Mahogany Desires

Chapter 23

-A week later

                            A DARK STORM was brewing on the horizon as Jason stood in front of his father’s grave with his mom to his left and Brandon and Victor to his right. With the strong but warm wind picking up and tossing their hair around, they stood in pure and utter silence as Jason read the tombstone over and over again.

“Here lies Steven Jamie Mills

An honest, loving and hardworking husband and father

DOB: Dec. 14, 1954 – DOD: July 23, 2009

You’ll be missed”

Two years. Today made it two years since his father’s death and it still brought a stinging pain to his stomach and clenched his heart.

He missed his father like hell.

Jason’s lips twitched up into a wry smile. If Steven was still alive, he and Drake would’ve probably made up by now. He would never let his two sons fight for too long. He would’ve given his famous “you two are brothers” speech while smoking a cigar and stabbing a stubby index finger onto their chest as he towered over them with his deep green eyes daring them to go against his words.

Jason and Drake were really their father’s sons. They matched his features almost from head to toe. Their height, their dark brooding green eyes –though different shades—were similar, their shapely square jaws, their Greek styled nose and their heart stopping smile.

The only thing that wasn’t inherited from their father was their dark hair; that was a gift from their mother, Julian. While their father had a head full of chestnut brown hair, their mother had dark brown, almost black silky tresses that flowed down her back.

Her light brown eyes that used to shine so brightly had dimed since finding out that her husband was plagued with lung cancer. She emitted a ghost of depression now and Jason worried about her. No doubt that she was still a beautiful woman but the crows feet beside her eyes and the red bags underneath them were a tell tale sign of her still fighting to come to terms with her husband being gone.

Turning his head to his left, Jason slipped his hands into his mother’s and gave it a reassuring squeeze. He watched her forced a smile onto her face and squeezed his hand back before bringing it up to her chest and encasing it with her other hand. Her demeanor sent his senses onto high alert. She looked as if she would crumble right at the spot that she was occupying.

“Mom… ” Jason softly said.

“I’m alright Jace.”

He helplessly smiled down at his mom as she called him by the childhood nickname that his parents gave him. He knew that she was trying to be strong in front of him but her face told him a whole other story. “Are you sure?”

“Yes sweetie, I’m sure. But are you boys going to tell me why Drake isn’t here?”

“Uhh...”

“Umm…” Victor and Brandon uttered as they turned their eyes on Jason who brows suddenly creased at the mention of his devious brother.

“Maybe we should leave.” Victor commented.

“No, stay.” Julian said in her no nonsense voice. “Where’s Drake?”

Nobody answered.

“I will not ask again.” She snapped.

Jason shrugged. “He’s probably out getting high or something. I don’t know and I don’t care.” Jason quipped acidly.

Julian’s brows creased into a frown as she gave her present son an accusing look. “What did you two fight about?”