Except Mr. T.
Joss called Mr. T “Mr. T” just like everybody.
This being the case, obviously I’d never heard Mr. T introduce himself as “Bill.”
I had no idea what to do with this but didn’t get the chance to wrap my head around it before Cal declared, “Bet I could get a lot more done if I wasn’t standing here holding a tray of coffee.”
I grinned, quickly pulled out of Deke’s hold and moved to Cal. I distributed coffee. I opened the bag and discovered just by the scent that Shambles was in a cinnamon mood that morning.
Perfection.
I loved cinnamon.
I gave out treats, left mine in the bag for later, and set it aside as I reclaimed my coffee from where I’d put it on a stack of drywall.
While doing this, Mr. T demanded, “Show me around your home, Justice.”
“Okay, Mr. T,” I agreed.
I started to move but stopped and looked back to see Deke had a hand on Mr. T’s shoulder.
Except for the hug I just gave him, and a few hugs I made him endure after he gave me presents and such, as well as a number of handshakes, I’d seen nobody, not even his wife, touch Mr. T.
But he stood under Deke’s hand, his neck twisted, head tipped back to lock eyes with Deke and he nodded after I heard Deke whisper, “Careful with her in her bedroom.”
Deke dropped his hand, turned his head to send a small smile my way, and he went back to the ladder.
I showed Mr. T around, inside and out, sipping coffee while Mr. T ate what he told me was a slice of apple cinnamon bread. We finished at my private deck.
We stood at the railing and Mr. T stared at the rushing river.
I stared at Mr. T’s jaw, which was only slightly jowly with age, and was now tensed hard.
“I should not have allowed you to move in here without Callahan doing his work first.”
Oh shit.
I shifted closer, starting, “Mr. T—”
He turned penetrating blue eyes to me, eyes that had not faded even a little bit over the years, and I quit talking.
Then suddenly, delivering another shock, he lifted a hand, took my chin in his fingers and gently turned my head so he could examine the damage to my face, his gaze moving from there to my throat before he righted my head but kept his hand there.
“Your father would be beside himself,” he whispered.
I felt tears gather in my eyes so strong, they stung my nostrils.
“Mr. T,” I whispered back.
“I promised them both,” he stated.
“Promised them both what?”
“You and your brother, I promised your grandfather and your father, as long as I was breathing, I would never let anything happen to you. I’ve failed them both. I’ve failed you both.”
I lifted a hand and wrapped it around his wrist. “Mav’s Mav and you know it. You can save him from a lot, but you can’t save him from her. And I moved in here without a system in. So intent on finding some peace after we lost Dad, I didn’t think. It wasn’t you, it was me.”
He released my chin and dropped his hand, disconnecting us.
“You forget, I also failed your cousin Rudy.”
“You couldn’t save Rudy from himself either,” I reminded him. “We all tried, Mr. T. You can look at it as we all failed but we didn’t. In the end, Rudy failed himself.”
Mr. T shook his head. “You can say a thousand words, put them in a hundred songs, Justice, and you would not have enough words to convince me I’m wrong.”
I studied a man I didn’t know until that very moment that I loved down deep in my heart where my dad lived, where my grandfather lived, where all the good love that was pure and right in any body took residence.
“I might not be able to convince you that you’re not to blame, the only person to blame is the man who did this to me. But I hope I can convince you that everything you’ve done for me, for Granddad, for Dad, even for Mav, all of it, culminating in you dropping everything to be here right now with me, I love you for it because I just love you.”
“The Lonesome heart,” he replied reflectively, “all of them so soft.”
“Which means it was a blessing Granddad found you so you could protect them.”
He nodded. “Yes.” He kept nodding. “Yes, a blessing.”
I had a feeling he wasn’t talking about the same blessing I was but he cleared his throat, looked away and announced, “You need stables.”
I grinned and turned, bumping him purposefully with my shoulder before I opened my mouth and told him all my plans. The ones that were currently being carried out by Deke and the other ones that would happen pending the sale of the extra land that my real estate agent was negotiating for me.
While I was doing this, we heard a vehicle approach and Mr. T turned to my house, extending his arm for me to precede him.
I did this and we went through my bedroom to the great room to see Cal at the door and two men walking through it.
I stopped dead on sight of them.
One was white, had a salt and pepper (predominately pepper, black pepper) head of hair and goatee, a face that was gorgeous in a rugged way, and a tall body made up of what I was assuming since I kept running into it was patented mountain man muscle.
The other was black, as huge as Deke (maybe even bigger), and so outlandishly handsome, I could swear I’d seen him before and that had to be in a movie.
They were carrying a beat-up couch.
Following them in was Jim-Billy.
Jim-Billy looked at me, started to grin, the grin faltered, died, he stood still and immobile and I started toward him, calling a gentle, “Hey, Jim-Billy.”