I lean against the bar, wishing I wasn’t driving. Shit is getting deep, and I need to take the edge off.
“It’s not just me,” I whisper.
Jagger throws his head back and laughs. “Babe, that little girl of yours has us all wrapped around her little finger, but most especially my brother. Whether you and him can make a go of this or not, he’ll be in Marisa’s life.”
I think on it, realizing he’s right. Morrison Caldwell is the kind of man who will be around for Marisa, no matter what.
We finish locking up, and then I make my way home and quietly enter my apartment.
Usually after their Wednesday night “dates,” Morrison is on the couch when I get in. Finding it empty, I make my way down the small hall to the soft light coming from Marisa’s room, and I smile as I hear him whispering.
“A long, long time ago . . . in a land far away from here,” he continues reading the fairy tale as my chest tightens with emotion.
I hear the soft sounds of Marisa snoring, so I don’t know why Morrison is still reading, but I pay attention to the words.
“There was a beautiful little girl. She lived with her mom, who was the most gorgeous woman in all the land. These two were the hidden treasure given to the prince as a gift from his mother, the queen. They had to hide away under the bright lights of Sin City until the prince was old enough to know the good inside them when he saw it.” Morrison pauses, and I lean against the wall to listen further. “He had to sow his wild oats and work out his own past, but his momma, the queen, she knew the man she had raised him to be. She knew that, when the time was right, he would become the man for this little girl and her mom.”
Moving to the doorway so I can be seen, I take in the scene before me as I ask, “Is that so?”
There on my daughter’s tiny twin bed is Morrison, all six feet of him. His legs are crossed at the ankles, his head rests against the wall since Marisa doesn’t have a headboard, and his arms are crossed over his chest. His eyes are closed, and he seems lost in his thoughts, lost in his fairy tale.
He doesn’t open his eyes, simply nods his head.
“Well”—I make my way to him—“do they live happily ever after?”
He opens his eyes and meets my stare. “I don’t know, Hailey. You tell me.”
I take him by the hand and lead him out to my living room, where we sit on the couch, him on the right side and me in the middle. Then I turn to face him with my legs tucked under me.
“Tell me about the queen, Morrison,” I prompt, and he smiles sweetly.
“Oh, the queen . . . She was the Queen of Spades. She had love for her boys in spades, as the saying goes. But, ruled as she was by the King of Clubs, she had to take a backseat to his needs, wants, and desires. The only thing the tyrant ever gave her was her boys and a hard time. The Joker was wild all the time, you see. An unpredictable bastard, the King of Clubs was not ashamed to rule his house with an iron fist. This left her three Jacks feeling helpless, and eventually, as the boys’ love and need to protect the queen grew, their resentment toward the king grew as well. In the end, life wasn’t aces, because the queen left this life to go to a better one, but she gave her boys a winning hand before she perished.” Reaching out, he cups my chin and rubs his thumb over my cheek. “She left them with aces in their hands.”
I bite my bottom lip as I take in his words.
“The Ace of Diamonds—watching the queen work so hard, the boys developed the drive and ambition that can only be found in this card. The Ace of Clubs was her legacy of intelligence. Hailey, we can’t come up from nothing without first educating ourselves on the lay of the land. The queen gave this to her boys. As a spade herself, she also gave them the Ace of Spades, wanting her boys to be fulfilled in life. She wanted them to be well rounded and strong. Her final card . . . the Ace of Hearts. The queen left her boys with a legacy of heart.”
“Your mom—” His thumb moves to cover my lips, silencing me.
“To be the good in this world full of bad—I made her that promise, Hailey, and I damn sure meant every fuckin’ word of it. Life wasn’t easy watching our old man put his hands on her. Worse than that was listening to the way he talked to her. Every fucking day, nothing she ever did was right. Momma was strong, though. She didn’t let that eat at her. She didn’t let it wear her down. He may have held her back, but he damn sure didn’t break her.”