He laughed.
“Who? You?” he asked. “That sounds so unfamiliar when discussing you. Are you sure?” he asked, joking.
Oh, Ethan wished.
Ethan moved closer, and sat beside the older man. Ironically, they were about the same age now in the smoke walk. Ethan had gotten older, and Timothy had grown younger after his death.
“This is the age I liked the most,” he admitted. “My boys were my boys, and I felt well—most of the time,” he added, as if reading his mind.
Ethan wished he felt‘well’. After what just went down, he felt nauseous about it.
“Coming back here wasn’t easy,” Ethan admitted.
Timothy put his arm around him.
“I know.”
Blackhawk purged his feelings to the man who had been his grandfather at one point. Now, everything felt foreign to him, and he didn’t understand it.
Timothy felt gone for so long.
“I want to not hate him, but this was the straw that broke the camel’s back, Granddad. When he asked the attorney to tell me he wanted me to raise his son…”
Oh, he got it.
“You see that as a burden?” Timothy asked, trying to help his grandson the best he could.
Ethan shook his head.
“Absolutely not. I love TJ. Hell! I love all of the kids. I’d have more if people didn’t try to commit us. Kids are so pure and full of love. I feel accepted and like I matter when it comes to them.”
Timothy listened.
He didn’t want to upset the man, so he never came back to talk to him. This was his only way of talking, and Timothy enjoyed it.
Death wasn’t all fun and games.
He spent most of his time watching over the other raven to make sure her path was still intact.
That was a full-time job.
“It just pissed me off when I was called by the attorney and told that I’d be picking up a kid. It was cold, and it reminded me of the cruelty that Wyler could hand out.”
Timothy handed Ethan the pipe that magically appeared. He took a hit from it, and then passed it back. The whole time, the smoke moved around them.
“And if he’d come to you and asked personally?”
Ethan opened his mouth.
Only, his grandfather shut that down.
“Don’t lie.”
Well, shit.
The old man was policing his thoughts on the other side. That was not exactly playing fair, now was it?
Ethan went there.
