Chapter 30
CHAPTER
THIRTY
LOVIE
The Sunday after Family Fun Day is always quiet, but for the first time in ten years, I think this might be the quietest one.
Uncle Kenny’s home for dinner, but we’re not eating in front of the TV.
We’re eating at the kitchen table while the elephant in the room sits in the middle of it, watching us chew the chicken Aunt Faye picked up from Frenchy’s.
She eyes Uncle Kenny’s empty glass while standing up. “You want some more tea, Ken?”
He grunts back an answer.
She sighs, walking around the table and picking up his half-empty glass.
Nobody wants to poke the elephant, but that’s how it’s always been around here.
It took six years for Aunt Faye to watch Channel 13 news again after Mama died because they were the first to call and ask if she wanted to release a statement on behalf of the family after the “tragedy.” They stopped covering her murder the next day, and Aunt Faye had to lie to Ms. Vera when she asked why she couldn’t stomach Deborah Wrigley’s voice anymore.
The day after they found Zaire’s body floating in the bayou, Aunt Faye still fixed his plate at dinner and sat it between her and Uncle Kenny as if he’d show up and eat it.
Now they’d rather eat in silence instead of talking about what AJ did to me or why Rich Lovelace showed up to Worthing’s 10th Annual Family Fun Day.
It’s not like the first day I came home and tried to hide AJ’s indiscretions while we sat at the kitchen table, or when I held my friendship with Rich close to the vest while they argued in the living room.
Now, both secrets are out in the wild, AJ’s gone, and I finally have a part of Rich inside of me.
I feel him in my chest, and last night I felt him between my legs when I finally fell asleep.
If he were here right now, he’d tell me to ball my fist up and run full speed at that stupid elephant that sat in the middle of our kitchen table.
“It was nice of Rich to show up yesterday, huh?” I blurt, curling my toes inside my UGGS.
Aunt Faye looks at me first as if she can tell that me and Rich made love right under her nose despite her warning. Her eyes trace my upper torso like she can see the imprints his fingers left from holding me as tight as he could after promising me he’d come here after he left Lucky’s.
She turns and opens the refrigerator, pulling the jug of Lipton out. “Yeah, it was nice. The boys seemed to enjoy him being there.”
Uncle Kenny scoffs, then takes another bite out of his chicken breast while she pours more tea into his glass and puts the jug back in the refrigerator.
He swallows. “I guess. Didn’t seem like they saw much of him to me.”
“Well, Chase was happy,” I murmur.
“Chase lives in the Bottoms with his granny and six cousins. It don’t take much to impress him.
Those boys need to learn what a good role model looks like.
They need to look up to men with morals, men with purpose, and legitimate money in their pockets.
Look at Lucky’s son—he’s a good kid despite his daddy’s questionable background.
He’s about to graduate from HCC with a bachelor’s and go off to A&M. ”
Aunt Faye gaits back to the table and sits his glass down with a loud thud. “It’s Sunday.”
“I know what day it is,” he replies.
She sits back in her chair. “Then you should know I don’t wanna hear this crap today.”
“It ain’t crap. I think we all need to have a talk.”
“About what?” she asks.
“About this Rich situation and how much more of it we’re gonna bear.” He side-eyes me while taking a swig of his tea.
“There’s nothing for us to bear. I asked you for a favor, and you said you’d do it. Case closed. If you want him to be more open with you, then maybe you should start by respecting him. Respect goes a long way with Rich.”
“Don’t talk to me about respect right now—not when he’s still doing the shit you told me he’d stop doing when you asked me for that favor.
I was a damn fool for agreeing to it in the first place.
” He holds the glass of tea to his lips.
“Hell, he’s sneaking around with Lovie, spending hours with her locked in his truck.
Donovan said he ain’t know if y’all were in there fussing or what.
He said he heard yelling. Then you left with him without even telling anybody. ”
I sputter out a laugh. “He’s not sneaking around. He’s a grown man. We’re grown. He dropped me off at home. And if we were ‘fussing,’ what would you have done about it?”
He points his finger at me. “This is exactly what I’m talking about. This is why we all need to sit down and have a talk and put some boundaries in place.”
“You are so right,” I reply. “That’s why I invited him over tonight. He can join in on this pertinent discussion you’re planning to have about him behind his back. He wants to talk to you about Chico’s Vegas buddy.”
“You did what?” Uncle Kenny’s eyes grow into big, red discs as he looks at Aunt Faye. “You told that dude about Roberto, Faye? Roberto ain’t about to waste his time with him.”
Aunt Faye blubbers out a loud sigh, grabbing her head. “Lovie…”
I throw my arms up. “He just wants to talk to you. He wants—”
“But I don’t wanna talk to him,” Uncle Kenny snaps. “Can I just have one day of peace around here? One! I don’t think I ask for much around here, dammit.”
A loud knock on the front door rumbles throughout the house, interrupting us.
“Ken…” Aunt Faye huffs.
He narrows his eyes at us while I roll mine back to the chicken thigh I kept plucking the crust off of.
“It’s probably Chico,” he mutters, pushing back from the table. “He forgot some of his DJ equipment in the back of my truck, and no, I’m not asking him to stick around to entertain this bullshit.”
As soon as he ambles out of the kitchen, Aunt Faye glares at me.
“What?” I ask, sitting back in my chair and crossing my arms.
“You know what. This is still Kenny’s house.”
“And Rich is still my friend. He can dislike him without disrespecting him.”
She blows a breath out of her nose. “Ken is right.”
“Oh, so you agree with him disrespecting Rich? You agree with him not wanting to help Rich get away from here? It’s getting harder and harder for me to see this so-called love you have for Rich.”
“Do not go there with me. We all need to have a talk without Rich.”
“I’m not gonna talk about him behind his back. That’s wrong and you know it.”
She shakes her head. “Lovie…you’re…you’re overstepping.”
“Well, I’m sorry that I care,” I hiss. “Do you want to be the only woman in his life who cares? Is that what this is about?”
She grabs her forehead. “Lord, this is my fault. All of this mess is.”
“How is it your fault that we became friends?”
“You don’t understand. This thing with him ain’t gonna end how you think it will, and Rich should’ve known better than to put that false hope in your head.”
I ball my face up. “What are you even saying right now—”
A loud masculine voice intermingles with Uncle Kenny’s from the front of the house, and for a split second my heart patters.
My eyes meet Aunt Faye’s squinted ones.
It could be Rich at the door. The part of him that lingers inside of me after making love makes me hopeful that he finished up at Lucky’s and came over here just like he said he would.
“How you been, my guy?” the voice bellows.
My heart settles.
Rich didn’t talk with a northern twang, though.
“I didn’t miss dinner, did I?” they ask. “We left the stadium a little later than usual. I meant to shoot you a text, but I got caught up in a meeting mid-flight.”
“Oh, man. No worries at all. You’re right on time. Come sit with us. We’ll fix you a plate.”
Also, Uncle Kenny would never invite Rich to eat at his kitchen table.
“You by yourself?” Uncle Kenny asks.
“Yeah…it’s just me. That’s cool, right?”
Me and Aunt Faye look at each other with pinched expressions and then at the archway where Uncle Kenny leads Blake Harvey into our kitchen.
His cold, dark eyes land on me as soon as he steps through the threshold, and all the chicken I ate gurgles up my throat.
I never thought I’d see him standing in a kitchen outside of New York City, but here he is draped in a swanky Harvey and Lee tracksuit with custom stone-colored New Balance sneakers to match. The outfit is just as tacky as he is.
“You can sit right there next to Lovie,” Uncle Kenny says, pointing to the empty chair I left between me and him. “Faye, Blake’s here.”
She frowns. “Yeah…I see.”
“Go fix him a plate.”
She pushes up from her seat with caution without acknowledging Blake. It’s like me and her are the only ones who understand how wrong this pop-up visit feels.
Uncle Kenny clasps his hands together, sitting down. “Boy, we ain’t seen you in a while. I think the last time we saw you was in…”
“Dallas. It was AJ’s rookie year,” Blake replies.
“Yup! My boy put us in that nice suite at AT&T while we watched them whoop the Cowboy’s ass. I still brag about that to the guys at work.”
They laugh together as Blake eases into the chair next to me, smothering me with his spicy cologne.
“Lovie.” He flashes an empty smile my way.
It makes the hairs on my arms stand, and for the first time since I’ve known him, I don’t feel obligated to smile back.
“Blake,” I mutter.
“Long time no see. You’re looking quite…” He eyes my faded leggings and Worthing Boxing sweatshirt. “Casual. Texas seems like it’s been good to you.”
“What are you doing here?” I pick up a roll from my plate, shoveling a piece into my mouth to stave off the rest of what I want to say.
He smiles politely at Aunt Faye as she hands him a plate of fried chicken, green beans, and dirty rice, although he thinks plating fast food and serving it for dinner is tacky. I’ve eaten hundreds of dinners with him to know so.