She called her anyway. She needed her mama’s voice more than she needed the quiet.
Two rings. “I was just thinking about you.”
That voice. Warm and settled, the after-dinner version. Kennedi had been hearing it from every city she’d ever lived in, and it always landed the same way — like coming inside from the cold without knowing she’d been freezing.
“Hey, Mommy. Game night was fun. We had a good time.”
“Good, but you sound tired, baby.”
“I’m fine.” She moved to the bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed. “Long day. How are you?”
“We’re good. Your daddy’s been in that kitchen all evening, so we ate well. He grilled some ribs.” A pause. “How’s the project coming?”
“Real good. DaVinci’s easy to work with. We’re ahead of schedule.” She leaned back against the headboard. “And Halo and Sametra, the women I told you about — it feels like I’ve known them forever.”
“Sounds like you found your people out there.”
“For now,” Kennedi said, and the way she said it caused her to pause.
Her mama caught it also. “For now?”
Kennedi looked at the window. Silverrun was doing what it did at night, settling down into itself. Winter was brutal here, but she had always loved it here. But loving a place and needing to be in it were two different things, and she was only now understanding that she had sometimes confused them.
“I’ve been thinking about how many Sunday dinners I’ve missed,” she said, and didn’t try to dress it up. “I think about it more than I usually do when I’m away.”
Her mama fell silent.
“Mama, I think my feet are getting tired,” Kennedi said. It came out softer than she intended and more honest than she’d planned. “Like, actually tired. Not I-need-a-vacation tired. Tired.”
“Baby,” her mama said, and the word itself was a whole sentence. “There is nothing wrong with that. Nothing at all. You’ve been moving since you were eighteen years old. Nobody can run forever.”
Kennedi pressed the heel of her hand to her chest and forced herself to breathe through it.
“I’m not going anywhere after this project,” she said. “I mean it this time.”
“We’ll be here. Your room’s the same if you need to visit. Come home when you’re ready. We love you either way.”
“Soon,” Kennedi said. “I promise.”
They talked a little longer until she began to yawn.
“Love you, Mommy. I need a pound cake when I come home.”
“I already knew that. Love you, Kenny.”
They disconnected, and she stepped out onto the patio for some fresh air.
She thought about Rolani without much resistance. The doorway at Club Velvet, the blunt between his fingers, the way he'd watched her leave — disappointment with respect underneath it. He'd never once asked her to be different. Just told her where he'd be and left the door open.
She believed him.
Kennedi dropped the tests in the trash one at a time, washed her face, and crawled into bed.
“Your daddy is going to have a lot of feelings, Little LA,” she said quietly. “He’s going to be mad at Momma for a minute. But I believe he’s going to be happy about you.”
She put her hand on her stomach in the dark.
She was going to be a momma.
