Page 69 of Tripped By Love
“Jo-Jo?” Marco asked. He’d mostly stopped himself from saying the nickname at Jonas’s request, but it still came out here and there.
Jonas looked up, and his face shuttered, feelings hiding behind a bravado that he’d probably learned from his brother or from the life he’d led before going to live with Maliyah at eight years old. I’d only heard tidbits of it from Marco because he felt like it wasn’t his story to tell. There was a mother who was in jail and who’d really not been much of a mom to begin with but whom Jonas seemed to still love with all his teenage heart.
“I want to go back to Texas with you tomorrow. I want to check on Maliyah,” Jonas said.
There was obviously more to it than Maliyah, and Marco knew it.
“Something happen with Mel?” Marco asked.
Jonas looked down before throwing his shoulders back, lifting his chin, and saying, “No.”
If I could see through the lie, then Marco certainly did.
“I’m not sure it’s a good idea for you to go on this trip. Maliyah is still at Maria Carmen’s,” Marco told him. “Plus, don’t you have songs to wrap up with The Painted Daisies?”
Jonas looked slightly guilty, but then it washed away in a defiance that seemed all teen angst. “They don’t really need me. I’m not some fucking musical genius like Brady or any of them. Hell, even little Hannah can play me into the ground.”
“Language,” Marco said, trying to tease, but when it didn’t change Jonas’s expression, he softened. “You’re selling yourself short, Jonas. You may notplayas well as them, but you’re talented in a different way. You hear and see what the music should become. You’ve made a difference to their album. Brady said you’re even getting song credits.”
A flicker of something like joy sailed over Jonas’s face before it returned to remorse and heartache. “If you don’t take me with you, I’ll just go myself. It’s not like I don’t have money for a plane ticket. I need to see Maliyah.”
“When I talked to her yesterday, everything was fine. Did something happen that I don’t know about?” Marco asked.
Jonas shrugged. “No. She says she’s fine. But you know her. She could be dying, and she wouldn’t tell us.”
I could feel Marco warring with himself. The debate was so strong it tightened the muscles in the arm that brushed against mine. The desire to protect the ones he loved from being harmed waged in him like a battle cry. But the thing was, he couldn’t be there for everyone all the time. He couldn’t shield them from the choices they had to make all on their own.
“I’m serious, Marco. I’m going to Texas with or without you.” Then, Jonas got up and stormed past us to return to the apartment above the garage.
Marco ran a hand over his face. “Shit.”
“Language,” I teased, and he looked up at me with eyes full of heartache.
I did the only thing I could. I embraced him just as he’d embraced me the day before. An attempt to offer solace when the world was spinning out of our control. I spoke quietly, as if to a wounded animal. “If he’s truly that worried about her, maybe it would be good for him to see her in person.”
“It isn’t Maliyah, Angel. It’s definitely something with Mel. If I take him back now, it’ll put him right back in the middle of the gang I dragged him away from.”
“So, we all go together, stop by and see Maliyah and Mel and whomever he needs to see, and then he can come with us to Earth Paradise,” I said quietly.
He looked at me like I’d said something amazing. Like I’d said he’d won the lottery or that heaven really existed. “What?” I asked with a small smile.
“Together,” he said quietly. The word was a whisper on the wind that filled my soul.
I cupped his jaw, running a finger along it. “Together.”
It was a promise I was pretty sure neither one of us could quite guarantee, but it was one I wanted to the very depths of my soul.
???
It wasn’t until we were on the plane, waiting for it to take off, that the real anxiety hit me. I wasn’t a great flier to begin with. Maybe it was because I didn’t travel much, like my country-rock legend of a brother. Or maybe it was just being in the air in a layer of thin metal and insulation that I had no way out of if it decided to take a nosedive. But even worse was thinking about what would happen if everything did go wrong, and I lost my life on a plane ride. I didn’t have a trust in place for Chevelle or even a will stating guardianship rights should go to my parents or Brady. That terrified me because it might leave Clayton a hole to worm himself into as Chevelle’s biological dad.
My hands squeezed the arms of the seat, and I tried to control my breathing that had turned erratic. Jonas wasn’t aware of it because he had his headphones on and his head tilted against the window with his eyes shut, lost in whatever was dragging him down. But Marco definitely noticed. He pried my fingers away, turned them over, and kissed the palm. It was a sweet, tender move that brought us closer to the kisses we’d exchanged weeks ago instead of the familial-like camaraderie we’d established since then.
“Are you afraid of flying?” he asked, surprise in his tone.
“I just…Chevelle…” I shook my head over the jumble of words coming out of my mouth. “I don’t have anything in place for him. And what if something happens…and Clayton?”
Marco kissed my palm again and then raised the arm of the chair between us so that he could pull me up against him. “Nothing is going to happen. To you or Chevelle. Not on my watch.”
The idea that he could somehow float me to the ground if the plane crashed made me smile. “You got wings under that jacket?” I asked.
He smiled. “No wings. But maybe a cape.”
I laughed, which was his intention. The plane left the ground, making my heart pound as it soared into the sky and took me thousands of miles from my baby and my restaurant. Chevelle was with Mom and Dad and the new puppy my dad was finally bringing home today. He would hardly miss me with the dog to keep him company.
For the first Monday in two years, I was nowhere near The Golden Heart Café or Grand Orchard. The restaurant was closed on Tuesday anyway, and I would only miss Wednesday and Thursday before returning. It was a mere three days of openings. It would be okay. The café wasn’t going to fall apart in that short of a time. Just like Chevelle would be fine.
But the panic that had reared its head to almost consume me wouldn’t go away for some reason, dread taking over me, even as Marco continued to try and distract me by telling me about Maliyah, Maria Carmen, and the group of friends who’d taken Maliyah into their family with open hearts when she was a teen.
I listened and smiled and tried to push the sensation away, all the time knowing it wasn’t likely to disappear completely until I was home again, holding my son in my arms.
