by B. M. Hardin
It was almost as though he adapted to the type of woman that he was supposed to be with at the time.
He asked lots of question about the history between Drake and I and then he often said that I was never going to find anyone to make me feel like Drake did.
He was probably right.
But he was close enough.
I looked out the window, and smiled at the old woman, Mrs. Thomas, who was checking her mail.
I talked to her as much as I could.
Actually she had been one of the reasons that I was really considering moving forward with Kane.
Though she’d loved Drake like her own son, she coached me on letting go and forgiveness.
She’d said that Drake figured that it would happen and said that he made the statement that if anyone would love me and take care of me, Kane would.
He’d told her to let me know that it was okay.
It was weird for me to hear her say that he’d said those words as much as Drake had despised Kane.
But she assured me that that’s what he’d said.
I stood there looking out the window for a few minutes longer and as the car pulled in, I looked at it in disbelief.
She got out and headed towards the door.
Lee Lee.
I hadn't talked to her in a long while.
I guess the good part about her visit was that I could finally give her share of Daddy’s money.
Daddy had hidden his stash out in his shed in the backyard of the house.
He’d already had the money separated into bags and everything.
There had only been four of them, so I figured that he’d gone back to the house once Rum died and divided up his share.
Of course my other two sisters knew where I lived now, so I assumed that one of them had given her my address.
Before she made it to the door, I headed to get her money from the hiding spot that Drake had for his money that was still missing.
Not that I was looking for it, but I never found it.
She knocked and I finally made it back to the door to open it.
This was her first time that she’d come visit, so I guess that I could at least allow her to come in and chat.
I opened the door with a small smile.
“Whoa! Look at that stomach!”
She rubbed it and then held out her arms for a hug.
Immediately I noticed that she wasn’t wearing a ring.
Hmm.
I guess there was a little trouble in paradise.
Why am I not surprise?
I hugged her and she squeezed me tightly.
“How have you been?” Lee Lee asked and walked in.
Krissie stared at her for a second and then ran to her for a hug.
“Good. I’m about ready to pop. How have you been?” I said reaching her the big bag of money.
“I’ve been better that’s for sure,” she said looking to see what she was holding.
Here comes the tea; and I couldn’t wait for her to spill it.
“Meaning?”
“Wait a minute, what is this?”
“Daddy won the lottery some time or another and had been holding on to this money for years. He also had stocks and bonds. He left it all to us.”
She looked at me.
“This look like a lot of money Moe.”
“It is. So what did you mean by your comment?”
She stared at the money for a little while longer in disbelief.
Finally she pulled herself together to finish the conversation.
“Yeah, I guess I moved too fast. Aaron and I are getting a divorce. It wasn’t that he was a bad husband; he barely had time to be a husband. If I’m going to be married, I want more than just the title or the classification; I want the experience. I think he just wanted someone willing to travel with him and be there for him when he had time to wind down. I guess I just wasn’t made to be an army wife. But I’m back and I’ve come for what belongs to me.”
Uh oh.
I didn’t like the sound of that.
“And what’s that?”
“Funny you should ask.”
Just as she made the comment, Kane walked through the door.
Lee Lee smiled but he looked at me.
“Hey baby. Did you miss me?” she said.
Oh hell.
******************************
CHAPTER SEVEN
“You don’t have to be here for this Kane,” I said in between breaths.
“It’s not like you have anyone else that can be here Moe,” Kane said, holding my hand.
I was in labor.
And it hurt like hell!
“I’ll be out there waiting,” Kane said as they prepared me to head to have a C-section.
“No. Come with me.”
The doctors didn’t argue with me and neither did Kane.
Things seemed to go by quickly and it wasn’t until I heard the sound of my little boy that I actually realized that finally I was a mother.
A real one.
Kane didn’t have an expression on his face but he did reach out and touch the baby’s head.
My heart smiled.
If it wasn’t for him and his help I was sure that the baby wouldn’t have made it.
I’d been so depressed after everything that had taken place and it was because of him that I’d found my way out of it.
As the baby was taken out of my arms by the doctor and as I looked at Kane who managed to smile at me, I saw something that even I didn’t know how to feel about it.
I saw love.
I was absolutely, positively, in love with Kane.
And now that the baby was here, I was ready to show it.
~***~
Needless to say, Lee Lee was working my last damn nerve!
She was back and definitely making her presence known.
And she was all over Kane like there was some kind of dick shortage for the next five years or something.
All she ever talked about was Kane.
She called him all the time.
Hell she called me all the time just to ask about him.
But she was going to have to get over it.
I wanted Kane.
Again.
For real this time.
So she couldn’t have him!
“Did they ever find Drake’s killer?” Lee Lee asked as she held the baby.
“No.”
“Are they even trying to?”
“Probably not.”
“So, I was wondering if you could give me some advice on how to get Kane’s attention. You seemed to have made one hell of an impression.”
Kane wasn’t there but I was sure that he would be there soon.
He was helping me out since I’d had a C-section and Krissie and the baby would be quite a bit to handle on my own.
I never asked him to do any of the things that he did.
He always just did them; which was why I wanted to show him just how much I appreciated him.
“Look Lee Lee, yes Kane and I were, are just friends, but,”
“But you’ve fallen for him haven’t you?”
I nodded.
“Drake would have a heart attack if he knew that you have fallen for the man that you’d cheated on him with.”
“No. surprisingly he probably wouldn’t but Drake is dead. I’m still living. As much as I love him, I have to keep living. And Kane and I have gotten closer over the last few months.”
“I’m not backing off Moet. Kane is the one for me. He’s my soul mate.”
“I don’t think so. It’s all in your head. He doesn’t even want you in that way.”
“Does he even want you?”
“I’m sure that he does.”
“Well, we will see about that.”
“I’m in love with him Legacy.”
“And so am I Moet. Like I said, we will see what happens.”
“You said that he told you that he loved me.”
“I lied. He didn’t say those exact words it was just the things that he’d said. But things and people change all of the time and I know that he feels the same way about me as I feel about him.”
“How do you know that?”
“A woman always knows. And let’s just say some things about Kane I would understand. But you wouldn’t.”
What did she mean by that?
The knob on the door started to wiggle and in walked Kane.
Lee Lee damn near threw my son into my arms and stood up.
“Hey hot stuff,” she flirted.
He just looked at her.
“So, I was wondering if maybe we could have dinner. Catch up a little.”
Kane still just stared at her.
The fact that she had no shame in her game was so scary to me.
I was wondering if she was suffering from something a little more mental and not just anxiety.
She walked close to him and said something in his ear.
She stepped back from him and then she giggled.
“I’ll see you later Moe. Kane, hopefully I’ll see you later too.”
Not if I had anything to do with that, I thought to myself.
The baby was right at six weeks and though I hadn't had a vaginal birth, I’d waited the six weeks to heal up before making my move.
But tonight was the night.
And after I put it on him, maybe then we could decide on some type of commitment.
And then Legacy could back the hell off and sit her thirsty ass down somewhere!
“What was that all about?”
“She said something nasty in my ear if that’s what you mean.”
“What does she know about you that I don’t?”
“You tell me.”
“So, you don’t have a thing for her at all?”
“I thought we had a thing. Don’t we have a thing?”
I smiled.
“Yes we do.”
Both Kane and I had changed so much since everything had happened.
I was a completely different woman than I was a year ago.
I wasn’t the same woman that I was when Drake was alive and I was okay with that.
Kane was a thousand percent better man than I’d ever known him to be and I was digging him more than ever.
I couldn’t help but think that everything happens for a reason.
Though some of the things were hurtful, life-changing and were hard to get used to, things were better.
We got the kids settled in the bed and then for the first time, we went to bed; together.
I hadn't had sex with him since the last time that he’d made me.
Thinking about all the bullshit that he’d tried to do almost made me change my mind, but I shook away my negative thoughts.
We were in a different space.
We were in a better space.
He’d proved time and time again that despite his past approach, he actually did give a damn about me.
“I guess it’s safe to say that I didn’t expect us to end up here, again,” I said softly.
“You’ve always wanted me, you were just confused,” Kane joked and immediately after he leaned in to kiss me.
As soon as our lips touched, every care, worry, uncertainty that I had about us going down this road, went flying out the window.
His hands started to roam and things went to a place unknown after that.
He took his time with me, at the beginning, but then he gave me the very best of him.
And I loved it!
I remembered what it was about his sex that had me mesmerized in the very beginning.
I almost felt intoxicated as he kissed me.
And his pound game made me woozy.
I enjoyed every touch.
Every kiss.
Every lick.
And every single stroke.
Though the circumstances hadn't been pretty, we were back here for a reason, so I had to accept it and live in the moment.
And that’s exactly what I was going to do.
As soon as we were finished, Kane passed out and I got up with the baby who hadn't slept but a wink.
Sitting on the couch in the living room, I spotted Kane’s phone.
I wasn’t going to be nosey once it started to buzz, but I couldn’t help myself.
Her number wasn’t saved, but I knew it by heart.
It was Lee Lee.
I read her text message:
“Where are you?”
I chuckled as I replied to her message.
“He’s in my bed sleep. I guess it’s safe to say that he’s mine. So, back off, okay? Good night Lee Lee.”
I even added a little smiley face.
I sat the phone down assuming that she wasn’t going to respond, but I was wrong.
I laughed aloud as I read her one word text.
Bitch.
~***~
“No, no, no!”
I was literally maybe a mile from the store and I ran out of gas.
I should have stopped yesterday on the way home, but the baby was crying and I didn’t feel like it.
But as the car slowed down, and as I pulled to the side of the road, I knew that I should have.
I found my phone and called Kane.
“Hey, um can you come get me?”
“From where?”
“My car ran out of gas.”
“What? I told you about that. I’m on my way.”
He hung up and I just sat there.
I looked the kids, and somehow in just a short ride, both of them had fallen asleep.
Thank goodness.
I sat there and smiled as I reread some of the text messages that I’d gotten from Kane earlier that day.
He and I were officially an item.
But the issues with Lee Lee were still coming from left to right.
She was still calling and coming by.
No matter what I said to her, she wasn’t backing off.
No matter what Kane said, she was still convinced that she was the one for him.
It used to be so easy from her to hope from one man to the next, but she was so stuck on Kane that it was no longer genuine interest.
It was now infatuation.
Hearing the horn, I looked up from my phone.
Speaking of the devil.
“What are you doing?”
“My car ran out of gas.”
Lee Lee looked at the kids in the backseat.
“Oh,” she said and with that she rolled up her window and sped off.
Really?
That little bitch!
To say that how she was acting was ridiculous wasn’t even worth wasting my breath but the fact that she was right there, seeing that I had the babies in the car, knowing that it was the beginning of winter, was just plain ole’ sad.
It was sad that she was willing to let a man come between us like that.
Okay, so maybe I could solve the problem.
I could just stop fooling with Kane, and I’m sure the little feud between us would simply go away.
Neither one of us would have him because Kane made it clear that he didn’t want her. He wanted me.
And I was already in love with him before she came back, and the difference was that he actually loves me too.
He called her, even in front of me, and told her what the deal was, but she didn’t care.
She still bothered him every chance that she got.
Basically she’s giving Kane a dose of his own medicine.
She’s doing him the same way that he used to do me.
It would be funny if I wasn’t the one that he was in a relationship with but since he was, she was only about two seconds away from a sisterly beat down.
And I wasn’t playing!
I hadn't even told Kane exactly where I was, but minutes later he pulled up in a different car.
“I came out and all four of my tires were flat,” he said.
Lee Lee.
&
nbsp; “This has to stop.”
“Yeah. I know.”
Kane got the gas can out of my trunk and headed to the store.
As he pulled back up, I noticed that Lee Lee was right behind him.
She stopped as Kane got out.
“Hey baby,” she said.
Ugh!
That’s it!
I got out of the car.
“Bitch let me tell you something, you got one more time.”
“Or what? What are you going to do to me? What? You’re going to beat me up Moet? Don’t forget who taught you how to fight…me. Remember? So trust me, whopping my ass won’t be easy.”
“What is wrong with you?”
“You stole my man.”
“I did not steal your man Legacy. I dealt with him first. But the disrespect has got to stop.”
“Give him back and it will.”
“Even if I let him go, right now, do you really think that he’s going to want you Lee Lee? Because if he wants you, you can have him.”
“I’m not some charity case. I can take him. You don’t have to give me anything.”
“But you just told me to give him to you. Which is it?”
I screamed out in frustration.
Kane put the gas in and told me to just get in the car and leave.
“I should have let you rot in that basement. I should have never saved you. Do you know what I did for you? Do you? Do you know the effort I put into turning Jinx and Vicki against each other just so that you could have your life back? They’re dead because of me. Because I wanted to help you. And this is the thanks that I get? I should have just let Vicki find your ass and do whatever it was that she wanted to do to you!”
Oops.
Did I just say that?
Both Kane and Lee Lee looked at me confused.
“What did you just say?”
I ignored Lee Lee and stared at Kane but he didn’t say anything.
Granted he and Jinx had history and were husband and wife, he didn’t want her anyway, so I didn’t think he would see what I’d done as a huge problem. Hell, he had been trying to get away from her anyway, so my plan turned out great for the both of us.
But I still hadn't wanted him to know.
“I’ll be seeing you later, sis,” Lee Lee said and sped off.
Kane just stood there, still holding the door.
He was waiting for me to say something.
“It’s not what you think.”
“I don’t think anything. I’m waiting on you to tell me what to think.”
“I didn’t kill them of course, they killed each other. But I somewhat played a part. I sort of played them against each other. I told Vicki that I thought that Jinx had something to do with Naomi’s death, and I told Jinx that Vicki suspected foul play in her sister’s death and suspected that she was involved. I told her that Vicki was looking for her. Jinx had pulled out a gun on me, so I knew that she was carrying that thing around. Really I thought that Vicki was going to approach her and that Jinx was going to shoot her and since she was a felon of course, she was going to go back to prison, but that isn’t what happened. Vicki ended up killing her too.”