Checkmate - THE FINAL LEVEL

Four

As we drove away I cried more. It was like being here the day we put him in the ground. Reason why I don't come.

Shockingly, Landon grabbed my hand and intertwined our fingers. That put a much needed smile on my face.

"You hungry?" I asked him.

"Starving...can you cook though?"

"Absolutely, whatever you want."

"Hibachi?"

"Cool with me."

•••

After going to the grocery store and some other places we headed back to my apartment. Thankfully it wasn't rented out so I closed blacked out any dates for a few weeks.

I loved being here, it reminds me of the simpler times.

Once I got done cooking, I sat our food at the table. He thought his nose would be buried behind a phone the entire time we sat here but I had different plans. As soon as he got in his seat, I took his phone and hid it.

"Really ma?" He said.

"Yeah really. I brought you here so that we can bond. Now talk to me, what's on your mind?"

"We can talk about anything?"

"Of course."

"Well, why is dad mad at you?"

Damn, we getting straight to it. "Um—."

"And can I get a real answer and not some baby answer that you'll give Jade."

I nodded. "Yeah...well, someone hurt your sister and I thought waiting to tell your dad would be the right thing to do. It wasn't and now he's upset with me."

"Why did you not want to tell him?"

"Because I thought it would stop him from doing something crazy and then he'd be unable to help Ro when she needed him and your sister begged me not to."

"Are you getting a divorce? I heard someone say that."

"Who did you hear say that?"

"Royalty's mom when we were leaving she was on the phone with someone and said that dad wants a divorce still. I looked up what that means."

"Me and your dad aren't getting a divorce. We will be spending some time apart to try and figure things out though. If anything changes and we do feel like that's the best option for us, you'll hear that directly from us, not Royalty's mom."

"Okay."

"What else ya got?"

"Um...I'm kind of scared to ask."

"Don't be."

"Will I ever be able to talk to Uncle Tim again?" He asked with such a hopeful look in his eyes.

"That's a tough one Bam. I so badly want to say that you can one day but with everything that happened and this not being only my decision I can't give you a straight answer. I can say that I hope one day you're able to because I know how much he means to you."

"I miss him."

"I know. So when you're with Grandma Makayla and he's around, do you talk to him?"

"No, he seems to stay away from me."

"Well by law he's supposed to, even though I'm sure no one is going to call the cops on him if he did talk to you. I just have to see where your uncles head is and you'll have to talk to your dad about this as well."