Chapter 19
He looked up from his phone, “sorry. I’m being a bad host. Trying to settle a few things before the weekend so I’m not working the entire time you’re with me.”
“You work on the weekends?”
“I’m a busy man,” he quipped his eyes back on his device. “Money doesn’t make itself.”
She wrinkled her nose at the comment and turned her attention back to her fingers. “Is your girlfriend going to be there too?”
“I told you. I ended things with her.”
“Right,” she swallowed the discomfort she was feeling and stared at her knuckles. “What about your mom?”
“She’s picking Precious up from school and will be at my house when we get there. You’ll meet her right away.” He shot her a grin, “don’t worry. She knows Mindy made her out to be a terrifying dragon lady.
She’ll be on her best behavior.”
“Very funny,” she ignored his low laugh. “Tell me again how you all got your names? Prince, Royal, Jubilee
and now Precious?”
“Mom had it in her head if she gave us names which in her mind commanded respect, then we would grow to be people who command respect. My grandfather’s name was Roy. She expanded on it. She kept the theme with Prince and then Jubi, well, mom said her feelings of jubilation at having a daughter took over and she gave her a fitting name. I can’t comment on Precious’ name because Mindy named her. I know my brother told me more than once it wasn’t the name, they agreed on, but it was what Mindy insisted on.”
“What was it he wanted to name her?”
He shrugged, “I really don’t remember now. It was five years ago when he presented the child to the family.”
“Did they really let everyone believe she was pregnant?”
“Yes.”
“How does this work then?” she half-turned to look at him. “If you’re successful this weekend in convincing me I need to do this for her, how do I get introduced to her family?”
He gave a nod and then leaned to her brother, “there is a discussion we will need to have but for now, we’ll table the conversation. Let’s not get ahead. You could decide by breakfast tomorrow you hate my guts and want to go home.”
“True, it’s more probable than not,” she nodded and when his mouth dropped open, she shrugged. “You’ve
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Chapter 19
done nothing but bully and harass me for weeks. Of course, its possible I hate you. You’re dredging up my most painful memories and shoving them in my face like it’s supposed to be cathartic. Not everyone needs their past to be reconciled. Some of us like our past buried.”
“Try not to mention the burial of your past around my mom considering it’s her son. She just lost him and his wife four months ago.” His jaw tightened at her comment.
She bristled at the comment, “it wasn’t what I meant, and you know it. Your brother and his wife erased me from their memories, and I had to bury that shit down deep. I wasn’t talking about my past, as in, your brother, being buried.” She exhaled furiously, “I’m already regretting this. We,” she waved between them, “are very different people, Royal.”
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“Yes, we are. I don’t run from my responsibilities.”
She turned fully now, her teeth clenched, “I didn’t run from my responsibilities. I helped a couple who had infertility issues have their miracle child. Their child. Not my responsibility. Also, I didn’t run from it. They removed themselves from my life without a backwards glance.”
“Yet, when given the option to be part of her life, you’re balking. She needs you and you don’t want to step up.”
“You know,” she held a trembling finger up, “you’re an asshole.”
He blinked at her language and his mouth opened and closed several times as she pointed at him.
“If I had gotten pregnant at twenty, and like many women of the age, had decided I could not raise a child on a waitress’ salary, and had given my child up for adoption, none of this would be happening. None of it. Even if it had been an open adoption. At no point would the family of an adopted child go hunting down the bio mom to force her to be responsible for the child now.”
“But you didn’t give her up. They took her, stole her. My brother loved you. You had his child.”
“I barely knew him a month before they mixed his sperm and my egg in a dish. A month. I had my eggs harvested, he wanked off in a cup and that was it. It wasn’t like we fell into bed and made love. It was clinical and in a hospital room. Your sister-in-law is the one who held my hand through both procedures. If he had love for me, it was long after conception. What he suggests he felt has nothing to do with me.”
“Still, he wanted you to be part of her life. You wanted her to be part of your life. You get a do over here.”
“I wanted to be part of her life like an auntie or a family friend not a mom. This is a lot to ask of me.” She sighed as she shook her head. “You live in an entirely different state.”
“It’s easier for you to come to us instead of us coming to you. My family lives in New York metro area and taking Precious from the world she knows, pre-school, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins when she recently lost her parents is not anything I’m considering right now. I will not move her from the only support system she has ever known. We stay in New York.”
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“I-”
“Is it the money?” he asked suddenly. “You were quick to point out I’d need to cover your shifts. Do you want money to do this?”
“No.” she blinked incredulously at him. “I mean, yes, I want my shifts covered because I count on my salary to pay my wages and I need the hours since we’ll have two days next week where the shops will be closed, and I don’t get paid.”
“What will it take for you to agree and stop being so bitchy about it all? I’ll e-transfer you the cash right here, right now.”
“Get over yourself,” she shook her head at his cocky expression. “Though, I will say, despite how much you look like Prince, I never saw the rest of the family resemblance until right now. He was kind and compassionate and funny unlike you. You force your way through like a brute. However, like you, he had a habit of throwing money at a problem thinking cash solves everything. It doesn’t. You both think if you wave your wallets around people would fall to their knees in gratitude. I don’t work this way, Mr. Robinson. Keep your money.” She tossed her blonde hair over her shoulder and turned her back completely to him, staring over her brother’s shoulder out the window. This was going to be a weekend from hell.
