Chapter 11 #3
I wandered farther down Main Street without any real destination.
The pep rally had ended, but the celebration hadn’t slowed down at all.
Music still came through the speakers, kids were lined up for games, and the smell of fried food and something sweet followed me past rows of vendors.
I stopped at a jewelry booth because a pair of gold earrings caught my attention and picked one up to get a better look.
“You Solace, right?”
I knew the voice wasn’t familiar before I turned around, but the face was. My stomach tightened immediately. She was standing a few feet away from me, and there was no mistaking her for the woman I had seen with Smoke yesterday. Up close, she was even prettier than I had realized.
“Yeah, I’m Solace.”
She nodded. “I’m Denisha.”
“Oh. Hey.”
“Hey.” Denisha looked down at the jewelry for a second before looking back at me. “Listen, I hope I didn’t fuck up nothin’ between you and Smoke. That really wasn’t my intention.”
I hadn’t expected her to say that, and for a second, I didn’t know what to say back. “You didn’t. Whatever is going on between me and Smoke is between me and him.”
She nodded once. “I just wanted you to know.”
“I appreciate you saying it.”
Somebody called Denisha’s name from farther down the row of vendors, and she looked over before turning back to me. “It was nice meetin’ you.”
“You too.”
I watched her walk away, and as much as I wanted to feel differently, I respected the hell out of the way she had handled that. Denisha didn’t owe me an apology for sleeping with a single man while I was miles away engaged to somebody else, and she hadn’t tried to give me one.
She had simply made it clear that whatever was happening now, she hadn’t come back to Bellhaven looking to interfere with Smoke and me. Unfortunately, liking how she handled herself didn’t make me feel any better about the possibility that she was carrying his baby.
I left the booth and made my way toward the diner.
I had been out long enough for the coffee I drank that morning to stop pretending it counted as breakfast, and I was starving.
Festival food was everywhere, but none of it sounded as good as Mama’s fried chicken biscuit with hot honey and those seasoned truffle potatoes she only made on Saturdays.
Loretta’s was packed when I reached it. People were waiting outside, every table I could see through the windows was full, and my mother had clearly been right about the reopening being good for business.
I was almost at the door when she stepped outside carrying an empty bus tub and caught me before I could make it inside.
“There you are.”
“I’m hungry.”
My mother looked at me for a second instead of moving out of my way. “Uh-huh. What else?”
“Can I eat before you start?”
“You can eat while I start.” She handed the bus tub to one of the girls coming through the door, then moved off to the side so we weren’t blocking people trying to get inside.
“You came home upset the other night, you done barely said two words about Smoke since then, and every time I ask you what happened, you find something else to do.”
I leaned against the wall. “I’ve been busy.”
“You’ve been avoiding me, Solace Nichole.”
I sighed because there was no point in lying when she already knew. “I’ve been avoiding everybody.”
“I noticed.” My mother looked toward the dining room when one of her servers caught her attention from across the diner.
She pointed toward an empty table near the window, letting her know where to seat the family waiting by the door, before turning back to me.
“Are you ready to tell me what the hell happened?”
I glanced around at the packed diner instead of answering right away. Every booth was full, people lined up near the front waiting for tables, and the new section my mother had been so excited about was already in use.
Plates came through the kitchen window faster than the servers could grab them, and the noise from dozens of conversations mixed with music coming through the speakers and whatever was happening outside on Main Street. My mother somehow kept track of it all while standing there waiting on me.
I rubbed my temple, trying to slow down the hundred different thoughts running through my head. “There’s a chance Sherrod got somebody pregnant.”
Her attention snapped completely back to me. “What?”
“They don’t know if the baby is his yet. She was dealing with somebody else too, so they have to wait until they can do the paternity test.”
“Hey, baby,” Miss Renee hurried over with an order pad in one hand, gave me a quick hug without really stopping, then turned to my mother. “Loretta, we’re down to one order of the catfish special. You want me to eighty-six it?”
She looked toward the kitchen. “Not ‘til I talk to Reggie. He might have another tray prepped in the back. Give me a minute.” She turned back to me, and the look on her face told me she hadn’t forgotten a damn word I’d said. “Is that what y’all argued about?”
“Yeah.” I folded my arms. “He told me the other night, and I lost it. I had finally figured out the promotion and how I could make everything work without giving up my career or giving up being here, and then he told me that.”
My mother reached for my hand and squeezed it. “Baby, I know that hurt.”
“And I just met her about ten minutes ago.”
“The woman who’s pregnant?”
I nodded. “Her name is Denisha.”
She glanced toward the front when the bell over the door rang again. She held up two fingers to the hostess, letting her know there were two open seats at the counter, then looked back at me. “How did that go?”
“Annoyingly well.” I shook my head. “She was nice. She even told me she hoped she hadn’t messed anything up between Smoke and me because that wasn’t what she was trying to do.”
“That was grown of her.”
“I know, and I respect it.” I rubbed my hands over my arms. “I just wish respecting her made this shit easier.”
“It wasn’t supposed to.”
A plate hit the kitchen window, followed by another, and my mother looked over automatically. “That chicken biscuit needs the hot honey before it leaves that window!” she called toward the kitchen before looking at me again.
“I know nobody did anything wrong,” I continued. “Smoke was single. I can’t be mad because he had a life while I was gone.”
“You can still be hurt by it.”
“I am.” I lowered my voice when a couple walked past us toward the counter. “If that baby is his, he’s gonna be a father, Mama. You know Smoke. He’s not gonna halfway do that shit. He’s gonna be there for everything, and I would never ask him not to be. I wouldn’t even respect him if he wasn’t.”
My mother pressed her lips together and shook her head. “That boy raised two children that weren’t his when he was barely grown himself. Of course he’s going to take care of his own.”
“I don’t know if I can do it,” I admitted. “I don’t know if I can come back here and build something with him while he’s having a baby with somebody else. Then I feel selfish as hell for even thinking like that because the baby didn’t do anything to me, Mama.”
She started to answer, but one of the cooks leaned through the kitchen doorway. “Loretta, you got a second?”
“Give me five minutes, Tyrone. If it’s about the catfish, check with Reggie.” She waited until he disappeared before turning back to me. “You don’t have to know today.”
“I leave tomorrow morning.”
“And?”
I looked at her. “And I don’t wanna leave with everything like this.”
“Then don’t.”
“Mama, it’s not that simple.”
“I know it’s not.” She reached up and smoothed one of the loose pieces of hair near my face. “But you’re trying to decide right now if you can handle a situation that might not even be yours to handle.”
“I can’t pretend it isn’t possible.”
“I didn’t tell you to.” She dropped her hand and looked at me.
“Figure out what you can’t live with, Solace, not what hurts right now.
” I stared at her because I still didn’t know where one ended and the other started.
The bell over the door rang again, and my mother looked toward the growing crowd at the entrance.
“I need to get back to my restaurant before these people tear my new diner up on the first damn weekend.”
She kissed my cheek and started to walk away before I remembered why I’d come inside in the first place. “Wait.” I laughed. “I’m starving.”
She glanced back at me while reaching for a stack of menus. “What you want, baby?”
“The chicken biscuit with extra hot honey and seasoned truffle potatoes. Pickles on the side.”
“I’ll put it in. Go grab a seat at the counter before somebody takes the last one.”
I found an open seat at the counter and set my bag in my lap. Mrs. Henderson, who had to be pushing eighty by now, spotted me from a booth across the diner and waved. I smiled and waved back before settling onto the stool.
Sitting there eating, my mind kept drifting back to Smoke, whether I wanted it to or not. I’d spent enough of the day thinking about everything surrounding us. At some point, I had to actually talk to the man. I was leaving tomorrow, and I wasn’t getting on that plane without seeing him first.
By the time evening turned into night, I was tired of everybody finding something for me to help with.
I’d spent the rest of the day getting pulled into festival shit, talking to people I hadn’t seen in years, and doing favors I somehow kept agreeing to.
I was drained and ready to go home, but I needed to find Smoke first.
I finally spotted him near the back of the Cole Hardware tent talking to Tanya. I headed toward them, and Smoke noticed me before I got close. Whatever he’d been saying to Tanya stopped, and his eyes stayed on me as I walked the rest of the way over.
Tanya looked between us. “I was just about to help break down this tent and head home.”
Smoke frowned at her. “No, the hell you wasn’t.”
“I am now.” She walked off before I could say anything, and I stopped in front of Smoke.