“Late enough for a man to drop by.” He opened his eyes. “Tell me now. Do I need to be pissed?”
“Are you seeing someone else?” I scanned the bed for my tank that he’d tossed when we fell into bed.
“Does my answer change yours?” he asked.
The doorbell rang again.
“A question with a question.” I huffed, brushed his arm off my body, and snatched the comforter around my nakedness, leaving him uncovered. I threw on my robe hanging on the back of the door, hurried down the stairs, and peeked through my peephole.Shit. Shit. Saraj stood on the other side. “Not a good time.”
“It’s never a good time. I’m not leaving until you let me speak,” he yelled through the door.
“Who the fuck is at your door?” Canaan roared from behind me, wearing only his pants. I swung around, ready to tell him to chill, but the murderous rage in his eyes humbled me. I’d never seen this side of him. His eyes glowed with fire, and I instinctively knew he would hurt Saraj if I didn’t soothe him.
I placed my hands on his bare chest, and his ring sparkled, reminding me that I still claimed him in my heart and soul. “Baby, there’s no other man but you. That’s Saraj, who I haven’t forgiven because of what he did to me . . . to us.”
Mentioning Saraj’s name only fueled Canaan’s anger. He slung open the door and snatched the much-smaller man by his neck. “You have some fucking nerve coming around here after the mess you made.”
I fruitlessly tugged on his bicep. “Stop! Don’t hurt him.”
Saraj’s eyes bugged out of fear, though he tried to twist out of Canaan’s death grip.
I hit Canaan’s arm. “Let him go,now.”
Canaan still held on as he searched my face. “Are you choosing this son of a bitch over me?”
“What? Of course not.”
“Then step back,” he demanded.
“I can’t let you hurt him.”
“Oh, but he can hurt me, cost me millions in endorsements? Travel on my dime, knowing what he did?” His eyes became slits. “Why are you defending him?”
“Because . . . because we wouldn’t have fallen in love without him . . .” Canaan’s face floated in front of me. I tried to hold on to his arm before I lost my grasp and collapsed into blackness.
“Kensie, it’s okay. Open your eyes.” Saraj’s voice seemed near yet far away. Had everything been a dream? Maybe I missed Canaan so terribly that I manifested him in my mind, and he had never called me or stopped by.
I slowly awakened in my bedroom, and a concerned Saraj smiled weakly. I asked, “What happened?”
“Baby girl, you passed out for about thirty-five minutes.”
“Where’s Canaan? Is he here?”
“On the phone with Mama Murielle on the balcony. He called his doctor first, who told him you were probably light-headed because of the drama and possibly dehydration, which is common in this Houston heat.” Saraj leaned closer. “Or because you might be pregnant?”
Tears welled, and I admitted, “I bought a test yesterday and have been too scared to take it.”
“Why?”
I looked past him toward the door. “I don’t want to be pregnant.”
Saraj sighed. “Whether youwantto be or not, youneedto know.”
“I’m so excited about the contract that I didn’t want to mess it up with baby news. I’ll figure it out after New York.”
“So? A baby would make you smile more.”
I pushed up against the headboard. “Canaan barely has time for me. He won’t have time for meanda baby with everything he’s trying to accomplish. And I’m trying to finish school and perhaps teach in D.C. He’s not going to want to coparent with me when we’re in two different cities.”
