Chapter 36
CHAPTER 36
PRODIGAL
Omar
“The prodigal son returns,” my dad says and raises his glass of water in the air.
“What’s a prodigal?” Hannah asks from beside me.
“Someone who leaves their family for too long,” her mother answers.
“Oh yeah. Then that’s totally you, Uncle Omar.”
“And with a welcome like this, do you wonder why?” I tease. But their welcome has been more than warm. Layel’s house is right next door to mine, and she’s run back and forth between the two houses to get things she needed to make lunch.
I asked why we didn’t just eat at hers, and she said she wanted my first night in my house to feel like home. It’s as sparsely decorated as the house in London was when I first moved in, but since we’ve been here I’ve been making a note of all the things it needs. Jules is at the top of it.
“We’re glad to see you, son.” My father’s eyes are warm and soft, and I raise my glass to mimic his gesture.
“I’m glad to see you, too.” I am. I was nervous about what it would be like to be back here in the place that somehow became our family hub. I didn’t need to be.
My dad had nothing but a warm hug for me and Jules, too.
The kids have inundated her with questions about London and clothes and weather and music. She’s great with them. I don’t know why that surprises me, but it does. I’m not sure what kind of family she wants, or if she wants one at all. I love the idea of a mini Jules running around, but I’d be happy for it to just be us, too.
“So Juliana?—”
“Jules, please,” she corrects with a smile, and I don’t know how I missed the pronunciation she uses that makes it sound like Jewels. Oh my girl, she’s so clever.
“Jules,” my father repeats with an equally warm smile, but his eyes are shrewd and assessing, and I know he’s about to give her a good once-over. “Omar tells us you’re a lawyer.”
She swallows hard. Her eyes dart to me across the table, and in them I see a plea for help. I just give her a reassuring smile. Whatever she wants to tell them is fine. The truth is always scarier in our heads than out loud anyway.
“I’m training to be one,” she starts, her eyes still on mine for a second before she looks back at my dad.
“I see. So you’re in law school?”
“No, I finished. But once that’s done we have to do a vocational training that gives us practical experience. It’s called a pupilage. I’m not quite done with mine.”
“Oh,” Layel sighs, a pout on her face. “So you have to go back to finish.”
Jules puts her glass down and folds her hands in her lap. “I do have to go back, yes, but Omar doesn’t.”
It’s my turn to frown. “No, I don’t. But I will.”
We eye each other in a silent war of wills. We haven’t talked about this at all, and I certainly don’t want to talk about it in front of them.
Layel clears her throat, and Jules snaps her eyes shut for a second. When she opens them again, they’re clear. “I’m sorry. I’m tired and hungry, don’t mind me,” she says with a bright smile that convinces everyone at the table but me that she’s telling the truth. “But really, this place is amazing.”
“You just wait until summer and you’re sweltering. You won’t think so then,” my dad says.
“So how did you two meet?”
“Officially at a party?—”
“Where I turned her down for a dance and then broke her nose.”
Hannah gasps. “What?”
“You make it sound awful,” Jules chides. “He did turn me down when I asked him to dance. But he more than made up for it later.” She smiles at me, and I know she’s remembering our first time. Heat blooms on the back of my neck, and blood rushes to my dick. She knows what she’s doing, and I’ll get her back later.
“What about your nose?”
“I walked up behind him and surprised him. He head butted me. It wasn’t a serious break. I didn’t need surgery or anything. He took me to the hospital and waited while they bandaged me up. And took me home after. But I’d had a crush on him for so long and I finally had my chance, so I left my iPad in his car so he’d have to come back over.”
“Ah, a Chelsea fan, are you?” my father asks knowingly.
“I don’t know a thing about football. I bartend at the pub in his neighborhood. He came in every week, but we’d never spoken. I didn’t work up the nerve until the night we ended up at a mutual friend’s party.”
I cover her hand with mine. “And once I got an up-close taste of perfection, I knew I’d never have enough.”
“Oh, Omar…” She turns the hand under mine over and links our fingers, and we share a smile. I wish I could bottle this feeling—the contentment in her eyes matches what I feel down to my soul. I hope like hell this lead we’re chasing pans out. But if this doesn’t, if it takes forever, I’ll try forever, because she deserves to live in the same sunshine she shines on all of us.
I shake my head and pull her to me, and her warm body comforts and calms me as she nestles into my chest, burrowing her nose into the space between my pecs where my heart beats for her and the rest of the people I love. I cup the back of her head and press a kiss to the top of it.
“So why’d you say no when she asked you to dance?”
“Because I’m a shit dancer, and when I realized it was her, my nerves got the best of me.”
“You? Nervous around a girl?”
“A woman,” I correct my sister and wink at Jules. “And yes. I knew she was way out of my league.”
“But…you dated the Kardashians,” Hannah chimes in next to me.
“I didn’t date any damn Kardashians. Jesus,” I growl.
Jules snickers. “I don’t know why he keeps denying it. Everyone saw him, right?”
She and the girls laugh.
My dad just looks confused. “You dated a Kardashian? When?”
“Never,” I groan. “You little shit,” I whisper to Hannah and get a huge grin in return.
“No one saw anything. You’re supposed to be on my side,” I say to Jules.
“I am. But you’re so much fun to tease.”
I narrow my eyes at her, and she only smiles wider. “I thought you were tired.” As if on cue, she yawns. Her eye widen as if she surprised herself, and she stretches. “It must be this amazing meal. I’ve never had Tex Mex before, but I think it’s my new favorite food.”
“Well, you’re in the right place. It’s basically our state’s official cuisine. And Rivers Wilde finally has a Tex Mex restaurant. They have music every third Saturday. We’ll go.”
“If I’m still here, I’d love that.” She meets my eye for just second, and I see the worry in them even though she’s smiling. “Do you mind if I go shower and have a lie down?” She stands and picks up her plate before she reaches for my dad’s.
I put a hand on her arm to stop her. “Don’t worry about that, you go get some rest.”
She shakes her head. “Layel made this beautiful meal, the least I can do is load the dishwasher.”
“Not at all,” my father says gently but firmly and looks at Layel. “Why don’t you make sure Jules has everything she needs upstairs? Omar and I will clean the kitchen.”
My sister’s jaw drops, and she gapes at my father. “ You are going to clean? Like with your own hands?”
I laugh at the incredulity on her face, but my stomach churns. She’s right, he’s not a modern man in the sense that he believes whatever else a woman does, the kitchen is her domain and not a place men belong. So I know this means he’s really desperate to talk to me alone, and I can only imagine what he’s got to say.
“What is she hiding?” my father asks just as I’m drying the last of the pans. When we came in here, I was sure he was going to grill me about Jules. Instead, he asked about the house in London and seemed proud of the fact that I’d done all of the work I could myself. We talked about my wanting to invest in the Royales’ new project and that I had a meeting with him tomorrow. He caught me up on what he’d been working on and his health, and I thought I’d only imagined the question in his eyes when he looked at her. Layel and Hannah stuck their heads in the kitchen to say Jules was settled and in the shower and that they were heading home so she could take Hannah to her tennis lessons.
I sigh and drop the dish towel. “She’s not hiding anything, Dad.”
“Okay, so what isn’t she saying?” he presses.
My head hurts, and I’m tired, but I want to get this over with. I’m not ashamed of her, but I don’t want to tell him anything she wouldn’t say herself. “She’s probably not going to be offered a tenancy at her chambers when she finishes her pupilage.”
“Why not?”
“Because I lied on my application, and when I told them, they fired me.”
We whip around in unison. “Beat, I didn’t hear you come down. I thought you were sleeping.”
“My shower refreshed me, and if I sleep now, I’ll be up all night.” She smiles like she didn’t walk in on us talking about her, and I wave her over.
“Jules, I’m sorry. I just?—”
“You love your son. It’s okay. I’m glad Omar has a family like this.” She tucks herself into my side and looks up at me. “I love him, too. And I don’t want you to have any doubts about who I am.”
“You don’t have to say anything you don’t want to.”
“It’s okay. This is your family. I hope they’ll be mine one day, too.” She pats my chest as if she can feel my heart thundering. This is the first time she’s spoken about our future in a concrete way, and I nod.
“I hope so, too.”
“My father died in a fire that I was accused and convicted of setting. I was thirteen and pled guilty to avoid the trial and to reduce my sentence. But I didn’t set that fire. I loved my father very, very much. He was all I had in the whole world, and we came because we’re trying to find new evidence to have my case reopened.”
I keep my eyes trained on my father while she speaks and am braced for any sign of disdain. He can think what he wants, but I’m not going to let anyone treat her badly.
“I see” is all he says, his expression neutral until he looks back up at me with tears in his eyes.
I have never, not once in my 37 years of life, seen this man come close to crying. “Dad, are you okay?”
He wipes his eyes and takes a deep breath to compose himself. “I’m very proud of you, son. So proud of you. You know better and have done better than me already.”
I glance at Jules, and concern is etched on her face. “So you’re not upset?”
“That you’re in love with a wonderful woman who has overcome unfathomable circumstances? No. I’m not. I’m happier than I’ve been in a long time.”
He walks over to Jules and extends his arms. “Come, daughter. Give me a hug.”
My two worlds collide and lock into place next to each other, and there’s a crack of thunder and rain starts.
“Damn it,” my father says. “I left my radio outside on my porch. I have to go. I’ll be back later with Mimosa. She sends her love.” He dashes out of the house.
“Does he live in Rivers Wilde, too?”
“Yes, but in the Ivy with the cool kids.”
“That story gets easier to tell every time. I can’t believe he responded like that.”
“We’ve all come a long way. You okay?” I ask her, searching her face for signs of strain.
“Almost.”
“What do you need, baby?” I ask, and her smile turns sharp and sensual.
“You between my thighs.”
I lift her into my arms. “Your wish, my command.”
She wraps her arms around my neck while I carry her up the stairs. “I’m so happy right now.”
“Me, too.”
I’m glad we built this day into our trip. She needed this moment of feel good. I just hope we’ll still be feeling this way when the sun sets tomorrow.