Her

Chapter 4

~Marshall's P.O.V.~

"I wish you could've seen the way she looked at me." I say, putting my face in my hands. "It's like she didn't know who I was. I mean, she does, but I just feel like everything's changed you know? I don't know." I inhale a deep breath and exhale slowly. "She said whatever it is is about me being gone but I don't believe her. I told her I'd take time off but what if that doesn't fix anything? What if we're still like this when that runs out? Dammit..." My voice trails off and I glance down at the engraved headstone next to me. "I wish you were here brother. I'd kill for some Rule Cox advice right now."

Silence. It's always silence.

"If you could see me now, shit." I laugh slightly. "My wallet's finally catching up to yours." I take a minute to look at the engraving of his name on the stone. "I'm married with a kid dude. Me, married. Can you believe that? Damn." I shake my head. "I'm definitely not who I was when we were teenagers, huh?"

I laugh again and then look down.

"It's funny actually." I say to the stone. "Lola finally asked about the picture of us from my first fight. She knows who you are, her uncle Rule, but she asked about you as a person." For some reason I feel water behind my eyes. It's been seven years and it still hurts like yesterday. "All I could say was that you were the only family I ever had." I bite my lip and blink away some of the tears. "God damn Rule, you would've loved her. You died on me too soon."

There's a small gust of wind that makes some wind chimes hanging from a tree a couple feet away erupt in an off tune melody.

"Bo looks more like you everyday." I say, rubbing my eyes. "It's been awhile since I've seen her, but she's almost 8 now." When I say it out loud it seems so surreal. "Bro, I need you to give me a sign or something because I can't do this anymore. Rachel, Lola, Thatcher, Cash, Maverick, Bo. I need you to ask God to help me out or something, can you do that?"

Silence.

"Great. Thanks." I say, laughing to myself. I'm really sitting here fucking talking to a piece of concrete. "I'll bring Lola by next time, it's time you two met."

***

~Rachel's P.O.V.~

"Hey baby." He says, walking in through the door and kissing me on the cheek.

"Hi." I say back.

"Where's Lo?" He asks, setting his keys down on the end table.

"Upstairs sleeping." I answer obediently, crossing my arms.

He nods and then turns around, walking over to me. Both his hands cup my cheeks and tilt my head up to look at him. He leans down and pecks me once on the lips. I stare up at him, gazing into his icy blue eyes. He kisses me again this time slower, more concentrated. I lean forward kissing him back for only a second before pulling back.

"You're home late." I point out, glancing at the clock. Almost midnight.

"You're up late." He fires back and laughs once. "I went to see Rule then got tied up on the phone with Diego."

"Diego?" My eyebrows knit. "I thought you told him to take a vacation. You know, with you taking time off and everything."

"Just because I'm taking time off doesn't mean we don't need security." He tells me.

"So what happened?" I ask him, now getting a little worried.

"Nothing baby." He tries to reassure me, rubbing my shoulders.

"Well obviously something did if you were on the phone with him for hours." I say, slightly accusingly.

"Look, it's late." He dismisses my concern. "Lets go to bed and talk about it tomorrow, now's not the time to get into it."