Ducane #2
Ruben stopped a few feet short of us, close enough to shake a hand, far enough to make it clear he wasn’t going to be the one to close the distance first. He had a drink in one hand and that same unreadable calm he wore like a second suit.
“Ducane.” His eyes moved over me, then landed on Skye. I caught the disdain showing before he buried it again. “And what do we have here?”
“Exactly what it looks like.” I kept my arm around Skye’s waist. “My wife. My family.”
“Wife.” He let the word hang there. “So, you ran to some island like a little boy and got married?”
“Nah.” I kissed Skye’s hand. “I married the love of my life seven years ago like a man.” I met his eyes. “I hope that ain’t gonna be a problem for you.”
Ruben’s eyes finally dropped to Cadence, half-hidden behind us, one small hand fisted in the back of my jacket.
“So this is Cadence.”
I felt Skye shift beside me.
His face didn’t change, and I waited for it. The flinch. The mask slipping, even a little. Some small human thing to prove this was landing on him the way it should land on a man finding out he had a grandchild for the first time.
It never came.
“Yes, my daughter. But your lack of reaction tells me you knew that.”
He looked down at her and then back to me and shrugged.
“I can’t even believe you right now.”
“Dena, stop acting all high and mighty. You were complicit.”
“Complicit in what, Ruben? Don’t you dare drag me into your shit. I would’ve been there for my grandbaby,” she hissed.
He waved her off, and I stepped forward.
“Cane, man up. You got the girl. You got the family; it seems to have all worked out. This is what you wanted all along, right? What’s the issue?”
“What’s the issue? What the fu—”
I felt my rage about boiling over when I heard her.
“Daddy,” Sugar said, pulling on my jacket. That stopped me mid-sentence. I bent down to face her.
“What is it, princess?”
“My feet hurt again,” she giggled. I scooped her up.
“We gotta chill on the heels, bae. Her feet always hurt. I don’t like that.”
“She’s dramatic, and she picked those heels out. But where are these seats? I need a drink.”
“Follow me,” my mother said, walking off to lead the way. We stepped around my father and found our seats.
We sat down at the table, and it was awkward, like I expected it would be. Cadence was giving my mother an earful, running down her almost seven years of life. My mom listened intently, and it was a sight to behold.
My pops stood, buttoned his jacket, and left the table. I followed.
The back bar was away from earshot of the table, and I wasted no time antagonizing the saddest, most pathetic man I ever met.
“You know what’s crazy?”
“Enlighten me, son.”
“You really ain’t shit.”
“Maybe. But I tried to protect you from being stuck with that girl. You never learn, son.”
“Learn what? How to be miserable? How to snake my own kin? What’s the lesson?”
“This is the lesson. That bitch makes you soft.”
I jacked him up and slammed him against the wall. I was so glad the lights were lowered, even though I didn’t care. If Cadence couldn’t see me mop the floor with him, I was fine.
“Watch your fuckin’ mouth. I’ve been letting you make it for a long time. That shit ends tonight. Respect my family, or else.”
“Or else what? Ducane, I’ve been three steps ahead of you this entire time, and it ain’t about hate.
It’s about status. A status that comes from my name.
A power you almost refused to tap into to follow behind a struggling college student, and now a flight attendant.
Yes, I knew, and I’d do it again. Look at you. I made you.”
I hit him in his jaw and then his stomach. He grimaced and checked his mouth. I grabbed his jaw and made him look at me.
“Just to be, clear I hate you as much as you fuckin hate me. Be easy. I’ll see you real soon. And don’t forget to bring all that power you possess.”
I let him go. He straightened his jacket, unbothered, and walked back toward the ballroom without another word. A coward.
I stood there another second, flexing my hand, waiting for the part of me that used to feel guilty about shit like this to show up.
It never did.
When I made it back to the table, Skye was watching me, chin up, eyes steady, her gaze dropping to my hand once before it came back up to meet mine.
“Feel better?” she asked, low enough that only I could hear it over Cadence still going on to my mother about her tooth fairy money.
“Yeah.” I sat down next to her and reached for her hand under the table. “Better than I’ve been in years, actually.”
She studied me for another second, then laced her fingers through mine.
“Good,” she said simply. “He had it coming.”
I almost laughed. Almost.
“You saw that?”
“I saw enough.” She squeezed my hand once. “I told you I wasn’t gonna be surprised by anything you did to protect this family tonight. I meant it.”
Under the table, out of sight of my mother and my daughter and every last person in that room who thought they knew who Ducane Simmons was supposed to be, my wife brought my knuckles to her lips and kissed them, one at a time.
I’d spent thirty years trying to be the son my father could be proud of.
I was done. I just wanted to be the man my wife could be proud of. Fuck the rest.
We stayed a little over an hour, and somehow I’d barely seen my father again. That alone made the night easier than I’d expected.
Cadence was asleep against my shoulder, one little heel missing while the other dangled from Skye’s hand. She’d eaten every chocolate-covered strawberry she could find and danced until she couldn’t keep her eyes open.
“Ma, you don’t have to walk us out. I got it.”
“Son, please.” She smiled at Cadence. “I’m not ready to part ways with my granddaughter.”
Skye smiled.
“Mrs. Sha...”
My mother looked at her.
“Dena.”
Skye laughed. “Dena...you’re welcome at our house anytime. We’d love to have you.”
My mother hugged Skye again.
“I told you, didn’t I?”
Skye nodded against her shoulder. “You did.”
“Now go on,” my mother said, waving us toward the door. “Before I start crying in this people’s foyer again.”
“We’ll do breakfast before y’all leave,” she called after us. “Or lunch.”
“You just don’t wanna let us go,” I laughed.
“I don’t.”
I’d never seen my mother this light. Leaving my father looked good on her, and I hated that she’d carried it alone. I had her now.
“Love you, Ma.”
“Love you too, son.”
My mother followed us all the way outside, waving until we reached the limo.
Kareem climbed out and came around to open Skye’s door. He stopped halfway there, catching sight of my mother still standing with her arms wrapped around herself against the evening chill.
“Evening, Miss Dena.”
My mother smiled, surprised, for half a second before warmth covered her face.
“Kareem. Look at you.”
He laughed and rubbed the back of his neck.
“Been a minute.”
“Too long.”
They smiled like they already knew something the rest of us didn’t.
Kareem opened Skye’s door and helped her in before circling around to the driver’s seat.
I waited until he pulled away from the curb.
“What was that about?”
He glanced at me in the mirror.
“What was what?”
“You and my mom.”
“Ain’t nothing to tell. I just ain’t seen Miss Dena in years.”
Skye pressed her lips together beside me.
I looked over. “What you smiling about?”
“I’m not smiling.”
“Yes, you are.”
She looked out the window, trying to hide it.
“I just think everybody deserves a second chance.”
“Second chance at what?”
“Life.” She shrugged. “Your mama’s beautiful. She’s successful. She’s single now. Men are gonna notice her. Especially men who knew peak Dena Shane.”
Kareem laughed under his breath.
“Now, Skye...why would you say that?”
She finally looked at him.
“Because you waved like you knew her personally.”
“I did,” he said. “Know her, I mean.”
I looked between the two of them.
“Aw, hell nah.”
Skye laughed and came in closer.
“Girl, you ain’t changed,” Kareem said. Skye shrugged.
I still didn’t know what the hell they were talking about. I didn’t care either.
My daughter was asleep on my shoulder. My wife was laughing beside me.
The night couldn’t have gone any better.