She scrunches her nose. “What? No. Why would he be with me?”
My eyes lower to slits, and I know Janelle’s are doing the same thing. We don’t even have to say anything because Jalen walks up with Kam moments later.
My eyes bulge out of my head when I see Jalen. He’s dressed as Stretch from the video gameNBA Street,even wearing an afro. I bend over with laughter, and he flips me off, turning to hug Janelle.
“I love the fit, Jalen. It’s very on the nose,” Janelle compliments.
“Thanks, Nelle. Glad someone appreciates it,” he says, giving me a pointed look. I laugh again.
Kam hugs Janelle, almost knocking her down, before giving me the same affection. It’s only been a few days since I’ve seen him, but I think he’s grown a couple of inches. He may end up taller than both me and his dad.
What’s more interesting, though, is his cosplay. He’s dressed as Hobie fromAcross the Spider-Verse.
“You look great, Killa Kam!”
“Yeah, you do. I can’t help but notice you and Evie are matching,” Janelle teases.
He looks back at Eve with an innocent smile. “Oh, yeah, we planned that.”
Eve wraps her arm around Kam’s shoulder and pulls him back to stand side by side. Her smile is as wide as it is guilty.
“Okayyy, well, it was great seeing you guys. Bye!”
She runs off with Kam in tow, leaving Jalen to chase after them. Janelle and I look at each other, letting our eyes say everything before continuing our day.
“Okay, so did you catch that?” I ask Kam, turning to him with my brow raised. He nods enthusiastically.
For the last few weeks, I’ve been working on a special project: building a video game to propose to Janelle. It’s going to be a dating sim that resembles our life together. I want it to be perfect, so it’s taking me longer than usual. Plus, I’m letting Kam watch so he can see the behind-the-scenes of video game creation.
He adores Janelle, so he’s very excited that I’m planning this. However, I’ve been trying to get him out of the house before Janelle gets home so he can’t get to chatting. He’s doing a great job keeping the secret, but kids can only be trusted so much.
Janelle should be home in thirty minutes, so I pack us up and drive Kam home.
Ten minutes into our drive, Kam turns to me. “Uncle Rome?”
“Yeah, buddy?”
“How do you know you want to marry someone?”
I take a moment to think about his question, mainly because I want to know why he’s asking.
“You planning to propose to someone at recess?” I tease.
He chuckles, hanging his head. “No. I was just wondering.”
“Well, speaking for myself, I want to marry Janelle because I can’t imagine not being with her. She’s my other half, and I don’t function as well without her.”
He considers my words, turning to look out the window. “Do you think that’s how my mom and dad felt about each other?”
I nearly choke and swerve on the road. Knowing what I know now, I don’t know how Tiff felt about Jalen, but I know Jalen definitely felt that way about her. I also know there’s no chance he’ll ever feel that way about her again, so it concerns me that Kam is asking this.
“I think your mom and dad loved each other once. But sometimes people grow apart. It doesn’t mean what they had wasn’t real.”
“Okay. Thanks.” He’s quiet for the rest of the drive, so I give him space to process his emotions, but I’ll check in on him later tonight.
After dropping Kam off, I call Dani to meet me at the jeweler’s because Janelle’s ring is ready for pickup. She helped me design it and wanted to see the finished product.
We pull up to the shop at the same time. She must have flown down the beltway because she was forty-five minutes away when I called her, but she got here in twenty.
