CHAPTER FIFTEEN
KAI
Vanessa Vaughn opened the door, looked at Nola, looked at Kai, then looked back at Nola.
“Interesting.”
Kai closed his eyes.
“Ma.”
“What? I ain’t say nothing.”
Nola smiled before she could stop herself.
Vanessa wore cream linen pants, a green off-shoulder blouse, gold hoops almost as big as Nola’s, and enough confidence to make the front porch feel like her stage. At fifty-four, she was still a beautiful woman and knew it.
She had always been big. Kai had never thought of that as a category until other people pointed it out. To him, she was just his mother.
Which was why the sentence she eventually said would haunt him forever.
But not yet.
“Come in,” Vanessa told Nola. “Ignore him. He acts like I embarrass him on purpose.”
“You do.”
“And it’s easy.”
Her house smelled like lemon cleaner and the peach cobbler cooling on the stove.
Nola looked around at the plants, framed family photos, and a painting of a naked woman from behind hanging over the sofa.
“I like that,” she said.
Vanessa followed her eyes. “Thank you. Kai hates it.”
“I don’t hate it. I don’t want to see ass every time I visit my mother.”
“It’s art.”
“It’s ass.”
Nola laughed.
Vanessa immediately looked at Kai like she had found an ally.
“See? She got sense.”
“She laughing at you.”
“Still counts.”
Kai had brought Nola over because Vanessa knew everybody in Camden County and half of Gloucester County through thirty years of working in property management, church committees, community groups, and being nosy with purpose. He wanted her to look at the printed still of the burner-phone buyer.
Vanessa put on reading glasses and studied the picture at the dining table.
“Watch is ugly.”
“Ma.”
“It is.”
Nola leaned over her shoulder. “Bright orange with gray? Criminal behavior by itself.”
Vanessa laughed.
Kai looked between them.
This had been a mistake.
“Do you know him?”
Vanessa focused again.
“Can’t see his face. Build reminds me of somebody, but that don’t mean shit.”
“Who?”
“Boy named Shawn used to do maintenance at Broadview. But he moved to Delaware years ago.”
Kai wrote the name down anyway.
Nola watched him.
“You really collect everything.”
“Information don’t hurt.”
“Depends who’s holding it.”
He looked at her.
She shrugged.
That sentence would come back later too.
Vanessa served cobbler.
Ten minutes into dessert, a knock came at the door.
A man carrying a boxed patio umbrella stood outside.
Thirty-eight, maybe forty. Tall. Bald head. Work polo.
Vanessa’s entire face changed.
“Oh, you brought it.”
The man smiled. “Told you I would.”
Kai looked at his mother.
“Who is this?”
Vanessa ignored him. “Nola, this is Andre. Andre, my son’s little friend Nola.”
“Little friend?” Nola whispered.
Kai whispered back, “Don’t.”
Andre shook Nola’s hand, then Kai’s.
“Heard a lot about you.”
Kai looked at his mother again.
Vanessa was adjusting her blouse.
“Ma.”
“What?”
“How old is Andre?”
Andre laughed.
Vanessa pointed toward the patio. “Andre, baby, can you set that outside?”
“Sure.”
The second he disappeared through the kitchen, Kai turned on her.
“Baby?”
Vanessa sat down calmly. “I’m sorry, did I raise a cop?”
Nola had both lips pressed together.
“Don’t laugh,” Kai told her.
That made it worse.
Vanessa looked at Nola. “He acts like I need to sit in this house knitting because I got a grown son.”
“I never said that.”
“You ask every man his age like I’m checking IDs at the door.”
“Because last one was thirty-three.”
“And fine.”
Nola lost it.
She bent over the table laughing.
Kai looked at the ceiling.
“This is hell.”
Vanessa leaned toward Nola. “You single?”
“Ma.”
Nola looked at Kai, still smiling. “Technically?”
Kai’s head snapped toward her.
“Technically?”
“You never asked me to be anything.”
Vanessa’s eyes widened with delight.
“Oh, he behind.”
“Can we stay on topic?”
“What topic? You brought a beautiful woman to my house and didn’t lock nothing down. That’s your business problem.”
Kai rubbed his beard.
Nola’s eyes dropped.
“Don’t,” he warned.
She smiled.
Vanessa caught it.
“What’s that?”
“Nothing,” Nola said.
“Nola.”
“He got a little patch under his beard he’s sensitive about.”
Kai stared at her.
Vanessa got up from the table to inspect him.
“Let me see.”
“No.”
“Boy, come here.”
“I’m thirty-four.”
“And I pushed you out. Come here.”
Nola was crying laughing now.
Vanessa caught Kai’s chin before he could get away.
“Oh, that’s tiny.”
“Thank you.”
“You use castor oil?”
“Ma.”
“I’m trying to help.”
Kai pulled free.
Andre came back inside and looked around. “I miss something?”
“Family trauma,” Kai said.
“Dessert?” Vanessa offered.
“Absolutely.”
Andre stayed.
Of course he did.
The weight-limit conversation happened because Vanessa asked how Kai and Nola met.
Nola said, “He accused my brother of stealing eighty-seven thousand dollars. Very romantic.”
Vanessa’s eyes went wide.
Then Nola added, “And apparently I violated company policy.”
Kai knew exactly where this was going.
“Don’t.”
Vanessa looked between them. “What policy?”
Nola smiled at Kai.
“Your son don’t do BBWs.”
Silence.
Andre coughed into his hand.
Vanessa looked down at herself.
Then at Kai.
Then back down at herself.
“Nigga, you came out of a BBW.”
Nola screamed.
Actually screamed.
Andre walked out of the room laughing.
Kai covered his face.
“That is my mother. That’s completely different.”
“It better fucking be,” Vanessa said.
“Why are we discussing this?”
“Because you’re stupid apparently.”
“Ma.”
“What? Nola fine.”
“I heard you.”
The words came out too fast.
Everybody heard them.
Nola’s laugh stopped.
Vanessa smiled slowly.
Kai looked at Nola.
She looked back.
Something private moved between them in a room that was suddenly way too full.
Vanessa broke it first.
“Well. At least he got eyes.”
Kai stood.
“We’re leaving.”
“You just got here.”
“I’ve been here an hour and lost control of my entire life.”
Nola stood too, still smiling.
Vanessa hugged her at the door.
“Come back without him next time.”
“I will.”
“Traitor,” Kai said.
Outside, Nola waited until they reached the truck before starting again.
“You came out of a BBW.”
“Get in the truck.”
“A whole BBW birthed you.”
“Nola.”
“Raised you. Fed you. And you developed a weight limit.”
Kai opened her door.
“You want to walk home?”
“See? Oppression.”
She got in laughing.
Kai walked around the hood and saw his mother watching from the front window with Andre standing behind her.
He pointed at them.
Vanessa waved.
Nola leaned over the console. “Is she flirting with him right now?”
“Don’t look.”
“She is.”
“Nola.”
“Your mama got game.”
Kai started the truck.
“We’re never coming back here together.”
Nola looked at him.
“That’s a lie.”
He sighed.
It was.