“Ah. I take it you don’t look like your mama?”
“Not at all. She’s not as tall as I am. She’s very petite. Slender because she grew up hanging around models. She couldn’t grow, but she could be fit. My body type is curvy. No amount of dieting was going to change that.”
“And you shouldn’t want it to. You’re doing the right thing by loving your body not just in the easy times but even when you’vebeen stressed out. I know I’m not the easiest man to live with and before my people got here I’m sure I was even worse. I’m sorry if my behavior caused your issues to flare up.”
Having someone to apologize for what they might’ve done to cause harm to me was a first. People rarely acknowledged hurt in our family and even if they knew they’d done something painful they either meant to or said it would build character so we should be thankful for the experience. Aldrich’s face was filled with compassion. To the point that I was almost uncomfortable.
“You’re good, Aldrich, but I appreciate that you care enough to apologize.”
He smiled a smile that seemed to ratchet up the temperature in the room. “Always. Can’t mistreat you when my baby girl is watching. Besides, it ain’t in me to mistreat someone who’s been nothing but good to me and mine.”
We were silent again, just looking at one another. The tension was there but it was more of a sweet aching than a desire for me to turn around and run away. Aldrich seemed content to just watch me, study me to drink me in and I wasn’t sure if he was ever going to have his fill. Instead of standing there and allowing it to continue I gave him a quick smile and shifted so I was standing at my full height.
“I’m going to make arrangements to get it here. I’ll keep it in my room—”
“If it gets too cluttered you can always put it in the den. That way you can use it while you’re in there with Ami. It wouldn’t hurt for her to watch you performing a life skill as she grows up so that it’s completely normal for her to see.”
I nodded because I agreed with what he said, but again he was putting me in a place of prominence in his future subconsciously. The certainty of my being there was throwing me off but I promised myself I’d listen to what Aphrodite said and just go with the flow.
“And to think you were walking around here thinking that you weren’t going to rock this fatherhood shit.”
His eyes lowered and he looked almost sheepish like he was going to refute my praise but then thought better of it. “I had the best teacher.”
It was my turn to feel uncomfortable with the praise but like him I sucked it up and accepted. “I’ll go start planning. Thank you…for everything.”
He winked at me like he knew the effect he had on me and I wasn’t going to tempt fate any longer.
“I’ll leave you to what you were doing. I have a few calls to make before I clock in for Ami.”
“Do what you need to, I got the first shift tonight.”
I hesitated because I wanted to spend time with her but I knew he was trying to soak in as much as he could before he had to go to camp.
“Okay. Let me know when you’re going to sleep so I can listen out for her.” He nodded his agreement and I did the same before backing out of his room.
As soon as I was in my room I got my personal phone from the bedside table. I kept it powered on but had given Dalton the number to the phone that Aldrich provided for me. He’d had questions but he said it didn’t interfere with my job to accept the phone since it was for work.
I punched in the code and scrolled until I found the number I needed and waited for the line to connect.
“Ms. Sterling?”
The surprise was exactly what I’d expected so I wasn’t disturbed by it. “I need to cash in my suite weekend for the first game of the year.”
There were no preambles and no reason for small talk. I wanted to get this out of the way because I knew a flood ofquestions was going to happen and I wasn’t in the mood to hear them or answer them.
“Ms. Sterling, no one has heard from you and they are curious where you are. Your mother has been reaching out non-stop without a word from you. Are you well?”
“I’m perfectly fine and I understand that you are trying to look out for me, but I’m fine. The only thing I need is to exercise my right to the suite. No one is going to get any additional information from me than that. My mother can be angry that I’m not going to conform and come back to the compound this summer. I’ve already made other plans. And since I’ve never used my suite time it would violate the rules the family set up all those years ago.”
I’d never used any of the privileges that were aired between our family. Not the plane rental, tickets or vacation homes. Everything was done on a points system and I had years of points banked from never participating in their shit. But it was going to come in handy now since the first game was in New York. Whoever thought they’d use the family suite would have to pay for me to have comparable accommodations and since my mother’s generation didn’t care about football and none of my cousins wanted it badly enough, I was sure I would be able to reserve it. Normally it stayed empty unless the family rented it out for profit to a player.
I could hear Victor, the family’s activities manager, sigh because he was going to have to answer to my mother and I knew he wouldn’t want to deal with her attitude. But he didn’t know anything and I wasn’t going to give him any information just to prevent him from trying to lie to her. She’d attempt to be a bully but I knew she couldn’t fire him without my grandmother and great-aunt’s okay. She could make his life miserable, though.
“You know you’re going to have to face the issue sometime.”
His voice was gentle and he was just trying to have me be pragmatic but I didn’t truly care about reality. The NFL season was still several months away and if my mother successfully figured out where I was, there wasn’t much she could do. I was too grown to be considered a runaway, and Dalton could attest that I was on a work assignment.
“I might, but it won’t change what I need. If it makes you feel better you can block off the dates and you can keep the paperwork for me at the stadium. All I need are the instructions and the confirmation to my email that the suite is mine. That way you don’t know anything and she can’t stress you out over what’s already done.”
