“Ohhhh,” he said, his eyes wide with realization. “You here with Amaya, huh?”
“Yeah,” I answered. “But, we kinda keeping this low, sopleasedon’t say anything.”
“Nah, I won’t say a word, man. I swear!”
He put his scary face back on so we could walk inside, but once he passed his daughter, he immediately scurried to the backto grab his jersey for me to sign. After giving them the full run down, they made Olivia call her parents and give them her own teary confession, and we headed out. Kadence begged us to take her back with us, but Amaya declined, saying that her daddy would have afitif he went to pick her up in the morning and she wasn’t there. The broken look on Kadence’s face had me ready to try and plead her case, but I followed the directions so we could take her back home.
Thirty minutes later, Kadence and I sat in her living room looking at each other awkwardly as Amaya and AJ argued loudly in the other room.
“AJ, what the hell is your problem?”
“She didn’t callme!” he argued back.
“Duh! Youalwaysoverreact! She’s afraid to tell you certain things! Some things are just easier for her to tell me!”
“You don’t think that finding out that my twelve-year-old was in a house full of damn near grown ass men is reason to crash out?”
“Oh, it absolutely is, because I crashed the fuck out too!”
“Amaya, what the fuck did you do?”
“I tried to smack the fuck out of them old ass boys!” Kadence and I both chuckled under our breath “So yes, you have every right to be upset, but you’re mad at the wrong person. She did exactly what she was supposed to do,just likewe taught her. She’s twelve and has her head on straighter than most adults I know, my ass included. If you want her to trust you, you gotta show her that you won’t fly off the handle for no reason.” The whole house fell silent as we held on, waiting for his next words. I knew Kadence had to be nervous as hell becauseIfelt like I was in trouble.
“You right,” he huffed.
“I’m sorry, what?” she asked. I could already see her tucking her hair behind her ear with that smart ass expression on her face.
“Aight, you got it. I said you right. I ain’t sayin’ it again.”
The two of them walked back in the room so abruptly thatKadence and I both scrambled to find something to cover up the fact that we were just sitting there eavesdropping.
“Yeah, so, if you needed to google something really quickly, exactly how would you do it with the flip phone?”
I damn near choked on my own tongue because why waseverybodyon my head about this damn phone?
“I just… use my tablet. If it’s urgent, I’ll just call someone.”
“Oh…” She nodded. “Well, I think that’s very noble of you—doing your part to help save the planet. I make my dad recycle all our recyclables, but I’m not giving up my phone.” Just like that, her old soul was back.
“I respect that,” I said with a chuckle. AJ and Amaya shared a knowing glance before we headed out. Amaya was uncharacteristically quiet for half the ride, and I was just about to ask her what was wrong before she answered it for me.
“This is why I can’t just move to L.A.,” she blurted out with a sad ass expression on her face.
“What? Baby, I never?—”
“I saw your face earlier. You want me out there, but I can’t just leave home. My people are here, and they need me… and I need them.” My body went rigid as I reached over and grabbed her hand.
“Hold up, are you trying to leave me right now?” The words hurt coming out. I could instantly see all the plans that I had for us dissolving into thin air. My first reaction was to drive that fucking truck until we either hit the West Coast, or came up with some sort of compromise, but I realized that was, in fact, kidnapping and probably not the best idea.
“No!” she answered quickly, making my whole body relax. “That’s not what I’m saying. I’m just saying that if me not moving is a dealbreaker for you… then I understand.”
“No, it’s not a dealbreaker.”
“It’s not?” she squeaked in disbelief.
“Toni, I told you that you ain’t getting away from me that easily. We’ll make it work. If I can handle the snoring, and the factthat you’ll bust down a burnt ass steak, this ain’t nothing,” I promised, kissing her fingers.
“Okay,” she whispered, letting out a sigh of relief. “So, we’re… good?”
