“I want to mail something to you.”
“What?”
He smiled. “It’s a surprise.”
“Aren’t you going to give me a hint?”
“No. Then it wouldn’t be a surprise.” Lamar mentally stored her address, including her apartment number, into his memory. “Look for it to arrive this weekend.”
“I’ll be here. And thank you, Lamar.”
“For what?”
“For lending your shoulder.”
“Anytime you need a shoulder, I’m here for you.”
“Thanks. Good night.”
“Good night.”
Lamar hung up and retreated to his home office to go online to search for flights to New York. He hadn’t told Nydia his surprise was to run interference between her and the press so, hopefully, they would leave her alone. He found several flights for the weekend and booked a red-eye into LaGuardia for early Saturday morning and reserved a return flight for Sunday evening. His next task was to arrange for a car service to pick him up to take him to the airport.
Lamar knew he had to tell his daughter and housekeeper he would be away for the weekend. He found Ramona in the kitchen peeling potatoes while listening to the radio. When he first hired her, whenever he referred to her as Miss Griffin she’d correct him and say to call her Ramona. Although divorced, she hadn’t dropped her ex-husband’s surname. She always prepared the next day’s dinner the night before, which allowed her to relax once she finished her housework. He regarded the tiny, dark-skinned woman with a coronet of salt-and-pepper braids as a part of his extended family. She claimed it was her calling to take care of other people’s children because she could never have any of her own. Her husband of fifteen years had left her for another woman, and she claimed it was the best thing that had happened in their marriage. She had grown tired of his cheating.
“Ramona.”
Her head popped up. “Yes.”
“I’m flying up to New York this weekend, and I want to know if you’re willing to look after Kendra. If not, then I’ll drop her off at my sister’s Friday afternoon and pick her up Sunday night.”
“I don’t mind looking after her. We’ll get along just fine.”
Lamar gave the fifty-something woman a long, penetrating stare. “And I don’t want her to invite Evangeline’s twins or the Kelly girls for a sleepover. I haven’t told her that I’m leaving, but I’m going to warn her that she’s to stay home while I’m gone.”
Ramona Griffin blinked slowly, her large eyes unwavering. “What about her having company over?”
Lamar ran a hand over his head. It was as if his daughter and housekeeper were coconspirators. “Yes, she can have company. But no sleepovers.”
Ramona smiled. “I like when the house is filled with children’s voices.”
“Yeah, I know.” One time she had crossed the line between employer and employee and asked if he was ever going to marry again and have more children. He had given her a withering stare, and she immediately apologized. Lamar made it a practice not to discuss his personal life with his housekeeper.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to fall in love again and marry, but his daughter came first. She would turn eleven in November, and that meant he had another seven years before she went off to college. By that time, he would be forty-five, unencumbered, and free to engage in a relationship which could possibly lead to marriage.
“Thank you, Ramona.” She nodded and went back to peeling potatoes.
Lamar went up the staircase to the second story and knocked on the door to Kendra’s bedroom. “May I come in?”
“Give me a sec, Daddy.” The door opened slightly and Kendra smiled at him. “Yes?”
He peered over her head. “May I come in?”
She opened the door wider. “Of course. I’m not on the phone,” Kendra said quickly. “You can check if you want.”
Lamar tugged at a braid falling over her shoulder. “There’s no need for me to check. I came to tell you that I have to go away this weekend. I told Miss Ramona that you can have company, but no sleepovers.”
The girl’s eyes lit up like someone turning on a light. “Really, Daddy?”
