First and Ten

by Michel Prince

  “You just suggested I marry her.”

  “There’s a choice to be made. You can only help so much. This won’t be her last time inpatient. Put money aside if you’re not going to get her on a better plan or expect to have her taken to county facilities in the future.”

  “Are you saying you won’t accept her?” Rome questioned.

  “I’m saying, the next time she breaks down, wherever that may be, if they see two government insurance cards on her, she’s going straight to a county facility.”

  Rome wanted everything settled in time for Dani’s dinner party. He wanted to be there for graduation. She would be making a step out into the world and Rome needed to offer himself and his son to be there on that journey. Only the best way he knew to figure it out was with her. They needed to talk. He needed to know what she thought of the situation so he could determine if he was giving up too much.

  First goal as a life coach, ban all graduations or at least advise people to celebrate on their own. Who needed inspirational speeches from heads of business? Better yet, don’t graduate from business school. Van Denordy told Dani he’d been asked to give the speech for the liberal arts college graduation. As usual, he put it off until the last minute and she’d ended up helping him with it over drinks a few nights before. And in conclusion, you’ve just wasted the cost of a house on a piece of paper all to say I didn’t sleep through all my classes. Maybe she should have taken out the wasted part, she told him to, didn’t she? It got a little blurry at one point. Thankfully they’d been drinking on the back patio as they watched the tent go up.

  Half the people around her were on their phones hitting up social media. Dani adjusted her sunglasses and prayed she’d put on enough sunscreen for the outdoor ceremony. Ryan Field could hold thousands, but the graduation was done in waves. If not, people would probably pass out. Still, the stadium looked packed. Insanity.

  Don’t slouch, a text vibrated Dani’s phone from her mother. She turned and looked in the massive stadium and wondered how the woman could pick her out in the middle of a thousand purple graduation caps. Finally, the president of the college stepped up and she could get her degree.

  “Danika Margaret Albright, Masters in Business, Summa Cum Laude…” Cheers came from the lower left side bleachers and Danika shook hands, moved her tassel from right to left, and waved to where the eruption of cheers had come from. Finally able to step down, she went back into the anonymous snaking line of graduates until she could make her way back to her seat. Although she wanted to toss her cap, she knew better. Her mother had a trophy room and at some point this would be shadow boxed and hung on a wall.

  Now the hard part, milling around on the field she didn’t know and if it would be better to go toward where she thought her family was. Or stand still and wait to be discovered?

  “Danika,” the deep voice of Jerome Speed caught her as she turned sharply and saw him standing with a bouquet of flowers and a card. Her stomach flipped, unsure if she was ready for the reunion. Two weeks of silence had made her bitter. “Congrats. Summa, that’s big.”

  Thousands of people were around them, but all Dani saw was Rome with a French blue button down with his sleeves rolled up. She could make out the dark tattoos on his arm. The noise from the crowd switched to a rushing noise like she had conch shells to her ears.

  “I know it’s hot, but a suit coat is customary,” she said and he stepped closer to her. “Ramona should have advised a linen suit. Humidity in Chicago can be killer.”

  “Guess I need a stylist.” He smiled. “My mom picked this out.”

  “Your mom?” she laughed a bit and took a step toward him. A few more and she could fall into his arms, but she wasn’t ready to forgive yet. He couldn’t just show up on a random Saturday and expect her to have time for him.

  “I’m not the one in purple poly-blends.”

  “Touché.” Dani let out a light laugh and fluffed her graduation gown.

  “Birdie,” her father barked as he found his way in between her and Rome. “I’ll ask you to leave.”

  “I was talking to Dani,” Rome said, stepping around her father.

  “Not here. There are cameras everywhere.”

  “I don’t care,” Rome protested, practically shoving the flowers in her hands, but her father batted them away.

  “That’s obvious,” her father said and locked his arm around her upper arm to drag her from the stadium.

  Dani looked back at Rome as he stood with the flowers pointing to the ground. All she could do was mouth the words I’m sorry before her father had her around a corner.

  “Dad,” she said as she started grasping what was happening. “Dad, stop.”

  “I’m not going to let him pull you into that mess of his life.”

  “Bill,” her mother gasped, finally catching up to him. “My goodness. What happened? One second you were there, then poof.”

  “Rome showed up,” Dani said. “And, Dad, I don’t even know…what was that? I’m not sixteen going to the prom with a Hell’s Angel.”

  “He’s not right for you.”

  “Why?” Dani cried. “What has he done to me? Nothing.”

  “The circles he runs in—”

  “Ran, and he didn’t even run in them. He prefers being at home. I’m the one who dragged him out.”

  “That’s why he has had two dozen paternity cases in the past few years,” he bit back and Dani’s stomach tightened.

  “Like I’m some virgin. Geez, Dad.” Not the right thing to say. That was immediately evident as her father’s face was the perfect reflection of a nuclear explosion.

  “He can have all the good intentions in the world, but he’s made bad choices and they aren’t wearing white after Labor Day. They’re permanent.”

  “At least he wasn’t afraid,” Dani challenged, losing a bit of respect for her father. “He took a chance and went more than fifty miles from home. When have you stepped out of Chicago and don’t say camping. That was Mom.”

  “Chicago has everything I need.”

  “You’re a billionaire, who if it weren’t for Mom, you’d be in a basement somewhere pissing into milk jugs.”

  “That’s not true. I just don’t see a need to spend money like it’s a sport.”

  “What do you think is going to happen?” Dani asked, choking back the burn of acid in her throat. “Even if you never made another trade or built a new business financially we’d be fine. Take a damn vacation. Chill out. Give the damn Malibu to charity.”

  “Hallelujah,” her mother praised, then realized it was out loud and turned around shoving Tawny and Jericho away from the show.

  “Look at you, speaking to me this way.”

  “Well someone needs to and everyone else is too damn afraid. I’m not afraid. You made me not afraid. I did this on my own,” she howled. “The only reason why I haven’t moved out is because I’ve been afraid of disappointing you. But I refuse to live in a box no matter how pretty it is.”

  Dani turned and took off back into the stadium. The bright sunlight hit her as she came out of the tunnel and looked for Rome, but he was gone. Her mother called for her but she held her hand up behind her. This wasn’t what she wanted, but it was time she grew up.

  Rome sat in his SUV with his elbow resting on his armrest, his thumb under his chin and his index finger against his lips. Beside him, the flowers lay dormant in the passenger seat. He wasn’t at a stoplight waiting for traffic to move. Parked at the North Avenue Beach he watched as families played, building sand castles and enjoying the day. His life afforded him the same pleasures. Sure he had times when he was in lockdown and had to stay at facilities away from his family, but this was the first year it mattered. DeMonte had been pawned off so many times and now, just as he’d found a home, he’d be pawned off to Jerome’s mother. At least he would have a home and a room, but he needed more. He deserved more.

  He had tried to go home, but he just couldn’t. There was a hole there. For the past y
ear he thought it was DeMonte, but that wasn’t it. He’d been in the house for over a week and came out of his shell after a few days. Rome wondered if that was the longest he’d been in one place. This morning he found a pile of clothes in a pillowcase under DeMonte’s bed. Are these clothes dirty? Rome asked. Do they need to be washed? DeMonte sucked on his thumb and looked up at Rome. When he dumped the clothes on the bed, most still had the tags on them and two of the cars DeMonte had been playing with the night before fell out. It was his luggage. Rome held his son for an hour as they watched a cartoon.

  “Sometimes Daddy has to leave for work, but you get to stay. This is your house, DeMonte, do you understand that?”

  “Uh-huh,” he replied and Rome’s heart ached as he looked at the boy who couldn’t comprehend.

  “Baby, you can’t fix three years in five days. Give that child time.”

  “Mama, I have to go to camp on Monday.” He also knew he needed to find Danika. To explain what happened and let her know he still considered her his woman. He needed to tell her how he felt in his heart. The heart she owned. But that meant leaving DeMonte again. He wasn’t going to repair a relationship with a child in tow. “You know how that is. Lockdown at the hotel when I’m not in class or training.”

  “I also know you have a few hours in the evenings. I’ll bring him up there. And we can talk on the computer every night.” His mother passed DeMonte a bowl of fruit. “Plus, he’ll see that his bed is there for him every night. Has he ever had that?”

  A vendor pushed a cart with Chicago style hot dogs down the sidewalk in front of Rome and he knew what he needed to do. He was going to the dinner party he’d been invited to and this time he wasn’t going to be a chicken shit. If he didn’t end up with Danika by the end of the night, he was turning in his man card.

  Danika had been and would always be the one he needed. She was the missing element in his home. Picking up his phone, he prepared to dial then told himself no. This was a face to face thing, but could he bring her into his life right as he was about to leave? Rome figured he already had. There had been no pressure from the start and the ease had caused him to miss the goal line.

  Turning over the engine, Rome backed out of the parking spot and headed up North Shore Drive. All his life he waited for an opening and when he missed it he had to make his own. William Albright might not like the public image Rome had, but man to man he knew Rome wasn’t a man to be messed with. He was the master of his own universe and with Danika by his side, he could become legendary. She made him look forward to a single day of the week. Knowing each morning that he could wake next to her didn’t scare him. Instead, his chest warmed at the notion.

  He got to the estate in a little over an hour. As he pulled up the drive, he discovered that Dani’s idea of intimate was a few hundred people more than he was used to. A valet met him as he finally made it to the front of the line. Passing Rome a ticket, the kid gave him a broad smile.

  “Jerome Speed,” he exclaimed. “I promise I’ll keep this away from every other car in the place.”

  “Good luck with that,” Rome said as he slapped the kid’s shoulder and headed to the door with a doorman checking a list. Seriously, what the hell had he stepped into? Good thing he hadn’t changed out of his suit, but he still didn’t have a coat. “Jerome Speed,” he said with confidence as the man in a tux looked over the list.

  “You know this is a black tie affair,” he pointed out.

  “I was not informed.”

  “Probably because you didn’t get an invitation,” the man with the square jaw and personality to match said before waving the next person in line up.

  “I’m on the list. I was personally invited by Bonnie.”

  Irritation crossed the man’s face seeming to relish the power over a man who might be living the dream he couldn’t. “Do I need to call security?”

  “How about calling the woman throwing the party?”

  “Because she pays me to keep people out. Not to summon her for every party crasher.”

  “I’m not a party crasher.” Okay, he might be, but he was invited at one time.

  “Name,” the doorman called to the person behind him. Rome turned and almost ran into Dani’s friend.

  “Esme,” he said.

  “Two points for remembering.” She gave him a sly smile. “But negative five for showing up uninvited.”

  “I was invited at one time,” he pointed out.

  “I was engaged to a sheik. Doesn’t mean I showed up to the party.”

  “How pissed off is she?”

  “You didn’t fall off the face of the planet. Just ditched her. Hell, if you would have tossed her a deuces at least she would have felt you gave a fuck about her.”

  “Her father said he’d explain why I had to go away since it was his idea.”

  Esme let out a laugh. “Are you naïve or just dumb? William Albright will do any and everything he can to keep his family locked down. Who in this zip code doesn’t give his baby girl at least a black card?”

  “Esme, I need to see her.”

  “Call her up, make an appointment,” she said as she placed her hand on his forearm, squeezed a bit then gave him a smirk before stepping away.

  “I love her,” he confessed and Esme stopped. Flipping her long blond hair to the side, she scanned Rome from head to toe with the same Terminator vision Danika had.

  “Esme Carmichael,” she said and tapped the clipboard with the list. “Plus one.”

  Rome’s head snapped to attention and followed her into the home that had been roped off to lead the guests into the backyard. A large white tent was set up, with a wood floor so the women in heels wouldn’t have to worry about the grass. On a raised stage was the band Rome had found playing in a dive bar. The band members were beaming as they rocked out for their soul turning lead singer.

  “You’re in,” Esme said. “The rest is up to you. Hopefully we can find our girl.”

  “Why did you help me?” he asked, thinking these two women had judged him on looks alone.

  “You didn’t lie to me,” she stated plainly. “But quit being a chicken shit and man up. Dani deserves a man who loves her.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Breathing in, Dani rapped her knuckles on Rome’s front door. With her gown discarded in the passenger seat of her car, she was happy she’d chosen the heels. The outfit was on point. The stilettoes gave her ass a little boost and always made her feel like she could take on any challenge. Plus, Rome made her keep them on the first time they had sex because they turned him on.

  “Can I help you?” an older woman asked as she opened the door and Dani felt her strength deflating.

  Double checking the address, she steadied herself. “I’m looking for Jerome.”

  “He’s not here right now,” she replied and tried to close the door, but Dani put her hand up and stopped it.

  “When will he be back?”

  “He didn’t say. I’m assuming late. He had to go to an event.”

  “I know, I was there, but what was he going to do after it?”

  “Who are you?” the woman asked as her dark eyes crinkled at the corners.

  “Danika Albright,” Dani said and extended her hand. “And you?”

  “Annette Speed,” the woman replied, took Dani’s hand in hers, and wrapped her other hand around it.

  “Rome’s mother,” Dani gasped. “You came up here. He says you never come here.”

  “I do on occasion, but what’s the point when he’s in season.”

  “Nana,” a small voice said as big eyes came from around Annette’s hip and Dani came face to face with DeMonte. “The show’s done.”

  “Okay, baby.” Rome’s mother opened the door wide and invited. “Come in and I’ll try to get a hold of Jerome. Let me help this one out first.”

  “Who you?” DeMonte asked as he looked up at Dani. “Mama will be back soon.”

  “What was that?” Dani asked as she knelt down to meet De
Monte eye to eye.

  “She’ll be back soon. I don’t need to go. Daddy said I don’t need to go.”

  “I’m not here to—”

  DeMonte ran up the stairs like his feet were on fire.

  “Now what is that boy up to,” his grandmother said as she followed him. “DeMonte, get back down here. It’s time for supper.”

  Dani had a bad feeling about the child’s reaction to her and followed to see if she’d said something wrong. She could hear Annette still searching for him and Dani caught her reflection in the mirror. The same one from when Rome took her in the hallway. Only this time she saw a woman in a power suit. White camisole, pinstriped jacket, and matching a line cut skirt with heels for days.

  DeMonte had lived in Roseland with his grandmother off and on. Roseland’s demographic wasn’t far from the South Shore when she was growing up. When people came in wearing suits and spoke to kids, it only meant one thing, family services.

  “Now where has that child disappeared to?” Annette asked.

  “I think I know,” Dani said as she turned and went up to the third floor.

  “He wouldn’t go up there,” Annette called. “He knows it isn’t finished off.”

  “Trust me,” she said and came up on the landing for the top floor. “DeMonte,” she called and walked over to where Rome had a stool. He’d begun working on the bathroom.

  “My name is Dani, I’m a friend of your daddy’s.” She didn’t move from the stool even though she heard a person shift in a corner. “I was hoping he was going to be here because I haven’t gotten to see him in awhile.”

  “He’ll be back,” a soft voice said. “This is my house until he comes back.”

  “You and your nana’s. She must be taking really good care of you.”