Chapter 26
“No, see this is where you got me fucked up!”
Kasey was pacing my living room with the phone on speaker, every other word a cuss. I was on the couch with my feet propped up, body pillow between my knees, one hand on my belly and the other holding a glass of ice water like I was at the movies.
On the phone, Troy sighed. “Kasey?—”
“No, Troy,” she snapped. “Because what you not gon’ do is try to ice Serenity out ‘cause my brother stepped up. That little girl ain’t do shit to you but love you, and you left her at that school like she some extra credit assignment.”
I bit my lip to keep from smiling. Kasey in full drag mode was art.
“That was a mistake,” he argued weakly. “Y’all blowing it out of proportion.”
“A mistake is forgetting to text back,” she shot back. “You drove past her school to pick Kori up early and take her to the fair. That wasn’t no accident, that was on purpose.”
Silence.
He didn’t have a comeback for that.
“I been real quiet,” Kasey went on, “‘cause I didn’t want no smoke in front of the kids but you trying to punish Serenity ‘cause Sevyn got a man who actually act like a father? That’s weird and it’s ugly as hell like yo’ mama.”
“You don’t know what you talking about,” he muttered.
“Oh, I know exactly what I’m talking about,” she said. “You mad my brother doing what you pretended to do. And instead of getting your shit together, you taking it out on a six-year-old. I don’t appreciate that. At all.”
He started to say something; she talked right over him.
“And another thing,” she added. “If this how you act when the mothers of your kids move on, let me be the first to tell you—you will never meet my man. Ever. Because the shit you pulled? Would leave Kori and Serenity without a father, and I actually like them having one.”
I choked on my water.
Kasey wasn’t done.
“You better fix your attitude, fix how you moving, and fix how you talk about my brother in front of them kids,” she finished. “‘Cause next time, it’s not gone be a bike. It’s gone be me.”
She hung up without waiting for a reply.
Kasey exhaled hard, dropped onto the opposite end of the couch, and finally looked at me.
“Remind me,” she said, catching her breath, “to wait ’til after me and Jonah get married to let him know.”
“You still ain’t told him?”
“Hell no,” she said. “Jonah a better man, but he still a man.”
That made me laugh, belly jiggling under my hand. “He really gon’ cry when he find out his barber is his other baby mama’s man.”
Kasey grinned slow at the thought.
“Oh, he absolutely is,” she said. “And I’m absolutely gon’ enjoy it.”
Kasey kicked her shoes off and tucked one leg under her, finally relaxing now that she’d verbally body-slammed Troy.
“On the bright side,” she said, picking at a stray thread on one of my throw pillows, “at least now he know if he play with either one of y’all? He gotta go through a whole neighborhood. Batman, Wolf, Kash, Ares, Arrow, Haze… hell, even Hazel petty enough to slash a tire.”
“You forgot my mama,” I said. “She been waiting to cuss him out for years.”
Kasey laughed. “Yeah, Ms. Carol look like she got a speech saved in her Notes app.”
We sat there in comfortable quiet for a second. Serenity and Kori were on the floor, coloring in some Batman coloring books Kasen had bought—Serenity humming to herself, Kori switching colors every thirty seconds like she was on a deadline.
“You okay for real?” Kasey asked after a beat, eyes sliding back to me. “Between the shower, the fight, and that little stunt last week…you been holding it together too good. It’s weird.”
I sighed, rubbing slow circles over my stomach. “I’m…tired,” I admitted. “But I’m good. I got support this time. That’s the difference.”
She nodded. “Yeah, you do.”
I glanced down at the ring on my finger, the way it caught the light every time I moved.
“Never thought I’d be pregnant and engaged at the same time,” I said. “On purpose.”
“On purpose is the key,” she said. “You upgraded your roster, sis.”
“More like I deleted the roster,” I said. “Batman built his own league.”
We both looked over toward the kitchen where Kasen was standing in a T-shirt and sweats, talking quietly with my stepfather about grill brands like they’d been friends for years.
Every so often, his eyes flicked toward the living room, checking on me, on the girls, like a reflex.
“You know he nervous as hell, right?” Kasey said. “About this daddy thing. About marrying you. All of it.”
“I know,” I said softly. “He still shows up anyway. That’s all I ever wanted.”
“Ain’t that what I just told Troy?” she smirked. “Show up or shut up.”
“Exactly.”
Serenity suddenly popped her head up from the floor. “Auntie Kasey, you coming to Mommy and Dad’s wedding?”
Kasey smiled. “Obviously.”
Kori gasped. “Can we wear capes?”
I groaned. “No capes at my wedding.”
“Batman capes?” Serenity tried.
“No capes,” I repeated, though I was smiling. “Maybe masks for the reception.”
Their eyes lit up like I’d just told them Christmas was moving to July.
From the kitchen, Kasen glanced over again, and this time our eyes met.
He mouthed, You good?
I nodded and mouthed, Always.