Hugo looked like he was going to argue. Instead, he called for Mei.
The music briefly grew louder as she came through the doors, hurrying down the hall. “What? What is it? Are we under attack? Whose ass do I need to kick?”
And without looking away from Wallace, Hugo said, “I need you to do me a favor.”
She glanced between them curiously. “Okay. What?”
“I need you to hug Wallace for me.”
Wallace spluttered.
“Wow,” Mei said. “I’m so glad I ran out here for this.” She tapped her fingers against her palm. A little light burst before fading as quickly as it’d come. “Any specific reason?”
“Because I can’t do it,” Hugo said. “And I want to.”
Mei hesitated, but only for a moment. And then Wallace stumbled against the wall as she latched onto him, arms around his waist, her head lying on his chest.
“Hug me back,” she demanded. “It’s weird if you don’t. What the boss man wants, the boss man gets.”
“This is already weird,” Wallace muttered, but did as she asked. It felt good, having this. More than he expected it to. It wasn’t like it’d been after Desdemona. It was … more.
“This is from Hugo,” she told him, unnecessarily.
“I know,” he whispered.
* * *
Alan looked like he was going to argue. He scowled, arms crossed defensively, ire clear. But he seemed to be listening.
“He’ll get through to him,” Nelson said, watching his grandson and their new guest.
Wallace wasn’t so sure. He believed in Hugo, but he didn’t know what Alan would do in response. He wasn’t quite on board with the idea of them going off alone, even if it was only to the backyard. “What if he doesn’t?”
“Then he doesn’t,” Nelson said. “And though it will be through no fault of his own, he’ll carry the guilt with him just as he’s done for Cameron and Lea. Remember what I told you? Empathetic to a fault. That’s our Hugo.”
“She didn’t come in today.”
Nelson knew who he meant. “She’ll be back. Nancy might take a day or three, but she always comes back.”
“Will she come around?”
“I don’t know. I’d like to think she will, but there’s…” He coughed into the back of his hand. “There’s something about losing a child that destroys a person.”
Wallace felt like an idiot. Of course Nelson would understand. Hugo had lost his parents, which also meant Nelson had lost a child. Guilt tugged at him that he’d never thought to ask. “Which one?”
“My son,” Nelson said. “A good man. Stubborn, but good. Such a serious little boy, but he learned to smile in his own time. Hugo’s mother saw to that. They were two peas in a pod. I remember the first time he’d told us about her. He had stars in his eyes. I knew then he was lost to her, though I hadn’t even met her. I needn’t have worried. She was a marvelous woman, so filled with hope and joy. But above all else, she was patient and kind. And they took the better parts of themselves and put them into Hugo. I see them in him, always.”
“I wish I could have met them,” Wallace said, watching as Alan trailed after Hugo down the long hallway toward the back deck, Apollo already barking from outside.
“They would’ve liked you,” Nelson said. “Would’ve given you shit, of course, but you’d have been in on the joke with them.” He smiled to himself. “I can’t wait to see them again, to hold my son’s face in my hands and tell him how proud I am of him. We think we have time for such things, but there’s never enough for all we should have said.” His glance was sly. “You’d do well to remember that.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Nelson chuckled. “I bet you don’t.” He sobered. “Is there anything you would say to someone left behind if you could?”
“No one would listen.”
Nelson shook his head slowly. “I don’t believe that for a moment.”
* * *
Alan came back inside first. He looked bewildered. Spooked. The tea shop seemed heavier with his presence, and smaller, as if the walls had started closing in. Wallace didn’t know if that was him projecting, or if it was coming from Alan himself. Alan, who Wallace almost felt sorry for as he turned over another chair and set it up on the table. This whole empathy thing wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.
Mei paused, broom in her hand. “All right?” she asked, looking at Alan.
Alan ignored her. He stared at Wallace, jaw dropped. Wallace didn’t like it. “What?”
“The chair,” Alan said. “How are you doing that?”
Wallace blinked. “Oh, uh. Practice, I guess? It’s not as hard as it looks, once you get the hang of it. It just takes time to learn how to focus—”
“You need to show me how to do it.”
That certainly didn’t sound like a good idea. Visions of chaos filled Wallace’s head, customers screaming as chairs were flung around them by an unseen hand. “It took a long time, probably longer than you’ll—”
“I can learn,” Alan insisted. “How hard can it be?”
Mei set the broom against the counter, glancing at them before heading down the hall to the back deck.
“Well,” Wallace said. “I … don’t exactly know how to start.”
“I do,” Nelson said from his chair. “Taught him everything he knows.”
Alan wasn’t impressed. “You? Really. You.”
“Really,” Nelson said dryly. “But you don’t have to take my word for it. In fact, you don’t have to take any word at all with that attitude.”
“I don’t need you,” Alan said. “Wallace here can show me. Isn’t that right, Wallace?”
Wallace shook his head. “Nope. Nelson is the expert. If you want to know anything, you go through him.”
“He’s too old to—”
Nelson disappeared from his chair.
Alan choked on his tongue.
And then he was knocked off his feet when Nelson appeared behind him, sweeping his legs out from underneath him with his cane. Alan landed roughly on his back, the lights in the sconces flaring briefly.
“Not too old to show you a trick or three, you insolent child,” Nelson said coolly. “And if you know what’s good for you, you’ll bite your tongue before I show you what I can really do.” He turned back toward his chair, but not before he winked at a gobsmacked Wallace.
“No, wait,” Alan said, pushing himself up off the floor as the shop settled around them. “I…” He ground his teeth together. “I’ll listen.”
Nelson eyed him critically. “I’ll believe it when I see it. Your first task is to sit there without talking. If I hear so much as a peep from you before I tell you to speak again, I won’t teach you a damn thing.”
“But—”
“Stop. Talking.”
Alan snapped his mouth closed, though he looked furious about it.
“Go check on them,” Nelson said to Wallace as he sat back down. “I’ll handle things in here.”