“So then you need to come to the house afterworkbecause I’m opening my mouth and telling you what I want, Rich. I want us to do this.”
PART FIVE
CHAPTER
THIRTY
LOVIE
The Sundayafter Family Fun Day is always quiet, but for the first time in ten years, I think this might be the quietest one. Uncle Kenny’s home for dinner, but we’re not eating in front of the TV. We’re eating at the kitchen table while the elephant in the room sits in the middle of it, watching us chew the chicken Aunt Faye picked up from Frenchy’s.
She eyes Uncle Kenny’s empty glass while standing up. “You want some more tea, Ken?”
He grunts back an answer.
She sighs, walking around the table and picking up his half-empty glass.
Nobody wants to poke the elephant, but that’s how it’s always been around here. It took six years for Aunt Faye to watch Channel 13 news again after Mama died because they were the first to call and ask if she wanted to release a statement on behalf of the family after the “tragedy.” They stopped covering her murder the next day, and Aunt Faye had to lie to Ms. Vera when she asked why she couldn’t stomach Deborah Wrigley’s voice anymore.
The day after they found Zaire’s body floating in the bayou, Aunt Faye still fixed his plate at dinner and sat it between her and Uncle Kenny as if he’d show up and eat it. Now they’d rather eat in silence instead of talking about what AJ did to me or why Rich Lovelace showed up to Worthing’s 10th Annual Family Fun Day.
It’s not like the first day I came home and tried to hide AJ’s indiscretions while we sat at the kitchen table, or when I held my friendship with Rich close to the vest while they argued in the living room. Now, both secrets are out in the wild, AJ’s gone, and I finally have a part of Rich inside of me. I feel him in my chest, and last night I felt him between my legs when I finally fell asleep. If he were here right now, he’d tell me to ball my fist up and run full speed at that stupid elephant that sat in the middle of our kitchen table.
“It was nice of Rich to show up yesterday, huh?” I blurt, curling my toes inside my UGGS.
Aunt Faye looks at me first as if she can tell that me and Rich made love right under her nose despite her warning. Her eyes trace my upper torso like she can see the imprints his fingers left from holding me as tight as he could after promising me he’d come here after he left Lucky’s.
She turns and opens the refrigerator, pulling the jug of Lipton out. “Yeah, it was nice. The boys seemed to enjoy him being there.”
Uncle Kenny scoffs, then takes another bite out of his chicken breast while she pours more tea into his glass and puts the jug back in the refrigerator.
He swallows. “I guess. Didn’t seem like they saw much of him to me.”
“Well, Chase was happy,” I murmur.
“Chase lives in the Bottoms with his granny and six cousins. It don’t take much to impress him. Those boys need to learnwhat a good role model looks like. They need to look up to men with morals, men with purpose, and legitimate money in their pockets. Look at Lucky’s son—he’s a good kid despite his daddy’s questionable background. He’s about to graduate from HCC with a bachelor’s and go off to A&M.”
Aunt Faye gaits back to the table and sits his glass down with a loud thud. “It’s Sunday.”
“I know what day it is,” he replies.
She sits back in her chair. “Then you should know I don’t wanna hear this crap today.”
“It ain’tcrap. I think we all need to have a talk.”
“About what?” she asks.
“About this Rich situation and how much more of it we’re gonna bear.” He side-eyes me while taking a swig of his tea.
“There’s nothing for us to bear. I asked you for a favor, and you said you’d do it. Case closed. If you want him to be more open with you, then maybe you should start by respecting him. Respect goes a long way with Rich.”
“Don’t talk to me about respect right now—not when he’s still doing the shit you told me he’d stop doing when you asked me for that favor. I was a damn fool for agreeing to it in the first place.” He holds the glass of tea to his lips. “Hell, he’s sneaking around with Lovie, spending hours with her locked in his truck. Donovan said he ain’t know if y’all were in there fussing or what. He said he heard yelling. Then you left with him without even telling anybody.”
I sputter out a laugh. “He’s not sneaking around. He’s a grown man.We’regrown. He dropped me off at home. And if we were ‘fussing,’ what would you have done about it?”
He points his finger at me. “This is exactly what I’m talking about. This is why we all need to sit down and have a talk and put some boundaries in place.”
“You aresoright,” I reply. “That’s why I invited him over tonight. He can join in on this pertinent discussion you’re planning to have about him behind his back. He wants to talk to you about Chico’s Vegas buddy.”
