“Don’t ‘what’ me, child. I’ve had three babies.” She kept her voice low. “You’ve been green around the gills all day, barely touched your plate, and that dress you’re wearing is too big for you. So I’ll ask again, how far along?”
There was no point in lying to her. “Fifteen weeks.”
Mama Nettie glanced toward the dining room where Kevin’s laugh carried over the other voices. When she looked back at me, her expression had shifted to something fiercer. “Is it Kevin’s?”
“No!” The word came out loud.
Relief flooded her face, followed quickly by confusion. “Then who—” she stopped herself, shaking her head. “Never mind. That’s your business.”
“Keep this between us. I want Tia to hear it from me.”
“Your secret’s safe with me.” She pulled me into a hug, and I had to fight back tears. “You take care of yourself. And if you need me for anything, you call. You hear?”
“I hear.” I pulled back, wiping at my eyes.
Nettie patted my cheek and headed back toward the dining room. I’d barely placed the turkey in the fridge when my best friend, Kandi, swept into the kitchen.
“Girl, Tia hit the jackpot.” She grabbed a bottle of wine from the counter and topped off her glass. “That Santo is gone over Tia. I’ve been watching him all day. He would peel off his skin and give it to her if she needed it.”
Despite everything weighing on me, I couldn’t help but smile. “He is pretty smitten with her.”
Tia and Santo had flown into the U.S. two days ago. Tia had a final dress fitting in Manhattan two days ago, and Ihad convinced her to make a pit-stop her to spend her last Thanksgiving as an unmarried woman with the family.
“Smitten? Honey, that boy is obsessed. In the best way.” Kandi leaned against the counter, swirling her wine. “Wish I could say the same for Zariah’s situation.”
Zariah was Kandi’s only daughter. The young woman was a couple of years younger than Tia.
“How’s she doing?”
“Holding up. Barely.” Kandi’s expression hardened. “Found out last week that Marquis got another woman pregnant. Baby’s due in January, a month after Zariah’s.”
“Oh, Kandi. I’m so sorry.”
“Twenty-one years old and already dealing with this mess.” She took a long sip of wine. “I told her what I learned the hard way. You can’t make a man be what he’s not. But she’s got to figure that out herself.”
We’d both learned that lesson young. Two young mothers working night shifts as nursing assistants, swapping childcare and dreaming of better lives.
Kandi had moved up and gotten a job as the medical office receptionist at Bedis’ private health center. I’d gone back to school for psychology, then pivoted to digital marketing and built my agency. We’d survived bad men, good men, and everything in between.
“She’s got you,” I said. “That counts for something.”
“And she’s got her mama’s grit. She’ll be fine.” Kandi’s expression softened as she looked toward the dining room where Tia and Santo sat close together. “Tia’s lucky to land a fine and rich man on her first go-round.”
“Yeah.” My throat tightened. “They’re both lucky.”
Watching them together brought a suffocating rush of unwanted feelings. I’d had a taste of what Tia had found, that intoxicating pull of being completely consumed by someone.
Kevin’s arrival in the entryway broke through my thoughts. Ever since he moved back, he’d been finding excuses to touch my arm, stand too close, reminisce about “when we were good.”
I slipped down the hallway toward my office the moment he became distracted by something his mother said. I closed the door and leaned against it, pressing my palm to my stomach.
I’d made it through Thanksgiving. There were just a few more hours until everyone left, and then I would collapse.
My phone buzzed with an email notification. I pulled it out, expecting another work crisis.
From: Aristides Christakis
Subject: Final Guest List – U.S. Side
