“I gotta be one fine ass man ‘cause goddamn, I made some good looking ass kids and grandkid,” he boasted as he sat at theedge of her bed behind her. She laughed after he brushed a hand over his bald head as if he had waves.
Kennedy couldn’t debate him since her old man was handsome for his age. He wore the shaved head and beard combo that sent women out of their minds, while his body hadn’t changed much from the pictures of them lining her walls from when he was in his late thirties.
“You’re aight, but don’t let it go to your big ol’ head,” she replied, shooting him a slit-eyed warning through the mirror. “If my momma tells me that you’re on some good bull with these young hoes, we gon’ have a problem.”
“Who the hell you ‘pose to be scaring? You put a hole in one nigga and think you’re ‘bout it, ‘bout it now.”
Kennedy huffed a breath before plucking a section of hair from the extension rack to start her final braid.
“How many times are you going to bring that up?”
“As many times as I need to for you to talk about it. I still don’t get why the hell Tekken had to tell us, and then you pop up at our shit but don’t want to answer questions like we’re bothering you whenever we try to get a damn understanding about it.”
“I didn’t come here for that, dad. I just want to forget it, and everything else for a while.”
“Taking a life ain’t something you just forget about,” he stressed, making her gnaw her inner cheek. “I’m telling you that from experience, and if Koda were here, he’d tell you the same. Hell, he’d be pissed off about it, and so am I to an extent, but I’m more concerned about where yo head is.”
“I feel everything and nothing,” she admitted, shying away from his dissecting gaze and keeping her eyes on the strands of hair she was interweaving. “Sometimes, I’m up, and other times I’m down, depending on the day. It ain’t another way to explain it, and honestly, I’ve been like this for a while.”
Pounds of weight lifted from her shoulders after her confession. Her temporary peace doubled when her father got up to snake an arm around her neck before kissing her temple.
“You’ve been through a lot in these past years. Your brother passing hit you hard, and the fire was something none of us could’ve anticipated. I wish I’d backed up your mother and made you come home then, but I tried letting you do things like an adult. Then, it started looking up for you and Tek, with him rapping and you running the salon like you’ve always strived to do. Then this happened. Life ain’t shit but ups and downs, Kennedy. It’s all in how you make the best of it.”
“Well, if you can tell me the steps to making the best of things, that’d be great.”
“By not running from your problems like a pussy, for one. That ain’t what Suttons do. I let you make it after you left with that bum, but now you’ve hauled ass back, and I know this ain’t my daughter. My tough girl dealt with her issues head on and took no shit.”
Kennedy gawked and angled in her seat to face him. “You just said you should’ve dragged me back here! Now, you’re telling me to leave.”
“Dragging you back and you running home scared to us ain’t the same. You’ve been avoiding us since you left, so either shooting that boy got you shook or it’s more to it than what you’re telling us. Does he have people who will retaliate? You fear for your life? Because I’ll round up the old gang—”
“Oh, gosh. Please don’t do that.” She cut him off with a vehement shake of her head as he chuckled. “You’re too old for that, dad. Leave OG Butch in the vault.”
“As long as you know, I’ll bring that side of me out if any motherfucker so much as touches a hair on your head. Until you’re married to a real man, I’m still your protector since Koda ain’t here to do it because he was taken before his time.”
Kennedy nodded her agreement as the magic number Relic had warned her about crossed her mind.
She didn’t believe his ideology wholeheartedly since her dad had made it out alive and well past that age. He’d started in his late teens and stopped years before she was born, according to her mom. Kennedy could still recall her parents going at it for a while after finding out Koda had followed in their dad’s footsteps, but even as she’d grown up, she never understood her mom’s grievances with the lifestyle that’d kept them afloat through two generations. Koda’s untimely death was the tragedy that made it click.
After grabbing her foam bottle and applying pumps on top of her braids before rubbing it in, she spun around to face her dad as he reclaimed his spot on her bed. Her lips tucked before she did the one thing he preferred that she not.
“Can I ask you a few questions about—”
“No.”
“Please!” she begged, meshing her palms in a prayer position. “I never do this, but I need answers that I don’t think I can grasp from a women’s perspective.”
“You know I don’t like you in my business, Kennedy. Never understood why Koda used to tell you so much of his,” he groused. She grinned cheekily in victory, knowing she was about to get her way. “What is it that you want to know? Before you ask, you best believe that I got a few of my own that you damn sure better answer.”
“Deal. Did you ever cheat on mom?”
“Yes.”
She blinked her shock before prying, “Why?”
“Because I was a young, knuckle head getting money, and pussy came easily,” he answered, cut and dry. “Did I think about how it’d hurt, Diane? No. Your mother knew she was the loveof my life, so I believed that was enough. I found out otherwise when she left me.”
“I know that’s right, Ma!”
