Walk Me Home by Catherine Ryan Hyde

friends. Ernie and Paul and Javier. They were playing poker in the kitchen.
    Teddy had bowls of tortilla chips and salsa in the middle of the table. Amid the poker chips. Carly stuck her head into the kitchen just in time to watch Paul call a raise and toss a blue poker chip right into the salsa. It splashed. All four guys made audible noises of disgust. Ernie almost stuck his hand in the salsa to retrieve it, butTeddy yanked the bowl out of the way before that disaster could happen.
    As he was carrying it to the sink, he saw Carly over his shoulder.
    “Hey, you,” he said.
    He tossed Paul a dish towel, and Paul set about swiping at the stacks of poker chips to catch the salsa splashes.
    Teddy took a fork out of the drawer and fished the poker chip out of the salsa. Rinsed both under the tap.
    “At noon?” Carly asked.
    “What better time to have chips and salsa than at noon?”
    “I meant the poker. Isn’t poker sort of like drinking? Don’t normal people do it after five?”
    Her eyes settled back to the table, where she noted that each of the four men had an open beer going.
    “When you’re unemployed,” Teddy said, “every hour of the day is after five.”
    All three of the guys nodded. Ernie and Javier clinked the mouths of their beer bottles together in a toast to the sentiment.
    Teddy sat back down and rearranged the table so that the tortilla chips and salsa sat between Teddy and Paul. Where they would be safer.
    Javier took a cigar out of his pocket and clamped it in his teeth.
    Teddy set his cards facedown on the table.
    “I will kill you with my bare hands,” he said, staring down Javier.
    Javier was searching his pockets for a lighter and didn’t notice. Finally Paul jabbed him in the ribs.
    “Oh. Who? Me?” Javier asked, meeting Teddy’s eyes.
    “You’re the one with the cigar, so, yes. I will kill you with my bare hands if you light that thing in this house. And I won’t even have to face legal retribution because my lovely and delicate ladyfriend will murder me in cold blood the second she walks through the door and smells what you’ve done.”
    Carly leaned on the kitchen door frame and tried not to smile. It was fun to watch the men interacting. Especially with her mother playing an offscreen role as the attractive-yet-wicked witch.
    “Teddy—” Javier began.
    “Get thee to the back porch.”
    “I don’t want to miss any rounds.”
    “Great,” Teddy said. “Nice priorities. It’s not worth missing a round, but it’s worth signing my death warrant. I’ll be sure to come back and haunt you. Now put the stinky thing away.”
    Javier sighed and slid the still-unlit cigar into his shirt pocket.
    “Teddy,” Carly said. Suddenly. Surprising even herself.
    “Yeah, hon?”
    “I need to talk to you about something.”
    “OK, but it’ll have to wait till after the game.”
    “It’s important, though.”
    “I got real money riding on this game, Carly. You know how little real money I’ve actually got?”
    “I just…Did you talk to Mom about Dean?”
    “I’m sorry, hon. Last night was not the right time.”
    “So…you’ll talk to her today?”
    “Um…Hmm…Things were better when I made that offer. I’m on thin ice with your mom right now.”
    Carly just leaned a moment, marveling at how Teddy and her mom could be in trouble again so quickly. Last night they’d been sweethearts, just like the old days. Still, Carly couldn’t help but register that her mom’s swing back to Teddy was abrupt. Abrupt even for Carly’s mom, who only made sudden turns, with no notice or signaling. And if the number of towns and houses Carly had lived in over the past sixteen years was any indication, her mother didn’t stay in anything very long.
    “You promised me, Teddy,” she said. Quietly. No overt emotion. But it was in there. Hiding.
    “If I’m on her bad side, it could do you more harm than good, Carly. If she’s mad at me, and I say I think you should go, she’ll be a