Chapter 22 #2
“This is Matteo, and this is Leo. I was just telling them that you are Mrs. Analise’s dad. They met her when they spent the night with Ruger and Lola and Harley.”
“Those are my grand babies! Did you have fun spending the night with them?” Bam asked.
“Yes, sir,” Leo said, sitting still while Ronan buckled him in the back seat.
“I want a lizard like Gerald,” Matteo said.
Bam laughed. “Gerald is special, isn’t he?”
“He didn’t like me. But my lizard will like me,” Matteo declared as Ronan carried him around to the other side of the truck and buckled him in.
“Alright, guys. I’m gonna climb into the middle, alright?” Ronan asked.
“You’re going to sit in the middle?” Matteo laughed.
“Where do you think I’m going to sit? In the back of the truck?”
“That’d be funny,” Matteo said.
“I got ‘em!” Maverik shouted to them as he jogged to catch up holding up a hand full of super heroes.
“Look! Puppy found our super heroes!” Matteo exclaimed.
Bam burst out laughing. “Puppy! It’s been a while since I heard that one.”
“Stop laughing,” Maverik said as he got in the front seat and closed the door before turning around to offer the toys he held. “Whose is whose?” he asked.
The boys pointed out which toys were theirs as Ronan strapped himself into the middle seat.
“Alright, we good?” Maverik asked.
“Yes,” all three in the back seat answered.
~~~
As they pulled into the driveway, the front door opened and Brandt walked out to greet them.
“Who’s that?” Leo asked.
“It’s my cousin, Brandt,” Ronan said.
“Are all your friends your cousins?” Leo asked.
Ronan laughed. “Yeah, pretty much. It’s like when you and Matteo grow up you’ll still be brothers, but you’ll also be friends.”
Brandt walked out and waited for the truck to stop before he tapped on the fender and smiled.
Maverik got out of the truck and quickly opened the back door. “Can I get you out?” he asked Leo.
Leo nodded at him and waited until he was unbuckled to reach toward Maverik as best he could with his hands full of his toys and his pillow. Maverik picked him up and held him while taking a few steps away from the truck.
“Wait for us!” Matteo called out.
“What do you think I’m doing? Standing out here in the middle of the night because I like the night?” Maverik teased.
Matteo grinned at him. “You might like the night.”
“I do like the night. But not enough to stand around for no reason.”
Ronan had unbuckled Matteo and got out of the same side of the truck Leo had been sitting on. “Alright, now listen, Momma has a bad headache so we’re going to be quiet and really calm when we see her, okay?” Ronan said looking back and forth between both boys.
“Yes, we are,” Leo said confidently.
“Alright. Now, she might still be sleeping so don’t be disappointed if she doesn’t wake up yet. She needs to rest so her headache will go away.”
Both boys nodded.
“Who do we have here? Is this the famous Leo and Matteo I’ve heard so much about?” Brandt asked.
“That’s us!” Matteo exclaimed. He looked at his brother. “We’re famous.”
“We’re not famous,” Leo said.
“Yes, we are. He knows us.”
“Well, I know you because Ronan told me all about you, and because Mr. Havoc and Mrs. Analise did, too. And even Ruger and Lola told me about you guys.”
“We’re their new friends,” Leo said.
“Exactly!” Brandt said.
“And you’re Mr. Brandt. Ronan told us who you are,” Matteo said.
“I sure am. And you know what? I have a little boy about your age. I bet he’d like to be friends with you guys, too.”
“Can he come over now?” Matteo asked.
“It’s still nighttime,” Leo scoffed.
“So? We’re awake,” Matteo said.
“How about we go ahead and get inside then,” Ronan said. He led the way with Maverik right behind him, and Brandt and Bam bringing up the rear.
“Hey, girl! How you feeling?” Maverik asked Tempest, who was lying on the sofa.
“I’m okay. Tired, recovering, and tired.”
“You said that twice,” Bam said.
“That’s how tired I am. Head is a little fuzzy, too.I’m alright, though,” Tempest said.
“She insisted on another round of healing,” Brandt said.
“She needed it. But she’s really good now,” Tempest said.
The kids looked around the living room, and listened to the people they’d already met talking to a lady lying on the sofa. But they didn’t know who she was. “That’s not Momma,” Leo said, making sure everyone was aware.
Ronan chuckled. “No, that’s Tempest. That’s Mr. Brandt’s wife.”
“Oh. Okay. Hello,” Leo said, waving as Ronan put him down on his feet.
“Hi. I’m very happy to meet you,” Tempest said.
“Can your little boy come play with us?” Matteo asked.
“Maybe in a day or two he can. Right now he’s with his Aunt Hellen, and should be fast asleep,” Tempest said.
“Our Momma is sleeping, too, but we’re going to go see her anyway,” Leo said.
“That’s a good idea, don’t you think, Tempest?” Ronan asked.
Tempest nodded slowly. “I think it’s a great idea. And even though she’s sleeping, I’m sure she’ll know you’re there.”
“Tell you what, you guys hang out with everybody out here for a second and I’m going to check on your mom, first, okay?” Ronan asked.
Leo wasn’t too sure, but agreed anyway, leaning against one of the chairs while watching Ronan walk toward the bedrooms.
“I don’t know why we have to wait. She wants to see us most,” Matteo declared.
“I think he wants to make sure her head is feeling better before y’all go in there,” Bam said as he took a seat beside where Tempest had pushed herself up into a seated position, and took her hand in his.
“Uncle Bam, you don’t have to do that,” Tempest said, when she felt his hand getting warmer as he pushed some of his healing powers into her.
“I know,” he said, smiling at her.
“So, are you guys hungry?” Maverik asked.
“No, sir,” Leo said.
“I am,” Matteo said.
“You’re always hungry,” Leo said.
“So? I’m growing,” Matteo answered.
“Let me see if I can find something to feed you,” Maverik said, walking into the kitchen. He opened the pantry and was digging around for a few seconds before Matteo called to him.
“Is there anymore of that cereal left? The ones with the loops and all the colors?”
Maverik stepped out of the pantry with the box in his hand. “There is. You sure you don’t want some, too, Leo?”
Leo shook his head.
Maverik filled a bowl with cereal and milk and put it on the table, then helped Matteo get situated in a chair so he could eat his cereal.
When he went back over to the living room he noticed that Leo wasn’t really focused on anything around him.
“You okay, buddy?” Maverik asked.
Leo nodded.
“Don’t seem like it. Something I can do to make it better?”
Leo shrugged one little shoulder.
“If you tell me what’s wrong, I might be able to fix it for you. But I can’t if you don’t tell me.”
Leo looked up at him, then glanced at the other adults in the room to make sure that they weren’t paying attention. They of course were, but looked away quickly to make it look like they weren’t. “My dad was one of those bad guys,” he said quietly.
Maverik huffed out a breath and leaned forward. “I know.”
“I don’t know why he brought people to hurt us,” Leo said.
“I don’t either, Leo. But he didn’t hurt you.
And he didn’t hurt your brother, or your mom.
She’s got a bad bump on her head because she fell trying to make sure that the bad guys followed her and not you.
” Maverik knew full well the fuckers had hurt her, but he didn’t want the kids to know somebody had hurt their mother.
Somehow her falling seemed a lot less threatening than somebody intentionally inflicting pain on her.
“He scared us.”
“I’m sure he did. And that was wrong. Very wrong.
And I don’t know why he did it, either. But I know that sometimes people have babies, but that doesn’t make them a good mom or a good dad.
It’s not the kids’ fault. It’s all about how the grownup thinks and feels and the mistakes they made.
Some people just shouldn’t be parents. And they hurt their kids and they hurt the people that love them, and they even hurt themselves. ”
“I hate him,” Leo said, his eyes glassy with the tears he was trying to hold in.
“Me, too!” Matteo said around a mouthful of cereal. “I want Ronan to be our dad.”
“Well, after tonight you won’t ever have to worry about anybody hurting you or scaring you again. Because we chased them off. And we told them if they ever try to hurt you or your mom again, we will hurt them .”
“Did they listen?” Leo asked, his eyes clearly hopeful.
“They did. They ran and they cried and they begged us not to hurt them,” Maverik said.
“That is true,” Bam said, nodding. “They begged a lot.”
“They did?” Leo asked, smiling for the first time that night.
“Yep. I saw them begging, too,” Maverik said. “Okay?”
“Okay,” Leo said, wiping the back of his hand across his eyes. Then he looked up at Maverik. “Do you think Ronan will want to be our Dad?”
“I know he does. And you know what else? That makes me your grandfather.”
“No! That makes you Puppy!” Matteo said as he drank rainbow colored milk from the side of his bowl.
“It sure does. It makes me Puppy,” Maverik said, chuckling.
“And you have a grandma, too,” Bam said.
“We do?” Leo asked hopefully.
“You do. Her name is Valerie, but all the kids call her Val.”
“And we’re all your uncles and your aunts. And you have so many more to meet. And more cousins to play with. You have the biggest, best family!” Brandt said. “You just don’t even know yet!”
Both boys grinned at each other.
“How about some cereal now?” Maverik asked Leo.
“Maybe a little,” Leo agreed.