I pulled my face out of his chest and tipped my head back to look at him. “Unfortunately, I really do need to go to work. I’ll explain what’s going down, read the pulse, and then I’ll know. I’ll, uh… call dad on a break or something.”
He nodded.
“I knew this day would turn shit,” I whispered. “I knew with how great it started, there’d be farther to fall.”
His eyes flashed, his hands moved to cup my jaws, he tilted my head way back, and brought his face to mine.
“May feel like you’re fallin’, Tabby, but remember, I’m at the bottom ready to catch you.”
At these beautiful words, I burst into tears again.
Without hesitation, Shy yanked me back into his arms and held me.
There it was.
I’d reached bottom and I was crying, because I didn’t realize it at the time, but he’d already caught me.
And it felt beautiful.
* * *
Shy
Shy stood on the sidewalk and watched Tab pull out to drive to work. The minute she started rolling, turning to give him a wave, he jerked his chin up to her, waited for her attention to go back to the road, then his eyes moved to the man on the bike across the parking lot who he’d seen the minute he’d walked her down.
Luckily, she didn’t notice.
Shy stood where he was and crossed his arms on his chest as he watched Tack throw a leg over his bike and move his way.
It wasn’t until he stopped three feet away when Shy spoke. “This gonna get ugly, or can you contain your shit so we can do this in Tab’s apartment?”
Tack held his eyes then said quietly, “Not ugly, brother.”
Shy jerked up his chin, turned, and led the way up the stairs and into Tabby’s place.
He moved in five steps, turned to Tack, and watched him close the door.
“It would be cool,” he started the minute Tack turned to him, “if we can keep things good while Tab deals. You know more than me she isn’t tight with her grandma, but she’s still feelin’ this. I haven’t had the chance to talk to her about it, but she’s also feelin’ the fact that her mother showed to share this yesterday but instead she led into that by layin’ into Tabby. You also know she’s got other shit on her mind. You, me, the Club. One last favor I’ll ask of you is you don’t make her feel that until she’s done feelin’ this.”
He watched Tack’s mouth get tight before the man spoke.
“You don’t have to ask me that shit.”
“Wouldn’t think so until the shit you’ve been pullin’. Now I feel I gotta ask,” Shy replied.
Tack’s mouth got tight again.
“We good on that?” Shy prompted when Tack said nothing, and Tack jerked up his chin. “Good,” he finished on a mutter.
“That other shit, brother, we gotta have words,” Tack declared.
“You’ve said your words, Tack. You got other words, I’ll listen. But, mark me, I’ve heard every word you’ve said the last four days.”
“I think you get me,” Tack returned.
“Oh yeah, I get you,” Shy agreed.
Tack studied him. Then quietly, he stated, “She’s my only daughter, man.”
“And she’s the only woman I’ve ever loved, Tack,” Shy shot back instantly.
“I’m seein’ that,” Tack murmured, his lips twitching.
Shy didn’t find one fucking thing amusing so he clipped, “Well, brother, finally.”
“I was pissed as all fuck when I said that shit to you about not knowin’ what love is,” Tack explained.
“Know that,” Shy returned. “Also know four days have passed since you took it back.”
“Three days passed before you showed me you walked the walk, not just talked the talk,” Tack retorted.
Fuck, he had to give him that.
Shy said nothing.
“You know me. She knows me. You knew the way I’d react and that’s why you both hid that shit from me,” Tack continued.
“Yep,” Shy confirmed. “And you know me, brother, and, outta respect for you, you know I would never, not fuckin’ ever go there with Tabby unless it was real. I get your reaction. I just don’t get that days have gone by and you haven’t seemed to get why we would move to manage it.”
“Yesterday, Tyra explained some things to me,” Tack shared.
“Thrilled, brother,” Shy replied, and Tack’s eyes narrowed.
“You’re missin’ this,” he warned low, “but I’m wavin’ a white flag here, Shy.”
“I’m not missin’ shit,” Shy bit out. “It has not been lost on me, since I’ve been fuckin’ there watchin’ her girl Natalie lay into her about us and, seriously, man, that woman has got a mouth on her. It was not easy not tossin’ her ass out the way she talked to my woman, but Tabby felt it was time for a fuckin’ intervention so she wouldn’t fuckin’ let me. I’ve been there too, dealin’ with her worry that her girl has not returned one single call she’s made and, brother, she calls that bitch every day to smooth the waters and she’s got nothing. I was also there to overhear my brother givin’ her shit, testin’ her to see if she’s on the rebound from that guy and usin’ me.”
Tack’s eyes flashed but Shy was far from done.
“I was there, watchin’ her take her brother’s shit when he fuckin’ called and laid into her. I was there, watchin’ her worry ’cause you and your woman would not speak to her. And I saw her pissed off and in pain yesterday when she saw what you were doin’ to me and she was stuck, torn between her man and her family. Honestly? I do not give one fuck what you or any member decides to do to me. What I give a fuck about is that you’re puttin’ my woman through the fuckin’ ringer a year after she went through the fuckin’ ringer and, brother, I am not down with that. So wave your goddamned white flag, but if Tab isn’t feelin’ you, I won’t feel you.”
Tack’s eyes were intense but his lips were twitching again when he muttered, “She’ll feel me.”
“I suspect she will,” Shy agreed. “You’re a hard act to follow. Luckily, when I got my shot at beauty, I had a blood father who showed me the way with the way he treated my mom and a brother of the cut who showed me the way with the way he treated his family and his old lady. Until recently,” Shy stated, and saw Tack’s jaw get hard so he knew the man didn’t miss his meaning. “Then I had to wing it,” he finished.
Tack unclenched his jaw to share, “Your point is made, brother.”
“Good.”
“You don’t have a family, a daughter. When you do, you’ll get it,” Tack went on.
“I hope to fuck I will,” Shy told him and watched Tack’s head jerk with surprise, and he didn’t quite hide his look of fatherly pain. The thought of his girl as a woman was clearly something he had not quite processed, even if she had once been engaged.
So Shy lowered his voice and reminded him, “She’s not your little girl anymore, not like that. She may always be your little girl in some ways, brother, but not like that. You gave me the chance, I would have told you, this is solid. We started out and it was friends. That wasn’t what I wanted, it was what she needed, so I gave it to her. We built on that. The foundation is laid and it’s the kind that holds fast. This is it, brother. We’re livin’ together. Soon’s we can do it, we’re movin’ to a better fuckin’ place so I can provide her a decent home. I’m puttin’ my ring on her finger, I’m givin’ her babies, and when she’s laid to rest, that ring I give her will still be on her finger. I see you’re accepting this now, so you need it all and there it is. I was a part of an us and I was happy. Some motherfucker killed my parents and took that from me, so life forced me to become nothin’ but a me. Now I’m an us again, and that’s what I’ll be with my woman and the family we make until the day I fucking die.”