Page 43 of D’Vaughn and Kris Plan a Wedding

“Um,” I began hesitantly, “welcome to the family.”

Instantly, she burst into giggles, bringing me a measure of relief.

“That was intense, but hilarious,” she commented after catching her breath. “I can only imagine what it was like to grow up with them. Ray is a character all by himself.” There was no judgment in her tone, just pure observation. That she could see my zany family and roll with it was another point for us and made me like her even more.

I grinned and shook my head. “No lie, Ray is a one-man show on a regular basis.”

“I can believe that, no convincing necessary.”

“Yeah, so, um...” As I tried to think of the next step in this seeming failure of a first outing, the sound of a heavy door slamming near the staircase shocked the hell out of me, making me nearly jump out of my skin. “Fuck!” I breathed, too startled to even speak louder.

The room fell silent as every single one of us looked toward the source of the sound. Low thuds made their way to my ears and my heart started pounding. D’Vaughn squeezed my hand tightly and I pushed up onto my toes, ready to take off toward the door if necessary, but then a woman appeared from behind the staircase and I deflated. All of the nervous energy flew out of me in a whoosh, and I wanted to punch Ray for getting me all riled up with his talk of horror movies.

“Hi, everyone! So sorry I’m late!” Holding a zippered binder in one hand, the woman waved as she approached us.

Mami and Ms. Miller made their way back to the center of the room just as she reached us. She was smiling widely, wearing a knee-length, forest-green sweater-dress and slouchy black booties, her kinky afro like a halo around her head. She looked pleasant enough, but now I was suspicious of how long it took her to come out and greet us. What the hell did the show have up its sleeve?

“We’ve been waiting for quite a while,” Ms. Miller stated, her voice remarkably even, without a hint at the ten minutes of praying she’d just completed.

The woman bowed her head in acknowledgment, the smile never leaving her face. “Yes. Again, I do apologize about that. Shall we move forward with the tour?” Although her expression hadn’t changed, there was an undeniable sharpness to her words that rubbed me the wrong way. She was the one who was late, so why was she being short with us? Clearly, this is what the show had up its sleeve. This was so bizarre that it was undoubtedly manufactured. I glanced at D’Vaughn to see that, although there was a slight furrow in her brow, her face was otherwise blank. Was that because she was unaffected by this, or did it have anything to do with whatever happened outside?

Mami’s eyebrows shot toward her hairline and it was clear that she’d heard the same thing that I did. Slowly, she craned her neck to face Papi, who was giving her a warning look. After being with her for more than thirty years, he knew exactly the type of things that set her off.

“We’re here for the girls, Kayla.”

Thankfully, his reminder seemed to work. The hard set of her jaw didn’t loosen, but Mami didn’t say another word, instead, folding her arms across her chest and staring at me pointedly. If it weren’t for the show, I would have told the rude woman to kiss my ass as I walked out. Hell, if I didn’t know that there were cameras watching my every move, I would have hightailed it out of there as soon as I noticed the soaked carpet, which was probably what D’Vaughn had in mind when she stopped at the door. But we were there for a reason, and since Kevin was likely watching this happen in 4K, I swallowed my irritation and nodded at the woman.

“Yeah, let’s move forward with the tour.”

The woman’s smile slipped a little, almost as if she was disappointed by my answer. “No problem,” she said tightly. “I’ll just go grab the brochures and we can go on up.” Without waiting for me to respond, she spun on her heel, her booties squeaking on the wet carpet, and all but stomped off.

“Where did y’all find this place again?” Ms. Miller asked.

“Kris got a recommendation from social media.”

My jaw dropped and I turned to D’Vaughn. It was almost comical how quickly she placed the blame on me, throwing me under the bus.

“Whoever recommended this facility to you is not a friend!” Mami whisper-yelled. “That is an enemy and you need to cut them from your life!”

Sighing, I rubbed a hand down my face before shooting my father another pleading look. At this rate I’d be able to cut a ’90s R&B album by the end of the night. I understood Mami’s position, but we couldn’t just leave. As grateful as I was that her complaints were about the facility and not my fake relationship, D’Vaughn and I had an obligation to fulfill, and part of that obligation meant seeing this visit through.

Thankfully, Papi was able to decipher my expression as quickly as always. Grabbing Mami’s hand, he pulled her off to the side to speak with her privately. The moment they stepped away, my siblings started talking and I took their distraction to my advantage, using the noise to cover up my voice as I checked in with D’Vaughn.

“What’s the problem?”

She turned her narrowed eyes on me.

“What do you mean?”

“Your entire demeanor changed outside. You’re closed off right now, and I’m trying to figure out what happened and how we can get back to the place where you fake love me again.”

I watched her eyes widen and her lips part before she dropped her gaze to the floor and shook her head. When she lifted her head, there was a sheepish smile on her face.

“I’m sorry. I’m—I was tripping over something in my head, but I didn’t mean to take that out on you.”

I peered at her. Although she was looking at me, she wasn’t meeting my eyes, looking just to the left of my face and probably focused on the row of earrings in my ear. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but something about her answer rang false. Like chewing bubble gum with silver caps on my teeth. The motion is there, but I’m missing out on the full experience. D’Vaughn had given me an answer and she’d apologized, but I wasn’t satisfied. Because I had no reason to feel that way, and didn’t feel comfortable pushing for more with so many people who didn’t know the truth about us around, I hugged her to my side and dropped a kiss on her temple.

“As long as we’re good, I’m not trippin’. We good?”