Read with BonusRead with Bonus

3. 🔧 Moving Granite

JUSTICE

Present day

“I’ll take care of them,” I say. “You and Xaver have your hands full. What with the twins and one on the way.”

Pippa turns, her pregnant belly straining against her black mourning dress. “Justice, are you sure? Seth will go to college soon, but D’Andre and Cameron need—”

I lift my hand, cutting her off. “What they need is to stay in familiar surroundings. They like their neighborhood, their school, and their friends. If you move them to Manhattan, they will lose everything. Besides, Lilli had asked me to be the kids’ guardian. All I need to do is go to court in a few weeks and make it official.”

Yeah, I’m a parent. School plays. PTA and all that shit.

I had learned of Lilli’s death and my immediate elevation to being a parent an hour before I told Seth, D’Andre, and Cameron of their mother’s demise.

And what a conversation that was.

Seth and D’Andre traveled down the road of denial while Cameron went straight into anger, sweeping his arm across his dresser, scattering the contents on the floor.

Nothing broke, but him.

And he had yet to be pieced back together.

With zero parental experience, I went on instinct, and wrapped him in my arms. I crooned soothing words while he struggled. Although the words wouldn’t bring his mother back, his pain was eased enough to where he quieted and fell asleep.

When he woke, he was calm. Eerily so. And that has been his demeanor ever since.

Pippa sighs, her expression tells me she is slightly out at my refusal to let her take the kids. “Well...if they are okay with it...”

She looks at me for confirmation. I give it right away.

“They are. I discussed it with them in length.”

Even if they weren’t happy for me to raise them, I was going to anyway. Lilli had asked me to do so.

And despite being from another race, I’d been the only father figure in their lives. I took on the role five years ago when I stopped some kids from picking on Seth the day they moved into their apartment.

Pippa frowns, her reaction on losing her chance to mother the kids.

My heart twists.

I hate not giving her what she wants and causing her pain, but in this, I am firm.

Taking care of the guys goes way beyond a promise. After what I did to Lilli, I must honor her wishes. It is the least I can do.

Besides, I will keep them safe.

And the only change I will make in their routine is by Christmas break, when school lets out, I intend to move the kids to my brownstone. If they’re not ready to leave their neighborhood, then I will take out a lease on the apartment until they are.

“Will you come with me to tell them?” Pippa asks, her resignation replacing her frown.

I nod. “You bet, Pip.”

My feet follow while my eyes watch how she threads through groups of funeral attendees.

Pip’s so regal. So sweet.

And I would have destroyed her had we gotten together.

That is why I never pressed her after I told her how I felt. Deep down, I knew I wasn’t the one for her.

Despite that, after almost three years, I would be lying if I never wondered what would have been. Pippa is one of a kind. She knows intuitively what I am thinking.

How I am feeling. I never have to explain my actions to her.

We always fit seamlessly. Still do.

Yet, she married Xaver Sayle. He started out as a rival, but is now a guy I consider a friend. A guy who, as much as I hate to admit it, is much better for her than I could ever be.

The knowledge of that fact doesn’t lessen what I feel for my best friend.

And to be honest, I can't imagine what will.

Upon entering the catering section of the funeral home, we find the kids, Seth, D’Andre and Cameron, sitting at a long table near the kitchen, looking forlorn. Mac and cheese, which I know is number three in their top five favorite foods, congeals on their plates.

They miss their mom. It is written in bold print on their faces.

I can understand their sorrow. There isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t miss my own. The mom she was before Gary’s influence.

My mother, Cyndy Stone, is dead. She left this earth two years ago. Or so I heard. I didn’t mourn her passing as much as I thought I would. When I left Gary’s house in Oklahoma, I severed all ties and I didn’t look back.

But even if Cyndy were in my life, I couldn’t turn to her for advice on raising the kids.

What would she be able to tell me?

The right way to sleep in a car to avoid a sore neck in the morning?

What are the most malleable vegetable bags to put on a bruise?

Nah.

The best life lessons I received came from my dad and Sarge, the guy who took me in after the streets did their damage. Two men from different walks of life who made their existence honorable. Dad by standing up for what he believed in and Sarge for consistently doing what was right.

Shame they can’t give me advice.

Both of them have been in the ground for years. Dad in a prison stabbing a few months after I left the military, and Sarge, eight years ago from a heart attack.

Pippa, places a hand on Seth’s shoulder, holding his melancholy gaze with her own. “I understand you and your brothers want to live with Justice.”

Seth looks at me for confirmation.

I nod.

“I’m sorry,” he mumbles. His eyes grow glassy with tears. He loves Pippa and doesn’t enjoy upsetting her either. They have formed a special bond after he had helped me prevent Craig, her husband’s former CFO, from killing her.

Pippa sits on the bench and puts her arm around Seth’s thin shoulders, offering comfort.

Seth is lanky as the day is long and taciturn enough for a man of seventy, let alone an almost eighteen-year-old, yet he melts into her embrace, accepting her mothering with gratitude.

His middle brother D’Andre, built like a compact football player, picks up his fork and starts forming his food into lumps. At fifteen, he knows where he wants to end up. After he graduates high school, he plans to help me run my gyms full time. As a natural salesperson and a ladies’ man, he will do well.

Next to him is Cameron, the baby, whose sad brown eyes stare fixedly at his plate. Of the three of them, Cameron at twelve years old is the one who gives me the most worry. His mother’s death has hit him hard. Since learning what happened to Lilli, he has barely spoken five words to his brothers or to me. I am getting him into therapy as of Monday. He can’t continue in such a state.

D’Andre grabs my attention by clearing his throat. His voice, already deep, is rough with unshed tears. “What about Ms. Davis? Won’t she have a say in who we live with?”

“It’s all taken care of, no need to worry about that, okay?”

Squaring things with Ms. Davis, the court-appointed representative for the boys after Lilli’s death, could have been my biggest hurdle. Neither she nor the court were an issue because I had helped the now-Governor of New York discreetly find her daughter, Susan, a few years back.

Susan, fourteen at the time, had left home to run away to Boston with her thirty-year-old American History teacher. As soon as I learned of their location, I drove the two hundred miles in the darkest part of the early morning, catching up with them at a rundown motel outside the city just as the sun’s rays lit the sky.

When teach left their room to get some free coffee at the reception desk, I dragged him into the alley, where I kicked him until he begged for mercy. Wiping his blood off my boot with a yellowed newspaper, I told him never to contact Susan again… unless he wanted more of the same. I left him cowering against a dumpster with a mixture of blood, snot, and tears coating his face.

That very day, he disappeared, leaving his wife and three-year-old daughter destitute.

But not for long.

I reached out to her, via a friend of a friend, and gave her a job at my Manhattan gym. She didn’t seem to miss her husband much, considering she started dating a trainer two months after her husband had vanished.

D’Andre sighs and mumbles into his plate, “One less worry, I suppose.” He then goes back to lumping his food, albeit with a little less vigor.

Seth leans further into Pippa while Cameron remains a sitting statue.

I go to stand next to Cam’s chair, hoping I can get him to talk at least once today. He’s not as tall as Seth, so I must hunker down to meet his gaze. “Cam, do you want to continue to live with me?”

He quickly nods.

I take it as a good sign. He usually takes forever when making an important decision. For instance, when his birthday or Christmas comes around, his gift list changes at least ten times. It made Lilli both smile and grit her teeth.

A pang of sadness washes over me at remembering our discussions about her youngest, most mischievous, most curious child.

As much as I regret Lilli’s passing, her kids must feel it tenfold. Only the knowledge that they need me helps strengthen my resolve to be there for them one-hundred percent.

“Do you believe I will take care of you?” I ask, wondering what Cameron will say.

His shoulders rise halfway in an automatic shrug. He stops and lets them fall, expelling a deep breath. Lifting his tear-filled eyes to mine he says, “I want to stay with you. I just… I just... I miss my mom.”

I gather him up and hold him to me, my chest muffling his cries. His tears make my suppressed grief and guilt well up, leaving in its trail cuts that will take a long time to heal.

Previous Chapter
Next Chapter