deposit that money into my account like I asked you to do? I need to pay for Mason’s school tomorrow.”

“I thought I showed you how to work the banking app so you could do it from here.”

“The app isn’t working—something about the operating system being updated, but their app hasn’t updated yet and it’s not compatible.”

“Okay, fine. I’ll go down there now.”

Sid grabbed his keys and headed out the door. He jumped into his Porsche Carrera and put the top down. As he backed slowly out of the driveway, he motioned for Mason to come near him.

“Where are you going, Dad?” Mason asked.

“Your mum asked me to run an errand for her.”

“Can I come with you?”

“Not this time. But you keep working on that move of yours and show it to me when I get back. Deal?”

“Deal,” Mason said as he flashed a grin. They bumped fists and Mason raced off, throwing the ball down and twirling around with it in an effort to impress his dad.

“Nice move, Son. Keep it up!” Sid said as he drifted slowly down the driveway. He jammed the gear into first and prepared to roar away. However, he didn’t make it fifty feet until he noticed his neighbor staring at the back corner of her car just short of her driveway. He immediately stopped.

“Is everything all right, Mrs. Graham?”

She sighed and shook her head. “This just isn’t my day,” she said as she put her hands on her hips. “I swear if I was about to collect on a lottery ticket, I’d get hit by a train on the way there.”

Sid turned his car off and hustled across the street to see how he could help her.

“What seems to be the problem?” he asked.

“I’m no mechanic, but it looks like a flat tire to me.”

Sid craned his neck around the back corner of the car to concur with her assessment—and there was no denying it. The tire was completely deflated.

“Looks like you ran over something,” he said as he knelt down next to the tire. He clawed at a cylindrical object sticking no more than a quarter of an inch beyond the tire’s surface.

“What is it?” she asked as she leaned over his shoulder.

“I can’t be sure yet, but it looks like a nail.”

She muttered a few expletives under her breath. “All those damn construction zones on the highway.”

“Well, don’t get your knickers in a knot, Mrs. Graham,” Sid said with a wink. “I’ve been known to change a tire or two in my day.”

She clasped her hands together and smiled. “You’d do that for me?”

“Of course.”

“But don’t you have somewhere else to be?”

He waved dismissively at her. “I just have a short errand at the bank. Those thieves can wait.”

She snickered and handed him the keys. “I’ll go get you some lemonade.”

“That’s not really necessary, Mrs. Graham. I’m not that—”

The door slammed hard behind Mrs. Graham as she entered her house through the front door. Sid wasn’t sure she really wanted to give him lemonade as much as she wanted to pick up her Pomeranian puppy, which hadn’t stopped barking at the window since he crossed the street to help her.

Sid pulled out a set of tools from Mrs. Graham’s trunk and then dropped to his knees to