Chapter 9
CHAPTER NINE
touré
“You were gorgeous today, baby,” I tell Celine in the student center after the game while she waits for more pictures to be taken.
She truly is. With her braids twisted into an elaborate updo, she wears a cream evening gown splashed with color. Her Miss Finley sash and tiara put the gilded finishing touches on her appearance.
“I know the school has video of it, but I captured it on my phone and sent the footage to your mom and Cedric.”
“You did?” Celine’s face, already glowing, brightens even more. “What’d they say?”
“Your mother cried. Cedric said ‘That’s my girl.’”
Celine’s smile slips. “Were you . . .I’m sorry. I know you’re sensitive about him.”
“About Cedric? How so?” I ask, knowing good and damn well how so.
“Dad, you flinch every time I call him Pop.”
“Is that why you do it?”
“No. I call him Pop because he was always there for me and I respect him like another parent. If that hurts you—”
“It doesn’t hurt. It wasn’t easy to accept. Not the part about him being another parent, but the implication that maybe I wasn’t always the father I should have been. That’s not your problem, though. It’s mine. That was on me and the choices I made.”
She stares back unblinkingly. She doesn’t answer, isn’t making this easy for me. I don’t deserve easy. If I’m honest, I don’t want it. Whatever she’s holding back because I’ve hurt her, I want to earn it, so I’ll take whatever she can freely offer for now.
“What do you say to dinner tonight?” I ask before she assembles an answer to mollify me, not wanting a response she doesn’t mean yet.
“Dad, seriously?” She pulls back and peers up at me. “This is homecoming of my senior year. You really think I’m spending Saturday night with my father?”
“It was worth a shot,” I tell her with a grin.
Her frown eases and she blows out an tired laugh. “There’s a gospel brunch tomorrow. They’ve asked me to say a few words. Wanna be my date?”
“I’d like that very much.”
“Speaking of date, where’s Ms. Spencer?”
“Niomi?” I try to make my shrug and my voice casual. “Not sure. Why?”
“You were definitely giving off I’m so into you vibes around her.” She nudges me with one slim shoulder. “And you told me she was the one you kissed at that party. You still like her?”
“We’re adults. I’m not planning to pass her a note that says check yes if you like me, no if you don’t.”
“This from the dude who was gonna use a grand gesture to ask her out. You won’t tell me what it was?”
“No. I still might get to use it someday.”
“You need my help to make sure it’s not wack.”
I bark out a laugh and tip her tiara to the side, making her yelp and reach up to straighten it. “If I actually ever decide to do it, I probably will need your help.”
“Okay. Just don’t blow it. I love that lady.”
“So you’re basically using me to get close to Niomi.”
“Well it only works if you actually get close to her.” Celine waves at a few girls I recognize from her court on the field today. “I gotta go, Dad, but gospel brunch tomorrow, k?”
“Have fun, but not the kind I have to bail you out for.”
“Promise. Say hi to Ms. Spencer for me.”
I’ll try to remember, but if that kiss with Niomi last night was anything to go by, it might slip my mind.