Chapter 28-Callie
When it’s your party, you can cry if you want to.
Ezra defied my directions and came to Wyatt’s game anyway. Chase apparently left but Ezra had watched from rink-side until well into the final minutes when he’d come to sit beside me after greeting my parents.
“I know you’re pissed and I know you’re afraid but I will not let that boy down. When I make him a promise, I mean to keep it and I promised to come to his game.”
I was pissed and I am afraid but my heart accepted his decision. Ezra places Wyatt’s feelings above my old fears and I can’t blame him for that. Hell, he might’ve saved Wyatt’s life in the parking lot, too. How could I kick him out?
We’d had dinner and enjoyed Wyatt’s excitement over another win.
We’d enjoyed each other once Wyatt was fast asleep, too.
“We’re going to figure this out, Callie. I’ll protect you both. Whatever it takes.”
I’d rolled my hips, turning my head and urging him to move faster. I hadn’t wanted to argue. His sweet words were reassuring but can I trust the things a man says when he’s inside of me? Experience says no even with six years of waiting and that hummingbird on his hip.
I’m having lunch with my friends from Golden Gate today, needing some advice.
“That’s him, right?” Tabitha says from beside me.
Blowing out a breath, I turn to see Chase smiling for the cameras on television. He’s at the children’s hospital in Oakland – ‘Hockey star delights sick children.’ He knows how to win people over when he wants to.
“Yeah, that’s him,” I confirm.
“Want Jameson to scare him out of town?” Kiara offers. Her big brother is scary enough but Mr. Reynolds is her man and he’s a whole different level of scary under certain circumstances I’ve heard. I know he’d do it for her if she asked. “He’d do it for you, too, Callie. And, for Wyatt,” she adds.
“Or, if you don’t want the heavy-handed approach, we could have Samuel hack his online life. Maybe find some fresh dirt on him?” Remi suggests. “You know he’d do it for you. He admires the hell out of you.”
I can’t help the grin spreading across my face, appreciating that they all have my back and a devious streak.
Grace huffs from the other side of me and goes over to change the channel. “What a scumbag. I hope his big toe gets infected.” We all break out in startled laughter at that. Grace rarely says anything remotely unkind. “Is he going to come play here?” she asks once she’s seated again.
“That’s the question everyone wants to know, isn’t it?”
The Fog has lost their first three regular season games. The sports world’s rumblings indicate their backup center can’t cut it and maybe they need some new blood. As in, the team owner’s own blood relation who happens to play center and is currently without a team.
“Has Ezra said anything about it?” Tabitha prods.
“No, we don’t really talk about hockey except regarding Wyatt.”
It feels like a line we don’t need to cross. What’s best for Ezra’s team isn’t something I can claim to understand and making demands regarding that doesn’t feel right. And, when it comes to his brother, I won’t say ‘him or me, choose.’ Even if I dared, he made it plain years ago who he’d choose. What if his feelings haven’t really changed in that regard?
After lunch, Remi offers me a ride since she lives closest. A sleek Mercedes rolls up to the curb to pick us up. Even though it’s been nearly two years since they got together, Samuel still has a bodyguard assigned to protect his wife and daughter when they’re not with him or at home. It’s hard for me to fathom that sort of life. Pampered, yes, but also zealously sheltered by a wealthy, powerful man who doesn’t trust the world at large. Would loving Ezra to the point of entering his life full-time mean the same things for me and Wyatt?
“Samuel’s demons weren’t all eradicated by our love, Callie. I’ve accepted that just as he’s accepted my hangups.”
“You have no hangups, Remi.”
She laughs and shakes her head. “We all do. But, so long as he doesn’t stop me from flying and allows Nicola to live as normal a childhood as possible, I don’t fight him on this. The best way to ensure we don’t grow to resent it is to talk about it though. Things are a thousand times easier to figure out when we talk them through.”
I smirk, seeing where she’s headed. “You think you’re very clever, don’t you?”
“I don’t know, am I?” she asks with wide eyes.
“I’ve asked for time to process things. He’s giving it to me.”
“That’s wise of him but it’s hard to hash things out if you don’t spend some time talking together.”
She’s not wrong and I miss seeing him more regularly. “He’s coming over for Wyatt’s birthday party. I think afterwards I’m going to tell him what’s in my heart and tell him what I need to feel safe in his.”
Beyond that, I’ll just have to hope he feels the same.
∞∞∞
“Do you regret not having me and Charlie host this mess yet?” Mama asks. “Could’ve tossed all of them in the backyard to run berserk and grilled hot dogs.”
Her smug grin would make me laugh if I wasn’t ready to tear my hair out. Eight boys, ages four to six, confined to sixteen-hundred square feet of apartment. Lord, have mercy. My home has turned into a rumpus room and I’ll be surprised if my neighbors don’t call the cops to complain.
“You live in Oakland. Wyatt’s friends from school and hockey live closer to us. This is fine… please, put that down!” I gasp when one of the little heathens picks up something breakable.
“Behinds in seats or no cake!” Mama hollers. The whole room goes still, little eyes blinking back at her like mice who’ve spied a tiger before they quickly find a chair or the carpet to sit. “Now, I’m going to tell you all a story,” she announces next, all smiles again.
I take a moment to catch my breath, once more, undyingly grateful for my mother’s presence. “Pro tip, Callie. Let ‘em loose at a park next time,” Charlie says when I join him.
“It’s too late for ‘I told you so’ and it’s November.”
“It’s never too late for ‘I told you so’ when you’re the one saying it and this is California.”
“Northern California.”
“Ezra, back me up here, man. Tell my girl we should’ve taken this bunch of boys to the park.”
The breath whooshes out of me when I spin to see Ezra has arrived. He’s got a present under his arm, all wrapped up in bright paper covered with construction vehicles and a big yellow bow on top. I feel the corners of my mouth tugging upwards as he studies the children surrounding my mother. “Waela seems to have everything in hand if you ask me, Charlie.”
Charlie chuckles and throws his hands up. “Youth knows best, I guess. I’ve got my crutches handy to beat them back when they prove you wrong though. Just wait until you give Wyatt some siblings and Waela and I take a cruise one of these days.”
My face heats up at Charlie’s joking suggestion that Ezra and I might have kids together. Or, at least, it sounded that way to me. “Thank you for coming,” I murmur, taking the package from him. “He’ll be so excited to see you.”
“Of course, I wouldn’t miss seeing him on his birthday.”
My stomach flips with excitement as he stares at me. There’s no denying how I feel about him. “Happy Birthday to you. I’ve missed you.”
“That’s like a birthday wish coming true knowing you might miss me when I’m not around, hummingbird, because I sure as hell miss you when we’re not together. Callie…” His hand brushes my hip, sending a wave of longing crashing through my blood. I’ve missed him the past week in several ways. I need him around and in my life.
“We need a moment alone to talk later.”
“Several of them,” he says, grinning.
“Ezra!” Wyatt shouts, hurrying over. “You came!”
Ezra lifts him up in his arms with a huge smile, hugging him tightly. “I promised, didn’t I? Happy Birthday, Bump!”
“Happy Birthday! It’s Ezra’s birthday, too, Mama. Did you know that? Did you-oh, yeah! You did know that.”
Laughing, I nod as my son continues to correct himself. “Why don’t we go see to Ezra’s surprise in the kitchen while he joins the party, Bump?”
“What sort of surprise might I expect from you?” Ezra asks with a devilish look in his eyes as Wyatt tears off toward the kitchen.
“Behave,” I say sternly before sweetening it for his ears only. “Misbehaving comes later.”
“And so will you, darling.”
Sweet Lord, this man.
Ezra shoots me a sexy, parting grin before taking a seat beside Charlie while Mama continues telling her tales to the other kids. She loves telling stories and has a gift for holding children’s attention with them. I suppose that’s partly why I loved Grumpy Bumpy so much as a girl, because of the way my mother would read it.
“Do you get a birthday wish on my birthday, too, Mama?” Wyatt asks as he places candles on Ezra’s cake.
“No, only on my own.”
“Okay. Didn’t want it to cancel mine by accident.”
My eyebrows shoot upwards. What an odd concern and I wonder what he’s got in mind. “What’s your birthday wish going to be? Or, I suppose people don’t tell those, do they?”
My son stares down at the cake I baked for Ezra, his expression serious and thoughtful. It reminds me very much of his uncle in the next room, the man I thought hated me who doesn’t seem to at all. When Wyatt glances up again, his eyes have turned teary. Oh no.
“What’s wrong, baby?” I ask, kneeling beside him. “Is this because of my question? You don’t have to tell me your wish.”
The tears don’t fall. They just cling to his thick, dark lashes and he gives me a tenuously sweet smile that threatens to tear my heart to pieces even more than sobs might. “It’s coming true. I know it. I’m wishing for my daddy to come home on my birthday and Ezra to… if I say it all now, it might not come true.”
“Callie, these boys in here are ready to tear this place apart waiting for cake!” my mother hollers from the living room. Sounds like storytime is over.
But, I ignore that for a few precious seconds because I can tell what Wyatt was going to say, a wish he wants with all his heart that just might align with my own wishes. I brush my hand over his dark hair, proudly studying my five-year-old. “Whatcha thinking, Mama?”
“That I want all your birthday wishes to come true. Every single one, every single year but, even if they don’t…” I place my hand over his small chest. “I’ll always be here in your heart and loving you.”
His little nose scrunches up. “That’s sappy, Mama,” he says, making an adorably disgusted face.
“It was but that’s mothers for you sometimes. Let’s take these cakes out so both of my birthday boys can make their wishes, okay?”
His face breaks into a radiant smile. “I’ll carry Ezra’s!” Wyatt does, so carefully you’d never believe a rambunctious boy was capable of such caution in his steps.
Wyatt had helped decorate it so the ‘Happy Birthday’ is a mess – he’s still getting the hang of writing print and pencil on paper is far easier than icing on cake. The letters trail off down the side but he made up for that with tons of sprinkles. There are sprinkles everywhere to the point you can no longer tell that’s chocolate frosting underneath. I suspect Ezra won’t care.
Moving more swiftly, I set Wyatt’s hockey cake down on the dining table. I’m soon crowded on all sides by little boys clambering for their sugar high. “Behinds in seats if you want a slice!” I say, mimicking my mother. It works.
Looking over, I see Wyatt presenting the cake to Ezra… and, just like at the hockey arena that night, I immediately know something is wrong.
Wyatt keeps talking about how the icing gave him trouble and how B-day counts for birthday. But, Ezra is struggling to keep a smile on his face. He shoots up to his feet, looking ready to bolt. Wyatt’s brow furrows and Charlie takes the cake from Wyatt to set it on the coffee table before grabbing his crutches to stand.
“Callie?” my stepfather says, motioning at me.
Ezra chokes out a shaky, “It means a lot, Bump. It’s… it’s…”
“What’s the word, hummingbird?” Wyatt whispers to Ezra, looking distressed.
Ezra shakes his head and tries to smile again before he turns away, disappearing down the hall toward my bedroom.