Chapter 1
Hudson Mayers
It had been over twenty years since I’d stepped foot in this town. Twenty-two years since my mother snatched me from everything I thought I knew, in search of somethingthat fulfilled her. After we left Millers Pointe, we ended up in Kentucky, then Maine, after that Chicago, and then finally, Vegas. We settled there long enough for her to remarry some dying old nigga with enough money to keep her put until it ran dry. The funny thing was, no matter how down on our luck we became, she refused to let me come back here. Back then I didn’t understand why she wouldn’t just let me come back here to my father while she traveled the globe looking for where she belonged. As an adult I now understood it as clear as day. My mother had been selfish and was still just as selfish ’til this day. As soon as I was able to make my own decisions, I left and didn’t look back. I excelled in sports, every one of them, until it came time to choose which one I’d focus on. That was easy though, because football had always been my first love, even when I was just a kid playing here with my father and cousins. Those were times when life was much simpler, lacking all things that made it too much.
I stood outside of Guuds Ranch for a minute, just taking in how much it had changed. My cousin sent me pictures here and there when we talked, but pictures didn’t do the real thing justice. The ranch had grown a lot since I was a kid. What used to be one house and a barn was now a fortress of land, with the main house and a few upgrades. Then off to the side sat two more massive homes. The homes weren’t too close, but they were close enough to give space for the animals on the side of each with a barn close to one.
I didn’t know which door to knock on until I heard humming and footsteps. My eyes landed on a brown skinned woman carrying a metal pail with headphones in her ears. I took her in, immediately noticing she was very far along pregnant, before she realized me standing there. Instead of carrying that damn pail, she looked like she should have been in the house resting.
“Good evening. I’m looking for Jonas or Duhan—" I started, but a familiar voice gripped my attention before I could finish my statement.
“Versai. Drop the damn bucket with your stubborn ass. I told you that shit was too heavy for you and my son. And you wonder why Dai is so stubborn, she gets that shit from her mother.” I looked in the direction she had just come from. Of course it was my cousin, looking like shorty had pissed him all the way off.
I couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped my lips.
“I was trying to help you out. And it wasn’t too heavy.” She dropped the pail at her feet and mugged him before looking back at me.
“Well to me it was. Now c’mon, get in the house since you insist on walking out here half-dressed.”
She sucked her teeth and rolled her eyes, which my cousin laughed off before looking directly at me.
“I know that ain’t my blood standing there looking lost,” Duhani greeted. He dropped the bucket and moved toward me. After a brotherly embrace he stepped back and took me in before introducing me to his girl. “My bad, cuz, this is my fiancé, Versai. Sai, this is my cousin, Hudson. He’s Jonas’s son and gonna be staying over at the house.”
She nodded politely, attitude totally different from what she had just given him moments prior. “Great to meet you. I made sure the house was fully stocked and everything was up to par for your stay.”
“Thank you, family,” I said before looking at my cousin.
“C’mon, I’ll walk you over there and give you a tour.” He leaned down to pick up the bucket she dropped and his.
“Well, I’m gonna call Jonas back since you won’t let me help you here. Maybe I can help him down at the lounge,” she tossed over her shoulder, moving toward the front door of the darker colored home.
“And get your ass cursed out in the process. Go rest please, before we be beefing ’cause you wanna be a busy body. I’ll be in there in a few.”
She didn’t say anything else and Duhani didn’t expect her to because he was leading the way to the home I would be occupying during my stay. When we reached the porch, he dropped the pails before stepping up to the door. He then keyed in a code, stepped back, and let me walk in first.
“The code is your birthday. Month and day.”
When I entered, I was completely taken aback. This motherfucker was decked out. From the outside I was expecting this to be a nice spot, but not this nice. It was a modern type of spot, spacious with dark tones on an open floor plan. Despite the coolness, it still gave a homey feel.
“When you told me you wanted to lay low for a while, I figured this would be you. Sai set everything up for you, since I don’t know nothing about anything going on in here.”
“Yeen have to do this, cousin. You know I would’ve been good with a couch or a cot.”
He laughed. “That’s nonsense, bro. This right here is you for as long as you want it. I know how it feels to need time away from the city. That shit drains you. When I showed up here, I didn’t have much of shit left in me, but something about this ranch and this space fed me more than any meal could.”
I nodded. Duhani had always been like a big brother to me, from calling and making sure I was good to stopping through Baltimore to make games and have a few dinners.
“Give yourself time. I don’t know what you got going through that head of yours, but whatever it is, you’ll come out on top. I’m glad to have you around for the holidays and I ain’t told your old man you here either. He’s gonna be both pissed and excited that we didn’t say anything. You talked to him?”
I nodded. “Yeah, this morning. He was going on and on about needing a new bartender and you being stingy with who I’m guessing is Versai. I’ll probably creep up on him.”
Duhani laughed. “Nah, he isn’t letting that shit go. She used to work in a bar years ago. Now every time she walks in Guuds, he thinks she’s gonna tend to the bar. She doesn’t have a problem with it, but shit, I do. Look how pregnant she is.”
I chuckled, because that sounded like my father. “So, you and Versai? How’d y’all meet? She’s from around here?”
My cousin laughed. “Yes and no. She left when she was younger but came back two years ago a few weeks before Christmas and we’ve been together ever since. ’Bout four months in she found out she was carrying Dai and I asked her to marry me. Now it’s me, her, Dai, and my son who looks like he’s on some petty shit and gonna come on Christmas. We’re almost a week overdue.”
“Petty. Stubborn. To be honest, that’s giving me more of a you typa thang, cousin.”
