"Wolfe?"
"We text from time to time," he said, as if it were nothing.
"Since when?"
I popped my head into a few of the rooms as we walked the halls, making sure no one was up to anything they shouldn't have been.
"The day he dropped me off here, like a year or so ago," Mekhi replied.
As we entered my office, I tried to place the moment he was talking about. Wolfe didn't come around often, so for him to take a liking to one of the kids was a big deal.
"Oh, you mean the day he caught y'all by the supermarket." I laughed. That was the first time Wolfe had come back here since he moved out.
"Yeah. Before he left, he told me to stop scamming and promised to come back with something for me. I left it alone. When he came back, he asked if I was still on it, and when I said no, he gave me a phone with his number saved in it."
"Did you tell him you already have a phone?"
Every kid eleven and older received a phone monitored by staff. Younger kids got iPads during scheduled downtime.
"I did, but he said I needed something you wouldn't search."
"Oh, really." I chuckled. "Let me text him."
Me
I find it funny how you gave Mekhi a phone and told him to hide it from me.
"Ms. Navy, be easy." Mekhi laughed. "He said it was important for a young man to have privacy. I don't know why he said it when he checks the phone regularly."
Me
Never mind. It's nice to know you're checking Mekhi's phone. Thank you for being a positive influence for him.
Wolfe
It's nothing. Tell my lil' nigga it's up when I see him for ratting on me.
I laughed and set my phone on my desk. Wolfe and Mekhi forming a bond was cute. A part of me was happy he was getting close to Wolfe and not Honor. In my head, I believed Mekhi being close with Honor meant he'd end up just like him. Wolfe and Crown were proof of Honor's strong influence. They were who they are, but also who Honor shaped them to be. Both carried pieces of the man I loved, whether they knew it or not.
Shame burned in my chest for thinking that way because loving Honor meant embracing his influence and not fearing it. Still, it was hard because Honor hated my father but was like him in certain ways.
Crown was too old for me to love on him in a way that protected his innocence. Wolfe… I poured everything into him, hoping he'd stay the sweet boy I met, and for the most part, he did. However, like Honor and Crown, something dark lingered inside of Wolfe. I didn't want that for Mekhi.
"You good, Ms. Navy?"
I blinked, realizing I'd been lost in thought, and gave Mekhi a small, embarrassed smile. "I'm fine. What was thatI'ma gentleman for those who deserve itcomment about?"
Mekhi was at the age where girls became a thing, and his awkward phase was ending. His voice dropped, the acne cleared, patches of facial hair grew in, and he shot up in height. At only fourteen, he was already my height, five-foot-eight. Mekhi was coming into his own, and I wanted to make sure he stayed away from fast-ass girls who meant him no good.
"Some girl at school." He shrugged.
"Now you know you have to give me more than that."
"Ight. There's this girl, Mercedes in one of my classes. She's a year older than I am since I skipped a grade. I didn't know how to approach her, so I hit Wolfe for advice."
"Oh, lord." I sighed.
The Gravehart men were romantics in their own way, but obsessive at the same time. I wanted Mekhi to be the kind of man who loved deeply, but wisely, and not just be consumed by desire.
