Page 11 of Raven's Hacker
“Okay. Thanks, Beckam.” He gave me a small smile, and it felt like I was just given the best gift I could have ever received. His smile was everything.
“No problem, buddy. Can I talk to your mom again?” I spun back to face the screens, typing this fuckwad’s name in for what I hoped was the last time ever.
“Sure. Mom!” He shouted, and there went both eardrums. Thank fuck I wasn’t having them here tonight. It would give me time to get my hearing back.
“Sorry about your ears,” Raven said once she came into view on the screen.
“No. No tears.” I chuckled at myverybad joke. And I got a small snicker from her, which seemed to be contagious as I tried to keep a straight face. She was now trying even harder to keep it together.
“Are you laughing at me?” I tried to sound as offended as I could. Which was not at all, as I smiled at her, happy to know she laughed at my horrible joke.
“Never! I would never!” She was belly laughing now, as she tried to talk to me.
“I love your laugh. It’s so beautiful,” I said as she was in the middle of it. It was a glorious sound, and I couldn’t wait to hear it in person.
Those two months of waiting and getting ready for them were torturous. I ended up telling her that Ryder needed my help with something, but it wasn’t bad, and he’d tell her about it when he was ready. I promised it was nothing illegal, and that seemed to help her relax about it a little bit. She wasn’t happy I wasn’t telling her, but I’d given my word to him. He needed a male figure in his life whom he knew he could depend on. And I wasn’t about to betray the trust he’d put in me. I was determined for that male figure to be me. I worked hard in therapy, upping my sessions, and adding in parenting advice from my therapist and actual parenting classes. I wanted to make sure that I was ready for whatever happened.
Matthew…that fuckwad had called two days before the trip and promised to take him. Swore he was going to come pick him up. But when they didn’t get any calls on their way to the airport, they assumed that it was another missed weekend. Ryder decided he didn’t want to call; he didn’t want to ask why anymore. He just told her he was matching energy. Ryder just sat there on the plane, looking out the window, ‘looking older’ is what Raven said as she cried before takeoff.
I had never hated being so far from someone before.
Ryder had been angry since his dad’s phone call with false promises, yet again. He wouldn’t even talk to me when I offered. I sent him an email with information on how he could get his dad to lose what custody he did have. All I got was a single sentence from him.
“When we come up, please help.”
I knew this was going to be a rough weekend for them both. I had also talked to the guys to see if they would be willing to help with Ryder and channeling his anger in a positive way. I was going to try to get her to move them up here, at least see if it was a possibility. I would get us a house on the compound.
Bullet mentioned he might be selling the house he and Becca designed and built if there were too many bad memories there. So, I’d be over by Prez, current and former, as well as both current and former Mrs. Prez, Hades, Atlas, and there was more land around there that Bullet would get and build again on. I told him if he sold it, I would buy it from him.
I’ve got more than enough money. Never spent anything on myself other than necessities, in almost twenty years. And I had been paidwellfor the work I’d done.
I hoped this weekend went well.
T E N: Landing.
Raven’s POV
Ryder had been an absolutebearthese last two days before the trip. That was to say, he had been grumpy, grumbly, and sulking. Ever since his dad said he’d be coming to get him, then ghosted him, it was like Ryder had given up trying to get his dad to talk to him. Like he was done with everything that had been done to him the past year, and I didn’t blame him. All of the promises he had made about coming to get Ryder, and wouldn’t come, which had become his usual, I think, had pushed the relationship to a breaking point. My poor boy was hurt.
He had been acting out, getting so mad and frustrated, which I understood. I mean, even as an adult, I’d be mad too if I had a dad and he were doing that to me. And he’s only a boy of ten years now. I can’t expect him to have adult reactions or emotions when I don’t know how I would handle the situation. He was finally in the double digits. It had been just over a year since his dad and I separated, and I filed for divorce. I couldn’t expect him to just…be okay with how his dad is treating him, even if he was alright with his dad and me not being together anymore.
Expecting children to have adult reactions to crappy situations was not the way I wanted to parent. Especially when I wasn’t even sure what my reactions to what he was going through would be if I were in his shoes. So, I let him grumble and groan and work through his emotions.
We had decided to fly in because Ryder said he didnotwant to be stuck in a car for hours and hours, which was fine by me. Mainly because sometimes he took those emotions outon me, even though he would feel bad about it right after. I just wanted to hug him and love him until he forgot about that man who looked like his dad, but clearly wasn’t, and how he had hurt our boy.
Our flight landed just past dinner time, so I was hoping it wouldn’t be too tough getting out of the airport and into a restaurant for something to eat. Ryder was practically ravenous with the appetite of a teenage boy during a growth spurt. We had a lay over so it took an extra two hours to get to our final destination, Ohio. Thankfully, our connecting flight was nice, no screaming children, just my brooding one, and we landed early. Though the anger slipped from him sometime between getting off the first flight and our connecting flight, giving way to sadness.
Walking with the herd of disgruntled travelers headed toward baggage claim, I started to look around for Beckam. I kept feeling like I was just missing him between people as they passed us, while still keeping an eye out for our luggage, and another eye on Ryder, though he was standing right next to me, I didn’t see Beckam. Though there were lots of people in this airport. It felt like we walked a mile from where the plane landed and we disembarked, to baggage claim. Maybe it wastoocrowded.
As I went to grab my white hardbody suitcase with gold polka dots, a hand came in contact with it first, grabbing it before I could. I was about to say something to the person who was trying to take my luggage when I noticed the hand was attached to a well-defined forearm. I quickly looked up at the person’s face. The softest eyes I’d ever seen stared back at me, live and in person, instead of over a screen.
“Hi, Raven,” his voice sounded even better in person, and I tried not to swoon too hard. I smiled as he looked over my shoulder at my son, who was tucked against me.
“Hey, Ryder. How you doin', man?” Beckam nodded at whatever non-verbal cue Ryder had given him. “What else are we waiting for?”
He looked so confident, shoulders back, chest puffed out, head held high. He looked so unaffected by being surrounded by this many people, and I was hoping that was a positive sign. Ryder made a move to grab his suitcase, and after a slight struggle, Beckam offered help. Ryder shook his head, determined to do it himself, so we waited for it to come back around.
“So, this time, how about you try to get in front of it, and bend at the knees before you try to hulk it off. Get a better center of gravity.” Beckam suggested, while Ryder looked at him like he was being completely ridiculous. But he still tried it, and when it worked, he looked so proud of himself. Beckam offered up a high five to Ryder, and my little man hit his hand as hard as he could, feeling on top of the world in that moment.
