Page 75 of Rematch
“He’s been training with me at the MMA gym. He didn’t tell you?”
She hid the disappointment in her eyes with a small smile. “No. You know once boys hit eighteen, they think they’re grown. He only tells me what he thinks I need to know.” She opened the door wider. “You’re welcome to wait for him inside. He should be home soon.”
Accepting her invitation, I stepped through the doorway. Inside, the brown carpet paired well with the golden and chestnut walls. As I followed Jayden’s mother into the kitchen, we passed a wall showcasing nearly every year of Jayden’s life - from his baby photos all the way up to his senior portraits.
“Where’d he go?” I asked as we entered the kitchen.
“I sent him down to the clinic,” she replied. She motioned to the table. “Please sit. Can I get you something to drink? Or something to eat? There’s some spaghetti in the refrigerator.”
“No thank you, Ms…”
“Janelle,” she said. “My name is Janelle. Sorry I didn’t introduce myself properly. I’m still wrapping my brain around…” She waved her hands around my figure. “With Jayden, I can see some differences, but you…” She shook her head. “You look just like him.”
“Yeah. My mother always says her genes didn’t even put up a fight. And if they did, then they must’ve gotten their ass kicked pretty damn hard.”
A genuine smile graced her face as she joined me at the table. “Your mother was always a beautiful woman. It’s a bit of a shame you didn’t get something from her.”
“Oh trust me, I’ve got a few things. You just can’t see ‘em.” I cocked my head. “You knew her?”
“From afar.” She clasped her hands together as her smile began to fall. “You probably don’t remember, but I…I used to work for your father…in the casinos.”
“Oh.” I scanned her face again, trying to jog any memory of it. When I was young, my parents didn’t bring me around the casinos unless they had to. Moments like that were rare and short. They towed me so fast through the building and into the office that I barely had time to look at anything but all the flashing lights. The waitresses brought me chicken strips and a Shirley Temple for dinner a few times. Janelle could’ve been one of them, but I hadn’t paid enough attention back then to tell. Even when I saw her through the window at my father’s house, I didn’t pay much mind to her face. Only the full image of what I thought was happening. She’d always been a stranger to me.
“Yeah.” She wrung her fingers. “I’m sorry I…I never meant to-”
“Why’d you send Jayden to the clinic? Is he alright?” I asked, cutting off her apology. It wasn’t really mine to hear or accept. Besides, I didn’t come here for that.
“He got into a scuffle with some of the other neighborhood boys on his way home from work yesterday. He tried to downplay it, but judging from his wounds, they beat him down pretty bad. I wanted to go to the police, but you know he wasn’t hearing that. The best compromise he could make was he’d go down to the clinic to get checked out after his errands today.”
I raised a brow. “Did he say which boys were involved?”
She shook her head. “He never does. Honestly, I was just happy he wasn’t trying to go at them again. Talking him down used to be hard.”
“And his wounds? How bad were they?”
As Janelle opened her mouth, the lock of the front door clicked. “I guess you’ll see for yourself.”
“Ma?” Jayden’s voice echoed through the hall as the hinges creaked open.
“In here, baby,” Janelle called back.
His footsteps padded against the hardwood floor towards the kitchen. “Nothing’s broken,” he said. “They gave me a higher dose of ibuprofen for the pain. They said the swelling should go down in-” Jayden stopped talking as he appeared in the doorway and his eyes fell on me. “Max?” His eyes flicked between me and his mother. “What…what are you doing here?”
I gritted my teeth at the sight of the purple bruising around his left eye and the gash on his lip. “You missed our session today,” I replied, my voice tight. “I came to check on you.”
“Well, I’m fine so you can go now.”
“Jayden,” Janelle hissed. “Don’t be rude.”
“I don’t want him here, ma.”
“That’s too damn bad,” I told him. “I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what happened to your face.”
“I’m not telling you shit.”
I scoffed. “You better watch it before I black your other eye.”
Jayden opened his arms. “So, do it then!”
