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“Yes, and speaking of, I hope you have money for a taxi. It’s a long walk home.”
She screamed loud enough to get the attention of the people milling around after the game. I shut her up with a kiss, her mouth yielding to mine after only a moment.
I’d kind of fallen into a job, hacking for the government by way of Daniel’s friend, Donato. He was impressed with my skills, so much so that I did work for him on the side. I did everything remotely, still volunteering at Paths of Purpose every day. Even when my “sentence” was up, that wouldn’t stop. I’d still go each week. Sonya and I both got a lot out of our time there. She’d paid Mrs. Quinn for lying but had never stopped hanging around, despite running her own business.
With some of the money she’d made off the coin, she’d opened her own sporting goods store. I worked there when I wasn’t at Paths, and she still helped Trish with the food truck when she was needed. We were doing pretty well, better than I’d anticipated, to be perfectly honest. I didn’t care if it lost money. That store was Sonya’s dream. It made her happy, and she was damn good at it. If she was happy, I was happy.
“Youcan walk home.” She ripped her mouth off mine, glaring at me. “You need the exercise.”
“Sugar, you are my workout regimen.”
“Do you ever shut up?” Her eyes lit as she looked past me. “Oh, thank God, you’ve come to rescue me,” she said as Dad approached.
“No, honey. You’re stuck with him.” He pointed at me.
“Why didn’t someone talk me out of marrying him? I didn’t realize this was permanent.”
I held up my palm to show her the scar of our truth pact. “Don’t lie.”
She scowled and grumbled something unintelligible.
I slung an arm around Dad. “Ready to go over the fine details of the new program at Renegade Oil?”
About a week after I’d presented the paperwork to my family, giving them SPE, they’d come back to me with a surprise of their own. Easton and Mulaney had already started another small company they called Renegade. They were going back to the basics, didn’t want the monster of a company we’d run for so many years. We sold SPE. Dad retained all the mineral rights Carter Energy had owned, and we all ran Renegade together.
They’d dealt me in. I hadn’t said no, because I didn’t want to be left out. Things were different this go-round. I had developed a new software program that was making it easier for us to keep track of our holdings. It was simple enough that even my father could use it. I was proud of him for trying, and though we were already close, it had brought us together even more. We’d argued over it and a multitude of other things, but at the end of the day, we set it aside. The two of us had made a commitment to one another to communicate, and so far, we’d stuck to it.
“Mr. Drew, Miss Sonya, Grandpa.” Gabriel ran over, his white uniform filthy from the dirt.
“Hey, slugger. Where are you headed in such a hurry?” I asked when he stopped in front of us.
“We’re having pizza up at Miss Vivian’s house instead of ours,” he informed us. It was Saturday night. Holly and Gabriel always had pizza on Saturday evenings, and now we were all a part of it. “Miss Muriella said to tell you she made one just for you. Can you eat a whole pizza, Miss Sonya?”
“There’s three of us.” She patted her belly, and Gabriel joined in. He loved talking to the twins. It was as if he knew they were his siblings, though we’d all agreed it was best to keep that between us for now. “I can eat a whole pizza.”
“I bet you could eat one too,” I said, turning his dusty ball cap backward on his head. “Where’d that dirt on your face come from?”
“From when I slid home,” he said, like I should remember.
“Oh yeah. You did, didn’t you?”
Gabriel nodded, and my father put an arm around him. “I miss Grandma.”
“She’s here, watching, even if you don’t feel her,” Dad said hoarsely. He’d taken Mama’s death better than I’d expected, though there were days when he asked us to leave him be.
We’d buried Mama under her favorite tree on Grandma Carter’s farm. It was peaceful there. Sonya and I had visited a few times. That helped some, but it didn’t get any easier. I’d found my mother again only to lose her.
“I feel her all the time,” Gabriel said solemnly, putting a hand over his heart.
Sonya sniffled, her emotions all over the place with the pregnancy. “You are going to be such a great big brother.”
He beamed. Muriella and Stone had just had a little girl. I suspected there were more children on the way from everyone else too. We’d told Gabriel all of them would be his brothers and sisters, but the way he was around Sonya was different than he’d been around Muriella. He loved them both equally, but he was extra protective of the twins even though they weren’t born. And I knew exactly where that came from because Easton had been the same with me. Fiercely loyal and protective. It had helped me understand why and how he’d been able to forgive me, even when I hadn’t believed it was possible. Seemed like Gabriel had more than just me in him. Thank God.
“I’m going to teach them to play baseball and soccer. When I learn football and basketball, I’ll show them that too.”
“When are you going to have time to run the oil business?” Dad asked, tugging on the brim of his cap. Gabriel had taken to it—not like Mulaney, but I think he just liked spending time with my dad. With Holly and Carlos’s approval, Easton had included Gabriel in Renegade Oil. He didn’t know it yet, but one day, he might get to put what my father was teaching him to use. If not, he’d have something our family had provided for him. I got it now, why my father had worked so hard. We headed toward the edge of the park, where a fleet of Escalades was waiting to take us home.
“Guess you won’t have to pay for that taxi after all, sugar,” I said, pressing my lips to the top of her head.
She held up my wallet and smirked, the thief. “I wouldn’t have anyway.”
