KORMIA Brown
Why the fuck did she get in this car?
Kormia stared out the passenger window, jaw tight, arms folded across her chest like that was somehow gonna keep the cold, and him—from getting too close.
I should’ve just gone to Jackie’s. Or better yet…
stood on business and stayed her ass at the shop.
She had survived plenty of cold nights. At least there, she didn’t have anybody judging her.
Instead, she was riding through a blizzard with the same mean-ass nigga who’d threatened to throw her in his trunk thirty seconds after calling her homeless.
A real Prince fucking Charming. The heater hummed between them, filling the silence Newdy seemed perfectly content to keep alive.
He hadn’t looked her way once since hanging up with his mama.
Which. was fine, because she wasn’t trying to look at his ass either.
Her arm still ached where he’d grabbed her outside.
She rubbed the spot absentmindedly before dropping her hand back into her lap.
And how the hell did his mama know my whole government name?
Kormia didn’t even remember telling Graveyard her whole name.
Yard better not be telling that old bitch my business.
Kormia glanced into the rearview mirror.
Graveyard was slumped against the tarp, hood pulled over her head, snoring like she didn’t have a care in the world.
Must be nice. Against her better judgment, Kormia looked over.
He was still watching the road. The dashboard lights caught the side of his face, sharpening every angle.
His complexion looked even darker inside the truck, his beard full, his profile clean enough to make her look twice before she remembered she was supposed to be mad at him.
Her eyes drifted lower. To his hands, big, rough, with small cuts crossed his knuckles.
His cuticles were dry but not neglected. There was a difference. Florist hands.
If he was the stepper Graveyard claimed he was, the money clearly hadn’t stopped him from working.
Kormia saw him all the time, usually when she slipped out to grab oxtails from the Jamaican spot a few doors down.
He wasn’t the kind of landlord who disappeared and only showed up to collect rent.
He was always outside doing something. Sweeping the sidewalk before the businesses opened.
Picking up trash somebody else left behind.
Hauling bags of soil. Hanging planter. Replacing an awning.
If something on the strip broke, Newdy fixed it.
She looked away, returning her gaze outside the window.
The snow had picked up significantly and, low-key, Kormia hated being on the road in weather like this.
The lanes had all but disappeared beneath the snow, and the visibility was damn near nonexistent.
It looked like they were driving through a snow globe.
Almost without thinking, she reached over and buckled her seatbelt. He looked over when she did it. She pretended not to notice. The truck fell quiet again. Now it was just them. And the silence sitting between them. Still…She couldn’t figure out how he’d known she was at the shop.
Only Jackie, Jamillah, and Graveyard knew she’d been staying there. For half a second, she blamed Jackie. Najee and Newdy moved in the same circles. Probably that damn Jackie pillow talking.
The thought died almost as quickly as it came. That wasn’t Jackie’s MO.
Jackie protected the people she loved. Which meant Newdy had figured it out some other way. And somehow…That was even worse. Because how the fuck did he know her business?
She shifted in her seat, pulling her coat tighter around herself.
The heater was blasting. Yet. She was still cold as fuck.
Newdy’s eyes were back on the road. But for some reason, that bothered her more than it should’ve.
Graveyard let out a loud snore from the backseat and mumbled something about bedbugs before going quiet again. Kormia almost smiled. Almost.
This whole night was a hot ghetto mess. And she had a feeling it was only gonna get messier once they made it to his mama’s. Just then, Newdy got off at the exit. The second he turned onto the back road, the truck hit a patch of black ice. The back end swung out hard. “Fuck… black ice.”
Before Kormia could even react, his right arm shot across her chest, shielding her as the truck started spinning. Her heart slammed against her ribs. She grabbed the door handle with one hand and braced the dashboard with the other, but his arm stayed locked across her like a bar.
The truck slid. Tires screeched against the ice.
For a few terrifying seconds, all she could see was snow and darkness spinning outside the windows.
Her seatbelt locked tight across her chest. She couldn’t even scream.
Her throat had closed up. Newdy’s jaw was clenched as both hands fought the wheel.
The truck fishtailed once more before finally catching traction.
Everything slowed. Then stopped. Just then…
neither of them moved. His arm was still across her chest.
Kormia’s heart was beating so loud she was sure he could hear it.
She could feel the heat of his forearm through her coat, the weight of it, the way his body had instinctively moved to protect her before anything else.
She didn’t remember him reaching for her.
One second the truck was spinning…The next he was between her and it.
Newdy slowly pulled his arm back, but he never took his eyes off the road.
“You good?” he asked quietly. Kormia swallowed. “Yeah.”
But her hands were still shaking. She couldn’t make them stop.
Kormia had always had bad anxiety around car accidents.
Sometimes even somebody laying on the horn too long made her chest tighten.
The strange part was… She’d never been in one she could remember.
Still, the second that truck lost control, her body reacted like it knew something her mind didn’t.
She stared down at her hands trembling in her lap. Her chest felt tight.
She couldn’t catch a full breath.
“I’m sorry.” Her voice cracked. “I can’t make them stop shaking.
” Newdy glanced down at her hands. Without a word, he eased the truck onto the shoulder and shut it off.
Silence filled the cab. He turned toward her.
Really looked at her. Then reached over and took both of her hands in his.
His palms were warm. Big. Steady. The complete opposite of how she felt. “I think you having a panic attack.”
“I-I’m fine.”
“Nah.” His thumbs moved slowly across the backs of her knuckles.
“Breathe with me.” She wanted to snatch her hands away. Tell him she didn’t need his help. But her body wasn’t listening. So she breathed. With him. Slowly.
Until the shaking eased enough for her to think again.
Little by little, the tightness in her chest eased, and the shaking began to settle.
She looked down at their hands. His swallowed hers. The same rough hands she’d been studying ten minutes ago were now wrapped around hers with a gentleness she hadn’t expected. She hated that it made her feel better. “You can let go now,” she mumbled. “You sure?” Kormia snatched her hands back.
“Yes.” Her voice came out sharper than she’d intended. “Did I fucking stutter?”
The words landed harsh. Newdy didn’t say anything.
He just looked at her. His expression never changed, but somehow, she felt stripped bare sitting there.
Like he’d seen every ugly little piece of what had just happened and understood it better than she did.
Heat climbed up her neck. Shit. Why the fuck would she say that?
He’d just pulled over in the middle of a blizzard because she couldn’t breathe.
She opened her mouth. “Look…” The apology caught in her throat.
“Damn…” Graveyard stretched from the backseat with a loud yawn. “We still ain’t there yet?” She smacked her lips and looked around. “Feel like I been in this damn car for hours.”
Kormia turned around. “You slept through all that?”
Graveyard frowned. “Slept through what?” Kormia stared at her in disbelief before turning back toward Newdy.
His eyes were already back on the road. She’d pissed him off.
She knew it. The apology she’d been working up shriveled before it ever reached her lips.
She looked back out the window instead. Embarrassment sat heavier than the snow falling outside.
Newdy drove another ten minutes. Kormia’s stomach tightened.
They were close. She recognized the route now.
Another right… Then that long stretch of private road that led to his mama’s. The house came back to her in pieces.
First, the wraparound porch, then the white wooden swing bench.
And finally, the dreamcatcher swaying from the porch ceiling.
She’d never seen one outside of the movies.
The first time he’d brought her out here, it’d been dark.
She’d also been knee-deep in her feelings to really take in where she was.
But now, with fresh snow blanketing the property and the truck easing farther up the long driveway, Kormia finally saw it.
This wasn’t just somebody’s house. It was an estate.
The house was massive, sitting on what looked like two acres of land, maybe more.
The truck rolled to a stop. Before Newdy could even throw it in park, Graveyard already had the passenger door open.
“Ayo, what the—” Kormia looked up just as a figure stepped onto the porch.
A woman. A long fur draped over her shoulders despite the snow still falling around her.
Graveyard didn’t make it three steps before her feet shot out from under her. She hit the snow hard.
“Lord!” But she was back on her feet just as fast, brushing herself off before trudging through the snow like nothing had happened.
Neither she nor Newdy said a word. They simply watched through the windshield as the woman who had to be his mother met Graveyard halfway.
Then wrapped her in a hug that looked like it’d been waiting a long time.
Kormia looked over at Newdy. His eyes never left the porch.
Kormia looked back toward the woman. She didn’t know her.
But somehow…she already knew the woman knew exactly who Kormia was.