Ysis #2
“So where does that leave us?”
Before I could respond, a light knock sounded against the nursery door, startling both of us out of the conversation.
Neither one of us had even realized we’d left it cracked open.
Looking over, I found Kade leaning casually against the frame with one hand tucked inside the pocket of his joggers, his eyes moving between me and Kayla before settling on her tear-stained face.
“I knew I’d find y’all up here.”
Kayla swiped her eyes and let out a nervous laugh, looking everywhere except at him. “How much did you hear?”
“Enough to know my brother done pissed you off again.”
“Oh my God,” she groaned, dropping her face into both hands.
“Relax,” Kade said with a chuckle as he pushed himself off the doorframe and wandered farther into the nursery. His eyes drifted around the room, taking in everything we’d spent the afternoon putting together before they landed back on us.
“I wasn’t standing outside ear hustling. I came up here looking for my wife. Y’all just happened to be talking loud as hell.”
Kayla’s head snapped up. “I do not talk loud.”
“You definitely do.”
“I absolutely don’t.”
“Babe...” Kade looked at me, asking for backup. I laughed before betraying my best friend without an ounce of guilt.
“He’s right, Kay.” Kayla whipped her head toward me.
“Et tu, Ice?”
“I had to.” I shrugged, smiling. “There wasn’t no saving you on that one.”
“Oh, wow.” She pointed between the two of us. “So this is how y’all doing me?”
Kade slipped his arm around my shoulders, pulling me up and into his side with a satisfied grin. “We’re married now. It’s in the vows.” I laughed so hard my stomach tightened, one of the twins protesting with a kick.
“See?” I rubbed my belly.
“Now look what you did. You got them in on it too.”
“I can’t stand neither one of y’all.”
“Liar,” Kade said without missing a beat. “You love us.”
She tried to fight the smile creeping onto her face, but it was no use.
Within seconds she was laughing with us, and for the first time since she’d gotten back from Vegas, some of the heaviness she’d been carrying seemed to lift, if only for a little while.
Folding his arms across his chest, he leaned one shoulder against the nursery wall, looking every bit as relaxed as if we weren’t discussing one of the biggest crossroads in his brother’s life.
“I talked to him,” he admitted. “Matter of fact, he stayed behind after everybody left my office because he needed somebody to bounce some things off of. We had a real conversation, one I think he probably should’ve had a long time ago.”
Kayla searched his face, almost afraid to ask the question that had been weighing on her since she’d walked through the front door. “And?”
Kade let out a quiet chuckle, shaking his head before answering. “And my brother is a hardheaded idiot.” The corner of Kayla’s mouth twitched despite herself as I covered my laugh with the back of my hand.
“I’ve been trying to tell her that,” I teased, earning an amused look from my husband.
“You know what Isaiah’s problem is?” Kade asked, looking between the two of us before answering his own question.
“That nigga thinks loving somebody and protecting them got to look the same. In his mind, if he’s out here risking everything, putting food on the table, making sure can’t nobody touch the woman he loves, then that’s enough because that’s how he was taught to love. That’s the only example he ever had.”
His expression softened as his eyes drifted toward the nursery window before settling back on Kayla. “The problem is, women don’t hear that the same way. Y’all don’t just want to be protected. Y’all want to feel chosen. There’s a difference, and Isaiah is just now learning that.”
“He couldn’t even tell me he loved me.”
“I know,” Kade said gently. “And I know that hurt you. I’m not taking that away from you, because you deserved better in that moment. But don’t confuse a man who’s still learning how to love with a man who doesn’t.”
He pushed himself away from the wall and walked over until he was standing in front of her.
“I told him downstairs that if he really sees himself marrying you one day, then he needs to stop thinking like a soldier and start thinking like a husband. That’s a lesson he ain’t never had nobody teach him before.
” Kayla looked at us with uncertainty clouding her eyes.
“So...what am I supposed to do?”
Kade smiled, the kind that reminded me why I’d fallen in love with him in the first place.
“I’m not asking you to settle, Kayla. Hell, don’t ever settle.
I’m asking you not to throw in the towel on my brother either.
That fool has spent his whole life surviving.
Give him a little grace while he figures out how to live.
” Kayla lowered her eyes, letting out a tired sigh.
“I’ve been giving him time.”
“I know,” Kade answered. She looked back up at him, her eyes glossy with tears she was trying her hardest to keep under control.
“No...I don’t think you do.”
“I do.”
There wasn’t an ounce of defensiveness in his voice. It was calm, measured, and filled with the kind of understanding that only came from someone who had once been just as broken.
”I know what it’s like to have your whole world flipped upside down by somebody you never planned on loving.” My eyes found his. He smiled over at me, that same smile that had somehow become my favorite place to land, before turning his attention back to Kayla.
“When Ice came into my life, I thought money solved everything. I thought control solved everything. I thought removing every obstacle between me and what I wanted was my version of love.” He let out a quiet laugh, rubbing the back of his neck. “Turns out...I was just a rich psychopath.”
“You still are.”
“Probably.” Kayla couldn’t help herself. A small laugh escaped before she quickly covered her mouth.
“But,” Kade pointed at me with his thumb, “she stuck beside me anyway.”
“I threatened to quit at least seven hundred times.”
“And yet...” He shrugged with that smug little grin that still managed to drive me crazy. “...there you sit.”
“I really hate you sometimes.”
“Lies.”
His answer came so confidently it made all three of us laugh. The smile slowly faded from his face as he looked back toward Kayla. “My point is...Isaiah ain’t me. He’s still trying to figure out who he is underneath everything the streets made him become.”
“I know.”
“And he damn sure ain’t ready today.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.” Her shoulders dropped.
“But that don’t mean he won’t ever be.”
The nursery fell into a comfortable silence, broken only by the soft hum of the sound machine sitting beside one of the cribs. Kade looked around the room for a moment before turning back toward Kayla, almost as if he wanted to make sure his words carried the intention they deserved.
“I’ll think about it.”
“That’s all I’m asking. If I know Isaiah, he somewhere downstairs pretending he ain’t worried about you while keeping track of every step you take.”
“Sounds about right.”
“He’ll probably follow you home too.”
“He better not.”
“Oh...he absolutely will.”
Kayla stood and smoothed the wrinkles from her shirt before walking over to wrap me in one last hug. “I should probably head home.”
“You sure?”
She nodded. “I just...need a little time to clear my head.”
“You know where to find me.” I kissed her cheek.
“Always.”
She pulled away and hugged Kade next. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet. I still gotta deal with his hardheaded ass.
” That earned another laugh before she made her way toward the bedroom door.
Kade waited until she disappeared into the hallway before looking over at me with that mischievous look that almost always meant he was about to prove a point.
“I’ll give it...” He lifted his wrist, pretending to check a watch he wasn’t wearing. “Thirty seconds before Isaiah magically remembers he got somewhere to be.”
“You think?” I laughed. He looked at me like I’d lost my mind.
“Babe...I know.” As if the universe had been waiting for his cue, Yayo’s voice floated up from downstairs.
“Kayla!” We both froze for a second before Kade turned back toward me with the most satisfied grin I’d seen all week.
“Twenty-eight seconds.” I burst into laughter as Kayla’s muffled groan echoed all the way from the staircase.
“Oh my God, Isaiah!”
“What’d I tell you?” Kade shrugged, looking entirely too pleased with being right.
Still laughing, I slipped my hand into his as we listened to their voices drift farther through the house and eventually out the front door.
Neither one of us had any doubt she was going home with Yayo following close behind, whether she’d invited him or not.
For all of their arguing, stubbornness, and inability to communicate, one thing remained painfully obvious.
Neither one of them had figured out how to walk away from the other.
The nursery fell quiet after Kayla and Yayo’s voices disappeared.
For a while neither one of us moved. Kade stood behind me with both arms wrapped around my waist, his chin resting against my shoulder as we looked over the room we’d spent weeks preparing for two little people who hadn’t even taken their first breath yet.
The afternoon sun poured through the windows, washing everything in a warm glow that made the tiny cribs, folded blankets, and stuffed animals look almost dreamlike.
“I’ve been waiting on this my whole life,” I admitted.
“I know.”
“I just...” I sighed, rubbing over my stomach as one of the twins rolled beneath my hand. “I thought it’d be different.”
Kade’s embrace tightened. “Different how?”
“I thought I’d get to enjoy this.” I smiled sadly.
“Go shopping without looking over my shoulder. Complain about swollen feet and cravings instead of worrying about who’s trying to kill who. I wanted to be one of those pregnant women who spends her days picking paint colors and arguing over baby names.”