Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
brENT
Uly and the boys didn’t make it down for the pizza and soup.
In fact, other than a bathroom break they slept all night.
Admittedly, I checked in on them a few times and stood to watch them sleep.
It was a delight to find Uly cuddled with the boys.
To see him wrapped protectively around them, like a mother would.
I knew he wasn’t a woman. I mean, that was obvious.
But he stepped into the role like he was born to it.
He put the kids at ease, let them know he’d be here and wouldn’t walk away.
There was no way to be certain it was true.
He and I hadn’t known each other long enough for me to determine that, but down deep I trusted him.
Closing the door, I made my way back to the great room where Benjy and Chaim were still making out like horny teenagers.
I might have been a little jealous. There had always been a spark of it when I was a kid.
To see them so happy was both balm and bomb to my soul, mostly because it reminded me how miserable I was.
Then, in the blink of an eye, that all changed, and I was the happiest man to walk the earth.
And that happiness was tripled with the arrival of the boys.
After Jenna died, the luster was gone from my life, but my boys helped me polish that burnish off and find joy again.
Interacting with people wasn’t as hard as it had been for a while, and I became… well, not happy, but settled.
And then I met Uly.
That day in the diner his expression of defeat tugged at my heart, making me want to do nothing less than banish it from his face.
Then he ran out, and I heard the sob as the door closed and I knew that I couldn’t leave him alone to suffer.
I told my people I wanted a full accounting of the books done by someone else until we could get our own firm up and running. Then I took off after Uly.
I realize now that his scent was hidden by the coffee first, then the chocolate cake, so I didn’t notice it completely.
Once he arrived in town? Yeah, that all opened my senses up fully and I was mired in the scent that was similar, but definitely not the same.
Jenna’s had been all flowers, while Uly was cake and coffee blended with a light sprinkle of flower petals.
Hers was sweeter, softer. His was bolder, kinder.
I would never mistake Uly for my wife, even though they shared something in common.
“We’re leaving tomorrow,” Chaim said as he pulled away from Benjy.
I didn’t like that news at all. “But you just got here.”
He shrugged. “Can’t leave the diner for too long.”
I wanted him to stay. Having Chaim, Benjy, and their kids here would bring my family back together.
“What if you opened a diner here?” I asked, bordering on desperation. In my head I could see them driving away again, waving as they disappeared into the distance.
He tilted his head. “C’mon, cub, we talked about this. Idanha is our home.”
No. I refused to accept that. “This is your home!” I snarled. “Tell me the truth. If it wasn’t for my father, would you have left?”
Chaim looked away. “You have to understand, Brent—”
“Would. You. Have. Left?’ I growled, and I swear Chaim flinched. He’d faced bigger guys and never batted an eye, but here? Now? I’d made him nervous.
“No,” Benjy replied. “We fought bitterly about it, because your father had used threats against me to blackmail Chaim into going. I wanted us to stay, to show we weren’t afraid and—”
“I was not afraid of him!” Chaim insisted. “I was afraid….” He stroked his fingers over Benjy’s cheek, pain in his gaze. “For you, baby. And for the cub. What would his father do to him if we refused to leave?”
As much as I hated to admit it, I could understand. My father always had to be right, to be the strongest. He probably knew Chaim could take him, so he moved the things he cared about to act as a barrier between them.
“He would have done something shitty, like he always did.” I chuckled ruefully.
“When he said he was stepping down, he thought the town would throw him a banquet. We did nothing. By then everyone hated him and couldn’t wait to see him go.
Especially me. The day I assumed the role, I told him good bye and wished him well.
He wasn’t sure what I meant, until he was escorted out of town.
He moved to Texas and we never spoke again.
He didn’t know about Jenna or the boys, because I refused to have his hate pollute them.
” I slumped onto the couch beside Chaim.
“I despised him for making you guys leave. He took the only good things in my life and sent them away.”
Benjy got up and moved to the other side of me. Then I found myself sandwiched in a hug. It felt good. Right. Like my home was finally settled.
“You’re not leaving,” I insisted, unable to bear losing my friends again.
“We’re not leaving,” Chaim agreed, placing his chin on the top of my head. “I told Benjy if you stood up and insisted we stay, then we would.”
I scowled at him. “You’re an idiot.”
That got a chuckle from Benjy. “About time you figured that out.”
Chaim reached out and gripped my arm, almost painfully.
His face was contorted as though what he was about to say would hurt.
“There’s something you need to understand, cub.
You and Benjy were always my strength, but you were also my weak spot.
The thought that something would happen to either of you left me trembling and unable to breathe.
You are the closest thing I have to a brother.
I would give anything I own to keep you, Benjy, and my kids safe. ”
And I felt the same way. “That’s why I need you to come home. Where you belong. We’ll find a place for a diner, but I can’t—I won’t—have my heart ripped out when you leave again.”
Benjy smirked. “Ripped out? Isn’t that a little melodramatic?”
Honestly, I wanted to say yes, he was right, I was being a drama queen.
But I remembered with crystal clarity the nights I lay in bed, alone and desperately lonely, because I had no friends to speak of.
How my entire world was wrapped up in these two guys, who’d helped me to look beyond the loneliness.
It was only after I realized that was what he wanted, to keep me under his thumb and have no one else to turn to other than him, that I stopped caring what he wanted and started working on what I did.
I went back to weightlifting and grew bulk, I focused in school and got my grades up to…
well, not stellar, but passable levels. I did everything I could to distance myself from my father.
I made friends. Not many, to be sure, but they were good and steadfast. They weren’t Chaim and Benjy, though, but who was? Still, every day I remembered them and that hole continued to grow slowly.
I shook my head. “When I found out you were gone, it nearly killed me. Dad and I were already at each other’s throats, with him telling me you were gone and I had to accept it.
Every day after that, I hated him more and more.
It got to the point where if he had died, I wouldn’t have mourned.
In all honesty, I would have breathed easier, I think. ”
I was quiet for a few moments waiting for the rebuke.
“I half expected you to say I needed to forgive him because he’s my father,” I admitted.
“No. Never. No one can tell you how to feel or how to deal with those feelings. You can’t ask the aggrieved to dismiss the anger for the person who treated them so poorly.
” He sighed. “Believe me, I have enough anger and resentment for him myself. I kept a lid on it because I wasn’t sure if you guys made peace. ”
“Nope, and it isn’t likely to happen. He’s in Texas and if he moved farther away, I’d be even happier.”
“Daddy?”
I looked up and found Eddie staring at me, eyes wide.
“Hey, honey. C’mere.”
I opened my arms and he ran for me, squeezing my neck hard, gasping for air.
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t want Momma to leave,” he sobbed.
I was shocked, thinking maybe he’d heard something I hadn’t. “Who said Uly was leaving?”
“She did before.”
When she died. “Uly isn’t going anywhere.”
“We love Momma.”
“And from the looks you get, that love goes both ways. Don’t worry, I’m going to do my best to keep Uly here. I very much like him too.”
He leaned back and peered into my eyes. “Promise?” he asked, his lip quivering.
I held out my hand, then crooked the little finger. “Pinky swear.”
And as he hooked his finger with mine, that seemed to satisfy him.
ULY
When I woke, I found Jack still snuggled against me, seemingly content.
Eddie wasn’t anywhere to be seen, so I slid out of bed and trudged out to the great room.
Brent was holding a sobbing Eddie to his chest. My first instinct was to rush over and grab Eddie and hopefully get him to stop crying.
Then I heard the words that caused everything to grind to a halt.
“Don’t worry, I’m going to do my best to keep Uly here. I very much like him too.”
Now I was weirded out in a different way.
No one had ever liked me before, and I had no idea how I should react.
If I was honest, I liked Brent. A lot. Since the day in the diner he’d been a port in a storm for me.
Showing me I had worth, telling me I wasn’t broken, and propping me up on bad days.
Other than Jamie, our parents, and Deb, everyone else passed me by without noticing me.
I always felt as though I was a bit of the background.
Unless I fell flat on my face. Then no one could miss me.