Free Crazy Love by Michelle Pace

knew it all too well.
    I watched as Trip’s features clouded over. The subject of his daughter obviously troubled him. His answer was brief.
    “Yep.”
    “You don’t look very pleased about it,” I chimed in and Trip’s frazzled eyes met mine.
    “She’s letting me have her for the entire weekend.” He stated with the solemnness of a prison guard at an execution. I wondered if he was up for having a three-year-old for two hours, much less two days.
    “Why, Trip! That’s marvelous news!” Cosmo gushed. Trip’s eyes narrowed. He gave her a cool sideways glance, and his expression shifted to one of grandiose distaste.
    Considering Trip had always been Cosmo’s favorite, his responses to her were downright frigid, even compared to my own. My brother had always been generous to a fault, notorious in his drinking days for buying rounds for the house to the tune of thousands of dollars in one night. The fact that Mama had been hocking antiques from the family estate spoke volumes about Trip’s lack of financial assistance to her.
    I pondered the mystery of their falling out as I slowly chewed my Kobe beef. When Trip had turned twenty-five, he’d been granted total access to his trust fund. Since before Daddy died, he’d had the means to set Mama up for life in the style she was accustomed to without making a dent in his fortune. Yet as far as I knew, he hadn’t given her a dime. Earlier that morning, he’d made it clear on the phone that the only reason he’d come to lunch with her was because I would be there.
    Their current lack of relationship absolutely perplexed me. They’d always been close when we were growing up. In fact, I’d kind of been jealous of the all attention and adoration she gave him. My earliest childhood memories all involved some sort of Tripapalooza with Mama fawning all over him. Not long before Daddy died, things eroded between Trip and Mama. I always wondered if it was some kooky Oedipus thing since he was marrying Violet, but Cosmo liked Vi, so it didn’t really add up.
    Come to think of it, I always sensed that Trip was also Daddy’s favorite. It seemed like he took him everywhere he went. I tell myself it was because Trip was five years older than me, but that could just be my adult mind glossing over the facts. Even my nanny, Athena, noticed that neither of my parents had much interest in me. She always let me tag along with her; I can only assume this was because she felt sorry for me. That’s how I ended up meeting Randall. Athena’s son was a boxer at his gym. Of course, Hard Knocks was Randall’s father’s gym back then, but Randall was already an assistant trainer. I can still recall the fascination I had at the antique steam heat radiators and the rank smell of determination emanating from the place. The rhythmic sound of fists beating against heavy bags had me entranced before I’d even seen my first fight.
    Mama was appalled when I asked to train as a boxer, but Daddy quickly countered that “colored kids using me as a punching bag” would help me to become “a real man.” When Cosmo realized this was not just a passing fancy of mine, she finally conceded. Even at the tender age of eleven, I could be exceptionally persuasive when properly motivated. I knew I would never have Trip’s artistic talent, nor would I break his state record in the four hundred meter hurdles. So instead of trying, I chose to blaze my own trail.
    “How is Violet these days?” Memories of my lonely childhood fanned my envy, so I intentionally pressed my thumb into the open wound Vi had left in our family. Both Mama and Trip trained sharp blue eyes on me.
    “She’s well. Engaged to a banker from Charleston. They’re announcing it in a couple of weeks.” Trip stared down at the table and spoke as if the words tasted like curdled milk on his tongue. Cosmo placed an impeccably manicured hand to her chest, and her expertly painted eyes bugged out, giving her a cartoonish appearance.
    “So