Rafe
Saturday night after dinner found us snuggled on the outdoor couch talking about life while scrolling through décor boards on Pinterest. Never one to miss out, Elvis perched behind us and watched what we were doing with apparent interest.
“Fausto emailed and said we’re clear to take Jandro and Kaya over to see the house on Tuesday,” I said.
Emery’s face lit up with a smile. “Kaya is going to be so much help with all the decorating. She’ll get it as soon as she walks in. It’s been killing me holding in our big news, but I want to take her there right away.”
Like everything else about her, I fucking loved Emery’s enthusiasm. It was sexy as fuck that she wanted to create a home with me and I couldn’t wait for us to get that underway.
“I told my mother when she called before dinner,” I shared. “She promised to keep it under her hat until everyone got home so we could tell everyone together. She’ll definitely tell my father, but she’ll keep it locked up tight where everyone else is concerned. What about you? You don’t talk about your family at all.”
My stomach dropped when she winced. Sighing, she pressed the button to turn off the iPad. When she spoke, she did it so softly I barely heard her. “There’s no one left.”
Sensing her sadness, Elvis laid his head against her cheek. Sniffling, Emery shook her head. “My mother left when I was a baby. She didn’t care for “country life” and motherhood just made it worse. My Dad and I lived on the bird farm with my grandparents, who were amazing. A few months after Elvis and I moved to California…”
She trailed off and looked away, clearing her throat as she did. I ran my hand up and down her silky smooth leg as I hastened to assure her she didn’t have to tell me. “No,” she said firmly. “I do. I don’t talk about them enough, and it’s not because I don’t want to. Other than talking to Kaya about it I got used to keeping everything to myself because I didn’t want to see it all over the internet. I know that must sound so stupid…”
“No, Miel. Not to me—I completely understand.”
She wiped beneath her eyes before she aimed a watery smile my way. “Thank you for that. What happened to my family is horrible and even though it’s been a little over four years I still struggle with it.”
Jesus. If her shit happened four years ago it meant we’d been going through our shit at the same time. As impossible as it was I wished I had the ability to turn back time so we could’ve gone through those things together.
“Take your time,” I murmured.
She reached up with her hand and tickled Elvis’s neck as he rubbed his face against her cheek.
“My uncle Mick was a mess,” she said, “and to be honest I never cared for him. He was cruel to the birds and shitty to my grandparents but they wouldn’t give up on him. Now that I’m older I understand a little better how hard it must’ve been for them to watch their youngest son go so far off the rails, but back then I was just mad. My dad basically begged them to kick him out, but they never did.”
She stopped and took a deep breath before she continued. “He was one of those people who always had a get-rich quick scheme. Right before I got the job on Bytes and moved out he started acting really strangely. His temper was shorter and he was insanely secretive and over-the-top paranoid. That’s part of the reason I took Elvis—the original plan had been to leave him there until Kaya graduated from high school but then Mick freaked out one day and kicked Elvis so hard I thought he’d killed him.”
Elvis turned and gave me a sad look as I sucked in a breath and did what I had to do to rein in the tsunami of curse words that wanted to burst free.
“It was for the best that I had to take him—we’re a team, he and I. But I couldn’t forgive my uncle for hurting my baby, so I never spoke another word to him. I don’t regret that—I have no love for him, but I do hate that it upset my grandparents. My dad was on my side, of course. He was over his brother and was making plans to leave the farm. He never got the chance because one night just after three in the morning, the house exploded. It didn’t take long for the investigators to figure out that Mick’s last business was a meth lab. He killed his parents, my father, more than half of the birds and himself with one terrible idea.”
I was gutted for her. “God, Miel. I am so fucking sorry.”
“I was a mess for a long time but I’ve learned to deal with it a little better as each year has passed. I give thanks every single day that Elvis wasn’t there when it happened. Having him meant I had a living, breathing piece of the farm with me. He was with me when I sat around and cried every night, and bit by bit he helped me get back to myself. Without him and Kaya I’d have crumbled.”
“He’s our little miracle worker. As for Kaya, I owe her a huge debt of gratitude.”
“I told you she was cool,” she said with a wobbly sounding laugh.
Knowing that actions spoke louder than words, I pulled her into my arms and rocked her back and forth until I felt the tension ebbing from her body. When she pulled back and gave me a real smile, I felt a weight lifting from my shoulders. My goal in life was making Emery happy, which meant her sadness hit me hard.
“Thank you for telling me, Miel. I never want us to have secrets from each other.”
I knew that meant I was going to need to tell her my own story, and soon.