Trying To Heal

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Derek

"I am going to be an uncle?"

"Out of everything I said, that is what you picked?"

"I am going to be an aunt?" gasps Penny.

Luke saunters into the living room, in a wool robe of white shades and night attire underneath. "Who is going to be an aunt and uncle?"

Tanner replies, "Derek is considering adopting Tareq, Harlow and Parker."

"I suppose that is why you took us there yesterday."

"I want to do it after my education is finished. It is reasonable then. In the meantime, they should be accustomed to you."

Luke sits on the sofa. "'Derek Matthews, the single father'. It has a ring to it."

"I am going to discuss this with Parker first this September."

"Derek, are you certain you can do this?" says Penny. "Become a single father at a young age? It is a lifestyle — a hard one. You have signed the apprenticeship contract for the CEO position of the Industry. No doubt in three years or so, you will be the head of the table."

"I do not mind being the cool uncle," adds Tanner. "But you met the children so recently."

"I cannot explain why I feel this is right, Tan."

Penny crosses her arms. "What about the Families?"

"The Families have relations." Bored, Luke picks up a newspaper on the coffee table and begins reading the front page. "They have conventional lives."

"These children's perspectives of normality are substantially different," protests Penny. "They were not born into generational wealth like us. Not that is a bad thing. But ... You are the Matthews. Three men full of emotional immaturity—"

Tanner scowls. "Emotional immaturity?"

"In case you have forgotten, Derek broke the jaw of our cousins with a ballet. He was not tentative to."

"And I will do it again."

"You tend to leave a trail of blood and corpses in your awakening."

"And the Everstons do not?"

"You three are difficult to deal with. It is bad enough I have to suffer your presence, but envisage how children and your wives or husbands would feel."

I laugh humorlessly, beginning, "Penelope..."

"Do you really think so low of us?" said Luke.

"Or are you frustrated that we 'scared off' boys of your interest?" finished Tanner.

Penny glances between us. "I am trying to live a normal life and you are preventing that!"

"By wasting your time with boys who do not wash their cracked arses?"

I sigh. "Penny, we just want the best for you—"

"Sometimes, your idea of 'the best' is not my idea!"

"—If you want to get heartbroken, go ahead."

"Do not come crying on our doorstep," grunted Tanner.

"Some of these boys are good."

"Are they?"

"Yes!" she argues. "Like Jason Fallon!"

Tanner scoffs. "Any boy who's name starts with a 'J' is untrustworthy."

"So Jackson Saint is untrustworthy?"