“I’ll look forward to it,” he said, rising from his seat. “Alright, my dear, I think it’s time that we take leave to let thesegood people close up and rest.” He helped Kelly with her coat, and they headed toward the door.
Kendra waved. “Y’all have a good night! Hopefully we’ll see you here again soon.”
Kelly winked over her shoulder. “Count on it!”
Dessert service went smoothly, and a few locals from the neighborhood stopped in to check out the menu or sit at the bar tochat with Logan. When the last of the customers were gone and the kitchen was cleaned, Logan and Shonda sat wearily at thebar. Lani wiped down tables in the dining room and put chairs up so that the floors could be mopped by the custodian. Kendramoved from organizing the hostess stand toward the bar, squeezing the shoulders of her brother and sister-in-law. She ploppedonto the barstool next to them. BJ stopped polishing glasses long enough to pour Kendra a couple of fingers of scotch. “Kenny.”He slid the glass toward her.
She blew out a breath. “Thanks.” After taking a sip, she made eye contact with BJ, whose eyes darted toward the windows at the end of the bar and returned to her. Kendra understood immediately. “Hey, you two. Why don’t you go home?We can finish up and close. Go and rest, because this all starts again tomorrow.”
Logan eyed his sister. “You sure?”
She nodded. “BJ, Lani, and I can handle it. There’s not much more to do, anyway.”
Shonda covered her mouth as she yawned, and BJ jerked a thumb in her direction with a half smile. “Take your wife home, man.Y’all need some shut-eye.”
Logan looked at his wife, and nodded. “Okay.” He handed keys to Kendra.
“We’ve got it,” she said, hugging the couple. “Today was amazing. I’m so proud of you both. You really inspire me, you knowthat?”
Logan kissed his sister’s cheek. “This will be you soon enough.”
“You really think so?”
He nodded. “One foot in front of the other.”
Kendra bobbed her head, but her mind flitted back to her uncle’s words and her shoulders slumped. “You’re right,” she repliedglumly.This is already not going the way that I thought it would.
He jutted his chin toward her as he gripped her shoulder. “Just hang in there.”
“I will. Go home and draw a bath for my sis.” She shooed them out, and she told Lani to go home once all of the tables andcounters were spotless. “We’re almost done here. Go get some rest.”
Lani’s eyes were barely open. She threw her arms over her cousin’s shoulders. “I’m proud of you.”
“What’d I do?”
She regarded Kendra with wide eyes. “Are you kidding? Pitching Uncle Ronnie was ballsy. Don’t you remember when I asked himfor ten dollars to open up that lemonade stand?”
Kendra burst out laughing. “You mean that bucket of paint that you sat on? You didn’t even have a table! Everything was sitting in the grass by your feet.” She cackled so hard she began to wheeze. “No one wanted to tell you, but that lemonade wasterrible. You didn’t even add any sugar!”
Lani’s shoulders fell, her jaw slackened. “What! Why didn’t you tell me?”
Kendra held on to the back of a barstool as her legs gave way. She kneeled on the floor, tears rolling down her cheeks. “Thelemonade was so sour that I ran in the house so you wouldn’t see my face when I spit it out. Uncle Ronnie came out there torun interference, but you got mad that he wouldn’t buy ten cups of the stuff that he’d just seen me drop into the sink.”
BJ began to chuckle. He looked toward the ceiling, and Kendra guessed that he was trying to picture the scene. His shouldersshook until he couldn’t hold back a smile. “Yo, you spit out her lemonade?”
“It was so sour I wasdroolingafterward. She juiced something like six or seven lemons and then only added four cups of water. No sugar, no ice.” Kendraheld out her arms. “There was no way I was going to be able to get that down.”
Lani kissed her teeth and hung her head. “Eight.”
“What?”
“It was eight lemons,” she admitted quietly.
Kendra had melted into a puddle completely, her tears landing on the wooden floors. “Stop. You’re only making it worse.”
BJ doubled over, howling. “Were you trying to burn off their taste buds?”
Lani stomped her foot, her scowl pinching the skin between her eyebrows. “Don’t make fun of me!”
