For some reason, I glanced at my grandpa to find him side-eyeing Jonah with a heavy-lidded expression on his face like he was contemplating something. Whether it was a good something or a bad something, I had no idea. I wasn’t sure I wanted to ask.
“Bigger than your father now. Bigger than all your brothers and grandfathers too,” Sarah finished with a smile.
That reminded me he still hadn’t shown me a picture of his siblings, other than the ones I’d come across when I’d been looking for him.
“Do you have any siblings, Lenny?” the woman asked all of a sudden.
But it was Grandpa Gus who answered with, “No. She would have tried to drown any other brothers or sisters if she’d had them.”
I blinked.
And the silence was fuel for the man who had even less shame than I did. “I hope Mo takes more after her dad than her mom because Lenny took things to school, but it wasn’t anything food related.”
I knew where this was going, and there was no stopping this train of memories I had never been allowed to forget.
Grandpa reacted the same way he had every time he brought up this story for the last… twenty-five years. He fucking closed his eyes because he instantly started laughing so hard it was difficult to understand him.
A glance at Jonah showed him looking really expectantly.
Grandpa Gus had his hand over his face as he kept on losing his shit, recounting this story. Probably one of his most favorite stories of my childhood. It was one of mine too, not that I’d admit it to him.
“What did she take?” my girl’s dad asked.
It was hard to understand him but not impossible as he answered, “She took… she took nunchucks to school and got suspended for two days when she was in kindergarten. The principal said it was a school record.”
I groaned again. “All right. I’ll be upstairs now.”
He ignored me. “Remember? You told Noah the night before you were going to beat him up if he pulled your hair again and he did, so you took them to school to do the job so you wouldn’t get in trouble with your coach?” Grandpa Gus cackled, grabbing at his middle like it was seriously the first time he’d recounted the story when it was probably the millionth, and he still thought it was as hilarious as it had been the first.
I glanced at Jonah as I undid the tray of Mo’s high chair and lifted her out of it. The dark-haired man was smiling, but it was… it was a weird smile. Like he was thinking about something a little too hard.
“Nunchucks?” Sarah was too busy gasping. “Where did those come from?”
Only Grandpa Gus would laugh his fucking ass off at a six-year-old having nunchucks. “Her godfather. She asked Pierre for them for Christmas.”
Even Peter chuckled. “He was never able to tell her no. All she had to do was ask, and he would do whatever she wanted. She’d ask if he was coming to one of her competitions even though he was in the middle of filming a movie, and he would come every time.”
“Like a sucker.” Grandpa Gus chuckled. He put his hand on his chest and smiled almost dreamily over at Sarah. “I really hope Mo ends up taking more after Jonah than Lenny. I really do. My heart can’t handle another Lenny in the world.”
Liar.
But maybe not.
I edged my way closer to the door with my girl, shooting a glance toward Jonah again who still had the same thoughtful expression on his face that was almost a confused one. “I was a precious angel, and you know it.” I flicked Grandpa Gus behind the ear as I walked behind him. “Jonah, you coming?” I asked as I shouldered the door open, and he got up.
I had barely made it about three steps into the hallway toward the stairs when he came up behind me. “Lenny?”
“Hmm?”
“Peter said something about your godfather, Pierre….”
Oh. That. “Yeah?” I started up the stairs.
“Making movies…,” he kept going, following me up. “Is he referring to Pierre St. Cloud? The actor?”
“Yeah,” I told him, stopping to shoot him a glance over my shoulder. “He filmed a couple movies here in the 80s. Grandpa trained him during them.”
His face was blank with surprise. “Blood Games Pierre?”
I nodded.
“Karate master Pierre?”
I lifted a shoulder. “A second dan black belt. I wouldn’t call him a master….”
Jonah blinked.
“I used to call him Pew-Pew because I couldn’t say