QJ looked at me and then at the boy again, chuckling. He sunk down on one knee and took Dee's hand. "It's a pleasure to meet a friend of Uncle Gray's. I'll have to get you together with my little brother, Mikey. He's a smart guy, just like I bet you are. You guys busy tomorrow?" QJ asked.
Dee looked at me with a questioning expression. "I don't think we have any plans. It's Friday, so we're likely wide open," I responded.
"Okay, I'll have Mom call Miss Addy tomorrow and see what time we can come over. Maybe we can go out to the quarry to swim?" QJ suggested, looking at me.
I looked at Dee. "Can you swim?"
I saw the boy was a little antsy as he looked down at the tiled floor for a minute, and just as I was about to tell him it was okay if he couldn't, he glanced up and grinned. "I ain't afraid of water or nothin', but swimmin' isn't something I've got around to learnin' quite yet. Shady took lessons when he was little, but myself, I've been busy. I'm hopin' to learn it sometime," he responded sounding much older than his seven years.
In that moment, I had a flashback to Andrew Corner and his explanation regarding why he wasn't in school at the time I met him at the deli. "Um, I've been out on, uh, sick leave. I was sick, so I was ordered to stay out of school. I'll get back to it soon," he explained.
As it all flashed in my mind, I knew one thing…I wouldn't let what happened to Andrew Corner happen to the Vaughn brothers. I'd do anything possible to ensure they were safe and their futures were successful with as many options as possible.
Those two boys were quickly becoming far too important to me, but I'd risk a broken heart to keep them safe and happy when the time came for them to be adopted or sent to a better home than Derek and I might be able to provide…according to the State. In my mind, nobody would love them more than us.
QJ laughed, drawing me out of my musings. "I can teach ya. I taught Tina and Nita, and now they're like fish. They're not much younger than you so it'll be a piece of cake to teach you.
“It was nice to meet ya, but if I don't get the salad stuff home, my momma will have my hide. I look forward to seein' ya tomorrow." QJ shook his hand and stood to look at me with a bright smile.
"Call around ten in the morning, okay?" I walked over to the bin and handed QJ a bag of mixed greens and a head of iceberg lettuce, knowing it was what Marisol would want.
He nodded. "Sure thing, Uncle G. Can't wait." He hugged me and hurried away.
I turned to Dee and saw a smile. "He looks like Vali. Are they family or somethin'?"
I laughed as we continued our shopping. "Not by blood, but family, nonetheless. Miss Addy and Miss Miriam were best friends in high school and they raised Derek and Quinn, QJ’s dad, together, and the sons became best friends as well.
“QJ is Quinn's oldest son. There's Marie, who's sixteen; Cody, twelve; Michael who'll be eight; and Christina and Anita who are five," I explained as we grabbed eggs, cheese, and milk from the dairy aisle.
"That's a lot of kids," Dee responded as he walked over to the canned biscuits. He looked at the tag on the shelf and then closed his eyes. After a few seconds, he picked up two of the small cans and handed them to me.
He pulled out that bag of change and handed it to me. "I should have ninety-six cents left after the biscuits. I know they're not as good as Miss Inez's, but Vali and Shady liked 'em," he explained. I knelt on the floor and hugged the kid.
"Well, we're in luck because if you thought Inez's biscuits were good, man, you are in for a treat. Miss Addy makes the best biscuits I've ever had in my life, and she makes fry bread, which is really great as well. Keep your money. She'll be happy to make them because she knows how much Derek loves them, and she takes care of her baby boy," I explained.
Dee cracked up. "He ain’t no baby, Gray."
I laughed as well. "Not to us, no. To his momma, Miss Addy he'll always be her baby boy. Just wait until she starts yelling at him. You'll really love it." We both laughed and proceeded to finish our shopping and packed our bags into the Explorer.
When we arrived at the house, Rick and Rashad met us with big grins. "We'll get these bags. Why don't you guys go inside and help Derek explain to his mother why he cut off his hair. Of all the things that are going on, that's the thing she's most pi…upset about."
I laughed as I handed Dee a bag with two loaves of bread while I grabbed a bag of eggs and fresh green beans. The two of us made our way up the front steps and into the house, finding Derek at the island counter with a look of exasperation on his face.
"Explain to me, Derek, how you let them convince you in order to do your job, you had to cut off your hair? How in the world is that logical?" Addy asked as she was mixing what appeared to be a cake. I took the bag from Dee and placed both of them on the counter behind the island.
"What's going on?" I asked.
"I'm just asking your husband…how did you not step in and put a stop to this? Our ancestors are rolling over in their graves. White man's laws…" she began.
Rick walked in with Rashad behind him. "Oh, God, she's going off on the evil white devil. I'm going to grab my clubs and go to the driving range." He then looked at Rashad. "You ever play golf?"
Both boys laughed loudly and then Rashad gathered himself to look at Rick and point. "I beat the hell out of a pervert with a bent club like this I found in a dumpster one time, but I've never used one to hit a ball."
I was worried about that situation, but I wasn't about to ask at that moment because Rashad seemed very happy and I didn't want to break the spell Rick Valentine seemed to have cast over him. "That’s a nine iron. Let's go to the range. I'll show you how to hit a ball with it, and you can show me how to beat the hell out of a pervert."
He turned to look at Dee. "You wanna come with us? We can get ice cream after and let these three fight it out while we're gone."
Both boys looked at me with a pleading look. "Fine, but behave for Mr. Rick, okay?" They nodded and the three of them were off without another word.
I looked at Addy, seeing the look that said, "I want an explanation right now," so I turned to my husband. "Well? How much can we tell her and not jeopardize her and Dad's safety?"
Derek looked at me and then his mother. "We shouldn't have come here because we're putting you and Dad in the middle of shit where you don't belong, but those boys need a motherly figure because their mother was a drug-addicted prostitute who used to send Shady out to buy crack for her and lock the two of them in a closet when she was servicing a trick.
"They deserve so much better than what they've had, and in order to ensure they stay alive long enough to get it, I couldn't think of anywhere else to bring them. We'll only stay for a few days. I just need to get over the soreness in my ass and Rashad needs to heal a little, and then we'll be outta here," Derek explained.
She took the mixer bowl out from under the Kitchen-Aid blade and grabbed two cake pans she'd floured. "How much trouble are the two of you going to be in?" she asked as she poured equal shares into the pans, slamming them on the counter so as to burst any bubbles in the batter.
Derek and I looked at each other, and he grabbed my hand. "So far, just a couple of misdemeanors and maybe a felony. With the right lawyer, we should be fine," he joked.
Addy nodded her head and walked over to the house phone, dialing a number as she turned away from us. She spoke quietly into the phone and when she hung up, she turned to look at us. "Can you boys go to the basement and get a leaf for the dining table. Since it's just Rick and me, we don't have one in but we're having company tonight for dinner.
"Do the boys have decent clothes to wear?" she asked. I guessed their beat-up jeans didn't impress her.
"I bought them some khaki shorts today and some sandals. We haven't exactly had a lot of time to outfit them properly," I explained, feeling guilty. Addy had a way of bringing it out in everyone.
"Who's coming to dinner?" Derek asked as he took the bowl and a spatula, licking the cake batter from it. I watched him and smiled because, i
n that moment, he was just an overgrown kid, if the truth be told. Well, that was until he got me into bed. Then? He was all man.
"Keith Edwards, Dad's business colleague, and his partner, Perry Carmichael are coming. Perry's an attorney and works for the same firm as Cara. That's how we met Keith, actually. Perry works from home a lot, driving to Dallas when necessary for business. I think you'll like them very much. They're expecting a baby in November," she added.
I stopped dead in my tracks as I was putting away the groceries. "Wait a damn minute. Two gay guys are having a baby together? Which one of 'em used to be a girl? I remember an argument before Derek and I got married about how I didn't have the right parts to…" I began.
"Now, Miss Addy, you're not out of chances to have grandbabies. Derek and me, well, maybe we'll have children someday," I offered.
She wheeled around and looked at me with an evil eye. I felt myself shrinking. "Oh? How are you gonna pull that one off, Gray? You got lady parts I don't know about?"
I felt a slap with a spatula as I remembered that particular holiday. That was when we found out about Sila and all hell broke loose over Grant Keyes who had never surfaced again the lousy prick.
"I’ve never claimed I was right all the time, Gray Carson-Valentine. I was wrong about it and I'm very sorry, okay? Do I, as old as I am, have to fall to my knees and beg your forgiveness?" she snipped. I knew she didn't like to be wrong, so I let her off the hook.
"No, Mom. You don't. I just like to remind you of certain facts from time to time," I teased with a grin. Addy pinched my cheeks and smiled. "You're still a brat, but you’re my son. So, tell me about those adorable little boys."
The subject of Derek's new haircut seemed to have slipped into the background, for the time being, so we gave her as much detail as we could without jeopardizing anyone's wellbeing.
After we finished explain things to his mother, Derek and I went downstairs to find the leaf for the table. Once we had it placed properly, I proceeded to iron a tablecloth and set the dining table for Addy. I went in search of two old Yellow Pages Addy kept hidden in the closet because she didn't trust the internet, and placed them in a chair for Dee.so he could be seated comfortably at the table.
I wasn't sure what would happen at dinner but I hoped everything would be fine because it was the first time we were sitting down as a family with the boys. We were supposed to be de-stressing. I wasn’t sure if that was possible with my mother-in-law in the mix. It was definitely going to be an interesting evening.
Fourteen
Derek
When I woke up from the nap, my ass and head were aching. Shady was awake and off somewhere, and Gray and Dee were nowhere in sight. I took a piss and splashed some water on my face, running wet fingers through my short hair to settle the bed head from which I was suffering. I got downstairs and found my mother in the kitchen making a grilled cheese. "I wouldn't mind one of those," I requested as my stomach grumbled.
"What happened to you?" she asked as she pointed the spatula in her hand toward my ass.
"He got shot in the ass," Shady volunteered as he was eating a sandwich at the island. I wanted to slap him on the back of the head…not hard, but to make a point.
Mom turned around and glared at me. "How in the hell did…I don't want to know. When did you cut your hair?"
I reached over and snatched half of Shady's sandwich, avoiding the slap he was trying to give me. "Part of the job, Momma," I responded.
"Do you know…your forefathers would be spinning in their graves if they knew you let a white man dictate your hair cut," she hissed quietly.
It always made me laugh how she could love Rick, my dad, so much, and hate white people in the same breath based on crimes which had taken place hundreds of years ago. She was truly a mystery.
"I donated my hair to a cancer charity that makes wigs for kids suffering from hair loss due to chemo. It'll grow back, Momma. There are bigger worries out there than the fact I cut off my hair," I complained as she gave Shady and me each another half of a sandwich.
"Yeah, like little kids starving while grown-ass men take away their food," Rashad complained as I bit into my half of the grilled cheese sandwich he was trying to take away from me.
"You're just fading away as we speak, ain’t ya? Addy Valentine never lets anyone walk away from her table hungry." I held the laugh because he gave me the evil eye.
Mom walked over to the counter and looked at Shady. "What's your given name, young man?"
He swallowed his food and took a sip of the sweet tea Mom had served. "My name's Rashad Aaron Vaughn, ma'am." I could tell the kid was a little nervous at her addressing him directly, but he really had no reason to be. At the end of the day, she really was a pussycat...especially when a child was involved.
"Where did this 'Shady' business come from?" Mom asked.
He looked at me, and I smiled with a shrug. He was on his own with her. "Well, um, ma'am, on the streets, you get a nickname from your boys. I guess I got mine because my name’s Rashad and I've done some shady sh…stuff in my day. It just sorta stuck," he explained.
My mother, God bless her, shook her head as she scooped ice cream into a dish and pulled out a squeeze bottle of chocolate syrup. "If they'd have called you 'Shithead', would you have gone along with that as well? You're twelve, young man. You have common sense, don't you?"
He looked at me for guidance, and I bit my lips to keep from smiling. The woman was more outspoken than anyone I'd ever met in my life, and she usually had a point. "Well, Shithead, would ya?" I asked. Of course, my mother slapped the back of my head.
Rashad thought for a second while he squirted the chocolate sauce over the ice cream. "I, uh, I guess I'd have put a stop to that, ma'am."
She had put the cakes in the oven, or so my nose told me. It reminded me of Gray's birthday when he turned nineteen. That was one for the books, but every year in October, we had a party for him and my mother made his cake. He was always grateful for it.
After the timer was set, she turned to look at the two of us. "Then I think you should change that nickname to Ray or go by your given name, Rashad. You never want to give people any reason to call your character into question, and what does the name 'Shady' say about you?" Well, she had a point.
He swallowed a bite of ice cream and wiped his mouth with the napkin she'd given him. "Miss Addy, I understand your logic and it makes a lotta sense, but when you're livin' on the streets, you take whatever cred you get so somebody doesn't decide to show everybody you ain't able to defend your territory. I don't expect you'd understand what it's like for me and Dee. Our mom is a whore…um, a prostitute. We had to learn to survive on our own," he explained quite articulately.
For the first time in my life, I saw my mother turn her back and grab the dish towel, holding it up to her eyes. She walked out of the kitchen without a word, and when I looked at Rashad, he was wiping tears from his own downturned face. "I don't expect a fine lady like your mom would want some street rats stayin' here. When they come back from the store, I'll figure out how to get me and Dee outta here.
"You've been really nice to us, and it's more than anyone ever has done for us since our grandma died, but maybe we need to start figuring out shit for ourselves. Thanks for all you and…" he began before my mother came storming back into the kitchen.
"Oh, no you don't! You think you're going to leave my home? No sir, young man. You are going to stay right here until your fa…Derek and Gray get this all figured out. I'll find things for you and Dee to do over the summer. I think we'll have a grand time, as a matter of fact. Now, if you're going to stay here, you'll have to work for your supper, and you'd better clean up that language, Rashad because I won’t have it under my roof.
"I'm going to have you and Dee clear the table after dinner. Gray and I will do the dishes, but when we're all finished eating, you and Dee will bring the dishes into the kitchen. Do you think you can do that?" she asked, sounding not exactly sure of herself.
Rashad smiled. "Oh, yes ma'am. We used to clean the apartment where we lived. Rhonda made us because she wanted it clean for when she had tricks over. Most men won't come into a house that's dirty," he told her.
She masked the horror on her face well, but she walked over to the other side of the island and pulled him from his seat, giving him a hug as the tears poured down her face. It was one of the rare times my mother shed tears openly, and it reminded me she actually had a heart. Sometimes, it was hard to find it, but if you did? It was beautiful.
~#~
We were all seated at my parents' dining room table. Dee and Rashad, who had asked us not to call him 'Shady' any longer, were pressed and dressed. Gray had picked up some things for them at the store, and between him and my mother, they made sure the boys looked like right proper young gentlemen. They both wore smiles on their faces which led me to believe no one had doted on them in a while…if ever.
The newcomers, Keith and Perry, were talking with my dad while Gray and Mom brought in the food. We'd made small talk while the finishing touches were being made to dinner, but it seemed both men were a little surprised at the gathering.
After plates were filled, Perry looked up at me and smiled. "You look a little like your sister, but she's a lot smaller than you," he joked.
Mom, Dad, and Gray laughed because Cara was a runt. "Yeah, my bio-dad was a big guy from what I've been told, and well, Mom's a runt…dynamite in a small package. Rick's taller, but apparently, the Cherokee blood is stronger," I teased as I winked at Gray.
He laughed. "Please excuse him. He seems to believe he's some sort of demi-god. Seems Mom made sure he had a lot of confidence growing up. It's no wonder we had to bring two vehicles. The four of us wouldn't have fit in either one comfortably with Derek's big head."
Both men laughed as they dug into Mom's pot roast. "So, how about you guys? Your parents?" Perry asked Rashad and Dee. I knew he was digging for information to try to keep Gray and me out of jail, and I was grateful. I also hated him putting the boys on the spot.
A Valentine's Loves (The Valentine's Trilogy Book 3) Page 11