Page 38 of Old-Fashioned
“That’s not a play on words, Abel Black.”
He winked at me as I handed him his mug, then he took a sip, and locked his eyes with mine, “Okay, where would you like this talk and the start of me groveling to take place?”
I headed into the living room, Ryker on my heels, and then looked at my couch, and looked over my shoulder at Abel, and asked, “Is this okay?”
At his nod, he followed me, sat down on the couch, sat the pink box onto the coffee table, lifted the lid, and gestured, “Ladies choice.”
I smiled at him and immediately reached for the blueberry Danish that was sprinkled with icing.
Abel, chuckled, “Yeah, Priscilla told me that one was your favorite.” And with that, he grabbed a glazed doughnut.
It was a few minutes as we both ate in silence and drank our coffees.
And then… that was when Abel stared at the black TV screen as Ryker curled up on his bed, and started talking, “I was adopted when I was nine years old. My birth parents wanted to go out of town for some cruise and didn’t want to pay anyone to watch me. And… well… they didn’t want me to get in any trouble.”
He said as he took a sip of his coffee.
“I was found behind a closet door that was padlocked. I’d tried to bust it in, but I was too weak at that point. I went without food, water, and a bathroom, for four days. An elderly neighbor called in for a Wellness Check when he hadn’t seen me.”
“I was rushed to the emergency room, and a nurse on the floor took a special liking to me, it took them a week, but my parents were indicted with all kinds of charges. They both got out of prison eight years ago. Anyway, I got lucky, I wasn’t placed in the system. It took two weeks after I had gotten out of the hospital and found myself taken in by that nurse and her husband. A month after that, they adopted me.”
When he didn’t speak for long moments, the only thing I could think about was simple, and I wanted an answer, which was why I said, “I’m so sorry you had to endure that. But… Abel that’s not enough for you to get hot one minute and cold the very next. Make it make sense to me. Please.”
Abel shook his head, “It’s not that. Not really. There’s another addition to what I’m about to tell you but I need to get this out first. When I was twenty-two, I was going to get married. She told me she was pregnant. I wanted to do the right thing as my father had raised me to do. Just so happened that she wasn’t pregnant at all, she only wanted to marry me, so when she divorced me, she could be entitled to royalties from my boxing.”
I gasped, “What a cunt.”
Abel nodded, “Yeah, well, found all that out when she showed up at the bail hearing that was denied because of my skills.”
I shook my head, “Wait? Bail hearing?”
He took in a breath, looked down at his scarred-up hands and said so quietly, had I not been invested and listening to his story, I would have missed it, “I did seven years in the penitentiary for involuntary manslaughter. Could have been shorter, but the District Attorney used my career against me.”
He did time. What for?
There was something. Something pulling me to him, and I didn’t even think about what I did next.
I leaned closer to him, carefully pried his hand from where it was clenching his thigh and wrapped it in my hands, then I squeezed, gently, and whispered, “What happened?”
He looked down at where I held his hand between mine, then looked at me, his eyes searching, and then he said, “Let me get this all out, okay?”
He didn’t speak until I nodded.
“I was adopted when I was nine years old. When I was ten, Baker was brought into the hospital, the reason behind it is his story to tell. And six months later, Caelan was brought in, and it’s also his story to tell. The moment the three of us met, a bond was formed. A pact of sorts. And we stayed tight. In our family, blood didn’t make you related.”
I nodded, because of Miss Maggie, I also shared the same thoughts.
Caelan had called me early in the week, he needed some help with an assignment, and since I had taken online courses while I boxed, and took the same course, I offered to help him.”
I nodded, showing him, I was following, because not once did his eyes leave mine.
“So, I get to his house, he stayed with four other guys while he too worked on his degree while he trained, he too wanted a fallback plan if his career didn’t take off.”
“Anyway, I walked up the stairs to his room, and something in my gut, something told me that there was something going on, it was wrong. And since I always listened to my gut, I hurried up the stairs. When I reached his room, I can’t tell you why I did what I did next, just a feeling, you know?”
At my nod, he said, “I didn’t even knock, I didn’t even try the door handle, I used my shoulder and busted in his door. And what I saw…”
His whole body shuddered then.