17. King
As soon as Sparrow and the kids are out the door, I charge at Ace. The women hanging off of him scream and jump out of the way. Tackling him to the ground, I’m able to get a few punches to his side before I’m pulled off of him.
“What the hell is going on here?” my dad screams out as he holds me back. Ace knows he is in the wrong; he isn’t even trying to fight back. The liquor I smell on his breath is telling me he’s just too drunk to care what is happening to him.
“Ahh, King just can’t take a joke anymore. I was just trying to give him a gift. It’s not my fault Sparrow has a stick up her bitchy ass.” Without thought, my right hook connects with Ace’s cheek.
I grip the collar of Ace's T-shirt, pushing him against the wall. “Never. You never speak about her like that. I don’t know what the fuck is going on with you, but if you ever disrespect my woman or kids again, I will end you. I don’t fucking care who you are,” I scream in his face.
Storming into my room, I slam the door shut, locking it before plopping down on my bed. Cradling my head in my arms, I picture the kids’ faces when they left. Hurt was painted on their faces as they gave me hugs goodbye. I never want to be the cause of their pain, but I was tonight. I had the perfect night planned out for us, but that's now ruined. I don’t blame Sparrow for not staying; I didn’t want the kids to be around that either.
Pulling my phone out of my back pocket, I lie back in my bed. Sparrow should be home any minute, if she isn’t already. I’m starting to think that buying this place with my brothers wasn’t the best idea, but how could I have known that Sparrow would be back in my life, and I would be a father of two.
As soon as my phone lights up, I’m entering my passcode so I can read the message, but groan when I see that it’s the brother I don’t want to kill.
River
Everything okay at home?
Nope.
River
Would you like to elaborate?
Well…he pushed a half-naked woman to me, in front of Sparrow.
Bird took the kids home. Ace had more things to say. I hit him a few times.
River
Jesus Christ. He needs a full-time babysitter. What are you going to do?
Thinking I need to move out.
My thoughts start to stay when my phone rings. Fumbling with the device, I answer the call, “Hi, Bird. Is everything okay?”
“Hey, King. Yeah, the kids want to tell you goodnight. Just a heads up, they are not in a good mood.”
“Okay, put them on.”
There’s some rustling over the phone, but then Telles’ voice is on the line. “Hi, Dad,” he states solemnly.
“Hi, Son. You getting ready for bed?”
“Yeah. This is so stupid. I want to be in my room at your house, it’s better than the one here.”
“Hey, none of that. It’s not stupid, and I don’t want you to disrespect your mom like that. Do you understand?” Scolding my son feels wrong, but he needs to realize how much his mom has killed herself to provide for them.
“I guess.” he grumbles back.
“Good. Now, I love you. Get some sleep and I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Love you too.” I can tell they are shuffling the phone again, so I wait for Loch.
“Hi, Daddy,” Loch sweetly says.
“Hi, Princess Loch. Are you getting ready to go to bed?”
“Yep. What was wrong with Uncle Ace?”
That’s a good question.
“Don’t worry about it, sweetie. It won’t happen again.” I can guarantee that. When Ace gets back to himself, I know he’ll feel like shit for how he acted today. But there’s no excuse.
“You’re gonna help him, right? You have to help him if he’s hurting.”
“I will. Now, get some sleep. I love you, Loch.”
“Love you too, Daddy.”
Sleep did not come easy last night, but I was up at four in the morning, ready to go see Sparrow and the kids. Realizing that Sparrow would kill me if I showed up there so early, I decide to see what needs to be done at home. Wasting time, I cleaned the kids’ rooms, worked out, and did two loads of laundry. I know I’ll be tired later when I need to work the bar, but that’s what energy drinks are for.
When I’ve wasted enough time, I walk out to my truck to go get my family. I don’t know what we are going to do today, but it needs to be something to make up for the shit show that was last night.
A few minutes later, I’m knocking on Sparrow’s front door. I have the perfect idea for today, I just hope they go for it. The door flies open, and I’m met with an eager looking Telle, who knows that his mom doesn’t like the kids opening the door.
“Hi, Dad! Can we go?” Telle excitedly asks me.
Laughing, I step inside, closing the door behind me. “Are you in a hurry?”
“Kinda,” Telle quietly says.
Sitting down on the couch, my anger comes back at my brother, knowing that my woman slept on a couch last night.
Sparrow quickly comes walking into the living room and she doesn’t look happy. “Teller! What have I told you about opening the door?” she barks out, hands on her hips.
“I’m not a baby!” Telle yells back before running out of the room. A moment later, a door slams down the hall.
Sparrow looks down the hall, tears in her eyes. Popping up from the couch, I’m at her side in two steps. “Hey, what’s wrong? I’ll go talk to him.” He shouldn’t talk to anyone like that but from what I’ve seen so far, this isn’t normal behavior.
“He’s never acted like this. I don’t know what to do,” Sparrow whispers.
“But you have a thought?” I have a feeling I’m not going to like what she has to say.
“I do. I’m not sure if bringing them to your house is a good idea. I’m not judging Ace, but I don’t want them around what was there last night.”
Deciding to not argue, I pull Sparrow into my arms, where she should always be. It’s never been like this with anyone else; I need Sparrow next to me, at all times. “We’ll figure this out, Bird. I promise.”
Since I’m new at this parenting thing, I don’t know if I should take them where I wanted. Would this be awarding bad behavior? “Hey, Bird?”
Looking up at me, Sparrow nods her head. “I wanted to take you and the kids somewhere today, but uh…I don’t know if this would be considered awarding bad behavior.”
“Okay…what were you thinking?”
“I wanted to take you guys to the falls. Explore a little, go swimming.”
“You know what, let’s do it,” Sparrow says with a wide smile.
Spending the day out in nature was exactly what we all needed. The kids have been laughing, the tension Sparrow had when I got to her house is gone, and right now I don’t want to kill my brother.
Dropping down next to Sparrow, we watch the kids play under the waterfall. She lays her head on my shoulder, while I run my fingers through her hair.
“Thank you for bringing us here. It’s beautiful.”
“This is my favorite spot. Less busy than the Chapel waterfall, I used to come out here a lot when we first moved.” We stopped at the Chapel Falls waterfall, but not surprisingly, it was too busy for my liking.
“I can see why.”
“We will have to come here alone some time.” I love time with the kids, but I wouldn’t hate some alone time with Sparrow.
“Hmm…what would we do with this alone time?”
“Oh, the things I would do to you. Lay you down and worship every square inch of your body.” I lean in closer, my hand gripping the back of her neck. “I wouldn’t stop until you couldn’t remember your name, Bird.”
Sparrow’s cheeks flush, and her breathing picks up as her fingers glide against my chest. Our bubble is broken when Loch runs up to us. “Mom! Dad!”
“Yes, Princess Loch?” Sparrow thinks I’m going to give our daughter a complex, but she’s my princess.
“I love it here. It’s so quiet.” God, for not being in my life for the past eight years, she is a lot like her uncle. River has his spot up here, that’s even more difficult to get to, where he runs away when it gets too loud in his head.
“We can come back anytime.”
If taking them to a different waterfall every week is what it takes to bring a smile to their faces, that’s what I’ll do.