Page 18 of Tav

“Yes, yes, that’s Jules, woo woo. I’m Tuesday. Or Dayz or you can call me by my Ol Lady name, which is Chewy. This is my man Rhodie. We’re enforcers. Nice to meet you. Hi Elio!” Chewy punctuates that word vomit by waving at Elio and patting the empty chair next to her.

He looks to his mom who seems a little shocked before she nods her head at him. He drops our hands and beelines his way to Chewy.

“Whoa, I’ve never seen him do that before,” Niko whispers to Sage who nods at him.

“And last but not least, the head of our family, Sid Tombs, and his lady, who is also Ana’s mom, Debs.”

“Just call me Pops. Pops and Debs. Now let’s eat. I could die at any moment, you know.”

“Is that because you’re really old?” Cove’s little voice asks, her brows pinched.

Blanche’s eyes are glaring death lasers at Cove in horror, but she needn’t as my whole family roars with laughter.

“I like you, wee thing. Why don’t you come up and sit next to my old ass? You can keep an eye on me,” Pops says, winking at Cove, who smiles widely and races to sit in between Pops and Debs.

It’s then that I notice the seating arrangement. Because I’ve brought the Landry’s, Pops has put in the extra table leaves, extending the table from the usual 10 seater to more like a 15 seater. And instead of everyone sitting in their usual places, which would make sense, they’ve spaced themselves around the table, meaning any extra seating is between them. Sage takes a seat next to Ana, Niko, fittingly next to Jules, Blanche sits on the other side of Elio near Chewy and I’m on the other side of Rhodie, next to Pops, Cove and Debs on the other side. It’s weird as hell and now I’m getting paranoid that this is a setup.

Pops starts carving the meat and Debs passes around the side dishes, helping Cove dish up her mac and cheese. The plates make their rounds, and before long our own plates are full and everyone is digging in. Everyone except me. This all seems a little too normal. Chewy is chatting to Elio, Sage is in conversation with Ana and Gus, even Niko and Jules seem to be sharing grunts at each other.

Leaning towards Rhodie, I hiss around his head to catch Pops’ attention.

“What’s going on?”

HIs head slowly turns toward me, a glint in his eye as he slowly chews his mouthful. “Whatever do you mean, Octavius?”

My head snaps back, shocked he’d call me by my full name when I haven’t done anything wrong. Recovering quickly, I lean back again. “You know what I damn -” my eyes flick down to Cove before looking back at Pops. “I mean, darn well mean. What’s going on with all this, this, normalness?”

“Oh, thank fuck! I thought I was the only one who thought this was weird,” Rhodie rasps under his breath.

“Listen kid, this is the first time your two families are meeting, so we are being our usual hospitable selves. Debs even made brownies,” Pops says with pride, but I don’t miss Blanche’s eyes darting to mine when he mentioned my two families.

“Oh, we’re just friends with Tav,” Blanche says, staring at me before smiling at my bastard family members around the table.

I hang my head, taking cleansing breaths. I know that I’m going to be exposed at any moment now. The kids and my whole family know that I’ve claimed Blanche. Everyone at this table knows, except the woman in question.

Looking up, I find Niko staring at me. Not in the angry or suspicious way he normally does. No, this is worse, because this is the look of a kid who knows the shit is going to hit the fan at any moment and he’s ready for it. His lips twitch a little and a snort escapes. Frowning, I realize the snort didn’t come from him. No, it came from my asshole brother sitting next to him, with a damn near identical look on his ugly face.

“I hate you Julius Marion Tombs,” I say to him through clenched teeth.

“Whoa! Your middle name is Marion?” Niko says incredulously.

“Shut it, kid,”

“Excuse me, did you just tell my kid to ‘shut it’?” Blanche says calmly. A manner that belies the fire in her eyes and the fact she is now holding the carving knife.

“How the fuck did she get the carving knife when the meat is all the way over there?” Rhodie muses.

I expect Gus to say something, but he’s too busy leaning back in his chair, eyes flicking between Jules and Blanche and their standoff.

“See, Elio? People are weird. They get butthurt about all sorts of things that don’t matter,” Chewy says to Elio matter-of-factly as he nods his dark head and shovels another spoon of mac and cheese into his mouth. That’s when I notice his plate is full of mac and cheese and little else.

“Jules! Pull your head in! Yes, Marion is a pansy ass middle name, but it’s yours so suck it up and stop enraging my future grandbaby-in-law,” Pops growls across the table at him, causing Jules to mumble a not very heart felt “sorry,” in Blanche’s direction.

She nods at him, still scowling, and slowly puts the carving knife on the table before Pops’ words sink in.

“Hold on, Sid. That’s a nice sentiment and all but we aren’t Tav’s future anything,” she says gently.

Pops waves a leathery, wrinkled hand at her. “Psh, course you are. You’re his Ol Lady. He claimed you at the club the other night.”

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