The Hot Spot

by Niobia Bryant

  He was trying his best to have a good time, but his thoughts were filled with Zaria. Now that he was determined to give it one last shot, he was anxious to talk to her. He grabbed his cell phone and tried her cell phone. It still went straight to voice mail again.

  “All right, everyone, come on in. Dinner’s ready,” Lisha Strong said from the doorway leading into the kitchen from the garage.

  Kaleb was one of the last to make his way inside the house. He frowned when he saw Deena, Jade’s mother, hanging back as well. Sure enough, as soon as she reached the doorway, she appeared at his arm.

  “Hi, Kaleb,” she said, reaching out to squeeze his hand and stroke his palm with her thumb.

  Like Jade, Deena was a beautiful woman. Like Zaria, she definitely didn’t look to be in her forties. If she wasn’t his brother’s mother-in-law, he probably would have made a go for her. But now, as far as he was concerned, she was family and thus off-limits.

  “You Strong men sure are fine,” she said, linking her arm through his.

  “And now, as of tonight, we’re all taken,” he said, leading her to a chair beside Jade.

  Deena frowned. “I thought . . .”

  Kaleb shrugged. “We’re back together,” he said. Deena looked around. “Is she here? I would love to meet her.”

  Jade grabbed her mother’s arm lightly. “Mama, isn’t this nice of the Strongs to throw this dinner?” she asked, motioning for Kaleb to get away.

  Kaleb jumped on that hint right away and sat at the other end of the table between Kade and Kahron, who sat across from their wives. His niece Kadina smiled across the table at him. He winked at her as he placed his linen napkin in his lap.

  Kael Strong rose to his feet and lightly tapped his fork against his crystal goblet. “On behalf of my lovely wife and myself, I want to thank everyone for joining us to celebrate the wedding of our son Kaeden to beautiful Jade.”

  Everyone around the table applauded, and Jade’s grandfather clapped the loudest from his seat across from his granddaughter. That caused another round of laughter.

  Kael cleared his throat. “Family is very important to us Strongs and we extend our love and loyalty to those we consider more than just in-laws,” he said warmly, looking down the table at each of his daughters-in-law. “The same way I view Bianca and Garcelle to be just as much my daughters as Kaitlyn is how I view you. Tomorrow just makes it all official.”

  Jade absolutely beamed as she looked up at her future father-in-law with adoration in her eyes. Kaeden leaned over and pressed a kiss to her cheek.

  “Please know that you can count on us the same way I make sure that all my kids can count on us for whatever they need. To our new daughter . . . Jade.”

  Everyone lifted their glasses. “To Jade,” they said in unison.

  “Jade,” KJ called out, holding up his juice box from his booster seat next to Lisha.

  The table erupted with laughter and everyone looked down at Kahron and Bianca. They just shook their heads at their son.

  Lisha Strong stood. “I won’t be as long as my husband, but I did want to say that, um, I really like Jade. You’re good for my Kaeden, and once we all got over sending our men alone on a camping trip with such a pretty wilderness guide, I knew that you loved him. He was the one who hung closest to me, and I won’t lie and say he’s not the one I worried about the most. But now I can rest easy because I know that I have somebody looking out for him just the way I would want. Welcome to the Strong family, Jade.” She reclaimed her seat and reached over to pat Kaeden’s face and squeeze Jade’s hand.

  As the toasts continued with Jade’s mother in her bright pink wrap dress and gold heels, Kaleb laughed as he saw Jade gather the hem of her mother’s skirt in her hand. He guessed she was ready to deliver a little tug if Deena went to the left with her speech.

  Thankfully she behaved.

  “Just want to thank you all for welcoming my daughter—and me—into your family. I am very happy to have Kaeden as my son-in-law. It’s a good feeling for a mother to know that her one and only child has found the love of her life. Nothing in this world could make me happier . . . well, besides some grandbabies,” she finished before she reclaimed her seat and received a kiss and hug from Jade.

  “Speaking of which . . . I dreamed about fish last night,” Lisha Strong said.

  “Uh-oh,” Jade’s grandfather said, smoothing his hands over his slicked-back ponytail.

  “Uh-oh is right,” Lisha said with an impish grin as she leaned in to look down the table at her children.

  “Not us,” Bianca assured her, her tight ringlets bouncing as she shook her head. “KJ is more than enough.”

  Kahron chuckled.

  Lisha shifted her eyes to Garcelle and Kade. “No, no, Mamasita,” Garcelle said. “Not this time.”

  The matriarch nodded. “It was you two the last time, wasn’t it?”

  She lit her eyes on Kaleb. His head was down as he checked the volume of the ringer on his phone. When he looked up, all twelve pairs of eyes were on him. He sat back. “No, not me. Nah, not me. Trust me, I woulda told you way before any fish dreams.”

  The look she gave Kaitlyn was sharp. “Mama, puh-leeze. I can barely survive on my allowance alone,” she sighed.

  Kael gave her a definite side-eye.

  Kaeden’s and Jade’s heads were huddled together, and they also missed all the eyes on them.

  “Any reason for the quickie wedding?” Kaitlyn drawled before reaching for her glass of wine.

  Deena clapped.

  Jade and Kaeden shook their heads. “Maybe next year,” Jade said. “I can’t rock climb pregnant.”

  Lisha just gave them a look like “time will tell.” “Okay, if there are no more psychic predictions,” Kael said, “let’s bless the food and eat.”

  “No one asked me,” Deena said, pretending to look offended.

  Jade was the first to laugh and the rest of the table soon joined her.

  Kaleb’s mind was on Zaria and how badly he wanted her there, knowing that she would perfectly fit into the rambunctious and loud bunch he called family. He knew the night would come when Zaria would be welcomed into the Strong clan. He would accept nothing less.

  Zaria awakened late into the night to find both her daughters in bed with her. One behind her and the other at her feet. She smiled, gently climbing from the bed to place blankets over them. The house was cold, and she made her way to the thermostat to adjust the heat.

  The lights were still on in the living room, and she made her way over to the couch where all of the baby items Neema bought were strewn everywhere. Zaria reached down for one of the teddy bears, rubbing its soft fur against the side of her face. She picked up the baby onesies and the bibs, smoothing her hand against their soft cotton texture.

  She came around the couch and sat down, picking up the crib mobile. She hit the switch and turned it on and a soft nursery rhyme began to play as the celestial cutouts lit up.

  Her life was really about to become about diapers and breast-feeding and middle-of-the-night feedings.

  “What have I done?” she asked softly, reaching behind her to massage her lower back.

  She rose to her feet just as another spasm radiated across her back. Zaria set the baby things back down on the chair and made her way around it, just wanting to get into her bed—even with two grown women in it with her.

  She happened to look down at the couch seat and she gasped at the sight of blood staining the cushion where she sat. Another pain hit her across her back and came around to pierce her belly. She staggered forward and clutched the back of the couch tightly.

  “Meena!” she cried out. “Neema!”

  Oh my God, I’m losing the baby. Oh my God, I’m losing the baby.

  The next time she said the words aloud just as her daughters came running into the living room. “Oh my God, I’m losing my baby,” she wailed, tears filling her eyes in an instant as she felt her legs weaken just before she fell to her knees and
clutched her stomach desperately.

  Kaleb lounged on the sofa in his living room, fully dressed and flipping through the channels on his flat-screen television. He had been home from the prewedding dinner for a couple of hours, and he must have called Zaria’s cell phone a dozen times. Her landline number just rang without an answer, and he wouldn’t doubt if the twins had the lines tied up or if they were sitting there laughing maniacally as he kept calling the number like a fool.

  Turning from some reality show about repo men, he picked up his cell phone again and called her.

  “This is Z. You know what to do in five, four, three, two, one. Go.”

  Beep.

  He started to end the call but he pressed the phone back to his face. “Zaria. This is Kaleb. I been trying to call you all night, and I came by your house but your daughter said you weren’t there,” he began, closing his eyes and leaning his head back against the sofa. “I’ve been going over this thing between us from start to finish, including the day I saw you at Home Depot, and . . . something doesn’t add up for me. Because, see, I love you and I know that this energy, this chemistry, between us is real. To hell with age differences and crap. We got the stuff a lot of people search for their whole lives. I know you love me just as much as I love you, and that means there is nothing in this world we can’t get through. Man, to hell with this phone shit. Call me, Zaria. Call me.”

  Beep.

  Kaleb snapped the phone closed and flung it onto the other end of the sofa as he finally kicked off his shoes and twisted his body to lie down.

  He didn’t know when he finally drifted off to sleep, but the sound of his phone ringing incessantly awakened him and he jumped up, his heart pounding as he looked around for his phone.

  Kaleb found it on the floor and flipped it open. “Hello,” he said, his already deep voice even more resonant with sleep. “Hello.”

  “Kaleb . . . this is Meena.”

  “No more questions, Meena,” he said, still half asleep as he rubbed his eyes with the backs of his hands.

  “No, it’s our mom . . . She’s at the hospital in Summerville. Neema and I thought we should call you,” she said.

  The sound of her voice pushed the last of the sleep from him as he rose to his feet in alarm. “Is she hurt? Is she okay?”

  “Just come. We’re in the ER, and she’s in the back.”

  Frowning, he nodded even as he stuffed his feet back into his shoes and looked around for his keys. “I’m on my way,” he said, patting his pocket and finding his keys before he took long strides to the front door.

  Without hesitation, and with fear fueling him on, Kaleb raced from the house and into his pickup to head toward Summerville as fast as his truck allowed.

  CHAPTER 14

  You never miss your water till your well run dry.... That saying had never resonated more for Zaria than it did then. For the past week, she had beat herself up for getting pregnant by a younger man while she was a forty-two-year-old divorcée enjoying the second half of her life.

  And now she was facing the possibility of a miscarriage.

  Zaria closed her eyes and pressed her face deeper into the one ultrasoft pillow they gave her. She shivered, pulling the cover up closer around her ears as the chill of the hospital seemed to seep through her bones. When she closed her eyes, visions of herself swollen and round with child flashed.

  She cried as Kaleb filled the vision, stepping up from behind to wrap his arms around her and press his hands to her belly. Or kneeling before her to kiss her belly. Or them lying in bed together with Kaleb spooning from behind as he slept with one hand protectively on her belly.

  Image. After image. After image.

  And in time the images began to fade, and when she saw herself again, her stomach was flat and Kaleb was walking away from her forever. At forty-two, she had been blessed with a child without one bit of infertility treatment. The Lord had sent a beautiful baby to them. To her and Kaleb.

  And Zaria had questioned the blessing. Regretted it. Wished it away.

  Now her desire was fulfilled.

  She thought back on the debacle at that club and how she had been pressed out the door and fallen to the ground. She thought about the alcohol she had dared to drink as she teetered around on four-inch heels trying to be cute. The heating pad she used to sleep that night.

  All things that could have hurt the baby. What am I going to tell Kaleb? she wondered, imagining his disappointment as she pressed a hand to her belly, wishing she could feel their son or daughter kick her hand in a few months.

  Zaria’s tears fell harder until her shoulders shook as she gave in to her grief.

  The curtain to her room opened and her daughters walked in, both coming to press their warm hands to her legs and her arms as their tears fell too. She was grateful for their presence . . . just as she knew that in time, once the shock wore off, that it would settle in that the baby was indeed a blessing that she would welcome.

  “We asked the nurse and she said the doctor would be in to see you next,” Neema said, lovingly patting her mother’s legs.

  Zaria looked up just in time to see the girls share a look. One set of eyes urged the other. Sniffing, Zaria looked back and forth from one to the other. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  “We called Kaleb, Ma,” Meena said into the quiet as she massaged circles onto Zaria’s lower back.

  Zaria closed her eyes and nodded as a fresh wave of emotional pain hit her hard. “What did you tell him?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper as she shifted her eyes to the wall.

  “Nothing yet,” Meena said.

  Zaria grunted a little. “I’ll tell him,” she said. Meena and Neema said nothing else as they continued to rub her, trying to bring their mother some measure of comfort as they saw her struggling to cope.

  Kaleb barely parked his pickup before he shut it off and ran toward the emergency entrance of the hospital. He nearly slipped and fell in a puddle, but he righted his frame and kept digging until he breezed through the sliding glass door of the hospital. His eyes searched the people in the waiting room before he stepped forward to the glass window of the triage area.

  He looked beyond the glass to find it empty. With his heart racing, he knocked on the window. Lightly at first and then with a bit more force that drew the curious stares of the others in the waiting room.

  Soon, a young nurse came walking up to the window to slide it open.

  “Yes, I was told there’s a Zaria Ali admitted here,” he said, bending his tall frame over to look directly through the window at her.

  “She hasn’t been admitted yet. She’s waiting to see the doctor,” she said.

  “What happened?” he asked, his heart still pounding so fast that he was afraid he would pass out and get admitted himself.

  “Are you her husband? Or close family?” she asked.

  “I was going to propose tonight if that helps,” he said, licking the dryness from his mouth.

  “I can’t release information about a patient—”

  “Her daughters, a set of cute twins, called me. Can you let them know that I’m here?” he asked. “My name is Kaleb.”

  She smiled with a nod and closed the window. Kaleb stood up to his full six-foot height and crossed his arms over his massive chest, and he stood with his legs wide and his eyes locked on the inner door that he could see through the glass. Every possible scenario of Zaria being hurt played out in his mind, and he felt tortured during every second of the wait.

  Soon he spotted the twins, and he watched them through the glass until they disappeared. Seconds later they came through a door and both came walking over to him. Kaleb was taken by surprise when each hugged his neck closely. Surprised and scared shitless.

  “Is your mother okay?” he asked, taking in their puffy, red-rimmed eyes.

  They both nodded.

  “She wants to see you,” the one with the ponytail said.

  They each took one of his hands and led him to t
he door, where they released his hands and stepped back. Kaleb gave them one last look and then followed the nurse to the first waiting room. Not knowing what to expect, but anxious to lay eyes on her, he used his arm to pull back the curtain and stepped inside.

  Zaria was huddled in a ball on her side, covered by a blanket with nothing but the top of her head showing. For a moment he thought she had passed on. “Zaria . . . Zaria, baby, are you okay?” he asked, stepping up beside her bed to press his hand to her thigh gently. “What happened? What’s going on?”

  She moved the covers back and her face was puffy and her eyes swollen from crying. “What’s wrong? What hurts?” he asked, using his thumbs to wipe away her tears.

  That made her cry harder. “Kaleb, I didn’t know. I didn’t even know,” she said, using a crumpled piece of tissue balled in her hand to wipe her nose and eyes.

  He bent over and kissed her temple, his face filled with confusion. “Didn’t know what?” he whispered near her ear.

  “I was pregnant,” she said.

  Kaleb froze. Pregnant?

  He instantly thought of his mama’s fish dreams. Me? The fish dream was about me?

  Zaria pressed her hand into his and squeezed it hard. “I lost the baby,” she said to him before she set off with a new round of tears.

  Kaleb went through a dozen emotions in the span of a few moments. Surprise. Confusion. Joy. Excitement. Fear. Shock. Sadness. Anger. Confusion again. And lost. Finally, most achingly, he felt the loss.

  “Aw, baby,” he said as emotions welled up in him. The child he longed for and with the woman he loved and it was over before it even began. How jacked up was that?

  “I’m sorry, Kaleb,” she said again.

  He looked down at her and pressed his lips to her forehead. “It’s okay. Are you okay?” Kaleb asked her, feeling numb.

  Zaria rolled over onto her back, and she watched as his eyes shifted down to her belly. “Kaleb . . . Kaleb, are you okay?”