by Andrea Joy
Braxton waves a dismissive hand, reaching for the cigar box on his desk and pulling one out. “Sofia is a none issue. She’s home now, but I agree. She was the only thing standing between him and death.”
I cough on the sip of whiskey I just took, and it burns the inside of my nose as I breath it in instead. “What? She’s home? Since when?”
He levels me with a stare, one eyebrow raised. “One of Ciaran’s men pulled her out a couple weeks ago. He himself just arrived in town last week to check on her.”
Of fucking course he did. God dammit! Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful she’s no longer living with that bastard, and once I leave here, I’ll be looking into getting her to file divorce papers if they haven’t already been filed, but did it have to be fucking Ciaran of all people? She once told me that nothing was going on between them or had happened between them. They were just friends, close friends. Ciaran had taking her in on Braxton’s request when she went to California to attend design school and I guess their friendship grew over the years. It always seemed to me that he knew more about her than I did, and that grated on my nerves.
We chat for a little while longer, and he tells me he may need me to look over some employee contracts for Luca Enterprises soon. I tell him to have them sent to my office and I’ll go over them within the week. When my mind starts wandering more toward Sofia and staying less on the conversation at hand, I know it’s time for me to leave.
“Mason,” Braxton calls when I’ve reached the door of his office. “It’s not too late,” he adds then drops his gaze back to the papers he was working on before I showed up.
I don’t give myself enough time to think about what I’m doing; I just fling open the closet door in the master bedroom and begin removing clothes from hangers. Her scent has long since dissipated from the room, but if I bring one of her dresses to my nose, her scent is still there… it’s faint, but there. Fire burns down my throat at the faint green apple scent, but I swallow against it. That doesn’t stop the memory of the first time Emily and I met from resurfacing, though.
“Yo! Mason, over here!” My friend Tag hollered from the other side of the Pizzeria. I chuckle and hunch my shoulders up higher, trying to fight against the cold that followed me into the restaurant.
“What’s up man,” I say, slapping Tag’s hand and giving him a bro hug, before turning to my other teammates and giving them all bro hugs.
“Man, that last play was insane! You shoulda seen coach’s face,” Tag exclaims, his eyes wide with excitement. We’d just got done playing our first game of the playoff season. Tag was usually on the ice with us, but he’d torn his ACL a couple months ago and was still recovering from surgery.
“That was sick, man!” Davey says across the table.
“What can I get you boys?” Our waitress asks, pulling a notepad from the pocket of her apron. We give her our food and drink orders and she heads back to the counter to put it in.
It’s only when I start to take in the other patrons of the place do I notice the girl sitting at the table across from us with her friends. I’ve noticed her at school a few times since this semester started, but I hadn’t seen her last year so I assume she’s new. She throws her head back and laughs at something one of her friends says, her fingers playing with the straw in her drink. The way her lips pucker around the straw when she leans over to take a drink makes me wonder what they’d look like wrapped around my dick, but then her green eyes lift and connect with mine and I know, I just know, that I’m a goner. That there’ll be no other girl but her.
I stumble back at the memory, my back hitting the tall dresser and making it rock against the wall. I couldn’t stop looking over at her table that night, it was like she was a magnet drawing my attention in. By the time my team were done gorging themselves on pizza and drinks, her and her friends didn’t look like they were ready to leave any time soon. I walked outside with Tag and Davey but made some excuse about needing to head home when they invited me over to Tag’s to play video games. I watched them leave with Tag’s brother who came to pick them up, and then turned to lean my back against the brick wall of the building, popping my foot up behind me and pulling a cigarette from the pack in my pocket. Smoking was frowned upon by Coach, and I didn’t do it often, just when I’m drinking or nervous which was the case that night. It wasn’t very much longer that her and her friends came outside.
“You know, that’s going to kill you one day,” she said, stopping when she saw me standing against the building.
I tilted my chin up and to the side to exhale a stream of smoke then dropped the cigarette butt to the ground and stubbed it out with my toe.
I had said some witty comeback that made her laugh. I learned that her name was Emily that night too. She hadn’t stuck around to talk, but that was okay because the next Monday when I saw her at school, I glued myself to her side when we weren’t in class. And for the classes we did share together, I scowled at whoever was sitting beside her until they moved and then took their place. I wasn’t playing around, and Emily resisted my charms for about one and half weeks before she agreed to go out on a date with me.
That was it. She was my girl from then until the day she died. Our friends laughed and called us crazy for wanting to get married right after we graduated. Her parents thought the same, but they must have seen that we were both serious because they gave their permission. We were married one month after we graduated. I had just turned eighteen and Emily was still seventeen, but neither of us cared. It felt right to us.
I drop the blue dress to the carpeted floor and continue removing clothes from drawers, shoes from racks, and jewelry boxes from their places on top of the dressers. I never bothered to bring a plastic bag or boxes up with me so they all ended up in piles around my feet. Reaching down, I scoop up an armful of clothes and walk them into the bedroom, dumping them on the bed. I’ve just turned to head back into the closet for another armful when something on the floor catches my eye, the gold glinting in the sun streaming through the blinds. I bend down to retrieve Emily's wedding band. It looks so small between my fingers now, but the process to buy it was no small feat. It took me forever trying to find the right ring for her. I wanted it to be perfect, something she would be proud to wear. I had worked my ass off for two summers trying to save up for a ring because if I was going to propose after senior prom, I wasn’t going to do it with some dollar store ring even though I knew Emily wouldn’t care. But seeing her face light up when I got down on one knee and she saw the ring, that’s something I’ll never forget and it made all those days of busting my ass instead of hanging with my friends worth it.
It takes me another few trips to get the clothes downstairs after I bring up a box to pack them all in. It seems wrong to just throw them in the garbage so I pull out my phone and look up the number for the local Cancer Association and set up a time for them to come pick up the clothes and whatever else of Emily’s I can bring myself to part with.
By the time the master closet and bathroom are cleared of all her stuff, I feel an odd sense of a weight being lifted from my chest but also an indescribable amount of pain. For years, I’ve put off removing Emily from my life completely. Her body may not be here anymore, but the house still had her presence. Heading to the kitchen, I grab a beer from the fridge and twist it open.
I pause with the bottle halfway to my lips when I spot her coffee mug still sitting on the counter by the coffee maker. Abandoning the open beer on the island, I pick up the pink Minnie mouse mug and turn it in my hands. On the front, Minnie Mouse is dressed in a house coat, her eyes are still half closed as if she’s just woken up. She has a donut in one hand and a coffee mug in the other. I grin. It was such an Emily mug. She couldn’t function without her coffee.
I hesitate to put it back on the counter where it’s been sitting since she died, wondering if I still want the daily reminder of what I’ve lost, but I can’t bring myself to put it with the other stuff on the front porch. I reach up and pul
l open the cupboard instead and place it with all the other mugs and then shut the door. I’ve just picked up my beer again when my phone pings from the dining room table.
Corey: You home?
Me: Yeah.
Corey: Up for pizza and football?
Me: Only if you’re buying.
Corey: You got beer
Me: Is that a question?
Corey: *middle finger emoji* be there in 20.
I haven’t seen Corey since that night in the bar where he told me about Mel taking a job in NYC. Since he’s obviously still in town, that can’t mean anything good. Heading into my home office, I pull a piece of paper from the printer and scribble Cancer Assoc. on it then grab a roll of tape and head out the front door to tape it on the front of the boxes.
Fifteen minutes later, my front door opens again with Corey strolling in. A couple boxes of pizza in his hands. He walks right by me in the kitchen and heads straight into the living room. I follow him with a couple more beers. He dumps the boxes on the coffee table and falls back onto the couch.
“What’s with the boxes on the front porch?” He asks, accepting the beer I hand him and flipping open the lid to one of the pizza boxes.
I shrug, taking a pull of my second beer. “It’s all Em’s stuff.”
“Shit. You okay?” Corey reaches over to the side table on his side of the couch and grabs the TV remote, flipping the channels until he gets to the XFL game.
I reach over and pull a slice of pepperoni out before replying. “It was past due. Seeing reminders of her every day wasn’t helping me grieve her.”
We finish off one and a half of the pizzas and watch the game in silence, all the while my mind is on Sofia. Wondering what she’s doing now. If she’s okay. Braxton mentioned that she was back home now and they were figuring out what to do with Simon. We all know he’s not going to give Sofia up without a fight. His blackmail was just an excuse to get her to marry him. Although we have no doubt he can and will make his threats a reality. Which is why I had a meeting with the Captain and a judge. The detective who was feeding Simon information and doing his dirty work was fired and charged. He’ll be spending the next twenty or so years behind bars. I can’t wait to see Simon’s face when he realizes that Braxton will not be going to prison after all.
“So, you ever going to tell me what happened with the New York job?” I ask when the silence has gone on too long.
Corey stiffens, his jaw ticking as he leans over to place his beer bottle on the coffee table. “We’re going to try the long-distance thing for six months. See how it goes. She says the company will pay to send her home whenever she wants. I told her I couldn’t guarantee the same thing. I can’t drop my cases to fly to New York every other month.” He shakes his head. “Not going to happen.”
For as long as I’ve known him, Corey has been a stubborn son of a bitch. I thought it had gotten marginally better ever since he met and married his wife since he seemed to give her whatever she wanted, but I guess not.
“That’s a bunch of bullshit. You know you can pawn those cases on someone else. Hell, divide them up between the associates. What’s the real problem, Cor?”
His fingers begin tapping out a silent beat on the arm of the couch and then he’s pushing himself up, muttering something about needing more beer. I gather up the empty pizza box and beer bottles and then follow him into the kitchen where he’s leaning back against the counter, his one arm bent as he grips the counter behind him.
“I’m still pissed that she never bothered talking to me about this before she decided to accept the job. I’m a partner at a law firm, I can’t just up and leave at a moment’s notice.”
“I’ll buy you out,” I say, dumping the bottles in the sink to rinse later before putting them in the recycling and then getting another beer out of the fridge.
“You’ll what?”
“I’ll buy you out,” I repeat again, slower this time, and twist off the cap before taking a pull of the bitter liquid. If it was money he’s worried about, then me buying him out would solve that problem. I make a decent wage as partner at the firm, plus I still have the inheritance my parents left me when they died. It will suck going into the office every day and not seeing my best friend but being with his wife is more important.
“Absolutely not. You can’t run the firm by yourself.”
“I’ll promote one of the other lawyers. Sanders has been chomping at the bit for his chance to make partner.”
Corey takes another pull of his beer and shakes his head. “What about De Luca and Romanov?”
I add my newly empty bottle to the collection in the sink and take a stand across from him. “He’s only signed on as my client so that won’t change. We’ll amend Romanov’s contract to only include my name. After a trial period, we can either keep it that way or he can sign with one of the other lawyers in the firm, but we’ll leave it to him. Stop trying to come up with excuses, Corey. I know you want to do this. I’ve known you long enough to see it.”
He blows out a harsh breath and drops his chin to his chest, drumming his fingers on the edge of the counter behind him. It’s a habit he picked up years ago when he’s trying to think through a complicated problem.
“Alright, fine. Let’s do it, but I’m not letting you promote Sanders. I don’t trust him with our most important clients as far as I can throw him.”
“So do we have a deal?”
He nods. “Yeah, we have a deal.” And almost as if those words were attached to a release button, his shoulders relax and an easy grin spreads across his face.
Corey stays to hang out for a couple more hours and we agree to go over all the legal stuff for the buyout at the office on Monday. It’s just before midnight when he leaves and while the distraction was a welcome relief, I can’t stop my mind from going back to Sofia.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
SOFIA
I make it downstairs before everyone else the next morning and start making breakfast for the kids and coffee for the adults. Toni and Kai are dropping off the twins later this morning so I make sure to make enough coffee for them too. The next person to come downstairs is Braxton. He’s dressed in his usual suit, ready to head to the office for the day. As soon as he sees me he comes over to wrap his arms around me in a hug and kisses the top of my head.
“How are you doing baby girl?”
I squeeze him a little closer before stepping away and pouring my coffee once the machine beeps. “I’m okay. Dominic was a bit restless last night, but I think it’s because of the different surroundings.”
“Give it time,” Braxton says, doctoring his own coffee. “He’ll be fine. I’m glad we were able to meet him.”
“Me too. He needs his family in his life. I just wish I hadn’t waited so long to introduce you all,” I say, pulling the eggs from the fridge.
“Hi Momma.”
I shut the fridge to find Dominic and Lily grinning at me from the other side.
“Morning. You kids hungry?” I ask.
They nod eagerly, bright smiles on their faces and a little mischief dancing in their eyes. I have no idea what my son and Lily are up to but I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough. Lily bounds over to her dad and he swings her up on his hip. I don’t know how he does it. Lily is six, she’s not that light anymore, but Braxton makes it look effortless. I watch him blow raspberries in her neck and Lily’s giggles fill the room, as I finish making scrambled eggs and toast for the kids with slices of fresh fruit
Ciaran, Klara, and Cooper join us next. Cooper must have asked his parents if he could stay the night again. Apparently, it’s not unusual for him to spend the night here or for Lily to spend the night over there. After coffee is poured and bagels are cut and buttered, everyone takes a seat around the large dining room table to eat.
“Can we have a pizza pool party today, daddy?” Lily looks up at her father, her bottom lip pushed out and her eyes wide. I try hard not to grin around the rim of my mug. She’s got him wr
apped her finger.
Braxton looks to Klara on his right and she just grins back at him. Eventually he sighs, wiping his mouth with his napkin.
“If you do your chores then yes, you can have a pizza pool party.”
Lily pushes herself to stand on her chair and launches herself into her father’s arm with a loud, “yay!”
“What did we say about standing on the chairs?”
Lily pulls back just enough for her to see her father’s face, her arms remaining around his neck. “But there are adults here,” she says, with an innocent grin making Braxton chuckle and hug his daughter close again before holding her chair steady while she climbs back on it.
A little while later, Toni and Kai drop the twins off and Braxton leaves for the office. The kids run out to the backyard and then Klara, Ciaran, and I are left alone in the house until Ciaran says he has an appointment with a lawyer out here to see if there’s a way to get my marriage dissolved.
“Morné will be around here if you need him,” he says and then he’s heading out the door.
“You need to tell him, Sof. Mason deserves to know about his son,” Klara says as we sit on the back deck of their house and watch Lily, Coop, and the twins try to include Dominic in their games.
The past several months not having him by my side has been pure torture. I know Dominic doesn’t fully understand what’s going on and why his mom left for so long, and I hope that one day he never does find out. I’m not proud of the way I handled the Simon situation but I didn’t have time to figure out an alternative. The lives of people I loved were on the line and I had to do what I had to do. I’m just glad it’s over.