Written In The Stars: Book Two

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN: BONDING

It was hot for a late September day, the sun in full force beating against his skin. If Elijah looked at just the right angle, his puff of smoke from his cigarette looked like the light gray clouds dotted in the sky. This wasn't the sort of day he expected. Elijah had gone to bed the night before, prepared to take on another shit morning. But even in his shit mornings, they brought him closer to Madeline. And every shit night had made it more difficult to deny it.

Madeline was right. Lady Luck had been following them around with a sick sense of humor. Every 'fuck you' moment they'd popped up over the last week had somehow acted as a catalyst to bring them closer together.

When Elijah heard the slide of the patio door, he glanced back only for a moment before returning his attention to the sky, taking another puff of his cigarette.

Kevin sat in the chair beside him, spreading out his legs and leaning back. "That family of yours is something," he spoke after a little time had passed. "I'm happy you had them."

Elijah gave a half nod, took one more puff, and put the cigarette out with his foot. "I am, too. I don't even want to think about where I'd be without them. Be long gone, probably. Found in some ditch or dead in my apartment. Mitch saved my life more than once. They both did. Gave me money to start a new life, made me want to be better, picked me up out of my puke, drove me to rehab. Mitch spent two years by my side, coming back constantly, even though I knew it was causing him pain, just to remind me I wasn't my father."

"I struggled with my son, too," Kevin admitted as he dropped his linked hands against his legs. "He was a star athlete, brilliant student, popular. Then he went off to college, and that taste of freedom got the best of him. Drugs, booze. You name it. Flunked out sophomore year. I tried to stand by his side and help him through it, but he just pushed me away. Disappeared for six months once."

"How's he doing now?"

"He's better," Kevin answered, before giving a shrug. "Right now, he's six months sober. Been working for my older son's construction company for a couple of months, and he seems okay."

When Elijah joined them at the diner the day before, minus the obvious likeness in appearance, he thought he had little to nothing in common with the guy. There was nothing to base that on, of course, just Elijah being closed off to a person he was uncertain if he could trust.

But Elijah spent a lot of years working construction, and Kevin's older son had his own construction company. Elijah spent years fighting his own demons, and fucked up his life with his drinking, just like the younger son. Except Elijah had fucked things up before he reached for the bottle. At this point, Elijah looked back at that time as his salvation, forcing himself to take a long hard look at his own life once he lost the battle he'd waged against himself.

"I worked construction," Elijah told his uncle. "I've been building a house where I tore my dad's house down. Only had a few months left of work to do before this all happened."

"You planning on living there?"

Elijah shrugged, fighting the urge to light another cigarette. He only allowed himself five a day at most, figuring it'd be easier to quit that way. "Nah. Before all this happened, I wasn't going to force Madeline to face me every time she went to visit her parents. Now? As much as I love those two, if I'm going to build a life with her, you never do it next door to your parents. That shit's just not healthy.

"I remember moving here when I was around twenty-eight, and this city felt like home for the first time. There was just this draw. Two years later I found Madeline, and I were living in the same city, and figured out why that was. I wasn't drawn to the city, it drew me to her. That's why I didn't move away after the breakup. Whereever she calls home, that's where I'll be."

Kevin let out a laugh and scratched his neck. "When you walked into that diner, my first thought was, 'that guy could probably pick me up and chuck me right out a window if I pissed him off enough. But it turns out you're this big, muscular puppy dog."

Elijah dropped his head and shook it, then chuckled. "I spent a year and a half in prison for assault, so I wouldn't test that theory too much. Madeline's the one who keeps me calm. Used to call it her superpower."

"You're completely in love with that girl, aren't you?" Kevin asked, though his tone never spoke it as a question.

There was never hiding the fact Elijah was in love with her. He could suppress it for short periods, pushing it back just a little, but the truth was always right there for anyone who looked closely to see. The love he had for that woman was one you could see in everything. His eyes, his voice, his body language. The truth etched all across him.

"I am. She was in my life damn near every single day for seven years, and it's strange to look back on with just how close we were, considering the age difference. It wasn't just that Mitch and Mary paid me to babysit the little girl next door, I genuinely wanted to be there. I never felt too cool to hang out with her, or felt like I was outgrowing her and our friendship.

"Our connections obviously evolved, but it started... God... twenty-three years ago. Twenty-three years ago next month, she saw me drop something I was trying to get out of Harrison's truck, and she ran away from her mom and over to me, and picked up one of my comic books. She asked me if I was her neighbor, and when I said yes, she asked if I wanted to be her best friend.

"I remember being so close to just blowing her off and telling her to find a friend her own age, but then I looked over at her for the first time, and saw those crazy curls and those giant eyes, and the smile that went on for miles. I've never seen a toddler with that much hair," Elijah told his uncle in a laugh. "But it was that smile of hers that did me in. I thought about how it would disappear if I told her 'no', and I couldn't do it. I don't know why. Even back then, I was such a closed off kid and preferred being a loner.

"When I told her I'd be her friend, I never realized just how much that small decision would affect my life, and how much letting that little girl into my life would change who I was. That girl has saved my life time and time again, even when she was at a distance. Honestly, my heart never stood a chance against her."

"She's a very special woman," Kevin agreed, just as his phone buzzed in his pocket. He took a few moments to read whatever was on the screen before turning his attention back to Elijah. "Apparently my older son, Jeremy, wants to throw a get-together at his house. He says, and I quote, 'let him know there's no way of getting out of it."

Elijah gave him a slow nod, a smile playing at his lips. He supposed he must have been like a phantom to this family for so many years. The missing link found thirty-four years later. As much as Elijah didn't want the attention, there really was no avoiding it short of cutting them all off, which he had no intention of doing. He'd thought about it briefly, tempted to not even allow Kevin into his apartment, but the more he got to know him, the more he wanted to get to know everyone else.

Fortunately, his grandparents had only borne two children, so there wasn't this giant family to bombard him. Plus, it would be nice for Madeline to spend the day out of the house. "Tell him to keep it small."