About five years after Angelle and Boon…
Chapter 1
Maverik sat at his breakfast table, his eyes narrowed and focused on his youngest son as he fought the urge to back him into a corner. “Say again,” Maverik said, his tone belying the sense of disbelief that was quickly engulfing him.
“I said, I’m not going back to school. I’m going to move home.”
Maverik closed his eyes as he digested Ronan’s words. Pressing his lips into a flat line more representative of the irritation he felt than his previously calm tone, he gritted his teeth as he rose to his feet and shook his head slowly. He opened his eyes and glared at his son. “What the hell are you talking about?!” he bellowed. “Do you have any idea what you’d be giving up? You worked your ass off, all your life, to get to where you are, and less than two years before graduation, you want to just walk away? The fuck is wrong with you?!” Maverik demanded.
“I didn’t say I was quitting school! I said I’m moving back home,” Ronan said defensively.
“Isn’t it the same fucking thing?” Maverik asked, his voice still loud and angry.
“No! I can transfer all my credits to Tulane. Tulane has an outstanding Biomedical Engineering program that I can apply to to finish my degree. I’ve got a little time before I have to be back in school and I’m going to see what it would take to getregistered at Tulane. Hopefully I can do it quickly. If not, I’ll ride out the next semester, then come back.”
“What degree is it exactly that you’re talking about? Because the way I see it, you haven’t fucking finished the first one you said had to be from M.I.T.!”
“I finished the first one! I have the bachelor’s degree! Or did you forget the graduation you attended?” Ronan snapped.
Maverik’s head jerked back a little, exaggerating his reaction to his son’s words. Then he stepped forward in slow measured steps while wearing a deceiving smile. He stopped walking when his chest was actually pressed against Ronan’s. “Never thought it would be your ass I’d have to kick to make you remember your place. The rest of them? Yeah, could see it coming. You? Naw, not in a million years. But that’s alright,” Maverik said, cracking his knuckles. “Let’s do this.”
Ronan immediately took a step back. “I don’t want to fight you. I’m standing here trying to discuss my future with you. If I didn’t care about your opinion, I wouldn’t have taken the time to discuss it with you. I’d have just done it.”
“The future you’re about to piss away, you mean?” Maverik asked, his voice still eerily calm.
“I’m not pissing away anything. I’m working on my master’s. I’ve got only about a year and a half left of that — even if I transfer to Tulane. Then I’ll go straight into a doctorate program, and get that degree, too. I’m not walking away from anything. I’m just changing locations.”
“You always, your entire life, wanted to go to M.I.T.. Why are you walking away?”
“I’m not walking away. I’m still working for the same things I was working on. I’m just going to be working from a different location. Same outcome, different zip code. That’s all.”
Maverik eyed him suspiciously, his arms now crossed over his chest.
“It’s just like Christian did. He finished his medical degree in New Orleans. He was still able to do what he needed to do and still be here from time to time, especially on the weekends — before his residency started, anyway.”
Maverik’s head canted to the right just a bit, as he eyed his son and tried to figure out what exactly it was that he wasn’t telling him. Then suddenly his head straightened and his expression morphed into an ‘I-should-have-known’ kind of look. “Who is she?”
“Who is who?”
“Whoever the girl is that’s rearranging your head.”
“There’s nobody rearranging anything.”
“You are!”
“Fine, I am. But nobody else.”
“Ronan, son, I’m old. I’m tired. I don’t even get irritated about half the shit I used to — it takes too much energy. But one thing I do know, is when somebody’s lying to me. And you’re lying. Who is she?”
Ronan shoved his hands in his pockets, let his eyes drop away from his father’s gaze and focused on the floor for a few seconds before he looked up and into his father’s eyes again. “She doesn’t even know. Nobody does. And I will not give up my plans, not for anybody, not even her. But I can’t give her up either.”
“Who is she?” Maverik asked, his entire demeanor shifting into a supportive one, instead of a conflicting one.
“You can’t tell her. You can’t tell anybody. Not until I approach her,” Ronan said. “Nothing needs fixing, Dad!”
“I’m an asshole, but I’m not that much of an asshole. I’m not going to meddle in your business with your woman. If she is in fact, your woman. Is she?”
“She is. And you know you try to fix everything.”
