“I’m sorry, baby girl. Starting tonight, I promise no more threats.” He held out his little finger. “Pinky swears?”
Smiling, Kendra looped her finger with his. “Pinky swears.”
“Do you know where we haven’t gone in a long time?”
“Where, Daddy?”
“Mamma’s Place for Sunday brunch.”
Kendra let out a scream and quickly covered her mouth. “Sorry about that. I love their chicken and waffles. Daddy, can I invite Morgan and Taylor to go with us?”
“You can if you ask their mother.”
Kendra jumped up. “Wait here, Daddy, while I call them.”
Stretching out his legs, Lamar crossed his feet at the ankles. Kendra’s revelation that he’d put too much pressure on her was definitely a wake-up call to let her be a kid. He knew there would come a time in her life when she would be faced with more pressures than making her school’s honor roll.
“Daddy, Miss Evangeline would like to talk to you. I’ll put you on speaker.” Kendra handed him her cell phone.
“Hi, Evie. I’m taking Kendra to Mamma’s Place for Sunday brunch, and she would like to know if Taylor and Morgan can join us.”
“Of course they can. There are no classes this Monday because it’s professional development day for teachers, so would you mind if Kendra spends Sunday and Monday with the girls? I’ll drop them off at school on Tuesday.”
“Please, please, please, Daddy,” Kendra whispered.
“Yes, Evie, she can stay over.” Kendra dropped to her knees, pressed her hands together in a prayerful gesture, and mouthed a thank-you.
“What time do you want me to drop off the twins?”
When he’d asked Evangeline why she had given her twin girls names usually attributed to boys, she said she didn’t want her daughters to face gender discrimination based on their names. “Aren’t you going to join us?”
“Don’t tell me you need me to help you chaperone three giggly preteen girls?”
Lamar winked at his daughter. “Yes, I do.”
“Then, you’re on. What time do you want to meet?”
“Twelve. Does that work for you?” he asked Evangeline.
“Twelve is okay.”
“I’ll call and make a reservation for five.”
“Thanks for the invited, Lamar. See you Sunday.”
“Good. I’m giving the phone back to Kendra.”
Lamar left his daughter’s room and took the back staircase down to the family room. He folded his body down into his favorite chair and turned on the wall-mounted television, tuning to encore footage of a baseball game. He needed to watch mindless television so he wouldn’t think about what he would face when confronting Kirk and Omar. Whenever there was a quandary between them, they usually put it to a vote. And this time Lamar felt he was going to lose because he was the odd man out when it came to putting in a bid for a new construction project.
Although he didn’t always agree with his partners, he still liked and respected most of their decisions. They all worked for one of the largest engineering firms in the state, and during a moment of madness they got together and decided to tender their resignations and start up their own company.
The first year had become a test for survival when they lost a number of bids to other well-established companies for new construction following the destructive aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Things changed when they did come in as the lowest bid for a medical office building and completed the project three months before the proposed opening date without incurring cost overruns.
This was followed by the construction of small private hospital in a Shreveport suburb. The company had established its reputation for completing a project on time, while saving the developers money. However, victory for Lamar wasn’t as sweet. He had been 350 miles away when his wife had gone into labor eight weeks before her due date. When he’d finally returned to New Orleans it was to find Valerie in a hospital, weakened from blood loss, and heavily sedated after a Cesarean section. Their barely four-pound baby girl had survived, but would spend the next month in the neonatal unit.
Fast forward six years. Kendra was a first-grader when she lost her mother, and Lamar made his daughter a solemn vow that they would always eat breakfast together on days on which she had classes. That was four years ago, and to date he had kept the vow.
* * *
