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I was hoping that telling her to check Jessica’s message would ease the tension I saw fill her, and it seemed to, especially when I told her to respond to Jakari instead. Offending Kenya or having her doubt me wasn’t on my to-do list. My goal was to build her trust in the relationship we were embarking upon and to eventually have her fall in love with me.
“Baby?”
I opened my eyes and glanced over at Kenya. I gave her a smile and kissed her lips to try to assure her I was okay, then opened the door. I walked around the car to open her door as well, but she was already standing there, waiting for me to join her. “Kenya?—”
“I know. I’m just trying to be cautious. Don’t worry. I don’t have a problem with you opening every door I come to. You can rest assure this won’t happen often.”
I smiled then kissed the top of her head as I saw my mother make her way to the porch. She had a stunned look on her face, and I could only hope that she would act like she had some sense. My mother didn’t have the greatest relationship with women she’d met in my past, but that was a long time ago. She’d never met Jessica.
After the driver took our luggage from the trunk, I grabbed the handle and rolled the suitcase on the cement as Kenya grabbed the duffel bag. She slid her hand to mine, and I brought it to my lips and kissed it then held it until we got to my mother. “Hey, Ma.”
“Hey, baby. I’m so glad you’re okay,” she said as she brought her hand to my cheek. She glanced over at Kenya, and said, “Hi. I didn’t know you would be coming home with him.”
Kenya immediately caught the shade. I could tell by the way her head fell to the side. “It was a last-minute decision. I was going to be going to Baltimore until his injury. I decided to change my flight late last night to be with him and make sure he was okay.”
“You should be with your family during their time of bereavement. I could have taken care of Nate.”
“Well, I’m trying to establish something with Nate. I wanted to show him that he’s my number one priority. Besides, technically, it’s my sister’s in-laws. We’re both going to go Wednesday. They won’t need me any sooner than that.”
My mama nodded, but I could see the ice in her veins. “Mama, chill out. You cooked?” I asked as I walked past her, pulling Kenya with me.
“I am. There’s a chicken in the oven that I’m baking, broccoli and cheese casserole, and dinner rolls. I didn’t cook a lot because I didn’t know you would have company.”
I glanced at her, trying to give her silent communication to kill that shit, but she was staring at Kenya. “I’m sure there’s more than enough for all of us,” I said, then kissed Kenya and led her to the stairs to go to my bedroom.
“Nate, I can lift the suitcase up the stairs. It’s not that heavy.”
“Kenya—”
“Nate. Do you want to be out longer than necessary? Let me help you.”
I took a deep breath and allowed her to pull the suitcase up the stairs. Once we got to my bedroom and I had closed the door, Kenya turned to me. “Your mother isn’t happy that I’m here. If my presence is causing trouble, I can get a flight to Baltimore. I won’t be upset.”
I frowned at her. “What’chu talkin’ ’bout? I’m a grown ass man. If my mama don’t like something, she’s welcome to carry her ass home. This my house.”
She fidgeted slightly. I could see that I would have to put my mama in her place. Although we’d just made up a week ago, I didn’t mind having all that shit come tumbling down all over again. She was being nice nasty without cause, and I wasn’t gon’ tolerate that shit.
“Come here,” I said to Kenya as I sat on the bed.
She came close, so I put my hands at her waist, pulling her between my legs. “Just like you’re proving to me that I’m a priority to you, I’m gonna prove that shit to you. My mama don’t run shit here but what I allow her to run. Now that you’re here, she needs to go run her own shit. I don’t mind making that shit known. You my number one too, and I truly feel like you’re my one, period. She’s not gonna come between that.”
Kenya slid her arms around me and lowered her lips to mine, then rested her forehead against mine. I could feel her take a deep breath. I slid my hands to her face and gently caressed her cheeks. “Talk to me, baby. Tell me what’s bothering you.”
“I… I just don’t want to cause drama between you and your mother. I’ll never be cool with being in the middle of that.”
I pulled away from her. “Look at me, Kenya.” When she lifted her eyes to mine, I continued. “You won’t be in the middle, but if she can’t respect your presence in my life, me and her gon’ have a problem. You mean so much to me in such a short amount of time. She not finna fuck with destiny. Walk boldly in her presence. You hear me?”
She nodded, but I knew my mama and I would be having a come to Jesus meeting before it was all said and done.
“Y’all areall over the fucking place. One minute, I’m threatening you to shoot your shot, and now y’all damn near married. What the fuck?” RJ ranted.
I slowly shook my head as he and Noah laughed. I was glad they were in good spirits. Noah had said that he’d sensed this was coming with his grandfather a while ago. When he got inducted into the Rock-N-Roll Hall of Fame, his grandfather seemed extremely emotional and sentimental. That wasn’t like him. He said that he missed his wife, and hopefully, they were together again.
When I asked what he meant by that and why he didn’t know if his grandmother was in heaven or not, he said that she was so evil sometimes, she could have busted hell wide open. I was literally frozen for a minute when he said it. He was so serious too. I’d never heard him speak negatively about anyone except that dude that was fucking with him about his ex-wife. When he talked about the negative things about my father, it wasn’t in a hateful manner, just matter-of-factly. The way he spoke of his grandmother was somewhat malicious.
He didn’t dwell on it though. He quickly brought the conversation back to Kenya and me. When we’d walked through the door, he and RJ were all in our shit, especially when Kenya kissed me and walked off to go chill in the kitchen with TAZ and Raqui. We were holding hands and behaving like we’d been together for months, kissing each other every two minutes it seemed.
I slowly shook my head as they continued to laugh. “Don’t hate on what we got, nigga. We grown grown and know what we want.”
