Dad takes a deep, sobering breath and gives Aunt Jade an exasperated look. I know that look. He’s reaching his endpoint with this conversation.
“This is what we’re going to do, Jade. We’re going to put security on Cutter and Sloan’s boys, which will be easy. The universities are pretty flexible about things like that when you give a big enough donation. Duchess, we’re going to do the same thing for the twins.”
“What?!” Bronx protests. “We don’t need any rent-a-cop protecting us.”
I reach over and playfully slap him upside his head.
“Shut up, Bronx. Just pretend you’re a rapper. Drake uses security wherever he goes, too. People will think you’re a baller.”
“Oh yeah, I never thought about it like that.” Now his eyes light up. “Maybe we should get our own driver too.”
Seven still has his head in the phone but chuckles to himself. Maybe he’s been paying more attention to this conversation than I thought.
“Stone, Ariana, because of your special circumstances you should do all drop offs and pick-ups to school, no bus rides, and no extra-curricular activities unless one of you is there the whole time.”
They both nod. “Agreed.”
Uncle Stone and Aunt Ariana foster an eight-year-old boy and are in the middle of adoption proceedings. I imagine the state wouldn’t allow them to pull him out of school for any reason and even if they did, that wouldn’t look too good to a judge awarding custody.
"I'll leave it up to you and Cam on what you want to do about Benji. He's grown and can obviously take care of himself but he should at least know what's going on."
"Done," Uncle Camden agrees. “I’ll get word to him.”
“And Gigi?” Aunt Jade asks for the millionth time.
“Knox will go stay with Gigi so she doesn’t have to uproot herself.”
“Wait, what!?” I exclaim, thinking that my father must have consumed more whiskey than he should have tonight.
The twins both break out into laughter at my expense. They probably know more than anyone in this room how much of a calamity that Gigi and I in the same living space would be.
In this moment, I become a kid again and turn towards my Mom for some sensible support. My dad may be the captain of this ship, but in my house, my Mom is the one who really does all the steering.
“Mom?”
My mother sighs and appears contemplative for a moment. She looks over at Aunt Jade, who has an expression on her face that I can’t read, but evidently my Mom can understand.
“Knox, she lives an hour away.”
“I can get to her in thirty from up here if I need to.”
“Okay, but thirty minutes away is still a long time.”
“The fact is that we know and trust that you can handle yourself if the time should ever arise,” Dad says.
“But I just got here,” I protest.
“It’s only temporary.”
“But–“
Seven’s eyes flick up to mine. It’s a warning between brothers that we give to each other when we’re walking over a line and headed toward a cliff with one of our parents. Seven has always been the intuitive one of the twins.
“Can we move there too?” Bronx asks as he winks his eye at me. It may his attempt to add some levity to the situation, but I also haven’t forgotten that he’s had a crush on Gigi since he was twelve. His horny ass would probably love to move in with her.
“Absolutely not,” Mom chuckles, not totally understanding the inside joke.
“Dad, can I talk to you in the hall for a second?” I ask him.
“You can say whatever you need to at this table,” Grandpa Joe interjects. “We don’t have private side conversations at family meetings.”
“Speak,” my father commands. “We’re all family.”
I hesitate for a moment because I don’t want to piss off Aunt Jade or Uncle Cam any more than they are, but if I don’t stand up for myself right now, I’m going to be stuck taking care of Gigi King until I’m a senior citizen.
“I’m doing actual work in the business and you want me to be a babysitter again?”
“Actual work?” Uncle Cutter snickers. “You mean that long ass vacation you took in Miami over the last few years? Looks like the only thing you worked on was your tan, nephew.”
Everyone here knows that it was never the plan for me to live in Miami for the last few years, unfortunately it was my only choice. I used to feel embarrassed about it because kids my age were in college making their parents proud, but I was lying low down south because of a few poor decisions I made.
Now I’ve come to terms with my choices and realize that everything happens for a reason. I was supposed to be in Florida learning from Aunt Kat and maturing all this time, just like today I’m supposed to be back home for however long I’m supposed to be. I believe in destiny. I'm starting to believe that I'm always where I'm supposed to be on any given day.
“Part of working in the business is taking the minor jobs to build a foundation for the larger work,” Dad says to me.
“Put in the hours first,” Uncle Stone agrees.
“But this feels like I'm going backwards. I spent years in Miami with Aunt Kat doing work that matters and this is what you want me to do?”
Uncle Cam leans his massive body into the table towards me and says four words in a menacing tone, “Gigi does fucking matter.”
“I’ll do it!” Bronx wisecracks again, but everyone ignores him.
“Jade, you’re her mother and since Gigi’s not here to speak for herself, what do you think?” Mom asks.
Before Aunt Jade can respond, Uncle Cutter says his two cents. “Knox, this is not only what your family is asking from you but it should be something that you want to do. Gigi is damn near like your little sister. I don’t see what the problem is.”
“Only if you want to, Knox,” Aunt Jade says in an uncharacteristically defeated tone. “Otherwise, she comes home even if I have to go downtown and drag her ass out of there myself.”
I haven’t talked to Gigi that much over the last few years (on purpose), but there are still some things about her that I know for sure. I know that she desperately wants to be independent from her parents and especially from this life. I know that moving back to the suburbs would just about kill her. I know that me being sent to her apartment to keep an eye on her would piss her royally off. Yet I also know that a part of me would thoroughly enjoy that.
Fuck it, I’m in.
“I’ll do it.”
“You sure?” Uncle Camden asks and I know that there’s only one word which will be the right answer. He wasn’t really asking.
“Yes.”
“Good, we’re in agreement,” Dad says. “You just stay out of Gigi’s way and don’t be a nuisance. Shadow her just like I taught you.”
“I will, but can I ask how long you think I’ll need to do this?”
“If I taught your father anything, he should have this whole mess handled within the month,” Grandpa says to the room.
My Dad nods in agreement. “Definitely no longer than thirty days.”
“I’d call to tell the little brat that you’re coming, but she probably won’t pick up the phone,” Aunt Jade says.