Page 75 of When Love Takes Root

He laughed and reached for a glass. “Yes, ma’am.”

Then Zuri looked up from her grapes and ruined me. “Mama, what time did you get home last night?”

The brush in my hand paused halfway through Skye’s ponytail.

Maya’s pencil stopped for half a second, then started again with less commitment. Kayden’s spoon stilled against his bowl. JJ turned from the counter with his orange juice untouched in his hand, and the slow smile spreading across his face told me my oldest had already put two and two together and planned to enjoy watching me pretend the answer was zero.

Skye tried to look over her shoulder, and I gently turned her head back toward the front before her part came out shaped like a lightning bolt.

“Hold still,” I said.

Zuri blinked at me with innocent eyes that hadn’t been innocent a day in their life. “I’m just asking.”

“Uh-huh.”

Kayden crossed his arms. “You texted that you were leaving late, but you didn’t say how late.”

“I was at the shop.”

That wasn’t the whole truth, and the part I left out tugged at me before the sentence finished leaving my mouth.

Maya looked up slowly. “At the shop doing what?”

“Paperwork. Receipts. Electrical stuff.” I smoothed Skye’s hair down and wrapped the band around her ponytail. “Grown people things.”

Skye turned around again. “Was Mr. Brooks there?”

I closed my eyes for half a second.

Lord.

“Mr. Brooks is the electrician, Skye. He’s been at the shop because the shop has electrical problems.”

“But was he there last night?”

JJ leaned against the counter with his glass in hand, smiling like a grown man who had suddenly remembered he was still somebody’s nosy child. “Yeah, Mama Cee. Was Mr. Brooks there last night?”

I pointed the brush at him. “Don’t you have a class to be late to?”

“Not yet.”

“Then find one.”

His grin deepened.

Kayden didn’t grin. Kayden looked like somebody had asked him to guard the front gate of the kingdom with a butter knife and no backup. “Was he there?”

“Yes,” I said, reaching for the jar of edge control. “He was finishing work.”

Kayden’s stare sharpened. “Finishing work, or taking you somewhere?”

Zuri’s eyes widened. Maya’s pencil stopped again, but her expression stayed unreadable. Skye’s mouth dropped open in pure delight.

“Did Mama have a date?” Skye asked.

“No,” I said.

JJ sipped his orange juice, eyes dancing over the rim. “Sounded a little date-adjacent to me.”