The evening settled into a relaxed mood after that. Dre showed up and got Robin straight with a lineup. Robin went into the kitchen after dinner anyway because he couldn’t help himself, cooking something small to see if he still had it.
Later, when the house had gone quiet and Monroe and Robin had gone home to their own place for the first time, Rolani sat on the couch with Kennedi curled into his side, her hand over his on her stomach, RJ moving because he loved showing off for his dad.
He wouldn’t trade this for anything.
Chapter Twenty-Four
She’d been countingdown the days until Thursday. The work had picked up. The show had begun to air, and the line was jumping with people who wanted a piece of the story and the pie.
And Robin was finally home.
Rolani had called her from the car on the way back. She’d heard it in his voice before he said a word — loose, lighter. When he walked through the door that evening and laughed at something Monroe said, full and unguarded, she understood. Robin was home. The family was whole again.
Which meant they could leave.
With the phone between her ear and shoulder, she listened to her mother beg her to come by when she got back.
“Mommy, I said I would, and yes, I will bring him and Monroe with me.”
“Good, it feels like it’s been forever since I saw you. He must be keeping you busy.”
“Please don’t ask me questions you know I can’t answer.”
“Baby, it wasn’t a question. It’s what I know. I hope this trip is fun. You’ve been working hard.”
“I honestly don’t know how I feel about you two texting each other. It’s giving blurred lines. Because how do you know where we’re headed, and I don’t.”
“Kennedi, look up surprise in the dictionary and then tell me. I swear you act like you hate romance.”
“What?”
“Yes, I said it. This is love. This is dating. This is healthy. It’s healthy for your man to know what you need. Like a change of scenery. I want you to lean into that. You deserve it as much as anyone else.”
Kennedi was bent over her desk, half her body disappeared into the cabinet underneath as she searched for a charging cable that had somehow vanished into the office abyss. Her shirt had ridden up, and she was muttering curses at whoever designed office furniture.
Two sharp knocks at her door.
“Come in,” she called out, still digging through the mess of cords. “Ma, I love you, and I hear you. Gotta go.”
She heard the door open and close, then silence. It made the hair on the back of her neck stand up because she knew exactly who was taking up space in her small office. Her body only responded to him in this way.
She straightened up slowly, smoothing her shirt down, and turned to find Rolani leaning against her closed door, watching her with that look that made her stomach flip — the one that said he was thinking things he had no business thinking in the workplace.
“Don’t,” she said.
He tilted his head, slowly. “You gone have to be more specific, Ken. I’m thinking a lot right now.”
He pushed off the door and moved to the chair across from her desk, settling in, letting his eyes roam over her frame. “Andwork ain’t one of the things. Let me bend that ass over real quick.”
Heat crept up her neck. She turned back to her desk, busying herself with papers that were already organized. “You said one. It’s only twelve-thirty, and letting you bend me over is how we got RJ.”
“I know what time it is.” She could feel him watching her. “I also know you. You’re gonna find twelve more things that ‘need’ to be done before we leave. Might as well let me be one of those things.”
“I don’t do that.”
“You did it last week when we were supposed to go to dinner. Turned a five-minute thing into forty-five.”
He loved how she was skating over his request.
