Chapter 15
“What’s up with you?”
Rohan rolled his head, which was leaning back on the couch, to look at his brother.
His brother and niece had stopped by his house after signing her up for tap lessons.
She’d been wanting to get into something extracurricular for a while, but hadn’t known what she wanted to do. She had finally decided on tap.
“It’s your mother.”
Trent chuckled. “What’d she do this time?”
“She hid out in my office for three hours today and had the audacity to get mad at me because I was working and didn’t want to listen to her woe is me story.”
“Is she still hiding from him instead of just telling him no?”
“Yes, and she thinks I don’t know what she’s doing,” Rohan stated, shaking his head. “A part of her is hoping that I’ll volunteer to come out and tell him we’re partners, and I have no intention of doing that.”
He listened as his brother hummed in acknowledgment. “Would it be so bad for them to know that you are?”
“In a way, yes.” Rohan sat up. “I’ve worked extremely hard to get them to see me as one of their co-workers.
Not as their boss, and that job was not made easy because everyone on my team and everyone else at the company knows that she’s my mother.
I started with that disadvantage. I in no way want to give myself another one. ”
“I mean, I told you it wasn’t smart to go work with Mom when you graduated, but you were hellbent on doing so.”
He scoffed. “I wasn’t hellbent. I just like making concepts and helping someone’s vision come to life. I will admit, I was impatient to make that happen, and didn’t want to strike out on my own because, in truth, I didn’t want to be my own boss or anyone’s boss.”
“But you had to have known that it was going to eventually happen, especially when Mom steps down.”
“Yeah, but that won’t happen for a while,” Rohan countered.
“Doesn’t matter the time frame, it’s going to happen. Besides, she may decide tomorrow that she’s ready to retire,” Trent countered.
At that moment, Alynn, who he was sure had been in his game room getting mad at his pinball machine, came bounding into the living room.
“I’m hungry,” she announced. “Can we order pizza?”
“Yeah,” he replied at the same time his brother said, “No.” The two men looked at each other.
“She doesn’t need any junk food,” his brother told him. “She had nachos yesterday and needs a nourishing home-cooked meal tonight.”
Rohan raised an eyebrow at his brother. “You know where the kitchen is. Knock yourself out.” He then watched as his brother looked at Alynn before looking down at his watch. It was already almost seven-thirty.
“What kind of pizza do you want?” Trent asked, and Rohan had already started dialing the number. He knew his older brother well enough to know that he did not like to cook after a certain time.
Once they had ordered pizza, Alynn made sure three times that they knew she wanted extra cheese on hers before she bounded back down the hallway.
“So, how are things with Jalen?” Trent questioned, taking his eyes off the television to glance at him.
Rohan chuckled before he smirked slightly.
After their encounter a week and a half ago, she’d been somewhat distant with him.
Not that they hadn’t been texting or calling one another, but he’d asked her out twice now, and she’d asked him if she could have a raincheck.
He only knew that she was avoiding him a bit because, typically, if he asked her out and the day didn’t work for her, she would counter with a different day and time.
He didn’t blame her at all. It just helped confirm his thought.
It had been a while since she’d gotten some.
If he had to guess, she might still have been embarrassed to see him face to face, even though he’d told her that everything was fine.
It was that, or she needed to put some physical distance between them because she wasn’t sure what she would do next time.
Rohan couldn’t blame her for that. He felt the same way. He wouldn’t object to whatever it was she wanted to do and would take it at her pace. He didn’t mind waiting, and if she didn’t want to be intimate anytime soon, he was completely fine with that.
“They’re going well.”
“I figured they were if she introduced her sisters to you.”
“Mm...that was more of an accident.”
“But she didn’t push you away. Which brings me to my next question. Are you inviting her and her sisters for Thanksgiving?”
“I am,” he responded. “Since we’re having it at my place. I feel like that would make her more comfortable.”
“You don’t think it’s too early to meet the family?”
He shrugged. “Jalen has met you and Alynn; her sisters have met Alynn. Aside from that, there’s just Mom, and I can only see her enjoying being around so many kids since you won’t give her another grandchild.”
“You mean since you won’t,” Trent retorted, and they both laughed.
The two of them turned their attention back to the television until the doorbell chimed. Rohan got up and headed towards the front door as his niece came down the hall yelling, “Pizza’s here!”
After he’d paid the delivery driver, the three of them headed into the kitchen. He placed the box on the island as his brother got out plates, and Alynn went to the refrigerator to get drinks.
They took their plates into the living room, where Alynn turned the channel to a cartoon that neither he nor his brother would pay attention to.
????????????
“It’s mine! Give it back!”
Jalen groaned to herself. She had been trying to study for the past hour, and she honestly hadn’t been having any luck. Today was one of those rare days when the twins woke up and decided they were going to be enemies. It didn’t happen often, but when it did, it was non-stop until they went to bed.
Placing the textbook on the dining table, she got up and went down the hall to where the screaming was happening, only to find her youngest two siblings playing tug-of-war with what looked like a sock. Mikal was on her bed, looking as if she were two seconds away from snapping.
“What is going on here?” Jalen questioned, drawing everyone’s attention.
“Omari is trying to take my sock,” Nathan told her.
Omari let out a huff. “This one is mine. That one,” she started, pointing to the matching sock on the floor. “Is yours.”
Jalen did her best not to roll her eyes. While she didn’t always make it a point to buy them identical things. Socks were one of those things that she purchased in similar packages. It just made it easier on the rare days they wanted to dress alike.
Her first thought was to grab the other pair out of their drawer to show them that they each had a pair.
“I’ve already tried that,” Mikal told her with a small sigh, as the twins went back to arguing. “They don’t care about the other pair at all. Nathan just wants that sock. Even though the other one is exactly the same.”
She nodded, understanding. “Why don’t you go into my room and read your comic?” Jalen told her, trying to give her little sister an out from the noise.
“Kodi’s studying in there,” Mikal informed her, and Jalen furrowed her brow. “Landon is on the phone and is being too loud,” her little sister clarified. “I don’t want to bother her.”
“Stop!” Omari screamed.
“Girls!” Jalen snapped, and they turned to look at her wide-eyed.
She hardly ever raised her voice to any of them.
Preferring instead to be the complete opposite of their mother, when she had wanted to be around.
Their mother used force, raised voices, and borderline beatings to discipline.
Though she and Kodi were the recipients of it more than the younger four.
Even when they had done nothing. She could recall Landon getting one or two as well.
Jalen’s approach had always been gentle parenting, preferring to talk to them first.
“Cut it out, or I’m going to take it, and the two of you will sit across from each other saying nice things, with no ice cream this weekend.”
“But—” Nathan said, and Omari threw her hand over her older twin’s mouth.
“Okay,” Omari responded. She enjoyed not only eating the homemade ice cream but making it too.
“Good.” Jalen nodded before beckoning Mikal to come with her. “You can read your comic in the living room.”
“I don’t want to bother you while you study either.”
“You can have the bedroom,” Kodi said as she stepped out.
“I’ll study in the living room. I heard all the screaming, so you definitely deserve a break.
” Jalen watched as Kodi pulled one of Mikal’s curls before letting it go.
“We need to wash your hair tonight,” she then stated before taking her study materials to the living room.
“Fine,” Mikal responded despondently.
She wasn’t a big fan of getting her hair washed. Her hair was extremely thick and naturally curly. It often took them hours to wash, condition, comb through, moisturize, and twist it up. Not to mention that Mikal was very tender-headed. Though Kodi’s gentle touch made it better.
Jalen returned to the dining room table and continued to study. She had a test coming up, and it was crucial that she pass. Not that she doubted her ability and knowledge, it was simply that it would put her one step closer to her goal. Especially if she could be one of the top scorers.
In her next semester, she could start her clinical rotation.
A top score would ensure she was chosen for one of the twenty-five spots that were offered, and she wouldn’t have to wait.
Especially since there were currently over eighty people in the program.
It would be a substantial increase in pay for her once she was a board-certified RN, and she could move them into something bigger where her sisters could each have their own room.
Jalen had just finished placing everything they would need to build their own tacos on the table.
While she’d been making ice cream for dessert later with the twins, Kodi had browned the ground beef, while Mikal had taken out bowls to place the vegetables, cheese, sour cream, salsa, and anything else any of them could want on their tacos.
Going down the hall, Jalen went to get Landon. While the rest of them had been in the kitchen, her little sister had opted to stay in her bedroom, sending Mikal back with the message, “Just get me when it’s ready.”
Knocking on the closed bedroom door, Jalen heard Landon call her in. When she opened the door, she found the teenager lying on her back, phone to her ear. Furrowing her brow, Jalen glanced at the clock on the table between the two beds even though she knew what time it was.
Landon had been on the phone for going on five hours now, and she would bet probably even longer than that.
“Hey, time to eat,” Jalen told her.
“I’ll eat later.”
Jalen had been at the dining room table for over five hours, and she hadn’t seen Landon since they’d had breakfast that morning.
So, she knew that her little sister was more than likely hungry.
Landon was also very well aware of Jalen’s rule about their eating together.
Especially since she was often at work or school during dinnertime.
“Not later, now. Everyone is waiting.” She turned to walk out of the room but stopped as Landon spoke.
“I’m going to eat later,” the teenager told her with a slight huff.
Jalen turned, approaching the teenager. “Hang up the phone. It’s time for dinner.”
“I’m still talking.”
Jalen’s eyebrow twitched. She slid the phone from her little sister’s hand and spoke into it. “She’ll call you back next weekend.” With that, she hung up the phone and turned, leaving the room and going down the hall, her little sister on her heels.
“What was that for?”
“It’s time for dinner.”
“I was having a conversation,” Landon said, raising her voice a bit.
“And now it’s over for you for the next week,” Jalen retorted, turning to look at her.
“You’re grounding me?”
“Yes.”
“Because I don’t want to eat dinner? That’s unfair, you can’t do that!”
“Lower your voice, and yes, I can.”
“You aren’t my mom,” Landon spoke, and Jalen leaned back slightly, feeling as if she’d gotten slapped.
“Woah, back up,” Kodi said, coming from the kitchen into the living room. “You need to apologize.”
“Well, she isn’t,” Landon shrugged.
“No, but she’s the person who kept us together, and from going into the system. She didn’t have to do that. Plan her entire life around us, but she did, and if I were her, I’d whoop your little disrespectful butt.”
“She’s not going to because that makes her like Mom. Child abuse and whatnot,” Landon replied nonchalantly, and before Jalen could stop her, Kodi had grabbed their little sister by the front of her shirt and yanked her up onto her tiptoes, pulling a shriek from her.
“If you ever say that shit again. I will beat your ass, and since you like to call me a kid, it won’t be child abuse. It’ll be mutual combat, and I can guarantee you, I won’t be the one on the floor when it’s done,” Kodi told her through clenched teeth.
“Jalen, tell her to let me go,” Landon pleaded.
Turning and heading towards the kitchen, Jalen called over her shoulder. “Go back to your room.”
“You heard her,” Kodi stated as Jalen took a seat. A moment later, Kodi came back to the table. “She’s just being stupid.”
“I know. I guess I’m just not prepared for it yet.” Jalen turned her attention to Omari, who was tapping her leg. The little girl opened her arms, and Jalen allowed her to hug her.
“I think you’re the best Mommy.”
“Me too!” Nathan spoke excitedly, and Jalen smiled at them both before turning her attention back to Kodi.
“Don’t curse in front of the kids,” she told her. She wasn’t na?ve enough to think her little sister didn’t curse. She just didn’t want her doing it in front of their younger siblings.
“Sorry,” she responded, helping Nathan fill her taco shells.
Jalen helped Omari, doing her best to let Landon’s words roll off her.