Chapter Fourteen

 

 

When It's Time To Talk Man-to-Man

I worked hard to put the conversation with my mother out of my mind, even going so far as to leave my phone on do not disturb so I wouldn't hear when Jeremiah inevitably called to bitch me out for spilling the beans. After a couple of weeks passed, I started to breathe a little easier and thought about it more. If Ma had decided to call him, or tell him to his face, or discuss a plan of action with him, or whatever she started to do, it was going to be what it was going to be, and there was nothing I could do about it.

I might as well go about living my life and let the chips fall where they may.

Lucky for me, there was plenty in Houston to keep my brain occupied. Wisdom was in every kind of sport and extracurricular activity there was available, locally and at his school. I was happy to see that he was big on baseball since the Hawkins were known to play regularly at family reunions and get-togethers.

Wisdom's league baseball team had powered through a stretch of away games for about four weeks in cities outside of Houston and was back doing home games. I'd only been to one game so far but was finally able to attend one from the warm-up to finish, and I was looking forward to it.

It was mid-August and this just happened to be the week that Wisdom spent at his father's home, so Tonya and I drove up to the field together about twenty minutes before the game started. She showed me around the athletic complex made up of about six different fields used for baseball and softball teams as well as four soccer fields and a large walking track. The complex was huge and I was shocked when she told me that it was only for area league youth sports, not even for use by local schools.

There was a nice breeze flowing; it was a beautiful day and by the time we reached the field that Wisdom would be playing on, the sun was high in the sky and I was grateful for the wide-brimmed hat that I donned before leaving the house. I followed Tonya up the steps of wide, metal bleachers where her family was seated next to a group of people that I didn't recognize. I said my hellos to her sisters, gave her mother a hug, and shook her father's hands, waiting as she introduced me to the other group of people who I learned were Wisdom's paternal grandparents, his father, and his father's fiancée.

I held out my hand to Evan for a friendly shake and quirked a brow under my hat when he gripped it a little tighter than necessary. What the hell was that about? His smile was friendly enough and seemed to convince Tonya that he had the ability to play nice, but there was something in his eyes that said he didn't trust me. The nod he aimed in my direction almost read like a warning, but for what? I let it be what it was because with his fiancée sitting right there next to him, thigh-to-thigh, and my marriage to Tonya, it couldn't be what it looked like although it definitely seemed to be. I sat next to Tonya on a bench and settled in for the game. Or rather, I tried to settle in for the game. There was a prickling sensation that I was being watched. I thought it would go away, but as we entered the second inning of the game, that niggling feeling was still there. Glancing around the bleachers, I turned to see Evan facing me with a hard stare. With the tilt of my chin and raised eyebrows, I tried to ask him what was up, but seeing that I was on to him watching me seemed to have snapped him out of his reverie. He shook his head and faced the field where his son had just gone up to bat.

If that had been all, it would have been fine, except another fifteen minutes went by, and I felt that same sensation. This time, I had an idea that it was Evan, but instead of looking at him, I wrapped an arm around Tonya's waist and pressed a kiss to her temple. I didn't know dude's issue was, but I'd be damned if I let him intimidate me. An hour rolled by and before I knew it, the game was coming to an end. Wisdom’s team was leading by two runs and although the other team was at bat, it appeared that the game was in the bag. After a final strike-out, we all shot to our feet, cheering and hollering and chanting Wisdom’s name, even though he wasn't the pitcher.

We all exited the bleachers, my hand wrapped around Tonya's as we walked around the field to where the teams emptied out of the dugout, after shaking hands with the other team, to let in the next teams come in and prepare for their game. The whole family crowded around Wisdom, hugging him and telling him how proud they were of him and what a great game he played. It brought a smile to my face to see how loved this little boy was, how involved his family was in his life. It was amazing to witness.

I learned that it was their tradition to always go out to eat after a ball game, and today's restaurant of choice was apparently Wisdom's favorite place. It was a fast-casual local pizza parlor called Pie Hi. They had pizza, desserts, and arcade games, similar to the type of places I grew up on back home like the Big Banjo. When everyone agreed to head that way, we all dispersed to our respective vehicles and drove into town. Wisdom elected to ride down with Cyrus and Cynthia, so Tonya and I climbed into my Benz and left the same way we came—alone. She gave me directions to the restaurant, and I tried to think of a way to broach the subject that had been going through my mind since the baseball game has begun. Finally, I just spit it out.

“Hey, do you think it's possible that old dude is still in love with you?”

Tonya gave me a crazy look from the passenger seat. “Who, Evan? What? Hell no!”

She sounded sure but I knew the vibe I got from him at the field, so I pressed on. “Not even a little bit?”

“Not even,” she said, now sounding amused. “I told you that he divorced me while I was pregnant, remember? I was big and pregnant with his child, yet he cut me loose. That was more than eleven years ago, so there's no way that he's still in love with me. Not only that, but he has a whole-ass fiancée that he's been living with for years. Since Wisdom was a baby! There's no possible way that he could still be in love with me; that doesn't even make any sense.”

I nodded even though I didn't agree, and didn't say anything else. After a few minutes, her hand slid onto my thigh and she squeezed.

“What made you ask that question?”

“The way dude acted at the park made me think he felt a way about me. That's why I asked.”

She made a short humming sound but that was it. I glanced at her.

“You don't have anything to say?”

“Say about what?”

“I just told you that your ex was acting like he’s still in love with you and you don't have anything to say about that?”

She laughed. Actually opened her mouth wide, tonsils showing, and laughed. “What do you want me to say?”

What did I want her to say? “I don't know. Anything would be better than the nothing that you gave me.”

Reaching across the center console, she squeezed my thigh even as she shrugged. “Nothing is all I got, baby.” I felt a little warmth in my chest from her calling me baby, and I tried not to smile and change the subject. “You have a thought about something, and I can't change the way you think, so there's nothing for me to say.”

That was logical. I guess there really wasn't anything that she could say about it. But, damn, I just wanted a little reassurance, anything. Was this a simple case of feeling territorial or was it jealousy? I didn’t know.

We arrived at the pizza parlor along with everyone else and went inside to find a set of tables had already been set up for us. With Wisdom planted in the middle, we all sat, fanning out alongside him. Tonya sat next to him on his right with me next to her while Evan sat directly across from him with his fiance in front of Tonya. Wisdom’s grandparents were on his left-hand side with his aunts next to me and Alicia respectively.

A teenage server came over to bring us menus and take our orders for drinks before disappearing. Buzzing with energy, Wisdom rattled off his order to Tonya then asked Evan for some money before scrambling out of his seat and heading for the arcade, quickly followed by a couple of other little boys who wore identical uniforms to the one he was wearing. I noticed that other families from Wisdom's team had also chosen Pie Hi as their post-game wind-down spot.

“So, what is it that you do, Jared?”

I looked up from my menu, and my eyes collided with Evans. He was sitting forward in his seat, leaning on the table with his arms folded in front of him. Conversations were going on around us, but nobody but Ava and Tonya seemed to be even paying attention to the two of us.

“The name’s Jereth. With a T-H. And I'm in real estate.”

“Oh,” he nodded slowly. “Yeah, man. I've been seeing a lot of people jump on that real estate bandwagon lately. Those seminars advertised on social media got you too, huh?” He chuckled and I noticed how his fiancée touched his arm and rubbed lightly. Could she also tell that he was bullshitting? Was she attempting to calm him down and shut him the fuck up?

“Nah, I don't know what seminars you're talking about. I was born into real estate; my parents started an agency before I was even born. No bandwagon over here man, sorry to tell you.”

“I feel that; I feel that. Well, let me get your card man. You know, me and Ava have been thinking about buying a house once we get married and you know, maybe you can help us find something and secure a little nice commission for yourself, something like that.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. This guy was really irked by my presence, and not just here in the pizza parlor, but my presence here in Tonya's life. He was exhibiting too much animosity for this to just be about Wisdom. I’d understand some suspicion and even a flatout warning about his son, but posturing was never about the kids. Acting as if he were throwing me a bone with his business had nothing to do with Wisdom. If I'd had any doubt earlier that this dude was still in love with Tonya, this just eliminated it right here.

“I rarely negotiate residential sales, and even then only as a favor to my parents or brother. But since we're basically family, I guess we can talk about it.” Digging my wallet out of my inside shirt pocket, I retrieved a sleek, chrome business card and handed it to him. Ava snatched it out of my hand before Evan could even lift a finger, and it disappeared inside of her purse before he could even open his mouth.

“Thanks, Jereth. We’ll be sure to give you a call when we reach the home-buying stage.”

I nodded, praying that was the end of Evan’s mess. Leaning to my left, I pressed a soft kiss just below Tonya's earlobe, reveling in how she still smelled so good after baking in the sun for three hours.

“You good?” I whispered into her ear so that only she could hear me.

She nodded.

“Good.” I kissed her a second time, not to put on a show but just because I could, because I wanted to, because I couldn't be this close to her and not constantly have some part of my body on hers.

After we gave our orders and menus to the server, I excused myself to go to the restroom. I was washing my hands when Evan walked in with a mug on his face. Chuckling, I shook my head. This dude was really bothered. Even his piss hit the side of the urinal aggressively. Leaning against the counter, I took my time drying my hands on a paper towel, removing each of my rings and drying them individually before replacing them on my fingers.

The urinal flushed and Evan turned toward the sinks, freezing for a second when he noticed that I was still standing there. He was quick to school his features into a blank expression, but I saw the moment that he noticed me and recognized the shock on his face.

“You good, bruh?”

He didn't look up from his hand washing session. “Yeah, man, I'm good. You good?”

“Eh, I would be if I didn't feel like you had a problem with me. So, let's talk about it. What's really good?”

His shoulders stiffened, and he reached for a paper towel, pulling harder than necessary and ripping the thin fabric in half. It was two more tries before he had a viable piece of paper with which to dry his hands.

“Honestly? I don't know where the fuck you came from, and I don't like that shit.”

I nodded, fully expecting something along these lines.

“Why does it matter where I came from? As long as I'm not mistreating your son, what's the point?”

He turned to me and I could see the anger on his pinched face. “It matters because I said it matters. I don't like not knowing what the hell's going on around here. I have to hear out of the blue that Tonya had gotten married, and I hadn't even known she was dating anybody. You don't understand; to know that she’d had a man that I didn't even know around my son for only God knows how long without even telling me… I didn't even move Ava in with me until I had a conversation with Tonya, and she already knew Ava because we all went to school together. It didn’t matter, though, because I gave her that respect. I'm pissed that she didn't give me the same amount of respect that I gave her. That's what beef is about.”

I observed him silently for a moment, took in his heavy breathing and clenched fists. Was this about respect or was it about control?

“So, just to be clear, your beef with me doesn't have anything to do with you still wanting Tonya. Is that right?”

He jerked back, face twisted with mock disgust, but I saw the moment of panic in his eyes. Gotcha, bitch.

“What the—? No. Hell no!”

“No, it doesn't have anything to do with you still wanting her, or no, you don't still want her? I just want to be clear.”

“It doesn't—I don't—” he growled, dragging both his hands down his face before looking me dead on in the face, man-to-man.

“I don't want Tonya. My issue is exactly what I just told you. Nothing more. Nothing less.”

I nodded. He lied to my face just now, but I let it pass because it looked like he was also lying to himself and not just to me. Hell, the way he said that sounded like it was practiced, like maybe this was a conversation he and his fiancée had more than once. And if that was the case, oh well; he brought the shit on himself. As far as what his issue was...

“To set the record straight, I didn't meet Wisdom until Tonya and I were already married.”

His eyes widened in surprise, and I could see the question written all over his face.

“That's the truth. I hadn't met any of her family except for her two sisters before we got married, and that's because we hadn’t known each other for very long.”

“So, you're telling me—damn, Cassie ain’t make that shit up?” It sounded like he was talking to himself, so I waited for his eyes to lift off the floor where they had fallen when I made my confession. “You're telling me that you asked a woman you had never met before to marry you.”

“Actually, I wasn't telling you that, but yeah, that's what happened.”

“How the hell do you ask a stranger to marry you? Nigga, are you crazy?”

I smirked. “Nah, just impulsive.”

Crossing his arms across his chest, he shook his head. “Yeah, but Tonya isn’t. She never makes a move without overthinking it to death.”

He stared at me with furrowed brows, looking for answers to his unspoken questions—answers I didn’t have. I couldn’t tell him what it was about me that made Tonya doing something that was so far out of her character that her entire family was taken aback. I had no idea how she operated before I met her, and honestly, I didn’t care either. It was what she did after I came into her life that was all that mattered, but it was obvious that Evan felt differently.

The door to the restroom creaked open, and Wisdom’s head appeared in the gap.

“Is everything okay? The food came. Mommy sent me to tell you.”

I nodded. Tonya could have just sent me a text about the food. More than likely, she’d noticed Evan follow me into the restroom and wanted to make sure nothing crazy was going down. “Yeah, man. Everything’s good, right?” I eyed Evan who immediately plastered a smile on his face.

“Oh, yeah. We’re just chopping it up.” He walked over to the door, pulling it all the way open and swinging his arm around Wisdom’s neck. “Man-to-man, you know. Just getting some things understood.”

Wisdom’s eyes swung between me and his father, and I shot him a wink in hopes of softening the tiny wrinkle that had appeared in between his brows. The last thing he needed to be worried about was my relationship with his father, but I appreciated that he had even a modicum of concern about the issue. It showed me that he cared enough about me to want Evan and me to get along. That was enough for me to maintain a cool head, but it helped that Evan obviously wanted to maintain a positive image for his son’s sake. It didn’t benefit me to begrudge him that, so I followed the two of them back to the dining area and slid into my seat next to Tonya with a smile on my face.