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“Thank you for today,” she said with a gentle smile.
She reached for my hand and pressed her sweet lips to my fingers.
And that was the moment I knew I was in trouble.
TAYLOR
Bull drove us back to the clubhouse. The drugs had worn off, but I was still feeling foggy in the head, and when I walked into the clubhouse and saw Noah sitting in a booth with Maverick, signing, I thought I was still high.
I turned to Bull. “Maverick knows how to sign?”
He nodded. “His youngest sister was born deaf.”
I watched from the doorway, my heart hitching in my throat as I watched my brother laughing and signing with Maverick.
Quietly bonding over their shared knowledge of a silent language.
He looks so happy.
From what I could see, they were telling each other jokes, and then laughing so hard their palms were pressed flat to their chests and their eyes were squeezed shut. Warmth poured through me. I hadn’t seen Noah laugh that much in years.
And you tried keeping him away from this, a little voice in my head reminded me.
Bull and I walked over to them, and as soon as Noah saw us, his face lit up and he ran over to me, throwing his arms around my waist. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. You look like you’re having fun.”
“Mav picked me up from school and we came back here. Red made me some chili and Randy gave me a Coke. This place is cool. Wait till the other kids at school hear about it.”
I hadn’t seen this much excitement from him since…well, ever.
“Vader said his kids are coming here after school tomorrow. Can I come and hang out, too?” he asked, almost pleading.
I glanced around me, swallowing uncomfortably. I was fighting a losing battle.
It was days like today that made it easy to forget why I was here.
But it was moments like these that weakened my resolve and made me give in.
Perhaps having Noah at the clubhouse would be a good thing for him after all.
“Sure,” I said, lighting fire to my resolve and burning it all down. “Why not.”
And that was how my professional life became complicatedly entwined with my private life.
Soon after my shoulder dislocation, Noah visiting the clubhouse became a regular thing. Some days he’d sit at one of the booths and do his homework by himself while he waited for me to finish my shift.
Other days, Vader’s ex-wife, Roberta, would drop Luke and Shelby off, and they would sit in the booth and talk and play. Luke was the same age as Noah, while Shelby was two years younger, and it wasn’t long before the three of them were as thick as thieves.
Roberta was cool. I met her the first day she dropped her kids off. Some nights she worked the late shift at the hospital and had to leave them there until Vader was ready to take them home.
“I think my ex-husband has a crush on you,” she said with kind, twinkling eyes.
“He has a crush on what I know about Star Wars.”
She smiled warmly. “That’ll do it.”
We looked over at Noah teaching Luke and Shelby how to sign.
“Looks like they’re going to be good friends,” I said, feeling relieved. Noah needed more friends. And this was a very good start.
Roberta put a gentle hand on my shoulder as she was leaving. “Anytime you need me to watch him, you just give me a call, okay?”
An uncharacteristic surge of emotion moved through me and I wanted to hug her. Instead, we shared a smile as I thanked her.
While hanging out at the clubhouse after school, Noah also struck up an unusual friendship with Maverick, and they would often have lengthy conversations that involved a lot of laughter and the occasional signing.
“I hope Maverick isn’t teaching him swear words,” I said to Bull one afternoon as we stood in the bar watching them.
“I hate to break it to you, darlin’, but I think he already knows them,” he replied with a wink.
But as much as he loved Maverick, it was Bull who Noah took to the most. I could see it in the way he looked at him. The way his face lit up whenever Bull walked into the room. How his eyes shone with admiration. Bull was someone he could look up to. A positive male influence. Noah talked to him about motorcycles and cars, and, I suspect, girls. Once a week Bull took him through self-defense training, and sometimes Maverick and Caleb would join in. And when Noah put Tommy Albright on his ass for picking on a fourth grader, despite my reprimands, I’m pretty sure Bull and Noah shared a secretive high five.
They got close. And it was as terrifying as it was heart-warming.
One day I was stopped in my tracks when I walked in and found them sitting in the booth together, both concentrating as Noah taught him how to sign. I was struck by what a contradiction Bull was. There was a dangerousness to him. A darkness. Yet, I couldn’t shake the feeling that he wasn’t the big, growly alpha dog everyone made him out to be.
