The Guard To My Sanctuary - Chapter 42: Chapter 42

Marco
Elm was visibly shaken by his encounter a week ago and I couldn't do much to help him. All of the progress he had made was pushed back because of the prospect of some chasing after him. I believed everything he said since from the little I knew about London that he was possessive over the things he thought was his. Little did he know that I was prepared to show him just how wrong he was. Seeing Elm trying to soldier through his issues was commendable. When it came to taking care of the kids he pushed his issues aside and became Super Dad doing his best to take care of them.
I felt a little guilty that I was happily driving to pick my best friend Corey up from the airport since he needed to stay for the weekend. His aunt passed away and lived in San Fransisco which wasn't too far from our house. He'd be crashing on the couch for the weekend which was nice since it had been over a year since I had last seen him face to face. I pulled along the curb of the airport terminal watching as people made their way in and out. In the corner, a family hugged a young guy. A woman I assumed was a mother was crying her eyes out. At that moment I realized that one day my kids would be leaving us and maybe moving far away. I felt a little emotional and dropped my head a little. I couldn't imagine not seeing my little men every day, my heart was hurting.
Knock
Knock
Knock
I looked up to door and saw Corey peeking through smiling at me. He had gained some muscle from the last time I saw him. I unlocked the door to let him in the car.
"Yo is you crying," he asked opening the back door and throwing his luggage in.
"Shut the fuck up," I told him as he finally made it to the front seat. He laughed at me then dapped me up before I took off. The car behind me decided it would be a good idea to honk so I stopped for a full thirty seconds then took off again out of the Airport's premises.
"How you been," I asked Corey who was playing with the air conditioning.
"I've been good you know aside from the whole Aunt passing thing but life's been good. Me and Angela have been going strong for about six months now," he responded. He had been dating Angela off and on for as long as I knew him and they had finally decided to really work on staying together. Corey could be headstrong at times and had to tone that down in order to keep her which was a good thing. I could tell how much he had changed over the phone when he spoke about little things. It was important that he matured because his old ways were not paying off well for him, and he would say the same if he was being truly honest with himself.
"I mean your life is the interesting story," he said to me taking his shades off.
"Is it," I asked him knowing it already to be true.
"Nigga, I asked you to go to the store and you end up saving a victim of sex trafficking. You then get on a fucking train across the country with this lil dude and start helping him with his recovery. Then you apparently have a magic dick that impregnated him with fraternal triplets, you leave the military and get a badass job making three times what you made in the Air Force and started school again. Added on top of all that you are dealing with Elm's captor that could strike at any time. All I've done in the last year and a half was fuck one girl continuously and get a job as an Accountant," he responded.
"Fine so maybe my life has been eventful and it is true that my dick is magic," I laughed at him.
"I'm still mad you ran off without saying shit and that I didn't have lasagna that night," he said to me and playfully punched my side.
"Can you let that hurt go," I said to him.
"Nope," he responded. We played catch-up while I drove us all the way home.
"Damn, you get a whole house I can barely afford my small ass apartment," he responded.
"I got really lucky plus you live in New York so we probably pay less than you do," I said to him getting out of the car and walking into the house. He grabbed his bag and followed behind me. We both walked into the kitchen where Elm was feeding the boys and Tyler was texting on his phone.
"Hey everyone this is Corey, Corey this is everyone," I introduced him getting their attention.
"Hey everyone," Corey said following behind me as I walked to the table.
"Hi," Elm said in his cute little voice," I'm Elm," he held out his hands. Corey smiled and shook it firmly.
"So you're the guy who went and stole my man's, heart. It's nice to finally meet you, I can see why," Corey half flirted as he did with anyone who spoke to him. He was completely straight but was a self-admitting attention whore. At first, I didn't like him because I thought he was making fun of me back when he didn't have the charm to pull the flirting thing off. I cut my eyes at him and he laughed while Elm rolled his eyes and chuckled going back to feed the kids. I knew Elm would be unaffected by Corey, and it might have been my ego but I was more than enough man for my husband.
"This is Tyler," I said picking up a napkin and turning it into a ball to throw at him. He was so transfixed on his phone that when the ball hit him he jumped out of his seat in panic.
"This is my little brother Tyler, Tyler this is Corey," I said to him. Tyler licked his lips before speaking," Hey, nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too you're brother talked about you a lot when we were in together. All good things, though," Corey said and held his hand out to shake.
"Oh," Tyler blushed and shook his hand back. Tyler being another attention loving person was beaming under the faux-seductive gaze Corey always had on.
"He's straight pendejo, he just likes the attention so you two may have something in common," I said to Tyler.
"Oh he's one of those," Tyler said no longer interested and began typing on his phone probably with Pine. He had cut off all contact with people from back home and only know a few people here so it wasn't hard to narrow it down. I didn't know how I felt about them fucking or doing whatever they were doing. The big brother in me wanted to protest but Tyler was a grown man, not a child so his decision was his to make and he would be the one to deal with the consequences.
"So introduce me to my godson's," Corey said.
"Okay so this is Maddox," I said to Corey pointing my oldest who was blowing spit bubbles. He always seemed to be engaging that little mind of him in thought. Corey walked over to him and smiled in his face kindly. Maddox responded mimicking his smile and making a squealing sound which made me laugh.
"He's a cute little man, hopefully, they take after Elm and stay that way god knows you have never been a looker," Corey said.
"Fuck you," I responded to him.
"Stop cussing," they're going to have mouths like sailors being around you," Elm said to me. I rolled my eyes at him as he fed Ozias. He was right though, I was going to have to learn to censor myself before they go to school and embarrass us with their language.
"Alright and this one is Calloway, the middle child," I said. Calloway had mashed green beans all over his bib and looked tired. He loved taking a nap after he ate, even if it was just a little bit of food he'd get tired. Corey got down to his level and poked his nose. Calloway immediately reached for his finger and held onto it. Corey laughed as Call tried to fit his finger into his mouth. His constant need to put things in his mouth was stressing me out. All I could think about were the germs that he was ingesting.
"No no no Uncle Corey was outside with the germs you're going to get the sick lil man," Corey said to him and put the pacifier clipped to the bib in Calloway's mouth. He suckled on it eagerly as he began to close his eyes.
"Alright and the youngest of the three is Ozias," I said pointing to the chunkiest of the three boys. He ate almost twice as much as Calloway and slightly more than Maddox could.
"He's a big one," Corey said punching his cheeks with his fingers.
"Yeah, hopefully, a football player," I said to Corey who nodded.
"You got a beautiful family here," Corey said to me and took a seat at the table. We all talked for a while it was mostly Corey speaking as he got to know my brother and Husband. He talked about a few embarrassing times I got wasted and how we met. Elm got up and walked to the trash bin throwing the empty mashed peas container away and walked upstairs. I checked the time and saw that it was eleven. The boys were all knocked out after being changed into their night clothes a few minutes earlier.
"I'll be back," I said picking all three boys up and walking them upstairs placing then each in their rooms then went on to see what Elm was doing. As I walked in the door he walked out in pajamas holding sheets two pillows and a blanket for Corey.
"Sorry couldn't take being in those jeans any longer," he said referring to the skin-tight skinnies he always wore. I loved how his legs looked in them but knew that they couldn't be comfortable.
"I bet, the boys are in their rooms sleeping," I said following him down the steps.
"Good I need a few hours without kids shows on the television," he said as we walked into the main area of the house. Elm walked over to the couch and began to make it up for Corey.
"It's nice being around happy people," Corey said to me as I sat next to him.
"Thanks, we try our best," I said to him.
"Well you're succeeding at it," he responded.
"Y'all are a bunch of punk's," Tyler said taking his shirt off and folding it on the table. He made his way out of the house through the back in just his basketball shorts and I could hear the sounds of water splashing as he took a swim.
"He's an asshole sometimes," I said to Corey.
"He reminds me of you when we first met," Corey said.
"Nah," I respond.
"Alright I made the couch up for you, kitchens open so feel free to make yourself at home. There's a pool out back the kids may wake you up but they have been sleeping through the night lately so fingers crossed. I'm going to bed, good night," Elm said kissing my cheek. Corey and I talked for a few more hours just about anything. It was nice having my best friend here since I only really talked to Elm's brothers, John, my mentor, and Oscar. There was nothing like old bonds to make me less nervous about the prospect of someone endangering my family.