“It’s over.” His words struck her like a death sentence, robbing her of her breath.
“Kong, please?—”
“No. This is done.”
“You can’t just throw me away!” she screamed, this time causing him to turn and face her.
His eyes were exhausted, filled with devastation, but also certainty in who he was dealing with.
“I think we both know you were never supposed to be my future, Nay.”
Quiet filled the room and Nayelli broke like a dam, crumbling to her knees in defeat. It was never Ayla that she lost to. It was this version of Kong that she’d invented in her head. She never really knew him or wanted to aside from what he liked in the bedroom. The two didn’t share many common interests, and hedidn’t even talk to her about work or ask about her job. It was all so… routine. Like they were both walking through life playing a role.
Kong had lost his appetite, so he took the back stairs of his home to the second story. He stopped at Kara and Kyro’s rooms to check on them, finding them both soundly sleeping in their beds. When he stepped inside his own room, he closed the door behind him and kicked off his shoes. He didn’t bother turning on a light, but from the balcony doors to his right, the illumination of the moon in the sky shone through. Sitting on the edge of the bed alone, the crushing reality that the woman he loved was dead and he never truly told her how he felt weighed him down.
CHAPTER FOUR
BETTER DAYS
A couple of days later…
School was back in session. The windchill was normal for a mid-January day, but Moose hovered beside his car outside Ree Heights Elementary. He felt like he hadn’t slept in days. It seemed the more he tried to get the monkey off his back, the stronger his addiction grew. Inari wasn’t talking to him. Kong was grieving.
Mozzi and Coast were dealing with a newborn, so Moose was spending a lot of time alone. Today he decided to get out of the house at least and somehow ended up parked in the pickup line with a few other parents who arrived early. He wasn’t lurking, just watching, posted. Lowkey, he was waiting. On top of Ayla being gone, and his guilt over that, he was also trying to make sense of something he wasn’t ready for.
Kids spilled out, racing against the wind and laughing. Hella noise engulfed him. Then he spotted her in the crowd. Tiara. She walked with another Black girl with box braids, and they laughed and talked so fast he wondered if they even heard what the other was saying. She looked up and picked him out in the line of parents waiting as some of the staff escorted the kids totheir cars. There was no fear behind Tiara’s warm amber eyes, only recognition.
“Hi,” she said, waving to him like it was normal, completely disarming Moose.
“Who’s picking you up today, Tiara?” One of the teachers, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian woman with a single Dutch braid down her back, questioned.
“Him.” Tiara pointed at Moose, freezing him where he stood.
He should have corrected her, objected, and walked the hell away. It was the right thing. Somehow, he managed to push all that aside.
“Yeah.” He slowly pushed himself off the car and smiled. “I got her.”
The teacher was hesitant. Narrowing her eyes, they roamed him in his jeans, sweater, and leather coat with a beanie on his head.
“What’s your name?” she asked after a beat.
He didn’t miss the pause.
“Moose,” he told her. “I’m family.”
Tiara didn’t wait for approval. She adjusted the purple Sprayground backpack on her shoulder and walked over to him like she belonged there. As if Moose was right where he was supposed to be. The certainty in her movements is what did it, locking him in and letting him know he was on to something. He opened the passenger door to his car for her and walked around the back to get into the driver’s seat. Tiara set her backpack on the floor between her legs and looked over at him.
“Where we going?” she casually queried.
Brows pinching together, Moose blinked a few times. He hadn’t thought that far ahead. As if a light bulb went off, he glanced her way with a hiked brow.
“Food?” he suggested.
“Okay,” Tiara agreed with a grin.
Moose drove them to Comfort Kitchen, and the two of them sat at the counter to order. Tiara was far from soft spoken. She said what was on her mind, and Moose could tell she was always thinking. After grabbing an order of tacos and chips and salsa, he decided to take her to the park. He backed his car into a spot, and the two got out to take up space on a bench near the playground.
There were already some kids playing with their moms while Tiara picked up a taco and tilted her head to take a bite. She talked his ear off the entire time. There wasn’t a subject off limits. She spoke about school, her friends, and the things she liked and didn’t like. Moose mostly listened. He didn’t know what else to do as he ate and watched some smaller kids on a slide having the time of their life.
