Chapter 10 #2
The silence that followed was heavier than anything she’d expected.
“Paige, say something. I know he’s like family to you, but I hope you trust me to tell him.”
“Ken, I love you, but you’re wrong for this. The second you found out, you should’ve been on the phone.”
“Paige.”
“Don’t Paige me. Y’all are both people I care about. But someone is going to get hurt with this lack of communication.”
“Paige is harsh, but she’s right. You say you want love,” Isha said. “But you don’t sit still long enough to recognize it.
“Who said anything about love?”
“Ken,” she said. “You’ll leave the minute a new opportunity calls.”
“What’s your point?” Kennedi’s voice was changing. She hadn’t come here for everyone’s opinion and judgment.
“The point is, what’s going to happen now? Because you and I know damn well he ain’t about to disappear when he finds out about this baby.”
“I know,” Kennedi whispered.
Carmen leaned forward, voice gentle. “What are you scared of, Ken? That he won’t want the baby? Or that he will?”
“Both,” Kennedi admitted. “I’m scared he’ll want everything — marriage, forever, the whole thing. And on the other hand, he may want to call me every name in the book and hate me.”
“He wouldn’t do that,” Isha said quietly.
“He’s a gentle giant,” Paige added.
“And he’s probably still grieving the loss of his grandma,” Carmen threw in. “She passed right before the LA trip. You really think he’s gonna be mad about a baby? That man is raising his niece while his brother is locked up. Family means everything to him.”
Kennedi’s breath caught. Her hand stilled on her water glass.
“Wait. What?” Her voice came out smaller than she intended. “His grandmother died? His brother is in prison?”
The table went quiet. Paige’s face shifted, realizing Kennedi didn’t know.
“You didn’t know?” Shadow asked carefully.
Kennedi shook her head slowly. She should’ve known that. The fact that she didn’t said everything about how she’d handled the last few months. “No. He didn’t… we didn’t talk about that.”
Carmen’s expression softened. “Ken, his grandma passed away two weeks before the premiere. And his brother Robin’s been locked up for a minute. That’s why Rolani has Monroe full-time.”
The information caused her body to seize.
He had been grieving, having lost his grandmother and raising his niece alone while his brother was in prison.
Her stomach dropped, and her throat burned.
Kennedi had been so wrapped up in protecting herself that she hadn’t considered what he might’ve been carrying.
And now she was carrying his baby, and he still didn’t know.
“I really fucked this up,” she whispered.
“You didn’t know,” Isha said gently. “But now you do. And that’s even more reason to tell him, Ken. He deserves to know.”
Shadow nodded. “Facts. And knowing him, he’s gonna want to be there for everything.”
“I love how y’all conveniently left this out of the group chat,” Kennedi said, voice tight. “If I’d known all that, I would’ve—”
“Would’ve what?” Shadow cut in, unapologetic. “Not slept with him? Girl, please. You needed to live a little.”
“Oh, she lived, it seems,” Isha added, lightening the tension at the table.
“Nobody told you to go get pregnant, sis. We weren’t about to block that blessing because a nigga was grieving. Niggas grieve every day, B. Don’t expect an apology from me.”
Carmen leaned forward. “But maybe it was meant to be. You’ve been alone a long time, sis. And sometimes love doesn’t come how you expect. Sounds like y’all both needed each other that night. Maybe more than you realized.”
The table went quiet, the weight of that settling over them. Her mind was foggy with all of it.
She shrugged as the server appeared, setting down plates of food. Shrimp and grits steaming, waffles stacked high, omelets dripping cheese.
The woman smiled politely. “And Miss Walters, this meal has been paid for in full for the whole table. Mr. Pracher took care of it.”
Kennedi froze. “I’m sorry, what? Which Mr. Pracher?”
“Rolani. He said you and your girls eat free every time you come through.”
The girls’ heads snapped up in unison before the table erupted again.
Shadow’s cackle cut the air first. “Not the family and friends discount!”
“It’s not like that.”
“Not like that?” Isha's eyebrows shot up. “Okay, he's already applying pressure. Good luck, girl. You in danger.”
Kennedi stabbed a shrimp and said nothing.
Six minutes of almost normal. Then the front door opened, and the energy in the restaurant shifted like someone had tilted the whole building two degrees.
She didn't see him at first. She felt him.
Shadow saw him before Kennedi could turn around. Her fork froze halfway to her mouth. "Oh shit."
“What?” Kennedi asked, already knowing.
“Don’t turn around,” Carmen said calmly, which meant it was already too late.
Kennedi turned around anyway and found Rolani standing at the hostess stand in a gray hoodie, dark jeans, and black Timbs, talking to the manager with one hand in his pocket and the other holding a folder. Business. He was here on business.
For a moment, she thought she was safe. He hadn’t seen her. He was focused, nodding at the manager. Then the manager pointed toward the dining room, and Rolani’s eyes followed and swept the booths.
He found her in two seconds flat.
Everything on his face changed. The business expression dissolved.
What replaced it was layered and impossible to read from across a restaurant.
She saw surprise first, brief and genuine.
Then something harder settled in. His eyes moved from her face to the booth full of women who had gone dead silent, then back to her.
His thumb dropped from his lip. He said something to the manager without looking at him, handed off the folder and keys, and started walking toward their table.
“Everybody act normal,” Carmen said, which was the most useless instruction anyone had ever given because not a single woman at that table was breathing normally.
Kennedi straightened in her seat and pulled her blazer tighter across her midsection. Five months. She was five months pregnant with this man’s child, and he was walking toward her.
He stopped at the edge of their booth. Shoulders blocking the overhead light, cologne finding her nose and settling there.
“Ladies,” He said lowly. “Sis.”
“Hey, Ro,” Paige said carefully, the only one who could manage casual.
He wasn’t looking at any of them. His eyes were on Kennedi.
“Mrs. Pracher.”
Carmen and Isha spit out their water with a snicker.
“Rolani, hey.” Her voice came out steadier than she felt. “I didn’t know you’d be here.”
“I’m always here.” Simple. Factual. Luther’s was his brother’s restaurant, and he’d been holding it down. She’d walked into his territory and thought she could eat in peace. “Let me holla at you for a minute.” He extended his hand.
Kennedi glanced at her girls. Every single one of them had suddenly found something fascinating on their plates. Shadow was cutting a waffle she’d already cut. Carmen was reading the back of a hot sauce bottle. Isha was chewing air. Paige shook her head slowly, a look that said, “Girl, go.”
She took his hand. His fingers closed around hers, and he pulled her out of the booth without waiting for her to finish deciding. She barely had time to tug her blazer closed with her free hand before he was walking her toward the hallway near the restrooms.
He stopped at the end of the hallway and turned to face her. Leaned against the wall, arms crossed. His eyes dropped, then came back up.
“You know what's crazy?” His voice was low, almost conversational. “Every time I turn around, there you are.” He let out a short breath that wasn’t quite a laugh. “God got jokes, Ken. He really do.”
“Rolani—”
“Nah, hold on.” He pushed off the wall, one step closer. “This cat and mouse shit is getting old. You know that, right? I let you go do what you needed to do. I’m not doing that again.”
She didn’t answer. Her back found the wall. Her mouth opened, but nothing useful came out. Three months of rehearsed explanations, and not a single one showed up when she needed it.
He stepped closer. His fingers found her chin and tilted her face up until her eyes had nowhere to go but his.
The spearmint on his breath was close enough to feel.
She thought he was going to kiss her. Her eyes started to close, her body leaning in.
He clocked it, and he let go of her chin before he moved back.
“See, that’s the problem.” His voice was quiet. “You can’t be honest with yourself. That don’t work for me, Ken.”
“Is that why you got me back here? To prove a point? Make me show my hand?”
“Nah, I got you back here because I had to hear it through the grapevine you were headed back.”
“I was going to talk to you on Monday at work.”
“At work? Word?”
“Yes, until I get adjusted, I need to keep things professional.”
“Stop playing with me, Kennedi. When I call, answer. When I text, respond. Because if you don’t, I’m showing up. Welcome home, baby.”
“Thank you.”
Thank you. She stood there in a hallway at Luther’s, five months pregnant with this man’s baby, and thank you was the best she had. She was absolutely pitiful.
He studied her for a long moment, eyes dropping to the way her blazer pulled across her middle. His jaw tightened, just barely, before his expression reset.
“You look different,” he said quietly.
Her blood went cold. “Different how?”
His thumb found his bottom lip. Slow drag. The gesture meant he was processing something. “I don’t know yet.” His eyes came back to hers. “But I’ll figure it out.”
He reached past her to push open the hallway door, his body close enough that she felt the heat of him one last time. She closed her eyes and breathed him in, hating how much she wished this interaction didn’t have to end.
“Go eat your food before it gets cold,” he said, stepping back. “And tell Shadow I see her nosy ass peeking around that corner.”
A strangled laugh escaped her before she could stop it.
He held the door for her, and she walked past him back toward the dining room. Her legs felt hollow. Her hand was on her stomach before she could stop it, and this time she didn’t care.
When she slid back into the booth, no one spoke for a full ten seconds.
“So,” Shadow said, setting her fork down. “You’re telling him this week.”
“I know.”
“No, Ken. This week.”
“I said I know, damn.”
Kennedi picked up her fork and stared at her plate. The shrimp and grits were cold, but she was anything but.
Her phone buzzed.
Ro: Tick Tock, baby.