Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

Character

I dressed.

Darius dressed.

And it was Darius who carried my shoes down the stairs, holding my hand on his other side.

We made it to the living room to see our son slumped, going extra, a wet washcloth folded over his eyes, his head resting on the back of the couch.

There was a bottle of red open and breathing on the coffee table, and two handsome, shining wide-bowled wineglasses.

Damn.

Darius had it going on.

Feeling our arrival, Liam told the ceiling, “I’m scarred for life.”

I opened my mouth to say something when I was suddenly shoved behind Darius.

This was because we heard the front door slam open.

I peeked around him and caught Toni barreling in.

She skidded to a halt.

She was wheezing.

She put her hand to her chest, and it floated up and down as she tried to catch her breath.

Liam had taken the washcloth off, and he was studying her.

“Did you run here, Aunt Toni?” he asked.

“I…you…” She caught sight of me. “Girl!” she shouted. “I’ve been blowing up your phone!”

“I kinda left it in the car,” I admitted.

Immediately, I thought it prudent to step back because it looked like Toni’s head was going to explode.

Darius twisted to me. “Your phone is in your car?”

I nodded. “With my purse.”

He sighed, then turned to Liam and said only one word.

“Boy.”

I stared in marvel as Liam got up, no teenage-boy backtalk or grumbling, and headed to the front door.

“Hey, man,” he said right before he disappeared into the entryway.

Tony strolled in and instantly said to Darius, “Sorry, brother. Tried to stop her.”

Lena sashayed in, her gaze homed in on the wine, and she asked Darius, “Is that from the reserve?”

“Yup,” he answered.

She moved to the couch and sat her round behind on it, mumbling, “When Liam gets back, he can get me a glass.”

This was when Kenneth arrived.

His eyes went right to the triptych.

“Well, that’s just stunning,” he remarked, wandering to it like he was in a museum.

Toni and I exchanged a look.

Tony and Darius exchanged a look.

“What the fuck? My man appreciates good art. Get over it,” Lena sniped.

“What?” Kenneth asked, like he just realized he wasn’t the only one in the room.

Lena patted the couch next to her. “Come sit here by me, love muffin.”

Dutifully, Kenneth padded to the couch and sat by his wife.

“When Toni couldn’t get Malia on the line, they all piled in the car,” Tony explained to Darius.

“Right,” Darius replied.

“Parking around your place is for shit,” Toni griped. “We had to park two blocks away.”

Which explained the wheezing.

She was in heels too.

Yikes.

“Where’s Talia?” I asked.

“She dragged our neighbor from having her feet up in front of her TV. She told her it was an emergency,” Tony explained.

“It was,” Toni asserted.

“Yeah, looks like things are dire here,” Tony replied.

Thankfully, before this could escalate, Darius waded in.

“You guys want wine?” Darius offered.

“What I want is an update. Is shit good?” Toni responded, her attention pinging the short distance between me and Darius.

“She’s got sex hair. Of course it’s good,” Lena put in.

My hands flew to my hair.

“Told you,” Lena finished, aiming this at Toni. “All she had to do was show and poof! All good.”

“Liam caught us in bed,” I told Toni and Lena, moving my head each way and trying to forget the men were also there.

“Oh boy,” Toni said.

“Fucking hell,” Lena said.

“We were done, and I don’t think he could see me. He still says he’s scarred for life,” I shared.

“I’m scarred for life, and I’m just listening to the story,” Toni said.

“I’m not and neither is Liam. He knows his dad giving his mom the business brought him into this world,” Lena said.

Even if she spoke truth, I fought gagging, knowing I’d prefer my son to live his life thinking a stork delivered him to us.

Toni looked to the side and warned an urgent, “Zip it,” two seconds before Liam walked in with my purse.

And my keys.

For such a successful outcome, I’d really blown this operation.

Darius, who obviously didn’t miss anything, didn’t miss my keys.

He looked down at me and muttered, “Baby.”

I stretched out my lips and shrugged.

His lips tipped up, and he slid his arm around my shoulders and pulled me into his side.

“Sick,” Liam said, using that word as kids used it these days, meaning “awesome.”

He was beaming at us.

Oh no.

I was going to cry.

“Hurry, pour the wine. You can’t cry and drink at the same time,” Toni announced.

“Liam, go get your aunties more glasses,” Lena ordered.

“What now?” Darius asked right before the front door slammed open again and Ally stormed in, followed by Indy.

They halted and looked around the room, their eyes stopping on Darius and me.

Then their torsos swayed back.

In came Lee, and after him, the man who had pulled Ally away from Liam and me at the hospital.

But I only had eyes for Indy.

“Indy, girl, are you pregnant?” I asked a question to which the answer was obvious.

She put her hand on her big belly and smiled huge. “Yeah. Due very soon, in case you couldn’t tell by how giganto I am.”

“I’m so happy for you!” I exclaimed.

Her smile remained in place. “Thanks. We are too.” She took in my dress and noted, “Killer duds, babe. That dress is hot.”

I grinned. “Thanks.”

“I told you it was all good and you didn’t need to go crashing into Darius’s house,” Lee butted into our exchange to aim this at Ally.

“She was taking forever to get over it,” Ally said back. “I thought she was over here, taking her sweet time to ream his ass.”

“When has Malia ever reamed anyone’s ass?” Lee asked.

Liam raised his hand.

“Put that hand down, Liam Clark,” I snapped.

He smiled at me.

Darius gave me a squeeze.

Lee looked to Darius. “Roam and Sniff are in the control room. They saw her car here. They made a deal with Ally they’d tip her off if Malia got near you. They tipped her off. I tried to talk them out of it, but we were having dinner together and Indy fed into Ally, and you know how it goes.”

Indy and Ally, everyone knew how it went, and for me, it had been nearly two decades, and still, I knew.

“Remind me to ream their asses next time I’m in the office,” Darius said to Lee.

“I don’t know, seems like an excuse for a party. I’ll call Jet. She can bring the cashews,” Indy said.

“Righteous!” Ally cried.

“Fuck,” Darius swore.

“Best be gettin’ your ass back down to the reserve, Liam. And break out some more glasses,” Lena ordered.

Liam looked to his dad.

Darius nodded.

Liam headed out of the room.

I got up on tiptoe and asked in Darius’s ear. “How do you do that?”

“I got a dick,” he answered.

I scrunched my face.

Even so, he kissed me.

I could swear I heard someone sigh.

The problem was, I thought it was Kenneth.

“Girl, you gotta lose your pad,” Toni, now examining the African mask, called. “It’s alright. But this place has got character.”

I looked up to Darius.

I leaned into Darius.

And then I smiled.

* * * *

I was in Darius’s attractive kitchen, which was bigger than mine (way bigger), had better…well, everything than mine (and I’d gone for a load of upgrades), and I was drying wineglasses.

With grave effort, Lee stopped Indy and Ally from calling in their crew.

We all had a glass of wine (except Indy, Darius got her some ice water).

Then Tony corralled his crew and got them out the door.

Lee corralled his (and I discovered Ally’s man was called Ren, and he was as nice as he was fine) and got them out the door.

Which left me, Darius and Liam.

And I was hiding.

Darius walked in.

I aimed a smile at him, but it was trembling so much, it probably looked more like a grimace.

He took the wineglass out of one hand, the towel out of the other, put the first down, threw the last beside it, then shifted me with his body to fence me in facing him with his hands on the counter at either side of me.

“Right, sweetheart, so we didn’t get down to planning how we’d ease into this with Liam, but we’re here now, we gotta wing it.”

“I just thought I’d give him a kiss and go home. He’s got to go to bed. He’s got school tomorrow.”

“Baby, hate to break this to you, but he’s in AP classes and football. When he’s not doing something with the team, he studies so much, he sleeps about two hours a night. And he’s sixteen. That’s all he needs.”

I begged to differ.

As such, I shook my head. “He’s still a growing boy. I talked to the doctor about it since he won’t stop. He said boys can keep growing into their early twenties.”

“Good to know,” he murmured, eyes on my mouth.

I put a hand to his flat belly, then wished I didn’t because I could feel the hardness and ridges, and our son was in the next room.

“Darius, stop looking at my mouth,” I demanded.

His eyes lifted to mine. “He’s not six. He’s not going to get confused.”

I took my hand from his stomach so I could wring both of them together and looked around his shoulder at the door.

“Malia, baby, eyes to me.”

I returned my gaze to him.

“Let’s just sit him down, open a dialogue with him, and see where he’s at.”

I felt my brows inch together. “Open a dialogue?”

“Yeah. One of the guys at work, Vance, his wife is a social worker. Her name is Jules. She’s got a job at a shelter for runaways. I talked with her about all this, and if you and I got to this place, how we’d help Liam deal.”

Oh my God.

Could a body melt?

It could. I felt it happening to me.

“That was very sweet of you.”

“I love my kid. I also talked to her about how to help him adjust to split custody. But he didn’t need it. He was so relieved we were out about all our shit, he just settled in.”

“I noticed that,” I mumbled.

“Malia, our son is waiting for us.”

Our son.

He was our son.

And he could be, officially, on the record, our son with us being his parents if I stopped hiding in the damned kitchen.

“You good?” Darius asked.

I nodded.

He unpinned me but took my hand.

He led me into the living room where Liam was sprawled in one of the black leather chairs.

In fact, he was sprawled in the one I tackled his father into a few hours before.

Eek!

Work through it, girl!my mind screamed.

Liam started it.

“You don’t have to sit me down like I’m five and tell me Mom’s spending the night. I think I got it earlier that you worked things out.”

Darius led me to the couch and hesitated. I looked up at him in confusion, and his gaze went from me to the couch to me.

Oh.

Right.

I sat.

He remained standing and faced his son.

I stilled and my heart stopped in my chest.

Because Mister Morris used to do that.

At an event or gathering, he’d lead Miss Dorothea to a seat, made sure she was comfortable, but he was a stander.

He stood.

Usually close to his wife’s side, sometimes so he’d be there if she needed anything, because he’d send Darius or one of his sisters to get their mother and him something, but usually, it was Mister Morris who saw to Miss Dorothea. Sometimes it seemed just so he’d be close, but she’d be comfortable.

Oh God.

Darius spoke.

“You do understand that we both love you and it’s important for us to know you’re processing this appropriately.”

Man, he had this down. That Jules chick must be something.

“No shade, Dad, but again, I’m not five,” Liam said, his manner relaxed, his face untroubled, his lips slightly tipped up at the ends. “I know how you two feel about each other. It’s kinda hard to miss. So I guess how I’m processing things is to say it’s about damned time.” He looked to me. “No offense with the cursing, Mom, but it’s warranted, don’t you think?” Before I could answer (that would be in the negative), he returned his attention to his dad. “But you gotta talk Mom into moving here. Your place is where it’s at.”

“Your mother likes the wine cellar,” Darius shared.

I hadn’t even seen it.

Still, I’d had a glass of wine from it.

So, I liked it.

“I knew that’d get her,” Liam mumbled.

I decided it was time to cut in.

“You seem very okay with this, honey. But maybe we should all take some time to get used to it.”

Liam unslouched to put his elbows to his knees and level his gaze on me.

“I love you, Mom,” he said softly. “But that’s cracked. Stop wasting time. Be happy. Please.”

Welp!

That did it.

I’d done well. I’d held them back, lots of times.

But I couldn’t hack that.

I burst out crying.

“Oh shit,” Liam muttered.

Darius pulled me out of the couch and into his arms.

“You got this?” Liam asked. “I got history homework.”

“Got it, son. Go,” Darius replied.

“’Night, Mom,” Liam called.

“’N-n-night, h-h-honey,” I blubbered.

“’Night, Dad.”

“See you in the morning.”

I cried and I cried some more, then a thought hit me, and I quit crying and looked up at Darius.

“I don’t have any clean panties.”

“Don’t think I can send our boy out for those,” Darius replied.

I slapped his shoulder.

He started chuckling.

Then he pulled me closer. “It won’t kill you to drive home in yesterday’s undies, will it?”

I sniffled and shook my head.

“Pack heavy when you come back tomorrow night after work,” he ordered.

I stared up at him and condensed my “everything” discussion to one question.

“Are we really doing this?”

“We are absolutely doing this.”

Happiness blossomed in me.

So, of course, my face crumpled, and I cried some more.

Darius held me through it.

Sheltering my storm.