34. Deck
Chapter thirty-four
Deck
“ M iss Mari said Miss Cori took her brother to rehab this morning, that he OD’d last week.”
I startled at Jayden’s bluntness as I watched him spreading mastic on the rubber baseboards. “There’s no way my sister told you that.”
He smirked. “Nah. She didn’t. I came to the Center during lunch to see if Miss Mari could help with those papers Amos needs me to fill out. I overheard her on a phone call outside the office.”
“You eavesdropped?” I glared at him.
“I just didn’t leave, man.” Jayden shrugged. “She was the one who left the door open.”
I couldn’t argue with his logic. Marisol was probably updating my parents.
I wasn’t a Hope Center staff member, so I supposed I could plead ignorance about the rules regarding discussing personal stuff with the kids.
I was still trying to get Jayden to trust me.
Glancing at Sandra, I confirmed she was deep in her scrolling, earbuds in place.
Still, I lowered my voice. “Miss Cori’s brother—Johnny—is going to be okay.
He went straight to rehab from the hospital. ”
Jayden tsked. “Well, good luck to that guy. I ain’t seen rehab work for nobody.”
I tried hard not to share his pessimism, focusing on reasons to be hopeful.
The program Dr. Alvarez recommended had a much higher-than-average success rate.
Also, Johnny had been a different person since he’d reconnected with Cori.
He was still upset about his friend Rocco, but seeing Cruz yesterday seemed to cheer him up.
Cruz barely spoke for the two hours we spent in Johnny’s room—nothing new there—yet it still felt right.
My chosen brothers. Together again. Eliazar’s death remained a fresh wound, but being able to grieve him in the same space, even without mentioning his name, I knew that meant something to each of us.
“Johnny’s a fighter. Don’t count him out,” I said to Jayden.
“Well, Miss Cori’s been good to me, so I hope that’s true,” Jayden replied without a hint of sarcasm.
Dios , I was glad we’d all put our necks out for this kid.
“Me too.”
Reign came in from the hallway, apparently having heard our exchange. “How come you didn’t go with Miss Cori to drop off her brother?” they asked me.
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I had to work at my actual paying-money job. My friend Juan has been really cool about me helping out here, but our crew needed me this morning. Besides, why would you think I’d go with Miss Cori to take her brother anywhere?”
Reign rolled their eyes before sharing a knowing look with Jayden. “C’mon, Deck. Everyone can see you and Miss Cori are together.”
I struggled not to smile. “ C’mon, Reign ,” I mimicked. “I’m not gonna talk about my personal life.”
The appearance of a lovely but tired-looking woman carrying a disposable silver casserole dish interrupted us. It smelled so good my mouth instantly started watering.
She placed the dish on a worktable and glanced at me. “Marisol said I could come back here. I’m Jayden’s mother, Gloria.”
“Deck.” I stretched out my hand.
“Ma?” Jayden said, clenching the woman in a hug. “Is everything okay?”
“Everything is fine, sweetheart,” she said. “I just wanted to see all this for myself.”
Because Cori, Amos, and I had closed the circle of people who knew what Jayden had done at the market, no one had spoken to his mother.
I had no idea what he’d said to her about helping me or getting a weekend job.
He’d been coming to the Center most of his life, so it wasn’t unusual for him to be here, but as he showed off the baseboards he and Reign were working on and self-effacingly pointed out the rough part of the grout he’d finished, it became evident he’d spoken to his mom in depth, at least about his work with me.
That made me happy, knowing he cared enough to share it.
Seeing the love between mother and son also reaffirmed my belief that we’d done the right thing covering for him, giving him a chance.
Marisol popped her head in and asked Jayden and Reign to help her unload boxes in the kitchen. Sandra followed them out.
“I asked Marisol to give me ten minutes before she came in, so it didn’t look too obvious,” Gloria explained. “I was hoping to speak with you for a moment.”
“Oh,” I said hesitantly. “Everything okay with Jayden?”
“More than.” She smiled. “This past week he’s been as settled as he’s been in a while. And he got that job working for Amos. I don’t know how much you know about Jayden’s brother, Greg…?”
“Enough.”
“I’d imagine. Then you’ve probably also heard that these past few months have been tough on Jayden.
Greg’s old crew has been working jobs for Alejandro.
You know him?” At my nod, she continued, “I don’t want Jayden anywhere near that, but it felt like I was losing that battle.
Jayden and I have always been close, but he’s been talking back, fighting, and getting into trouble at school.
Not wanting to come to the Center. He’s a good boy, I promise, but sometimes he makes stupid choices. ”
“I know he’s a good kid.”
“And I'm so appreciative of that. After he told me about asking Amos for a job at the market”— so that cleared up whether Jayden had come clean to his mom —“of course I was skeptical. But he said he’d been working on projects with you at the Center, and it made him think about things differently. Now, suddenly, he’s home more again, and talking to me, and I’m just very grateful for whatever you did.
I came to thank you for believing in my boy. ”
I had no clue how to respond, so I blurted the first thing that popped into my mind.
“Can I give you a hug?”
“Of course!” Her grin widened, and she walked into my arms. Her loose, silver-streaked bun barely reached my chin, but her arms were strong as she gripped me.
After a moment, I pulled back. “I do, you know. Believe in Jayden.”
“That's because you, of all people, understand that even the best kids, with the biggest hearts, make shit decisions sometimes.”
Her head bobbed, and she patted me on the cheek like a puppy.
I exhaled sharply. “You know who I am… What I did.”
Gloria didn’t answer. Stepping away and turning toward the mirror, she brushed away a stray hair that had fallen across her cheek. “Chi-chi gave Greg his first joint,” she stated flatly. “He was eleven.”
Her words echoed off the gleaming new tile, the heaviness in her voice palpable at the mention of her oldest son.
I crooked my elbows before twining my fingers behind my neck. “Amos and I will keep an eye on Jayden,” I said.
Gloria nodded, gesturing to the casserole dish. “It’s lasagna. My specialty.”
I barely had a moment to say thank you before she tapped my cheek again and walked out.
Afterward, I registered the wild thumping of my heart. Dios . I loved construction, but the confirmation I’d done something meaningful for Jayden felt like the sweetest high. No wonder Marisol loved her job.
No wonder Cori couldn’t sleep at night, worrying about the Center’s finances.
The month and a half before the gala passed quickly.
I worked nonstop trying to help Juan at J&D and finish my projects at the Center before the big night.
When I could, I got together with Cruz. I worried about him.
He was living alone in his dad’s old house and had started at a warehouse job working the night shift.
He’d meet up with me but never said much. I consoled myself that it was a start.
Cori threw herself into event preparations with a vengeance.
She told me she, Ana, and Quincy were doing everything they could to get more people to the event.
Much of the gala’s success hinged on having a full house.
The hope was that the small-dollar donations would add up and put them over the top.
I saw the stress on her face and did my best to ease it, letting her vent about sponsors who were late with their contributions or the stage rental that was costing an arm and a leg.
Because of everything going on, the air between us always felt anticipatory and thick with urgency. But we’d turned a corner because now we were each other’s safe place. We still weren’t public with our relationship, but I was fairly certain everyone around us had figured it out.
At the end of November, Marisol invited Cori to Thanksgiving at our parents’ house, which saved me from having to figure out a way to get her there without giving away the game.
Except that cover did nothing to disguise the way I looked at Cori across the table, or how I kept inadvertently caressing her lower back.
But Cori had been dead-on about one thing.
Not declaring our relationship gave our loved ones the message that it wasn’t something we wanted to discuss right now.
Not openly. My family knew I’d been avoiding Cori since I’d gotten out, but didn’t press for explanations as to why I’d finally come to my senses.
I didn’t mind working with whatever timeline Cori needed. As long as I got to hold her in my arms every night, I could be patient. And, whether at her place or mine, we made those nights a priority.
We had so much external crap to stress about, but in the bedroom, it was as though we’d created the most impenetrable bubble around us.
Inside that cocoon, we built layers of intimate knowledge that would fortify us when we inevitably took those walls down and invited the rest of the world to know us as a couple.
We also discovered that, even after decades, we still had things to learn about one another.
She asked about them in the hush of the dark.
The minor burn I’d gotten on my torso the day of the fire, when I’d used my body to cover Marisol’s.
The overly round knuckle from a broken finger that hadn’t healed right after an altercation in prison.
And the small silver scar on my arm, from the glass on the ground when I fought Chi-chi—a scar that matched the one on Cori’s foot.
Being with Cori was like coming home in a way I hadn’t been prepared for.
Both the end and the beginning of a path.
There were twelve-and-a-half missing years in the middle, but I couldn’t regret them entirely.
They’d prepared me to accept that this was not only exactly where I wanted to be but also where I was meant to be. Where I deserved to be.
Now that the gala had arrived, I only hoped it would go well, and then we could move on to our next chapter.