Chapter 15 #2
“I do.” My voice came out rough. “Doesn’t mean I want you fighting. But yeah, kid. I get it.”
Luca was quiet for another long moment. “That kid you punched. The one who talked about your mom. Did he ever do it again?”
“No.” I smiled. “Never said another word to me.”
Luca nodded slowly, pleased. “Good.”
When we got to Betty’s house, Lilac’s car was already in the driveway.
She came out onto the porch as I pulled in, her face tight with worry. Luca climbed out of the truck and ran to her, burying his face in her stomach as she wrapped her arms around him.
I hung back, giving them space.
After a moment, Lilac looked up at me. “Thank you for getting him.”
“Of course.” I shoved my hands in my pockets. “He’s suspended for two days. The other kid was talking shit about you.”
Her face went pale, then flushed with anger. “What did he say?”
“Nothing worth repeating.” I met her eyes. “Luca defended your honor. Got a bruise for his trouble, but he gave better than he got.”
Lilac looked down at her son, smoothing his hair back from his forehead. “Baby, you didn’t have to—”
“Yes, I did.” Luca pulled back, his jaw set. “He was saying bad things about you. About you and—” He glanced at me. “I wasn’t going to let him.”
Lilac pulled Luca close again, but her eyes found mine over his head. “What did you say to him?” she asked quietly. “In the car?”
“That I understood why he did it, but he needs to be smarter about picking his battles if he wants to keep protecting the people he loves.”
She stared at me for a long moment, then she nodded once. “Thank you,” she said again. But this time, it sounded like she meant something more.
I nodded back and climbed into my truck.
But as I drove away, I caught Luca’s eyes in the rearview mirror. He was standing on the porch, watching me go.
And for the first time, he raised his hand in a small wave.
?
Two days later, I was out on Betty’s porch replacing a rotted board when a truck pulled into the driveway—a big silver Dodge with a bumper sticker that read MY KID IS AN HONOR STUDENT.
The driver’s door opened and a man got out. He was about my height but softer around the middle, wearing khakis and a polo shirt that screamed middle management.
His face was twisted with anger.
“Where is she?” he demanded, marching toward the porch. “Where’s the woman who raised that little thug?”
I set down my wrench and stepped outside, positioning myself between him and the door. “Something I can help you with?”
He stopped short when he saw me, taking in the cut, the tattoos, my general don’t-fuck-with-me demeanor. Some of the bluster faded from his face, but he squared his shoulders.
“I’m looking for Miss James. Or whoever’s responsible for that kid who attacked my son.”
“That would be me.” I didn’t move from the doorway. “I’m Luca’s father.”
His eyes went wide, then narrowed. “Of course you are. Look at you. No wonder the kid’s a violent little—”
“Careful.” My voice went flat. “Real careful now.”
Behind me, I heard the screen door open. Lilac stepped onto the porch, her face pale but her voice steady. “What’s going on?”
“This is Tyler’s father, I assume.” I kept my eyes on the man. “He’s here to complain about Luca defending you.”
“Defending?” The man laughed harshly. “Is that what you call attacking my son? Tyler needed ice on his nose for an hour. He could have been seriously hurt.”
“Your son called my—” I stopped, remembering the boys might be listening. “Called Lilac names. Sexual slurs. About a six-year-old’s mama. To his face.”
“That’s not what Tyler said.”
“Then Tyler’s a liar on top of being a bully.” I took a step forward, and the man took a step back. “Your kid is three years older than mine. He went after a little boy with verbal abuse about his mama, and when that little boy stood up for himself, your kid ran to a teacher.”
“Now listen here—”
“No, you listen.” Another step forward. The man was backing toward his truck now, his face pale. “My son is six years old. He’s been through things your kid can’t even imagine. And when some little shit decides to talk trash about his mama, he has every right to defend her.”
“He broke school rules—”
“He defended his family. Something you might want to teach your own kid about, instead of raising a bully who punches down and then cries about consequences.”
The man’s mouth opened and closed like a fish. I could smell his fear now—the sour tang of a man who’d expected to intimidate a single mother and found something very different instead.
“If Tyler ever speaks to either of my sons again—about anything—I’ll know about it.” I stopped close enough that he had to crane his neck to meet my eyes. “And I won’t send a kid to deal with it. I’ll come myself. Are we clear?”
“I’ll—I’ll call the police. This is harassment.”
“You came to this house. You came to threaten a woman and her children.” I smiled, and watched the color drain from his face. “Call whoever you want. Explain to them why you’re harassing a family because your bully of a son got exactly what he deserved.”
“You—this isn’t—” He was fumbling for his truck door now, nearly tripping over his own feet. “This isn’t over.”
“Yeah, it is.” I stepped back, giving him room to escape. “Drive safe now.”
He practically threw himself into his truck, the engine roaring to life as he reversed out of the driveway. His tires squealed on the pavement as he sped away.
I watched until his taillights disappeared, then turned back to the porch.
Lilac was staring at me, her expression unreadable. Behind her, through the screen door, I could see two small faces pressed against the mesh—the boys, watching with wide eyes.
“Inside,” Lilac told them. “Now.”
They disappeared, and Lilac stepped toward me. “You didn’t have to do that,” she said quietly.
“Yes, I did.”
“He could cause trouble. Call the school board, the police—”
“He won’t.” I kept my voice calm. “Men like that are only brave when they think they’re facing someone weaker.
He came here expecting to bully you. Instead, he found me.
” I shrugged. “He’ll go home, tell his wife some story about how he ‘handled it’, and he’ll make sure Tyler never bothers Luca and Knox again. ”
Lilac was quiet for a long moment. Then, she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around my waist, surprising us both.
It took me a second to respond—we hadn’t touched, not since those early days when I’d grabbed her arm too hard. But then my arms came up around her, pulling her close, and I pressed my face into her hair.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
I pulled back slightly, just enough to see her face. “You okay?”
“I should be asking you that.” Her eyes searched mine. “You looked like you wanted to murder him.”
“Only a little.” The words came out before I could stop them—dry, dark.
A surprised laugh escaped her—short and startled. “That’s not reassuring.”
“Good thing I’m better at restraint than I used to be.”
“Are you?”
I cursed myself for saying something that would make her fear me, but then I realized there was no fear in her words.
Might have been curiosity, or maybe recognition of the man Graham had told her about.
“I’m trying to be.” I let my hands settle on her waist, careful not to hold too tight. “For you. For them.”
I looked up to the window where the boys were now watching from. “I’ll always protect them.” My voice went rough again. “You. The boys. Always. No matter what.”
She studied my face for a long moment, and I let her see everything—the violence I was capable of, the gentleness I reserved for her, the desperate love driving it all.
“I’m starting to believe that,” she said, and this time when she stepped back, she was almost smiling.
?
That night, after the boys were supposed to be in bed and Lilac was helping Betty with dishes, I found Luca waiting for me on the back porch.
He was sitting on the steps where I’d sat with him after Knox’s crash, his legs swinging in the darkness.
“Hey.” I lowered myself next to him. “Shouldn’t you be in bed?”
“I heard you,” Luca said. “With Tyler’s dad.”
“You were supposed to be inside.”
“I came out in case mama or you needed me.” He looked up at me, and in the dim light from the kitchen window, his green eyes were luminous. “You really scared him.”
“He deserved to be scared.”
Luca nodded slowly. “He came here to yell at Mama. I heard him say I was a thug.”
“He’s wrong.”
“I know.” Luca was quiet for a moment. “But, nobody ever stood up for us like that before. When I got in trouble before, at our old school, our teacher would yell at me and say I was making him look bad.”
My hands clenched on my knees. I wanted to find this teacher and make him pay for every moment of neglect. “That’s not what daddies do,” I said. “Daddies don’t care about looking bad—they care about making sure their family is safe.”
“Is that what you did today? Protected us?”
“Yeah, kid. That’s exactly what I did.”
Luca was quiet for a long moment. “Thanks,” he said so softly I almost missed it. “For… you know. Standing up for us.”
“Anytime,” I managed. “That’s what family does.”
Luca’s expression flickered at the word family, but he didn’t pull away from it. Didn’t argue. He seemed to be wrestling with something, his jaw tight in a way I recognized.
“I’m going to bed now. Goodnight… Colt.”
He hesitated on my name, like he’d been about to say something else. “Goodnight, Luca.”
He went inside, the screen door closing softly behind him.
I sat on the porch for a long time, staring at the stars. He’d almost said it. I could feel the word he wasn’t ready to give me yet. He was still testing me, still waiting to see if I’d prove myself worthy.
And that was okay. I’d wait as long as it took. Because when he finally said it—when he finally called me Dad—I wanted him to mean it with his whole heart.