“True. Honestly, I made you into a halfway decent mechanic, too. I really loved this car.” He frowned, looking over his own destruction. “Look what having children does to a man…it’s so fucking stressful.”
“Is that why you’re graying so much?”
He glared down at me. “Would you like to die today?”
I laughed. “See you in hell then, Pops, cause we both know Mom will cut you to pieces. She loves me much more than you.”
“Bosses don’t rely on their moms—”
“Because their mothers are either dead or dying. My mother is alive and very good with knives—”
“Will you shut the fuck up, goddamn! Have a little respect, and let your old man threaten you a little bit, Jesus Christ.”
I laughed, I couldn’t help it.
And even as we began to focus on the car, I couldn’t help but sigh…in the back of my mind I saw it. I was finally out of the damn cage. I wasn’t going to be a side character in this family any more…I was moving to the main stage.
SEDRIC
“So what Darcy said, but replace Black with Asian,” I said to my father as I cleaned inside the chamber of my sniper riffle.
“Why didn’t you say anything?” he asked, turning off the camera for the garage before sitting across from me, lifting the pistol.
I chuckled at that as I looked up at him. “You want me to come to you and say, ‘Hey, Dad, I want to push drugs and be respected within the mafia for the rest of my life instead of playing baseball’?”
His jaw twisted to the side as he took the cloth from my hand. “I’m sure with that fancy and expensive education I gave you, you could have said it in a much more…elegant way.”
“Most likely.” I shrugged, picking up my scope and clicking it into place. “But this is much mor
e fun, isn’t it?”
“Your mother isn’t going to be happy—”
“I already told Mom.”
“When?!” He looked genuinely shocked.
Rising from my chair, I grabbed my ball cap, placing it on my head. “The day I joined the MLB, I told her then, and you know what she said?”
He didn’t answer, and so I didn’t elaborate either. I tossed him his old riffle.
“Are you going to tell me or not?” he asked, rising up from the table, too.
Moving to the door of my bedroom, I turned back and answered, “She told me, and I quote, ‘Your father and I will look forward to that day.’”
He grinned shaking his head as he followed me out the room. “You’re supposed to talk to me about this stuff, not your mother.”
“Dad,” I said seriously,”that’s sexist.”
He smacked the back of my head. “Let’s go, I’m guessing you’ve been practicing, mama’s boy?”
“I prefer the term mastering.”
“I don’t give a shit what you prefer. Come on, let go shooting.” He marched on as if it was his idea.
“Slow down, old man, before you throw out your hip.”
“Fuck you!” he hollered, already heading to the back door. I grinned as I tossed the riffle over my shoulder.