by B. M. Hardin
He was mad for a day or two, but he understand that at least someone had to tell him, even though he didn’t remember her.
But I told him he wasn’t there.
And since he hadn’t been to see his family, my guess was that he still didn’t remember them either.
He probably still only remember himself and me.
I’ll admit from time to time I wondered how he was getting along since his mind was all messed up but that was his problem.
He probably still didn’t know that Jinx was dead or that Naomi had died after giving birth.
But maybe things were better that way.
Maybe he was the lucky one because he didn’t remember.
But since he remembered himself, maybe he found his way home or wherever or maybe even to the car lot.
The car he was driving looked new so I figured that maybe it was one of his from the car lot or something.
“A penny for your thoughts?”
I smiled at Drake.
“I was thinking about you my love. Everything is going so good. I wish that I could give you a baby.”
He looked at me and took the paper and pen from my hand.
“Well, maybe you can’t. But isn’t it always fun pretending that we can make one?” He smirked and I giggled, fell onto my back and spread my legs as wide as they could go.
“Have your way with me Big Daddy,” I teased.
“Oh, I plan to.”
The next morning we woke up and I got started with my day and my running around.
Drake was taking a leave from work for the next two weeks since I was going to be extremely busy and I was going to need his help.
He needed some time away anyway.
Luckily even though Naomi had been delivering all of the big connections, he’d made a name and reputation for himself from working with folks that she referred to him, so they referred other business to him.
His company was growing and growing and I was so proud of him and in a way, I understood the sacrifices that he’d made in order to get ahead.
He had come from nothing and now he was living well and he had a business, a wife and a beautiful child.
He had everything that he’d ever told me that he wanted.
And so did I.
All of my sisters were supposed to run around with me, but every one showed up at the spot except for Lee Lee.
She complained about being tired and so we decided to go on without her.
She hadn’t exactly gotten saved as of yet but she was definitely different and I figured that she had changed forever.
I guess the situation had somewhat scared her straight.
She hadn’t so much as even talked about a man and she was so focused on herself and getting her life together.
I was so proud of her.
She was inspiring me to figure out what I wanted to do with myself.
I didn’t need to work and now since we had Krissie, I wouldn’t want a full time job, but there was something that I could do.
I thought about starting some kind of business myself.
I was good at a lot of things and it was time that I put some of it to good use.
And event planning and decorating was something that I was good at and that I loved to do.
Getting started, I focused on my current situation, and my sisters and I head to shop until we drop.
With the greenlight from Dray to spend what I needed to and with my budget from Velvet and her fiancée being decent, I was ready to spend some money and I wouldn’t stop until I had everything that I needed.
We had to get birthday stuff, bachelorette stuff, last minute décor, gifts, and last minute wedding things.
I had to make sure that everything was perfect.
We were expecting such a big birthday turn out.
All of my family was coming and I’d even invited the couples with kids in our neighbor.
This was one of the first family type big celebrations that we were doing and I just wanted everything to go smooth.
The time shopping and joking that I spent with my sisters was priceless and I enjoyed my time with them.
We used to do things like we were doing all the time, and I was glad to be in this space with them.
I was glad for these moments.
We were only missing Lee Lee.
We found everything that we were looking for and then some.
Yeah, I definitely had an eye for this so I guess that means that I’d found out what kind of business I was going to start.
Event planning would be fun and I could definitely do it in my sleep.
We loaded all of our cars and just as soon as we were about to pull off, she caught my attention.
I spotted Lee Lee and a gentleman.
I guess I’d spoke too soon.
His back was towards us but I could see her face as clear as day.
She was still dressed in pajamas and he too was dressed comfortably, with sweats, a t-shirt and a cap, as though both of them had just gotten out of bed to come meet each other.
Even though it was two o’clock in the afternoon.
Maybe she had been resting and maybe meeting him was important.
More important than meeting with us.
I didn’t bother her, I simply got into my car and drove away.
It was probably something random.
Maybe he was just a friend or something.
She was doing so good and I just wanted her to stay focused.
She just needed to stay focused.
There was no more room on my conscious to save her ass again.
It was hard enough forgetting about Jinx and Vicki so if she got herself in some mess this time, she was surely on her own.
All of her super-save-a sista’ tickets were all gone.
And I meant that…
“Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday little Krissie. Happy birthday to you!”
Everyone screamed and Drake lifted her up and helped her blow out the candles.
My crybaby self almost shed a tear but I forced myself to keep it together.
She was smiling and laughing, more than I had ever seen her before.
She was just so happy.
And that made me happy.
Her smile just made my day and as long as I was alive, I would do anything to see her smile.
We placed the cake down and Drake started to cut it.
I smiled and headed to get the ringing doorbell.
I opened it and my smile immediately disappeared.
Kane.
And he was holding a gift.
So he did remember?
Immediately I stepped outside and closed the door behind me.
“What are you doing here Kane?”
“It’s my daughter’s birthday…right?”
“No, actually it’s Drake’s daughter’s birthday. They retested her and Naomi lied about the test. She’s Drake’s daughter. Not yours.”
“Who is Drake? Who is Naomi? I was told that it was my daughter’s birthday and to bring a gift here Moet.”
“So you do remember me?”
“Yes Moet.”
“Who told you to come here?”
“I don’t know her name.”
He reached me the gift.
“Well give this to Drake’s daughter then.”
And he turned to walk away.
“Why? Why do you only remember me?”
“I don’t know Moet,” and with that he was gone.
How weird was that?
And who in the hell told him to come here?
I headed back in and closed the door behind me.
“Who was that?”
“Kane.”
Drake’s face tensed.
“He doesn’t remember much but he said someone told him to come and bring his daughter a gift.”
He looked at me strange.
“What?”
“Yeah. I know. Strange right? But that
’s what he said.”
“Did you tell him that she’s not his daughter?”
“Yes. I said that she was yours and then he asked who you were, and who Naomi was.”
Drake looked confused and I simply shrugged my shoulders.
After a second or two he took the gift from my hands and disappeared with it.
Hmm…
The rest of the party went by quickly and it was time to clean.
My sisters stayed behind to help us get the house back together.
Kane was still on my mind, and I was wondering if any of them had seen him and told him to come by.
I didn’t see why they would, but there was nothing wrong with asking.
“Did any of you tell Kane to come by here for Krissie’s birthday?”
They all shook their heads no.
I thought so.
So who was he talking about?
“Lee Lee who was that man I saw you talking to the other day?”
She looked at me as though she didn’t know who I was talking about.
“What man?”
I gave her a crazy look.
“The day you was supposed to go shopping with us. I saw you talking to a man.”
She stopped moving as though she was thinking about it.
And then she opened her mouth.
“Oh, that was the man who had spared my life. I was thinking that I never actually thanked him, so I called him up and asked him to meet me so that I could tell him. That’s all.”
Why didn’t I believe her?
I just didn’t.
But I didn’t say anything.
I shrugged my shoulders and went on about my business.
Lies looked so much like the truth these days, there was no point in trying to figure things out.
Eventually they come to the light.
They always do.
~***~
The bride and groom kissed and the church went wild.
My baby sister was the most beautiful bride I had ever seen! She was absolutely gorgeous and so was her wedding, thanks to me.
I decorated the crap out of it!
I took a thousand pictures for my portfolio and I became even more excited about my new venture.
I was so ready to kick it all into action and I could feel that it was going to be a huge hit.
Coming back to the moment, I smiled and followed the new couple out the church with the rest of the wedding party.
Drake and Krissie approached me and we kissed.
“I want this day for us.”
I looked at him.
“You’re really serious about that aren’t you?”
“Yes. Maybe you should get started planning it, again, for our one year anniversary.”
I grinned at him.
Last time all of my hard work had gone to waste.
Thankfully now we were already married so I didn’t have to worry about that happening this time.
We joined in on congratulating the bride and groom.
I watched the groom’s brother press up on Lee Lee and she gave him the hand and walked away.
I smiled.
That’s my girl.
The rest of the day went by smoothly and by the time we got home, we all passed out in the living room.
I opened my eyes just in time to see a bright light in coming through the window.
Drake and Krissie were both snoring as I eased off of the couch to take a look.
A small peek through the blinds and I could see a car sitting in the driveway.
The lights were bright and they were just sitting there.
It wasn’t a car that I recognized.
It wasn’t even the car that I’d seen Kane driving.
I couldn’t see who was in the driver’s seat but they sat there for all of ten minutes.
Not to mention that I wasn’t sure how long they’d been there before I woke up.
Finally, they backed out and drove away.
I tried to get a look at the license plate but I couldn’t.
Glancing back at Drake, I headed over to turn on the alarm.
Since we were still at Naomi’s house, Drake had one installed.
We’d gotten way to comfortable and the whole looking for a place thing had been placed on hold.
All of Naomi’s things had been moved to our house and we’d bought all of our things there.
It was weird at first, but with all of our things there, it didn’t really feel like Naomi’s house anymore.
Just in case, I headed to get Dray’s gun, sat it high enough were Krissie couldn’t reach it but where we could get to it fast enough if something popped off, and then I snuggled next to my husband and my daughter.
But my mind was still on the car.
I stared at the window until I finally drifted back off to sleep.
Who in the hell was that?
The next morning, I didn’t tell Dray what I’d seen the night before and maybe I hadn’t seen anything at all.
Maybe someone was lost and pulled in to turn around and got caught up entering the navigation or getting direction.
I pulled in people’s yards all the time to turn around if I had to.
Maybe I was just being paranoid.
It was a Sunday but after Drake’s phone ranged all of ten times, finally he took a call and said he needed to run to get paperwork from the office.
I gave him a look that said I didn’t believe him and he said he would call me from his work phone to prove he was there and then he would be on his way back.
He was gone and as soon as he walked out the door, I turned back on the alarm system.
Just in case.
Minutes later, my phone ranged and it was Drake calling from his office phone just like he said that he would.
“I just got here. I’ll be back home in a few.”
I smiled because he had been telling the truth and I told him to hurry and get back to us.
But that didn’t happen.
He may have told the truth about where he was going but he damn sure hadn’t told the truth about when he was coming.
Drakes in a few turned into five whole hours!
He was sweaty and smelled like outside so my guess was that he had gone to the office just to call me, but then he’d left.
He was being sneaky, I could tell.
I didn’t say one word to him.
I left Krissie there with him and I got in my car and left for five hours too.
And I didn’t bother to tell him where I was going or answer any of his calls.
I made sure that I wasn’t at any of the obvious places that he could simply pop up at and I wasn’t going to tell him where I had been either.
We weren’t going to start the bull crap again.
We had come too far for games.
He’d called over and over so I was sure that he wanted to explain, but I didn’t want to hear it.
Finally it was time for me to head home and as soon as I walked in, Dray approached me.
“Where you been?”
“The same place you went to for five hours.”
“I was at work. I was moving some stuff around. I lost track of time.”
Liar.
“Well so was I,” is all I said.
I walked away from him and he didn’t bother to follow me; which told me that he didn’t want to get into it.
But we didn’t have to.
I knew exactly what I was going to do…
************************
Chapter TEN
“It might not take too much to get started. What do you think?”
“I say go for it. Use whatever you need,” Drake said.
I was discussing opening up my own event business with Drake.
I was so serious about it and I just wanted to make sure he that was on board.
I wasn’t mad at him for the little work emergency or whatever it was anymore.
In fact, I acted as though it never happened.
I was tired of worrying about things that I couldn’t change.
Of course he vowed that he was there and moving things around so I left it at that.
If something was wrong, soon enough it was going to come out, so I just had to have myself together when it was.
And by that, I needed to have my business up and running and I was using Drake’s money to do it.
“It might not take much. I just want a small office. Maybe two workers that’s all. And I plan to take Krissie with me so maybe and extra room in the back for her and hire a traveling sitter.”
“Like I said, use whatever you need.”
Now this is what I absolutely loved about him though.
He was always supportive and now that I had the green light, I couldn’t wait to get started.
“Mommy, I want food.”
I was use to Krissie calling me mommy by now but hearing the words always made me smile.
“Hell mommy, I’m hungry too,” Dray laughed and I took that as a sign to get dinner started.
For now we were on a good page, so I was just going to put my feelings aside and just live.
That’s all I wanted to do was live.
Just as I washed my hands, and started to prepare the meat, my phone ranged.
It was Lee Lee.
Being that she did have a degree in Psychology, she had been looking into becoming a counselor.
She wasn’t sure if she wanted it to be drug abuse, sex counseling, or therapeutic, but she was on the way and I was enjoying watching her be more mature and on the straight and narrow.
It had been a while now since Vicki had been gone and she had been free, but she was consistent.
Consistency was always a good sign.
“Hey.”
“Hey are you busy?”
“I was about to cook dinner.”
“Well, this will only take a second.”
“Okay. What’s up?”
“Well, you know I have been really focused lately and I haven’t been screwing around or anything like that. Anyway, there is this guy…”
“Oh my goodness,” I groaned.
“No. No, it’s nothing like that. We have never had sex or anything like that.”
“Oh, well okay,” I said interested in where the conversation was going next.
“Well, he makes me feel so alive and the fact that we don’t have to have sex to have intimacy makes me feel so in tune with him.”
“Wow. I’ve never heard you talk this way before.”
