Eric (Men of Honor 2)

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I didn’t get shit done all day because regardless of what I told myself, I was worried about Tyler and what the hell he was up to. It didn’t register until about lunchtime that he was way too involved in something that should be mine to deal with. True, we’ve always had each other’s back. It came with the bond we’d forged between us after years of it being just the two of us against the world that fucked us over.

I’ve never had occasion until yesterday to see him being so protective; I’ve seen hints of it before sure but nothing to this extent. I don’t want my kid thinking he has to fight my battles no matter how much I appreciate his show of solidarity. But how the hell am I going to pull him off? Once a pit bull sinks its teeth into something, you need the Jaws of Life to get those shits out again.

Since I wasn’t getting shit done, I decided to head out early. I should check and make sure that Sam had already left the area, but I was pretty much sure that he had unless he was completely brainless. My mind kept going back to Janine’s words this morning, and I realized I was actually worried about just how much anger Tyler was carrying around from his childhood.

My kid has never given me any indication that he was suffering from anger management issues or that he was harboring any ill will towards his incubator. Still, if he had gone to the lengths she mentioned, it was no small thing. I didn’t have to think about how to approach him with my fears because we have an open and honest relationship; that’s why the shit was bothering me so much.

Justine was in her craft room, puttering around when I got home, and for once, I didn’t feel like jumping her as soon as I saw her. After her initial surprise at me being home this early, I left her to what she was doing and headed to my home office to brood. She came in not five minutes later.

“Okay, let’s have it. Do I stink? Is my hair matted? Food on my face from lunch?” She smelt her armpit, ran her fingers through her hair, and brushed at the corners of her lips after each question while I looked on puzzled.

“What’re you talking about?”

“You’ve been home for more than five minutes, and I’m still vertical.” She quirked her brow at me and grinned!

“Is that your way of saying I fuck you too much?” She walked over and took the hand I held out to her.

“No, I’m not complaining, I’m just saying.” Now she was pouting. I pulled her onto my lap to sit.

“I just have some stuff on my mind, babe, nothing to worry about.”

“Is it the new hotel? Did something go wrong at the site?” I wrapped my arms around her hips and looked up at her face. I try not to burden her with shit. I especially don’t want her worrying about her ex or mine, but maybe she would have a different perspective than me on this thing. Before I could broach the subject, though, she hit me with a whammy.

“What exactly went on yesterday when you went to see Sam? Tyler must’ve called me every hour on the hour. He keeps trying to play it off, but I get the feeling he’s checking up on me to make sure I’m okay. Spill!”

“Tyler’s been calling you all day? That’s weird; he hasn’t called me once. Nothing really major happened yesterday, so I doubt it has anything to do with that. I’ll have a chat with him when he gets home.”

“No, don’t do that. I’m not saying it in a negative way. It actually feels kind of good to have a grown son looking out for me. Now I know I don’t have to worry about Lora at her new school because if he’s this worried about me, I can only imagine how protective he is of her.”

“Speaking of which, have you noticed? Nah, never mind.”

Thank heavens she dropped it and didn’t push because that train of thought would only lead us down a slippery slope. I’m just thinking that yesterday Tyler was entirely too invested in those flowers. I didn’t notice it at the time, but he’d asked the florist the meaning of the color of the yellow lilies along with some other shit they had there and then decided to throw in some lavender roses which I didn’t catch the meaning of because I have better shit to do with my time.

“Justine, what do lavender roses mean?” She looked at me like I was stupid.

“What do you mean?”

“Uh, nothing. I was just drifting, that’s all.” She pressed the back of her hand to my forehead to check for fever.