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“Yeah, kind of. Last night was awesome. I was so proud of Millie and Polly and the others because they’ve built something important. The other women who were there look up to those ladies.”
“Why does it have to be just about the girls, though?” Jake asks, nibbling his bagel. “I’m not asking that to be a prick. All I’m saying is, if a bunch of guys formed a club and said that girls aren’t allowed to come unless they’re specifically invited, women would have a cow. We’d never hear the end of it.”
I stare at him for a moment, then I set my bagel down and clear my throat.
“I don’t even want to think about what they aren’t teaching you in school. Did you know that until 1974, a woman couldn’t even open a bank account without having a husband or a father with her as a cosigner?”
Jake’s brow furrows. “Why?”
“Good question. I don’t mean to sound preachy here, but women couldn’t even vote in an election until 1920. There are many places in this country where men have clubs that women aren’t welcome in. Particularly country clubs, golf clubs, and things like that.”
“Rich people clubs,” Jake says.
“Some are, yeah. There are also other kinds of clubs that are historically only for men, or gentlemen’s clubs, as they’re called. They happen. They’ve always happened. Not to mention, let’s talk about how women are still treated in this country. The way they’re ogled, disrespected, hurt. Some men think it’s okay to lay their hands on them, to rape them, or mock them.”
Jake frowns down at his now-untouched bagel. “Yeah, I know that firsthand.”
“I know you do.” I reach out and cover Jake’s arm with my hand, giving it a squeeze. “I think it’s kind of great that Polly and her friends, one of whom is my sister, have come together to help other women with their businesses. It’s going to bleed over into their home lives, as well. It’s going to give those ladies who are in abusive situations the strength to change their lives. To stand up for themselves.”
“That’s pretty cool,” Jake says thoughtfully and then frowns over at me. “Why do some guys think it’s okay to beat on girls? To be mean to them and make them feel like shit?”
“Because they can.” I sit back and shake my head. “Because women are usually physically weaker, and that seems to make them an easy target.”
“It seems to me that guys should help someone who’s weaker than them.”
“I’m with you, buddy. And that’s one of the reasons I love you.”
Jake blinks at me, and it occurs to me that this might be the first time I’ve told him that I love him.
“Oh,” he says.
“Jake, I don’t just care about you or feel obligated to you. You’re here with me because I love you. Unconditionally. You’re my kid, you know?”
“Yeah.” He blinks fast, as if he’s fighting off tears. “Yeah, I know. I mean, I guess I know.”
He looks over at me and sniffs, and the image of this amazing kid lying in that bed upstairs, broken and hurting because a man who was supposed to protect him beat him forms in my head, and my heart slices as if it were yesterday.
“You’re my family, part of a really big family.” I smile over at him. “And sometimes that family is a pain in the ass.”
He nods. “It’s pretty great. I never had that before. And when I was younger, when my parents were still alive?”
I go very still. Jake never talks to me about his past. “Yeah?”
“It just sucked ass so bad.” He swallows hard and wipes at a tear impatiently. “Dad beat my mom up a lot. I think he was taking her to the hospital that day they died because he’d pounded on her that morning, and she was pretty hurt. I went to school because I had to get out of there. I wanted to help her, but whenever I tried, I was told not to. By her.”
“I suspect she was trying to protect you.”
He nods. “I was just a kid, but man, I wanted to kill him. And when they died, I wasn’t all that sad. I was kind of relieved, and I thought that made me a bad person.”
Shit, I want to cry for this boy and resurrect his parents so I can make them pay for what they put him through.
“And then I had to live with…them.” He swallows again and shakes his head. “And it was worse. I didn’t know it could be worse. I hope I’m not like them. That just because I have my bio dad’s blood in me, it doesn’t mean that I’m like him.”
“I’m so sorry, buddy.”
His dark eyes find mine again. “But you saved me. You didn’t have to, but you did. And you’re nothing like those assholes. You’re a good person.”
“I think I took one look at you and decided that you were mine. Like we were supposed to be together all along.”
