If Only For One Night by Victoria Christopher Murray

Author:Victoria Christopher Murray [Victoria Christopher Murray, ReShonda Tate Billingsley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Brown Girls Publishing
Published: 2018-01-11T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

Blu

I deserved some kind of prize. Because if any of my boys from college or high school — heck, if anyone from elementary or middle school — saw what I just did, they'd swear I was on some special type of drug.

Trust, walking away like that right now had been one of the most difficult things I'd ever done. With all that we shared tonight, our connection was electric and could combust at any moment. But I respected Angelique. And even more — I respected my wife.

That was my thought as I rounded the corner, then edged my car into our driveway. As I slid out, I tried my best to shake away all thoughts of Angelique and tonight. I was with my family now and that was where my attention needed to be.

Inside our house, I first checked in on Tanner, knocking gently on his door. But I didn’t wait for an invitation inside. I never did, even when he used to protest. Back then, I had to school him on who was the parent and who was the child, who paid the bills and who had no money at all. We had no need for further discussion after that.

“What’s up, Dad?” Tanner said when I stuck my head in. He was laid back on his bed, with his Beats (as always) over his ears.

I walked over to him and bumped my fist with his. “What’s good?”

He tapped his phone and I heard the music lower. “Everything’s straight on the home front,” Tanner said, and once again I felt that ache in my heart, for what my children had to see, for what they had to do because of Monica’s illness.

One of the things I’d promised myself was that I wouldn’t put the responsibility of taking care of his sister on Tanner. Growing up, I’d missed school activities and events because my parents believed that I was their live-in babysitter for my five-years younger brother. I was fifteen or sixteen when I made that vow about how I would treat my children, though, clearly, I was unaware, at that time, of the woman I would marry.

It was true, I hadn’t pushed Raven onto Tanner, always hiring a babysitter when possible. But tonight, he’d volunteered.

I said, “Great. Raven’s good?”

He nodded and slipped the headphones from his ears. “Yeah, she ate that nasty ravioli because she didn’t want pizza and then, I made sure she got in bed. She’s been asleep for a while now.”

“Okay. Thanks, Tan. You always come through for me.”

“No worries.” He nodded, then slid the headphones back into place and I guessed that was my signal that he’d given me all that I needed to know. I guessed he knew what my next question would be and Tanner hated when I asked him about his mom. I always wanted to know whether or not there’d been any incidents.

And so knowing how much he disliked that, recently, I’d fought my urge to ask him, figuring that if there was ever anything he couldn’t handle, he’d let me know.

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