“You wore that to sit at his game?”
Kennedy added the loaded baked potato she’d made for him on his plate of steak and broccoli, grabbed both his utensils, and then turned to him with a glower.
“I’m talking to you about Jah’s athletic abilities, yet all you heard was, I wore some jeans and a shirt to watch him practice?”
“And heels,” Relic added as she strutted over and sat his plate in front of him.
“You’re worried about the wrong shit.”
“No, he’s not,” Jahleel added his two cents, licking his fingers clean before stopping after Kennedy narrowed her eyes at him for the nasty act. “He don’t want men looking at you like my friends’ dads do. They might try to kiss you like Zee did.”
“Who?!” Relic barked, freezing just as he picked up his knife. His eyes drifted to Kennedy and then hardened at her petrified expression.
“Zee. Ms. Kennedy said he kissed her. I don’t know who he is, but I don’t like him.”
“Jah,” Kennedy called, her voice feeble as she stared at him, betrayed. He shrugged and gave her a blank stare that made her heart drop because it had Relic written all over it.
“I had to tell him ‘cause Zee is trying to take you. He kissed you, and he called your other phone, but you told him to stop. Is that who you text ‘cause Relic won’t come home—”
“No!” she blurted, cutting him off before turning her frantic stare to Relic. “I haven’t been talking to Zeke.”
Relic hummed and then focused on his steak, taking him time to cut a slice to eat. He chewed even slower, his eyes floating up to leer at her as he did. Once he was done, he rolled his shoulders and exhaled.
“You got the floor, Kennedy. Let’s hear how you’ll lie your way out of it like you always do.”
“I’m not lying! I’ve used the phone, and I’m sure you know, because you have cameras everywhere. It’s Sonny that I’m talking to.”
“Then, why can’t he call? He ain’t shit but an old best friend, right?”
“Yes, and he can call, but—”
“Which is it, Kennedy?” he interjected, taking another bite of steak. His eyes targeted his son next. “You said she told the person to stop calling, right?”
Jahleel stared between the two as his nerves gradually bled into his once blank stare. He was worried. When he’d heard Kennedy talking to another guy, he wanted to relay it to Relic to make sure she wasn’t going to leave them like she’d done the last time. The lour on Relic’s face made him wish he had kept it their secret.
“Jahleel, that is what you said, right?” Relic pressed. Jahleel’s shoulders sank before he nodded.
“He’s telling the truth,” Kennedy spoke up to take the heat off Jahleel. “He heard some of it, but not everything. Sonny has been calling, but this time it was Zeke but from Sarge’s number, so I assumed it was him. I told his ass not to call my phone again because I don’t have shit to talk to him about. That was the end of it.”
“It was the end, yet Jah heard you mention a kiss. See how you omit shit.”
“You’re one to talk, Relic.”
“This ain’t about me!” he bellowed, slamming his fist onto the island. Jahleel cowered, and Kennedy caught the move before stepping toward Relic to dagger him with the most noxious look he’d seen to date.
“I tell you one thing, I’ll kidnap your fucking son and leave this bitch if you act out in front of him, and I put that on everything I care about. I put that on your ass. Relax.”
Relic grated his molars as his jaw muscles ticked from her weaponizing his words like she wasn’t the cause of his acting out. He glanced at his son, and a knot formed in his stomach at the attentive eyes gleaming back at him. Jahleel wasn’t the same clueless boy that he’d met. Gone were the days where he could toss his son a tablet and headphones to tune out hisoutbursts like he used to do while fighting with Jessica. Jahleel was hyperaware and overly observant of Relic’s every move.
“Stop insulting my goddamn intelligence, and tell me if you kissed that nigga, Kennedy. This is as calmly as I’ll ask you.”
“No.” She held his stare before confessing, “He kissed me the night I saw him at the lounge, but I pushed him off me.”
Jahleel perked up in his seat and nodded to cosign her defense. “I heard that, too!” he exclaimed.
Relic’s stare pinged between the two as he planted his palms on the island, inhaling steadily to subdue the rising anger from hearing about another man putting his fucking lips on Kennedy. It was worse catching wind of it from his son, who for the first time since he’d introduced them, had chosen him over Kennedy. Relic wasn’t certain if that was the case anymore, or if Jahleel was lying about hearing the second half because he didn’t want them to argue.
“Nothing will happen to her if you tell the truth, Jah. If you really didn’t hear her say that she pushed him—”
