Blake Griffin Imagines

The Sound of a Heartbeat

Blake Griffin sat back on the lawn chair at the modest home of his girlfriend's parents in northern Los Angeles, his palms sweating slightly. The perspiration on his palms wasn't just from the chilled beer he held in his grasp that was slowly sweating in the rising LA summer heat. No, it was mainly coming from what Blake was about to do.

Inside through the sliding glass door that led into the living room, Maddie was in the kitchen with her mother cooking up some rice pilaf and sautéed mushrooms and veggies picked from her garden in the corner of the back yard a ways away from the in-ground pool they'd recently installed. Maddie's little brother, Max, was married to a wonderful young woman Blake thought was named Xin—it sounded liked zeen. A really sweet Chinese girl who could make some killer fried rice. And they had a young daughter, Naomi, who loved to swim.

Ford was inside playing with the little girl who was just a couple of months younger than him.

Max settled himself into the lawn chair to Blake's right around the smoking grill. It was a brand new Weber grill that Maddie and Max had bought him for Father's Day not too long ago. He loved it, of course, and was taking full advantage of all the nooks and crannies as much as he could. The brother in question, who looked like a masculine clone of his older sister down to the eyes and the hair, took a drink from his Miller Lite.

"What's on your mind, Griffin?"

Blake looked away from the smoke that billowed up from the grill when Mr. Harris—Ed, he was supposed to call him Ed—lifted the lid to put the ribeyes on the rails and flip the Cajun corn. His fingers had been picking at the wet paper label on his beer bottle.

"Nothing much," Blake replied as nonchalantly as he could.

"I raised two kids," Ed said as he lowered the grill lid back down. "And I've been a high school band director for twenty-five years. I know when someone's lying. What's up, Blake? Is something wrong with you and Maddie?"

"What?" Blake asked. "No, of course not. Everything has been great between us."

"She's not pregnant, is she?" Max looked concerned. At the mention of pregnancy, Ed Harris was about to slip into full-blown father-mode. It was as if Blake sensed his life was coming to an end.

"Of course not!" Blake said quickly. "God, there's nothing wrong with Maddie and me."

Before Blake could say another word, the back door opened. It was Maddie, holding Ford on her hip. She smiled down at him, green eyes bright and happy. Ford's eyes weren't as happy and a little damp. She lowered him down til he was on his own two feet. Blake sat forward in the lawn chair to catch his son under his arms as his baby ran to him and swung him up onto his left thigh. Ford fell right back against his chest and tried to snuggle in closer, finding comfort in Blake's embrace. Some of his nerves seemed to melt away.

"He wanted his daddy," Maddie said to Blake with a smile. Then she turned to her father to sign, "When will the steaks be ready?"

"I just put them on. About ten minutes," Ed told his youngest daughter in their silent language.

Maddie nodded and dipped back inside.

"Actually," Blake said hesitantly. "There was something I wanted to ask you."

Ed seemed to pick up on the change in Blake's demeanor. He perched himself on the cooler that held the ice for the homemade ice cream they'd just finished mixing and was now chilling. He was straight in front of Blake so that his piercing grey eyes were looking right into Blake's dark brown.

"I'm all ears," Ed told him.

Blake took a deep breath, his left arm tightening around his son's small body and pulling him in closer.