“That was probably around the time we first got you. The therapist used to tell us to check in with you every now and then, so I did it from time to time.”
“I only ever remember that one time, though.”
“Well, brains are funny, Lo?—”
“You know I told you I liked living with y’all, but you never told me if you liked me living here. I waited for you to say it that day, but you never did.”
He looks back over at me—not in my eyes but at my chin.
“Do you?” I ask.
“Do I what?”
“Do you like me being here with you and Aunt Faye?”
I feel like I’m six again, leaning forward in the backseat of his truck, waiting for those words to come out of his mouth to quell that longing I had in my chest for a man to want me.
“Is this your way of telling me you moving back in?” he asks.
My stomach drops.
I shrug, shaking my head. “I just wanted to know how you felt about me living in your house for eighteen years, but since you brought up moving back in…I’m I’m…not going back to New York.”
His nostrils flare for the tiniest second, then relax. “AJ know you not going back home?”
“That wasn’t my home.”
He scoffs. “Relationships are hard, Lovie.”
“Nobody ever said they were easy. If they were, don’t you think ours would be something other than this…whatever it is.”
“Look,romanticrelationships take time and effort, and you can’t just up and leave because of a disagreement. He said he would take care of you.”
I choke out a bitter laugh. “A disagreement?”
“Ain’t that why y’all broke up and made up all those other times?”
“You…you don’t get it.” My throat grows dry, and I try to swallow to quell it, but it doesn’t work.
“He’s a professional athlete and some things just come with that lifestyle. There’s a lot of pressure on him. It’s the middle of the season. He…he can only juggle so many things before he drops something.”
“I don’t think being a professional athlete has anything to do with this.”
“Then what is it?” His voice rises an octave. “The boy sat in our living room and told me to my face that he’d take care of you. He bought you a penthouse. He’s gonna marry you in France. His people are good.He’sgood. He even donates to my gym. What y’all have is perfect. He’s a good man in a world full of ain’t shit ones.”
“Yeah…” I croak out. “He’s as good as Tony was, huh?”
He pinches his eyes shut. “Tony had his faults, I know. Ain’t nobody saying he didn’t.”
“His faults?” I look around the empty backyard.
I need somebody—anybody—to witness the way he rewrites history, but all I find is Old Man Hester’s rooster poking around, watching us.
Uncle Kenny opens his eyes and sucks in a deep breath. “Tony and Sonia’s situation was different.”
This time my words don’t surge out like they did when I talked to Terrica. They simmer inside of me, being careful not to get too hot and boil over because this isn’t Rich I’m talking to. This is one of those stupid ass men he’s always warning me about.
“AJ wasn’t very nice to me…just like Tony wasn’t to Mama,” I mutter, pushing up from the step. “But what was that you said about Tony? He had his faults?”
