14. Chapter 14 #2
Asha's eyes filled up again. James cupped the back of her head roughly, forehead pressed against hers.
“We stay together,” he said hoarsely. “You won't have another man in this lifetime.”
He sounded a little crazed.
Outside, somewhere downstairs, Mrs. Burton shouted at somebody to stop slamming doors.
The pipes rattled. An ancient bus roared past outside. Life continued around them exactly as before.
And yet everything had irrevocably changed.
***
An hour later James finally went downstairs to collect Tanay.
Asha had fallen asleep curled on her side after the second round. He was rougher than he meant to be but the very idea that she could have left him with no way to find her made him go a little insane.
He had tugged his shirt over her bare skin first, swallowing hard at the sight of her drowned in fabric that smelled like him. He went slowly, eyes tracing the bruises he had left on her, marking her. Then he tucked the blanket carefully around her shoulders.
For a moment he simply stood there looking at her.
His fiancée. His wife soon, if he had anything to do about it.
Christ.
His heart felt too big for his chest.
The couple who lived just below them were squabbling. He wondered if they heard him with Asha just half an hour ago.
He swore silently that when they had their own place, there would be a separate room for the boy and solid walls between the neighbours.
Not a tiny corner bed where they had to bite down on every sound and move around each other like guilty teenagers.
No, every one of Asha's moans and shrieks of pleasure would be his alone.
He was halfway through imagining Asha asleep in a bed big enough for both of them when he heard Mrs. Burton calling up to him.
James straightened immediately, trying to suppress his natural response to the thought of Asha. The old witch would see straight through him otherwise.
When he carefully went down to get the boy, she looked him up and down suspiciously.
“I’ve fed t’lad stew an’ bread,” she announced. “An’ he’s had two bloody great slabs o’ cake.”
She sounded deeply offended by her own generosity. James hid a smile.
“Thanks, Stella.”
“Hmph. Off with ya and take the boy. You can drop him off for a bit if he needs watching tomorrow.”
Tanay appeared around her skirts immediately.
“Thank you, Mrs. Burton,” he said politely.
The old woman’s entire expression softened like butter near a fire.
“Oh, off wi’ you, boy.”
Then her razor gaze snapped back to James.
“So, I suppose you’ll be stayin’ up ‘ere now then?”
James shook his head.
“No. I’m takin’ ‘em with me.”
Her eyebrows shot up.
“Well, I need a month’s notice, mind.”
Then she shut the door directly in his face. James barked out a laugh despite himself. Nothing could get his mood down today. Not with Asha keeping the bed warm for him upstairs.
Tanay slipped his small hand into his automatically as they climbed the stairs together. The boy was dragging slightly with tiredness.
At the landing halfway up, he mumbled under his breath.
“James?”
“Aye, lad?”
“What’s a Paki bastard?”
James stopped dead. For a second all he heard was blood roaring in his ears. Slowly he crouched down so they were eye level.
“That’s not a good word,” he said carefully. “Who called you that?”
Tanay looked conflicted immediately.
"I am not supposed to snitch." he mumbled under his breath.
James gave him the stern look he usually reserved for his sister's demonic offspring.
Then the boy muttered in a voice barely above a whisper.
“Danny.”
James's face must have looked like a thunderstorm because he quickly looked at his shoes again.
“And his mates.” Tanay stared down at the stairs. “I’m better at rugby than him an’ he said I cheated. But I didn’t.”
James could imagine exactly how it had happened.
Tanay swallowed hard.
“He called me a Paki bastard an’…” His voice shrank. “He said something bad about Mum.”
A cold and ugly feeling settled inside James.
“I got in a fight,” Tanay admitted miserably. “Then his dad came t’get him and he said stuff too.”
James shut his eyes briefly. Of course he had.
“But my mum never did nothing wrong,” Tanay whispered fiercely through tears.
That nearly undid him.
James sat down heavily on the step and pulled the boy gently between his knees.
“Leave it with me,” he forced out.
Tanay looked up uncertainly.
“My mate Marvin said bastard means I don’t have a father.”
James was silent for a moment. Then nodded once.
“Aye. That’s what folk mean when they say it.”
“Oh.”
“But tell you what, lad.” James squeezed the back of his neck gently. “We’ll sort it.”
Tanay studied him solemnly before nodding.
Back upstairs, James stumbled awkwardly through the boy’s nighttime routine while Asha slept, dead to the world in the common room.
He supervised tooth brushing, then waited outside the bathroom door while Tanay showered in the cold water.
Then the boy insisted he check homework because apparently that was what fathers did. The entire thing felt like a learning experience.
When Tanay finally climbed into his little mattress in the closet room, James hovered uncertainly nearby.
“You alright sleepin’ there?”
The boy looked scandalised.
“Aye," he said, imitating James. "I’m not a baby.”
James snorted softly. Then Tanay tugged the blanket up to his chin and added in a muffled tone—
“But I been sleepin’ wi’ Amma ‘cause I heard her cry.”
All over again, James felt something that painful throb in his chest.
The boy peeped at him very seriously in the dim light.
“James?”
“Aye?”
“Don’t make my mum cry anymore, okay?”
James swallowed once.
“Never,” he said simply.
***
The next morning Asha woke slowly to warmth wrapped around her from behind. For one confused second, she was disoriented before it all came back to her.
Then James buried his face sleepily into her hair and muttered—
“Mornin’, wife.”
A laugh escaped her before she could stop it.
“Not yet,” she murmured.
“Soon,” he promised in a raspy voice. He sounded entirely too pleased with himself.
Asha turned slightly in his arms and blinked at him.
“You stayed.”
“Course I did. Were you expecting someone else?” he asked half seriously.
Then his expression changed.
“Actually…” He rubbed his jaw awkwardly. “That’s something I needed t’tell yer.”
She frowned slightly.
James stared at the ceiling a second before speaking.
“When I was away… I wasn’t avoidin’ you.”
Asha said nothing.
“My grandfather left me some land years ago.” He shrugged. “Worth bugger all back then. Nobody wanted it.”
“And?”
“The government wants it now.” His mouth twitched faintly. “Motorway expansion.”
Asha blinked.
“Oh.”
“Aye.” He looked almost dazed himself saying it aloud. “Sold most of it. Kept a couple acres.”
Realisation slowly dawned across her face.
James looked at her then, blue eyes oddly vulnerable.
“We’ve got enough money now t’not worry.”
Asha stared at him.
“I was sorting paperwork all week,” he muttered. “I wanted it done proper before I said anything. The mines are not good for me lungs.”
James kissed her forehead abruptly and shoved himself out of bed.
“Right. I’ll get t’boy sorted for school. You will have a lie in. I'll be back soon.”
She watched in stunned silence as he strode into the other room barking cheerful orders while Tanay grumbled sleepily.
Asha eventually rose to pack lunch while Tanay, fiercely independent, packed his homework book himself and inhaled toast at the table. The three of them ate breakfast together. James and Asha could not keep their eyes off each other. So much had changed overnight.
“We’re walkin’ t’school.”
Tanay groaned dramatically but obeyed. He was hoping to take the bus.
***
The morning air was cold and they walked through town together.
Halfway there James glanced down at the boy.
“So,” he said casually. “I’m plannin’ on marryin’ yer mum.”
Tanay blinked up at him. James looked oddly tense.
“You alright wi’ that?”
The boy considered this very carefully, then nodded.
“Aye. I think so.”
James huffed out a quiet breath.
“Only think so?”
Tanay shrugged.
“I like you.”
The simplicity of how easy that was surprised James. He had a long explanation prepared.
“My father died before I was born,” Tanay continued quietly. “Mum says he were very brave.”
James only nodded once, knowing the real story. He could only imagine how much courage it must have taken for a frightened seventeen-year-old pregnant widow to survive alone.
They walked the rest of the way, lost in their own thoughts as they reached the school gates.
And James immediately spotted Danny. The boy was being dropped off by his father—a thickset butcher named Davis with heavy shoulders and a permanently sour expression. James had played rugby with him, once upon a time.
Both of them stopped dead staring at James beside Tanay. James stared right back, then calmly nodded once at them.
Slowly James crouched beside Tanay, pretending to tie his shoelace tight.
Then deliberately, loud enough for every curious parent nearby to hear, he said—
“If any idiot gives yer trouble again, you tell ‘em I’m your father.”
The crowd was oddly silent. Someone let out a nervous giggle.
“And if they’ve got a problem with that,” James continued calmly, eyes never leaving Davis, “they can come speak with me. Awright?”
The boy’s eyes, so like Asha's, had become huge.
He swallowed hard then nodded eagerly. James squeezed his shoulder once and started to let go. But suddenly Tanay clutched his hand tighter.
For one tiny second the boy looked frightened again.
Then, it was like there was a light shining from his eyes.
In a small wobbly voice, he said—
“Bye… Dad.”
***The End***