32
1706 Words
Throwing a punch, Markus missed the target, leaving himself open to Memphis’ next move. Scowling as his best friend got him down again, he beat his fist off the canvas floor. His mind swam with the events from the day before, taking over every corner of his psyche as he tried to focus on training.
Again, his mind wandered to what he’d watched yesterday. To the sexy, sweaty way his boyfriend moved his body. Jaxon’s abilities made him think of a shark fin cutting through water. The smooth, fluid ways that he seemed to see Russell’s attacks coming, mentally formulating a way to counter them while reacting without really thinking. He could tell that—
“Mark!” Memphis’s voice cut his train of thought.
Looking up at his fuming friend, he noted that the man was no longer there. Raising a brow, he sighed as he got up, remaining in a cross-legged position as Memphis sat on a nearby chair. His arms were occupied with his now awake three-year-old toddler as the boy happily munched away on the pint of mixed berries his father handed him. “Should he be eating that at his age?”
“You’re going to tell me how to raise my kid? If that’s the case, I dare you to say that to his mother,” Memphis challenged.
“You changed, man. You would have laughed your ass off at something like that before,” Markus said with a grunt.
Taken aback by the comment, Memphis sighed. Looking down at his son, he put the lid back on the container and put it back in his bag. Pulling out a picture book, he didn’t bother looking up as he said, “I had someone to change for, and it wasn’t my wife. She’s a beast, yes, but she never asked me to change who I was for her.”
“Then why?” Curious to know what his friend would say, Markus pressed the issue. There had to be a reason for the seemingly drastic changes he’d seen happen over the last four years. “I mean, there had to be something worth changing for, right?”
Knowing what the other man was trying to get out of him, Memphis barked a laugh. Shockingly, the boy didn’t seem bothered by it at all. Instead, Francis simply looked up at his father with a narrowed gaze. “Don’t look at me like that. Mark, we can talk in a minute because I have a schedule to keep. Thankfully, though it’s my day out with him, Frankie seems to be doing okay with Daddy having a bit of time to spar with his friend, don’t you?”
“Yes, Daddy,” the boy said. His brown eyes flashed with curiosity as he looked at the book. “I can read it all by myself.”
“Can you, now? Who helped you with that?” Memphis asked, humored by his son’s innocent statement.
“Grand-père Thomas,” Francis replied proudly.
Grinning at his good luck, Memphis ruffled his son’s head of brown curls. “That’s awesome, little man. Do you want to read by yourself while Daddy and Uncle Mark finish up?”
“Okay, Papa.”
Watching the father and son interacting, Markus realized at least one thing about his own personality that had to change. It would definitely be something that had to go, something he needed to learn how to turn off now that he was older and no longer had to help his father take care of his baby brother. “How do you do it?”
“What?” Breathing deeply, Memphis refrained from cursing out his best friend. Despite knowing that his schedule was swamped between university, his child, the MC he and his wife ran, and pitching in with housework, Markus begged him to come to a training session. In all honesty, he was sorely tempted to let his best friend fall flat on his ass.
“How do you turn off dad mode when you’re alone with Kennedy?” Markus asked.
Groaning, Memphis thanked God that his son was extraordinarily patient and calm for an almost four-year-old. “Well, to answer the question you asked me earlier, I wouldn’t even change for my father, let alone my wife. I changed because I had a family to protect, and enemies that wouldn’t mind taking a potshot at my pregnant woman. When s**t went down for us, she was always there, and I had to be the same, but it was for Frankie that I really sat down to figure out what and how I wanted to live my life. I had to show my boy how to be a man, after all.”
“Deep,” Markus grunted as he sat down, dangling his legs over the edge of the ring.
Laughing under his breath, Memphis looked down as Francis ran over to them. Holding up the book, he crouched down to answer his son when the child asked him to help with a word he didn’t know. When he stood back up, he leaned his back against the mat and sighed. “He’s such an amazing kid, I sometimes wonder if he’s real or not. Then he goes and does something that reminds me of myself when I was a kid, and I can’t help but love him that much more. I’d love to have another one, but I’m waiting for Kenni to be ready first. Now, for that second question about how to turn off dad mode? It took a while to learn, but it’s all in forcing your brain to reset when talking to other adults.”
“That’s it?”
“Pretty much, yeah. You talk to kids at their level, meaning the level on which they can completely understand you. You learn to watch your language, your movements, and your temper when a little one is watching and soaking up your every example. With adults, it’s different. You can chat however you want to when there are no tiny sponges around,” Memphis explained.
Markus smirked, his eyes taking on a tender light as he glanced at the boy sitting on the mats. “What about your father?”
“Dad’s in his glory right now. He’s got me where he wanted me to be, he’s got Kennedy – who he’s now head-over-heels for. Don’t worry, not romantically. He loves how she is now that he’s seen her in action around me, Francis, and the club,” Memphis laughed as Mark gave him a strange look.
“How’s he liking being a grandpa?”
Memphis scoffed, “You’re kidding, right? My kid is his fishing buddy, and Kennedy encourages us to take him on guys-only weekends where we go camping, hunting, fishing, or anything else Frankie wants to do. She usually takes that time to catch up with the girls or deal with any paperwork that didn’t get done during the week. For example, proofreading my assignments before I hand them in. Come to the park with us.”
“Why?” Mark asked, incredulous.
“Francis, come be a pest for me, buddy. It’s time to go to the park, and Daddy’s not done talking to his friend,” Memphis called out.
Standing back, he waited, running the stopwatch on his phone to see just how long before Mark snapped under his son’s pleading. At the eight minute mark, his best friend finally caved. Noting the information, he smirked as he understood that people who had no kids or siblings usually didn’t take long to break. People with siblings or children took more time, likely because they were desensitized to the pestering.
“Alright, okay! You are so much like your maman it’s not funny,” Markus groaned as he grabbed his jacket.
As they walked to the park, he thought more about how he’d been treating Jaxon over the years. He took in the way that the wind rustled the leaves of the various trees and hedges that lines the magnificent properties leading to the park, and the way that the warm sun beating down on them as it moved silently across the cloud and smog-covered skies of the big city. The way that Memphis and his toddler played amused him, especially when they hopped over the cracks in the sidewalk while Francis’ happy, trusting giggles filled the silent air between the two men.
Though Jaxon had changed gradually, he realized he had remained stuck on the rinse and repeat cycle. He continued to think of his boyfriend as a weakling when the opposite was more true than he cared to admit. His work in the garage and with the mob took most of his time, but he still managed to make room in his life for his family and boyfriend.
Sitting on the bench as Francis ran for the children’s play area, he huffed a breath. Leaning forward on his knees as he gave his personal issues a bit more attention, he licked his lips. Turning to his friend, he frowned, “You had an ulterior motive for getting him to get me to come along, didn’t you? That was underhanded, but it was so you.”
“Duh, I’m still me, but this way gives us time to talk while he’s off tuckering himself out.” Memphis replied with a husky laugh. His phone rang, and he answered it without looking. “Yeah? Nope, we’re at the park with Mark. Sure, Rigatoni sounds great for supper. Thanks, babe. I love you, too.”
Hanging up, he sighed as Mark smiled. “Kenni?”
“Yeah, she was just checking in. It’s something we do to help keep each other posted and informed about our plans and s**t. So, did anything work itself out in your head now that we’re away from it all and in the fresh air?” Memphis asked.
Smiling, Mark leaned back, his arms dangling over the back of the bench. “Yeah. Now I just got to figure out the other s**t before I lose Jax for good.”
“You’ll get it. I got faith in you, man,” Memphis replied.
- Writer
