by Cleo Jones
Deidra scoffed at that. She couldn’t believe she was actually entertaining this fool. He seemed so desperate, borderline pathetic even, but she wasn’t about to let a sob story shake her resolve. “I don’t care,” she stated, hiking her purse up higher on her shoulder. “My hands are tied here. If you really want to get to know your son, I suggest you man up and get in contact with Nia.”
Blake sighed in acquiesce and sifted his fingers through his hair. It was painfully obvious to him that Deidra was every bit as stubborn as her sister, but then again, what had he been expecting?
“Here’s my number,” Blake spoke up, pulling a business card from his wallet and handing it over to her. “I’m not forcing you to pass it on to her…but if you could…”
Deidra stared down at it for a moment before meeting his gaze. “Fine,” she said. “I’ll think about it, but I can’t make any promises.”
Blake smiled at that.
“Who was that?” Noah questioned as soon as Deidra got in the car, craning his neck to watch Blake cross the parking lot.
Deidra bit her tongue to keep from revealing Blake’s true identity to her nephew. “No one,” she said instead, eyeing Blake in her rearview mirror. “Just a stranger.”
Chapter four
Deidra was under the impression that she’d been extremely clear with Blake during their encounter at the grocery store, but he must not have gotten the message, because she found him parked outside her house when she returned from the park with Noah the following Monday.
“Unbelievable,” Deidra muttered, waving for Noah to go play in the backyard. He promptly picked up his basketball and did as he was told, but not before stealing a glance at Blake in the process.
Deidra turned to look at Blake as well, crossing her arms over her chest. “This is why restraining orders exist,” she stated, keeping her voice low so as not to draw the attention of her neighbors. “Look, I don’t know what you think you’re doing here, but I haven’t changed my mind. Nia’s my sister. I won’t go behind her back. Not with something this serious.”
“I know, and I’m not asking you to,” Blake replied. “All I’m asking is for you to allow me to ‘accidently’ bump into you guys at the park every now and then. You won’t know when it’s going to happen, so it’s not like you can be held liable…”
Deidra sighed and shifted on her feet. On the one hand, she didn’t think there would be any harm in Noah getting to know his father in a casual setting. On the other, she was only his aunt, and she knew Nia wouldn’t appreciate her making those sorts of decisions.
“Come on,” Blake pleaded. “She still hasn’t called me and it’s killing me. All I’m asking for is a chance.”
Deidra had to give it to him: if he was trying to pull at her heartstrings, he was certainly succeeding. However, there still wasn't any point in getting his hopes up for nothing. She hadn't told Nia about their encounter, let alone given her his business card. There wasn't any point. She knew her sister like the back of her hand, and she was already well aware of how she'd react.
“I don’t know…” Deidra trailed off, clearly skeptical about the whole thing.
“Please,” Blake urged. “They don’t even have to be long interactions. I can just play a game of ball with him or something. Nia won’t find out, and I’d say it was all me if she did. I’d leave you out of it.”
Deidra stared at him for a few seconds before relenting. “Fine,” she agreed. “We’ll be at the park every afternoon this week. If we happen to bump into you there, then so be it.”
A wide smile broke out across Blake’s face, and her thanked her about a dozen times before shifting gears and pulling back out onto the road.
The agreement weighed heavy on Deidra’s conscience throughout the rest of the afternoon. She felt as if she’d done something worthy of a steep punishment, and the cloud of guilt that surrounded her worsened when Nia showed up later that evening to retrieve Noah.
Deidra racked her brain for a way to bring up Blake without letting Nia in on her ploy, and it was just when she thought she didn’t have anything that something occurred to her. “Nia, have you ever thought about what would happen to Noah if you were no longer around to take care of him?”
Nia raised an eyebrow at that. “Why?” she questioned. “You’re not planning on offing me, are you?”
“I’m serious,” Deidra said, speaking firmly despite the fact that her heart was on the verge of beating right out of her ribcage. “Do you have some kind of plan in place for Noah’s future in case something were to happen to you?”
Nia shrugged. “Nothings going to happen to me, but if it makes you feel any better, I have a hefty life insurance policy and a lucrative 401k through Kanadov.”
“I don’t mean financially,” Deidra said. “I mean…have you thought about who Noah would live with?”
Nia sighed, no longer capable of masking her irritation. “D, I’ve had one hell of a day. Why don’t you just cut to the chase and tell me what you’re angling at here.”
“I’m not angling at anything. I just want to make sure you have everything squared away in case of an emergency.”
“An emergency?”
Deidra nodded. “Look…I know you don’t like talking about Blake…but if something were to happen to you, he’d be the surviving parent. The state wouldn’t think twice about tracking him down and giving him custody. I’d have no rights. Have you ever thought about that?”
Nia was rendered speechless. “Well it doesn’t matter. He'd never take him. Trust me on that.”
“You can’t guarantee that,” Deidra protested. “A lot can change in nine years, Nia…”
“You’re right, a lot can change, but not Blake. That man will be the same until the day he dies.”
“Okay, fine, hypothetically then. Lets say something did happen to you, and Blake did take Noah. Would you want him to suffer through the trauma of losing his mother and then having to live with a complete stranger on top of it?”
Nia let out a heavy sigh and slumped into a chair. “D, just drop it, would you?” she pleaded. “Blake isn’t an option, he’s never been an option, and he’ll never be an option. He doesn’t have any room in his life for a child. He doesn’t want a child.”
Deidra backed down when she noticed the pained expression on her sister’s face. “I’m sorry,” she said, placing a careful hand on her shoulder. “I just worry about you, that’s all.”
“Well don’t,” Nia said, glancing out the window to where her son was playing in the backyard. “I’ve been doing it alone for this long just fine. What’s another 10 years?”
Chapter five
Blake watched Deidra and Noah enter the park and smiled when Noah bolted off towards the basketball court to join his friends. “Thanks for this,” he said to Deidra when she took a seat beside him on the bench. “It means a lot to me.”
Deidra shrugged. “I'm doing it for Noah's sake, not yours.”
“I know,” Blake said, eyeing his son as he moved across the court with a grace that stretched far beyond his age. “He’s so tall. I can’t believe he’s only eight.”
“Almost nine,” Deidra corrected, speaking with the kind of pride a mother would have for her child.
“He reminds me of myself at that age,” Blake noted. “Only smarter. I can tell that much just by looking at him. He reminds me a lot of…”
“Nia,” Deidra finished for him, meeting eyes with him for the first time since she'd arrived.
Blake nodded. “Does she pay you to watch him?”
“Of course. Nia's not the type of person to take handouts. Not even from me.”
“That’s what I figured, which was why I was hoping you'd let me pitch in. You can tell her you’re cutting the rate in half or something.”
Deidra was impressed, but she knew that would never fly. “Nah, she'd never go for it. She’d be suspicious and would want to know why.”
A fleeting look of defeat passed over Blake face, but
it dissipated just as fast. He certainly didn’t seem like the heartless asshole Nia had made him out to be, but then again, her description had belonged to a much younger man.
Blake turned his attention back to Noah and smiled. He was standing in the center of the court instructing a group of children on how to do a layup, and every single one of them appeared enamored by him. It was a magnetism he'd inherited from his mother.
“You're nothing like I expected you to be,” Deidra remarked. “Like...not even close.”
Blake smirked. “I guess Nia must have painted a pretty bad picture...”
“Nah. What painted the bad picture was watching her struggle while you were nowhere to be found.”
Blake frowned. “Wait...she's struggling?”
“Oh, come on.” Deidra sucked her teeth and shook her head. “I’m not sure what planet you’re living on, but raising a child on your own is far from cheap...”
Blake fell silent and studied his hands. “I know,” he admitted. “That’s why I tried to talk her out of it.”
Deidra gave Blake an appalled look, but he was quick to clarify.
“We’d agreed on giving him up for adoption. It just…it seemed like the most logical choice at the time. We were too young, and too different. She was the smartest person I’d ever known, and I was just this reckless little shit who could barely take care of himself. I wasn’t ready to be a father.” Blake shook his head and cleared his throat. “It scared the shit out of me. It still does. But I’m not that stupid kid anymore. I can’t keep burying my head in the sand and acting like he doesn’t exist.”
Deidra stared at Blake in a stunned silence, too shocked by his candor to form a response. Lucky for her, Noah raised his voice right at that moment and saved her from having to. She searched the court for him and let out a sigh of relief when she found him chasing a little girl in a game of tag. She’d been sure she was going to have to break up a fight, but this was a welcomed surprise. “Nia had it right,” she spoke up, keeping her gaze steadied on Noah. “She knew what she’d be giving up was too precious.”
Chapter six
Nia pulled into Deidra’s driveway and parked. She knocked on the door and Deidra opened immediately. It was almost as if she’d been standing there awaiting her arrival.
“Is everything alright?” Nia questioned when she noticed that none of Noah’s belongings had been gathered for her to take home. “Noah didn’t give you any trouble, did he?”
“Of course not,” Deidra responded. “He’s a great kid. He never gives me any trouble.
Nia wasn’t buying it. Deidra was wringing her hands in the way she only ever did when she was really anxious about something. Nia’s gut reaction was that she was about to tell her that she couldn’t watch Noah anymore, and a heavy wave of dread washed over her all at once. There was no way she could afford childcare for him right now. “Well?” she pressed, trying her best to remain calm as she looked around the house for her son. “What is it then?”
“He’s in the backyard playing,” Deidra spoke up, reading her sister’s mind. “I told him I needed to talk to you when you got here. Would you just—just do me a favor and sit down for a minute, would you?”
Nia frowned as she walked over to the kitchen table and took a seat.
“Something happened,” Deidra admitted, eyeing the ground in an attempt at avoiding her sister’s gaze. “I got myself caught up in a really messy situation, and I don’t think you’re going to be very happy with me...”
Nia’s eyes widened. “Ok…now you’re scaring me…”
“I’m sorry,” Deidra said. “That’s not my intention. It’s just…I…I sort of met someone…”
Nia gasped. “D, that’s amazing!” she exclaimed, reaching across the table to place her hand on top of her sister’s. “But I don’t get it. What’s the problem? Why do you look like someone just died?”
“You don’t get it.” Deidra sighed and shook her head. “I didn’t meet just anyone. I met Blake.”
It took Nia a full minute to process her sister’s words, and she bolted out of her chair as soon as the fog that had settled over her began to lift. “As in Noah’s father, BLAKE?”
Deidra nodded and gave her sister a guilty look. “Yes,” she admitted, pulling his business card from her wallet and setting it down in front of her. “We bumped into each other at the store the other day. He gave that to me and asked if id pass it on to you…”
Nia stared down at it in disbelief, refusing to touch it. “Why?” she questioned, speaking quietly in order to remain calm. “Why is he here? Why now? I don’t get it.”
“I don’t know,” Deidra admitted. “All he really said was that he wanted to get to know his son.”
Nia rolled her eyes at that. “Well you didn’t let Noah anywhere near him, right?”
Deidra hesitated. “Well…he’s bumped into us a few other times while we were out and about, but no, it’s not like I ever let him in the house or something…”
Nia shook her head and began to pace. “I don’t get it. How’d he know who you were? How’d he know who Noah was? He’s never even seen a picture of him...”
Deidra shrugged. “We live in the age of technology,” she said. “It couldn’t have been too hard for him to figure it out. Besides…he and Noah look exactly alike. Anyone with half a brain would be able to tell they’re father and son.”
“I don’t care. I don’t want anything to do with him.”
“Nia, come on,” Deidra pleaded. “I know he’s not your favorite person in the world, but he’s still Noah’s father…”
Nia snorted. “Getting someone pregnant doesn’t make you a father,” she shot back. “Do me a favor and forget whatever sweet little sob story Blake told you. He isn't a nice guy, and he certainly doesn’t give a shit about redemption.”
Nia stood up and paced for the door to fetch Noah before her sister could form a response, but she stopped in her tracks when something else occurred to her. “You know…now I understand why Noah keeps hitting me with questions about his father.”
“He doesn’t know,” Deidra insisted. “My hand to God. He doesn’t have a clue.”
Nia hesitated, studying her sister’s face for a moment before relenting. She turned around when she heard Noah shuffle in from outside, gathering up the last of his things before instructing him to go get in the car.
Nia followed him out shortly after patching things over with Deidra, feigning interest as he told her about his day. However, her mind kept wandering back to Blake despite her best efforts at keeping it together. Just when she was sure she’d regained her composure enough to get her and Noah home safely, she looked into her rearview mirror to find a shiny black car pulling into the driveway behind her.
Nia froze, tightening her grip on the steering wheel. This very moment had played out in her head at least a dozen times over the years, and it was always exactly the same. She would pass Blake in a crowd of people, he’d do a double take, and then they’d continue going their separate ways as if they'd never noticed each other at all.
This, however, was nothing like that.
Nia inhaled a ragged breath as she tried to find a way to pull out without hitting Blake’s car, but she was forced to step out onto the concrete and face him when she found no viable out. “I need you to move,” she stated, directing her words at him without looking him in the eye.
Blake started to respond, but Deidra stepped out onto the porch before he could and froze when she saw him and Nia partaking in a silent stand-down in her driveway. He immediately looked towards her for help, but it was obvious that she didn’t have any to give.