Settling Old Scores: BWWM Second Chance Romance Read Online Free Page A

maturity
of the bodies and not age maturity. Kevin, sure as hell, wouldn't
back down from these guys if they got in his face. He would grip
whatever was handy and go after them.
    One
time, he used a folding chair like a television pro wrestler would,
on a bigger, older guy. The guy called Pat a fucking bitch when she
ignored his efforts to charm her. That could have turned into a go to
jail offense for Kevin. It didn't help that the other guy was not the
same race, either. Kevin quickly became unwelcome with a lot of the
brothers he formerly ran the streets with. They left him alone after
that, too. Everyone seemed to know that Kelly kid might be crazier
than most.
    Willie
and Kevin were on their way to becoming minor league thugs by then.
After that incident, a little racial divide grew between them; and
Kevin knew it wasn't a bad thing if it got him away from the path he
was proceeding on.
    One
time after the divide started to develop, Kevin came upon Willie
having words out in a parking lot in the far corner of a liquor store
with someone Kevin had never seen before. The man pulled a knife on
Willie and looked like he knew how to use it. Willie pulled his
roller out of the sleeve of his winter jacket. He always wore a big
Navy Surplus Pea Coat in the winter.
    Fearing
for Willie, Kevin charged the guy and tackled him. Willie destroyed
the guy with the roller when he and Kevin went down in a heap. "The
motherfucker beat my sister up," Willie said. Then they both
proceeded to beat the daylights out of this guy since he messed with
what both considered to be family. Later, Kevin showed Willie that he
was packing a 9mm when he tackled the guy; he could have shot him if
he wanted to because he was armed. Willie was the one with the bug
eyes that time.
    Willie
probably told the other brothers that Kevin packed. After that, they
definitely left him alone having been duly warned that the crazy
Irish white boy also packed. Kevin knew that Willie still felt some
affection for him, and appreciated what he had done. They just
couldn't be seen in public together.
    Willie
on the other hand, could get a grip on his roller, but not on his
roller coaster life. He quit school, kept on with the assaults.
Willie got the option of jail or the military once he landed in front
of a judge. Willie took the Marine Corps option and Kevin lost track
of him.
    Kevin
seemed to come out of his funk during his junior year in high school.
All of a sudden, his grades came up. He surprised a hell of a lot of
the school counselors with his test scores too. They couldn't believe
the rough edged kid tested as well as he did. Regardless of tests,
Kevin wanted to get away from home. Just as he avoided his house by
running the streets, he wanted to avoid everything by going away. The
best option for him was to volunteer for the Navy.
    Within
a week after he graduated, he left for boot camp. By January 1971, he
found himself off the coast of Vung Tau, Vietnam, on an old Liberty
ship loaded to the Plimsoll Mark with all kinds of bad shit. It had
been pressed into service as a munitions ship. They always loaded the
old buckets with the explosives right in front of the engine room
bulkheads. They didn't put them in the bow; just in case you struck
something. They didn't want to put them in the stern because an
explosion could mess up your steering equipment. If you got hit in
the mid-ship section, the whole ship was going down. It was an easy
decision in that the ship was at the end of its useful life anyway.
    Kevin
never felt endangered despite the explosives literally right next to
his sorry ass. He was too stupid to know the risks. Once in a while,
someone would launch a mortar at the ships sitting in anchorage,
waiting to be unloaded. It was a little spooky especially if you were
in the engine room. You could feel the mortar, hear it, but not see
anything.
    At
times like that, Kevin would look at the old steam pipes on the ship
and think about what a Lobster he