Post by joss on Mar 9, 2022 21:41:55 GMT -8
It was a cold Boston night. Brendan Callaghan and his fiance Jade Night were up watching a movie on Netflix while sitting cosily together on the couch of their home. As usual, Brendan was stuffing his face with the caramel popcorn that Jade made, which he paid more attention to, and kept making jokes about certain things that happened in the movie. This at first got a scoff and a headshake from Jade but she eventually joined in with her own remarks and soon both of them got each other laughing at everything, no longer caring about the movie.
“Okay, bathroom break! Be right back!” Brendan said before rushing off to the bathroom.
“I’m gonna pick another movie, alright? Any ideas?” called out Jade.
“Whatever you want, babe!” he replied.
Jade took her time scrolling through Netflix. When Brendan finally came out, they heard a phone ding and it seemed to come from his. He scooped it up and settled himself on the couch before checking the screen. As Jade snuggled in closer to him, she heard him go “huh”. She looked up at him, curious.
“Something wrong?” she asked.
There’s a wry smile on his face. “It’s just Dad telling me to shut up. Nothing new.”
She frowned. “What? Why?”
“Because it’s him? And because I tweeted about our family mess getting worse even after No Man’s Land. Of course he didn’t like it. Fuck me.”
He shrugged while typing a response as if it didn’t bother him. But Jade could see right through it. She’s about to say something more but the phone rang again as another Twitter notification came on. It was Nate again.
“Sorry, just give me a minute here. Why don’t you start the movie without me first and I’ll catch up?”
But the exchange between the father and son pair went on for much longer than a minute as he barely paid attention to the movie. His mind was clearly too preoccupied with the heated conversation on Twitter. The longer he sat there, the more anxious and angrier he grew. Without waiting any longer, he ended it by telling Nate to meet up that night itself. When he finally looked up from his phone, he found Jade holding out his car key to him.
“Shall we go see your Dad now and sort this out?” she asked with a small encouraging smile.
Touched by the gesture, he nodded and took the key from her before kissing her hand.
“Thank you. I’ll make it up to you next movie night.”
The car ride to the home shared by Nate and his wives and Liberty Pro wrestlers Coral and Nami was uneventful, save for the troubled thoughts in Brendan and Jade’s minds. It was clear that this talk with Nate was long overdue and Brendan was glad Jade was going with him. At the rate of how things were going with his family, he wasn’t sure how tonight was going to play out. Having her support was probably the main thing that’s keeping him together at this point. Even more so when they finally got there and he came face to face with his father as the door opened.
Seeing his father’s face for the first time since No Man’s Land, for some reason, brought a whole rush of memories from back when he was younger and had no ambitions in life. All those nights when he would come home so late, sometimes near dawn, after being out with his friends doing nothing productive. Sometimes he was drunk, sometimes not. But it didn’t matter because Nate would disapprove all the same and that face he gave when he found his eldest son stumbling in the dark. Or staying home without a job. Or quitting his first wrestling gig and the next one and the one after that. Or finding a new interest and quitting that too. Or, worst of all, voicing support for any of his brothers over Nate.
And so the cycle continued… Nate again accused Brendan of taking his mother’s side in this shit storm of their fight since she came back into their lives. To which Brendan had already tried to reason with, claiming he did it for Sean and Ryan. And of course Liam. But somehow helping his younger brothers was a sin in their father’s eyes. To Brendan, this was extremely confusing because didn’t Nate teach him to be a responsible older brother? So why was he punishing him for doing exactly what he was told to do?
These were the leading questions in Brendan’s mind but they were so heavily loaded that he struggled to begin. The air in the living room where Nate had welcomed his son and future daughter-in-law into was quickly filling up with tension. So much so that Brendan just sat down on the couch next to Jade, pursing his lips. With how things had escalated, he figured it best to jump right in to pick up their conversation from Twitter. It was high time to put everything out in the open.
Without looking up, Brendan started, “Well. Here we are, Dad. Let’s finally talk. I believe I’ve said my piece. Your turn. Thanks for inviting us to your home, by the way. Now you’ve got nowhere to run to until we’re done.”
That probably sounded more snarky than he meant to but he had run out of patience with Nate. The old man did turn his back on him and left him in the hands of The Society to be beaten down using his signature bat in front of the whole world.
Nathan, a man who usually showed no emotion in public, was clearly feeling a wave of them in front of his eldest son and future daughter-in-law. Nathan rubbed his hands together nervously and shook his head. “I didn’t want it to come to this, son. I did everything in my power to protect and shield you and your brothers from all of this bullshit.”
Nathan sighed again and shook his head before he stood up and walked toward Brendan and he pulled out a note. He handed it over to Brendan and didn’t say a word. No, he just let Brendan read it. The note was clearly old, the white paper crumpled up and the writing barely legible. But Brendan did his best to read over it, with Jade leaning in near him and reading along with him.
“Nathan, if you value the life of your children, then you’ll keep on making payments to make up for your wife’s debt. Miss another payment again? Then you’ll lose another person you care about, starting with the youngest. Needless to say? They’ll be swimming in the Boston River with your wife.”
Nathan stood there, studying over Brendan and Jade as they read through it. His fingers were fidgeting, which was very uncharacteristic of him. As for Brendan, he sat there frozen while reading the words over and over again.
He finally looked up, trying to keep his train of thoughts under control. “Are you still… still making these payments to whoever wrote this? Who is it? And what did Ma do???”
Nathan laughed and shook his head. “No. I stopped making the payments this year thanks to some… financial backings. But who knew that your mother faked her death and then helped those assholes to squeeze money out of me?”
Nathan scoffed and threw his hands up in the air before sitting back down.
“Your mother had a gambling addiction. One that constantly put our family in danger. I covered her ass and I protected yours for god knows how long. And I never uttered a single bad word about your mother. Not once.”
Nathan leaned forward and placed a hand on Brendan’s shoulder. “So why? Why would I turn on your mother if she magically appeared, which she did? No, she immediately turned on me, blamed me and then tried to turn all of you kids on me under some false pretenses. She’s up to no good and once again, putting you all in danger. You all got hurt but does she care? Has she gone to visit Liam in the hospital? No.”
Brendan cringed. “Will you stop? Just back up for a second!”
He threw the note on the coffee table and pointed at it.
“Gambling addiction? It went THAT far and neither of you told us about it? And– and– and what financial backings, Dad? Every time you go into business, you’d run into money issues and I guess this explains it. But you’re not owing anybody else money, are you? Should we be expecting another financial problem with Liberty Pro six months from now? Dad, you know if you need help, you can talk to me. Why the hell did you put yourself through all that alone with Ma’s thing when you weren’t actually alone? You’ve got us.”
His voice started to crack a little but he cleared his throat as he pushed ahead.
“But what you’re telling me, it still doesn’t add up to what she said, Dad. She said you were the reason why Ryan got thrown into prison. Was that because you missed a payment? And why did she also say that you’re also the real reason why she had to disappear and that she’s the one who’s been doing the protecting, not you? Was she lying? Why would she lie about all of that in front of the entire world on the Liberation show? Why would she say that?”
Nathan snapped back.
“Shut the fuck up, Brendan!”
Nate placed his hands on his head and closed his eyes as he took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “Calm the fuck down with all the questions. I did it all on my own to protect you four. I legitimately thought your mother was dead. As for Ryan? It’s my fault because they ordered him to take the fall in his boxing matches. I told him not to do it and that I’d handle it. Clearly, I wasn’t able to do that. And your mom? The only way she would know about your brother is if she jumped to the other side. So use your brain, kid. Your mother joined up with the Irish mob and left us with her debts and problems.”
Nathan scoffed and shook his head. “She probably told those idiots about Ryan and that he was a golden goose to gamble on. I don’t know for sure but that’s what it seems like. And why would she lie? You’re asking the wrong guy, son. The only person who knows why she’d lie about all of it is your mother. But if you asked her? I don’t think she’d give you a clear answer.”
For a long moment, Brendan kept quiet as he studied his father, trying to see if he was lying or not. But as always, the old man was a closed book to him. Still though, at least he was answering his questions this time. Yet the more Nate shared, the more Brendan realized how much he didn’t know about his own parents. Especially his mother. And maybe that’s why when she suddenly returned to their lives after 10 years, he took her in with no questions asked. Even though for 10 years, they had all thought she was dead. Joined the Irish mob? No way, not Ma! She would never! What would she even do being part of it? Plus, she wouldn’t just up and leave him and his brothers without a word, right? Why would she lie for 10 years? Didn’t she care about them?
So maybe Nate was right: Brendan’s asking the wrong person. But knowing two sides of the story would be useful and after No Man’s Land, Brendan needed answers. Tonight, at least, he could settle for half of them.
With a sigh, Brendan asked, “Is that everything, Dad? Or is there something else you’re hiding from me? Because you should know by now that keeping secrets like this will just mess things up in the future. And you’ve got a new family and everything now, you need to know you can’t do things like that by yourself anymore. I know you were just trying to protect us, Dad, and I appreciate that. But from now on, if you need help, just ask.”
He took another sigh.
“And about Ma, you’re right. I should ask her too about everything. It’s not like that thought never crossed my mind. But every time I would meet her or pick up the phone to call her, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. She was gone for 10 years and now she’s back… It still feels surreal. But yeah, I’ll talk to her. We all deserve to know the truth.”
Nathan started to turn red. After everything he told Brendan, even showing him the note demanding money, Brendan still didn’t fully believe him.
“What the fuck do you want me to say? Tell you about every time that I paid off these assholes? Tell you how they would mock me and I just had to take it for the sake of you four ungrateful assholes?”
The old man scoffed before he leaned forward and grabbed Brendan by his shirt. “Why do you think your brother Sean disappeared after your little match? He came and talked to me after talking to your mother. He just up and left without a word because he knew that he fucked up and chose the wrong side. You all betrayed me first and now you have the balls to come here, in the house I fucking raised you and protected you in, sheltered you in, and QUESTION ME!?”
Before Nathan could go on or Brendan could reply, Jade stepped in between them, pushing Nathan away as she looked at him with those dead serious eyes of hers.
“Back off Nate. Brendan’s clearly going through a lot and doesn’t have the facts that you do. The facts that you’ve been withholding for a long, long time. Imagine what it’s like losing your mother for ten years and then she comes back. And instead of having a happy family again, your parents are pulling you into two different directions.”
Nathan listened to her before nodding and backing away a bit before taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly. Jade turned and placed both hands on Brendan’s cheeks as she peered into his eyes and this time, the look she gave was different than the one she gave Nathan. This one was loving and nurturing.
“Babe, this is obviously a lot to take in and I understand that it’s all confusing and it hurts and you just want to get down to the absolute truth. But for now? Let’s just go home and I’ll make you those special tacos you love so much.”
Nathan scoffed and rolled his eyes. “God, you baby him so much.”
Jade’s gaze snapped towards Nathan and her gaze changed quickly, as she now had a fire in her eyes. “Don’t comment on our relationship when it’s clear that all of yours before the twins were a sham.”
Nathan held his hands out innocently. “Alright, alright… just take those serial killer eyes off of me. First Paz and now you. Fucking crazy Latinas.”
“Hey!” Brendan protested, clearly offended at that last sniped remark from Nate. And it was all it took to bring back the anger in him as he got into his father’s face.
“Don’t talk to her like that! And again, I didn’t choose Ma’s side over yours. Sean and Ryan asked me and of course after what The Society did to Liam, which you let happen by the way, I agreed to help in a heartbeat! Like I said before, I never did this for anyone but my brothers! And you know what? I’m glad I did. Because after everything that you claimed to do for us, protect us, whatever, you still treated us like shit anyway,” he pointed to the back of his head, “I can still feel that bat that idiot hit me with at No Man’s Land, thanks to you, Dad.”
He backed off, shaking his head. In fact, he could feel his hands shaking too because of how upset he was again.
“I’m done here. You can go back to being a sad, petty old man again. I don’t give a fuck anymore. Let’s go, Jade.”
He brushed past Nate without saying goodbye, no longer wanting to even look at him at this point. Jade gave Nate a very disapproving look as she followed after Brendan, a concerned look on her face as she caught up to him.
“Hey! Wait for me!” She grabbed his hand and stopped him before grabbing his other hand in hers as well. She could feel his hands still shaking. “Hey, look at me, alright? Don’t let him get under your skin. You’re right, he is a petty old man, but you’re above that, alright? You’re a good person. Don’t ever lose sight of that. Because I know that I never will when I look at you.”
With his head bowed, he held her hands tightly and took a deep breath.
“Thanks… I don’t know what I’d do without you, Jade. Seriously. It’s always so hard dealing with him, you know. I just thought it would change now that he’s got a new family to take care of. Because then I’ll know I have hope, like when we will have our own kids later, you know? But it’s okay, now I know. I just have to keep working on not being like him. I’ll be different.”
“Hey…” Jade pulled Brendan closer to her, her normally stern brown eyes now very soft and loving. “I know it’ll be different. You’re a good man and I knew it the moment I laid eyes on you. You’re different and I can’t wait for us to start a family together and I KNOW that you will be the best father ever. So definitely don’t overthink that. You’re going to be amazing and I love you.” She leaned in and kissed him softly before leaning back and smiling. “Let’s get you home so that I can help you relax, yeah?”
That brought an appreciative smile to Brendan’s face as he looked into her eyes.
“I love you too, Jade. And yeah, let’s go home.”
They shared another kiss before separating to get into the car to head back to their place. Brendan was feeling slightly better, thanks to Jade. But there, still sitting in the back of his mind, was the uneasiness that he knew was to come with finally sitting down for a talk with Lily, the same way he had tonight with Nate. Yet, as difficult as he felt that conversation would be too, he knew it was going to be okay with Jade beside him.
“Okay, bathroom break! Be right back!” Brendan said before rushing off to the bathroom.
“I’m gonna pick another movie, alright? Any ideas?” called out Jade.
“Whatever you want, babe!” he replied.
Jade took her time scrolling through Netflix. When Brendan finally came out, they heard a phone ding and it seemed to come from his. He scooped it up and settled himself on the couch before checking the screen. As Jade snuggled in closer to him, she heard him go “huh”. She looked up at him, curious.
“Something wrong?” she asked.
There’s a wry smile on his face. “It’s just Dad telling me to shut up. Nothing new.”
She frowned. “What? Why?”
“Because it’s him? And because I tweeted about our family mess getting worse even after No Man’s Land. Of course he didn’t like it. Fuck me.”
He shrugged while typing a response as if it didn’t bother him. But Jade could see right through it. She’s about to say something more but the phone rang again as another Twitter notification came on. It was Nate again.
“Sorry, just give me a minute here. Why don’t you start the movie without me first and I’ll catch up?”
But the exchange between the father and son pair went on for much longer than a minute as he barely paid attention to the movie. His mind was clearly too preoccupied with the heated conversation on Twitter. The longer he sat there, the more anxious and angrier he grew. Without waiting any longer, he ended it by telling Nate to meet up that night itself. When he finally looked up from his phone, he found Jade holding out his car key to him.
“Shall we go see your Dad now and sort this out?” she asked with a small encouraging smile.
Touched by the gesture, he nodded and took the key from her before kissing her hand.
“Thank you. I’ll make it up to you next movie night.”
* * *
The car ride to the home shared by Nate and his wives and Liberty Pro wrestlers Coral and Nami was uneventful, save for the troubled thoughts in Brendan and Jade’s minds. It was clear that this talk with Nate was long overdue and Brendan was glad Jade was going with him. At the rate of how things were going with his family, he wasn’t sure how tonight was going to play out. Having her support was probably the main thing that’s keeping him together at this point. Even more so when they finally got there and he came face to face with his father as the door opened.
Seeing his father’s face for the first time since No Man’s Land, for some reason, brought a whole rush of memories from back when he was younger and had no ambitions in life. All those nights when he would come home so late, sometimes near dawn, after being out with his friends doing nothing productive. Sometimes he was drunk, sometimes not. But it didn’t matter because Nate would disapprove all the same and that face he gave when he found his eldest son stumbling in the dark. Or staying home without a job. Or quitting his first wrestling gig and the next one and the one after that. Or finding a new interest and quitting that too. Or, worst of all, voicing support for any of his brothers over Nate.
And so the cycle continued… Nate again accused Brendan of taking his mother’s side in this shit storm of their fight since she came back into their lives. To which Brendan had already tried to reason with, claiming he did it for Sean and Ryan. And of course Liam. But somehow helping his younger brothers was a sin in their father’s eyes. To Brendan, this was extremely confusing because didn’t Nate teach him to be a responsible older brother? So why was he punishing him for doing exactly what he was told to do?
These were the leading questions in Brendan’s mind but they were so heavily loaded that he struggled to begin. The air in the living room where Nate had welcomed his son and future daughter-in-law into was quickly filling up with tension. So much so that Brendan just sat down on the couch next to Jade, pursing his lips. With how things had escalated, he figured it best to jump right in to pick up their conversation from Twitter. It was high time to put everything out in the open.
Without looking up, Brendan started, “Well. Here we are, Dad. Let’s finally talk. I believe I’ve said my piece. Your turn. Thanks for inviting us to your home, by the way. Now you’ve got nowhere to run to until we’re done.”
That probably sounded more snarky than he meant to but he had run out of patience with Nate. The old man did turn his back on him and left him in the hands of The Society to be beaten down using his signature bat in front of the whole world.
Nathan, a man who usually showed no emotion in public, was clearly feeling a wave of them in front of his eldest son and future daughter-in-law. Nathan rubbed his hands together nervously and shook his head. “I didn’t want it to come to this, son. I did everything in my power to protect and shield you and your brothers from all of this bullshit.”
Nathan sighed again and shook his head before he stood up and walked toward Brendan and he pulled out a note. He handed it over to Brendan and didn’t say a word. No, he just let Brendan read it. The note was clearly old, the white paper crumpled up and the writing barely legible. But Brendan did his best to read over it, with Jade leaning in near him and reading along with him.
“Nathan, if you value the life of your children, then you’ll keep on making payments to make up for your wife’s debt. Miss another payment again? Then you’ll lose another person you care about, starting with the youngest. Needless to say? They’ll be swimming in the Boston River with your wife.”
Nathan stood there, studying over Brendan and Jade as they read through it. His fingers were fidgeting, which was very uncharacteristic of him. As for Brendan, he sat there frozen while reading the words over and over again.
He finally looked up, trying to keep his train of thoughts under control. “Are you still… still making these payments to whoever wrote this? Who is it? And what did Ma do???”
Nathan laughed and shook his head. “No. I stopped making the payments this year thanks to some… financial backings. But who knew that your mother faked her death and then helped those assholes to squeeze money out of me?”
Nathan scoffed and threw his hands up in the air before sitting back down.
“Your mother had a gambling addiction. One that constantly put our family in danger. I covered her ass and I protected yours for god knows how long. And I never uttered a single bad word about your mother. Not once.”
Nathan leaned forward and placed a hand on Brendan’s shoulder. “So why? Why would I turn on your mother if she magically appeared, which she did? No, she immediately turned on me, blamed me and then tried to turn all of you kids on me under some false pretenses. She’s up to no good and once again, putting you all in danger. You all got hurt but does she care? Has she gone to visit Liam in the hospital? No.”
Brendan cringed. “Will you stop? Just back up for a second!”
He threw the note on the coffee table and pointed at it.
“Gambling addiction? It went THAT far and neither of you told us about it? And– and– and what financial backings, Dad? Every time you go into business, you’d run into money issues and I guess this explains it. But you’re not owing anybody else money, are you? Should we be expecting another financial problem with Liberty Pro six months from now? Dad, you know if you need help, you can talk to me. Why the hell did you put yourself through all that alone with Ma’s thing when you weren’t actually alone? You’ve got us.”
His voice started to crack a little but he cleared his throat as he pushed ahead.
“But what you’re telling me, it still doesn’t add up to what she said, Dad. She said you were the reason why Ryan got thrown into prison. Was that because you missed a payment? And why did she also say that you’re also the real reason why she had to disappear and that she’s the one who’s been doing the protecting, not you? Was she lying? Why would she lie about all of that in front of the entire world on the Liberation show? Why would she say that?”
Nathan snapped back.
“Shut the fuck up, Brendan!”
Nate placed his hands on his head and closed his eyes as he took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “Calm the fuck down with all the questions. I did it all on my own to protect you four. I legitimately thought your mother was dead. As for Ryan? It’s my fault because they ordered him to take the fall in his boxing matches. I told him not to do it and that I’d handle it. Clearly, I wasn’t able to do that. And your mom? The only way she would know about your brother is if she jumped to the other side. So use your brain, kid. Your mother joined up with the Irish mob and left us with her debts and problems.”
Nathan scoffed and shook his head. “She probably told those idiots about Ryan and that he was a golden goose to gamble on. I don’t know for sure but that’s what it seems like. And why would she lie? You’re asking the wrong guy, son. The only person who knows why she’d lie about all of it is your mother. But if you asked her? I don’t think she’d give you a clear answer.”
For a long moment, Brendan kept quiet as he studied his father, trying to see if he was lying or not. But as always, the old man was a closed book to him. Still though, at least he was answering his questions this time. Yet the more Nate shared, the more Brendan realized how much he didn’t know about his own parents. Especially his mother. And maybe that’s why when she suddenly returned to their lives after 10 years, he took her in with no questions asked. Even though for 10 years, they had all thought she was dead. Joined the Irish mob? No way, not Ma! She would never! What would she even do being part of it? Plus, she wouldn’t just up and leave him and his brothers without a word, right? Why would she lie for 10 years? Didn’t she care about them?
So maybe Nate was right: Brendan’s asking the wrong person. But knowing two sides of the story would be useful and after No Man’s Land, Brendan needed answers. Tonight, at least, he could settle for half of them.
With a sigh, Brendan asked, “Is that everything, Dad? Or is there something else you’re hiding from me? Because you should know by now that keeping secrets like this will just mess things up in the future. And you’ve got a new family and everything now, you need to know you can’t do things like that by yourself anymore. I know you were just trying to protect us, Dad, and I appreciate that. But from now on, if you need help, just ask.”
He took another sigh.
“And about Ma, you’re right. I should ask her too about everything. It’s not like that thought never crossed my mind. But every time I would meet her or pick up the phone to call her, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. She was gone for 10 years and now she’s back… It still feels surreal. But yeah, I’ll talk to her. We all deserve to know the truth.”
Nathan started to turn red. After everything he told Brendan, even showing him the note demanding money, Brendan still didn’t fully believe him.
“What the fuck do you want me to say? Tell you about every time that I paid off these assholes? Tell you how they would mock me and I just had to take it for the sake of you four ungrateful assholes?”
The old man scoffed before he leaned forward and grabbed Brendan by his shirt. “Why do you think your brother Sean disappeared after your little match? He came and talked to me after talking to your mother. He just up and left without a word because he knew that he fucked up and chose the wrong side. You all betrayed me first and now you have the balls to come here, in the house I fucking raised you and protected you in, sheltered you in, and QUESTION ME!?”
Before Nathan could go on or Brendan could reply, Jade stepped in between them, pushing Nathan away as she looked at him with those dead serious eyes of hers.
“Back off Nate. Brendan’s clearly going through a lot and doesn’t have the facts that you do. The facts that you’ve been withholding for a long, long time. Imagine what it’s like losing your mother for ten years and then she comes back. And instead of having a happy family again, your parents are pulling you into two different directions.”
Nathan listened to her before nodding and backing away a bit before taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly. Jade turned and placed both hands on Brendan’s cheeks as she peered into his eyes and this time, the look she gave was different than the one she gave Nathan. This one was loving and nurturing.
“Babe, this is obviously a lot to take in and I understand that it’s all confusing and it hurts and you just want to get down to the absolute truth. But for now? Let’s just go home and I’ll make you those special tacos you love so much.”
Nathan scoffed and rolled his eyes. “God, you baby him so much.”
Jade’s gaze snapped towards Nathan and her gaze changed quickly, as she now had a fire in her eyes. “Don’t comment on our relationship when it’s clear that all of yours before the twins were a sham.”
Nathan held his hands out innocently. “Alright, alright… just take those serial killer eyes off of me. First Paz and now you. Fucking crazy Latinas.”
“Hey!” Brendan protested, clearly offended at that last sniped remark from Nate. And it was all it took to bring back the anger in him as he got into his father’s face.
“Don’t talk to her like that! And again, I didn’t choose Ma’s side over yours. Sean and Ryan asked me and of course after what The Society did to Liam, which you let happen by the way, I agreed to help in a heartbeat! Like I said before, I never did this for anyone but my brothers! And you know what? I’m glad I did. Because after everything that you claimed to do for us, protect us, whatever, you still treated us like shit anyway,” he pointed to the back of his head, “I can still feel that bat that idiot hit me with at No Man’s Land, thanks to you, Dad.”
He backed off, shaking his head. In fact, he could feel his hands shaking too because of how upset he was again.
“I’m done here. You can go back to being a sad, petty old man again. I don’t give a fuck anymore. Let’s go, Jade.”
He brushed past Nate without saying goodbye, no longer wanting to even look at him at this point. Jade gave Nate a very disapproving look as she followed after Brendan, a concerned look on her face as she caught up to him.
“Hey! Wait for me!” She grabbed his hand and stopped him before grabbing his other hand in hers as well. She could feel his hands still shaking. “Hey, look at me, alright? Don’t let him get under your skin. You’re right, he is a petty old man, but you’re above that, alright? You’re a good person. Don’t ever lose sight of that. Because I know that I never will when I look at you.”
With his head bowed, he held her hands tightly and took a deep breath.
“Thanks… I don’t know what I’d do without you, Jade. Seriously. It’s always so hard dealing with him, you know. I just thought it would change now that he’s got a new family to take care of. Because then I’ll know I have hope, like when we will have our own kids later, you know? But it’s okay, now I know. I just have to keep working on not being like him. I’ll be different.”
“Hey…” Jade pulled Brendan closer to her, her normally stern brown eyes now very soft and loving. “I know it’ll be different. You’re a good man and I knew it the moment I laid eyes on you. You’re different and I can’t wait for us to start a family together and I KNOW that you will be the best father ever. So definitely don’t overthink that. You’re going to be amazing and I love you.” She leaned in and kissed him softly before leaning back and smiling. “Let’s get you home so that I can help you relax, yeah?”
That brought an appreciative smile to Brendan’s face as he looked into her eyes.
“I love you too, Jade. And yeah, let’s go home.”
They shared another kiss before separating to get into the car to head back to their place. Brendan was feeling slightly better, thanks to Jade. But there, still sitting in the back of his mind, was the uneasiness that he knew was to come with finally sitting down for a talk with Lily, the same way he had tonight with Nate. Yet, as difficult as he felt that conversation would be too, he knew it was going to be okay with Jade beside him.