Page 34 of Quiet as Kept
Kept
Once Jayla got her suitcase from the trunk, I took her into the house. She immediately dipped into the powder room while I tried to determine the best strategy for letting everybody else know that she was staying the night. When she came out of the bathroom, I decided that everybody was probably numb from all of the shocks and surprises of the day. One more wouldn’t hurt. I took her into the kitchen and reintroduced her to Nehemiah and Ayden, both of whom had met her before, but it had been a little minute. When the women started to trail into the house from the deck, I took the time to point out her presence to them as well.
Both Aunt Reese and Yahirah looked at Jayla like they wanted to lay hands on her. Nehemiah’s wife Cecily was, of course, indifferent, and Xarielle looked completely caught off guard.
The day had sucked ass. I was ready for it to end.
“Yo,” I began to the gathered crowd. “It’s been a long ass day. If nobody needs anything else, I’m shutting it down for the night. Xarielle and I have planned tomorrow’s festivities down to theletter. If you still need to shop for a gift, the stores open at 8:00 a.m. The party starts at 1:00 p.m. Good night.”
Jayla sidled up to me. “Where’s the . . . Where am I sleeping?”
I remembered that Jayla had never been inside my house before. The last time she visited the girls, we were in the house we’d lived in as a family.
“Let me show you.”
All of us, except Xarielle, whose room was on the lower level, traipsed up the stairs. To the left of the landing was the loft—an open space with only two full walls.
“It’s so open,” Jayla commented, and I could hear the disappointment in her tone.
I hoped she could hear the resolve in mine, when I said, “It’s an air mattress. I guess you could pull it out onto the enclosed back porch.”
Bedroom doors began to open and close around us as the others turned in for the night. Soon, it was just Jayla and me.
“Can’t I just pull it into your bedroom? At least, I wouldn’t be all exposed.”
“My bedroom has guests in it, but even if it didn’t, I couldn’t agree to that. This is all I have to offer. What are you gonna do, Jay? It’s either this, or you can find a hotel in Charleston. I need you to decide because I’m tired as hell. I’m trying to shut it down.”
She stomped her foot, crossed her arms across her chest, and sucked her teeth. And in spite of the blonde hair, the blue eyes, and the curvier figure, she looked like the Jayla that I used to know.
“You said it was just one night. I don’t get the issue.”
She sucked her teeth again. “Fine. Where’s the air mattress? And can I get some sheets, a blanket, and a pillow?”
My front porch had a bed swing on it. While I didn’t plan to sleep out there, I did need some place I could hide from my family. Someplace to stretch out and unwind before I went to sleep for the night. I didn’t trust my back deck. I felt like any of my relatives could end up out there at any time.
The temperature was balmy but had a slight chill. I grabbed a blanket and a pillow then headed out of the front doors. I was unsure of how long I was out there before the front doors opened and closed. I tried not to sigh. It seemed like there wasn’t anywhere I could go inside or outside of my own house to get some peace from my guests. I loved my family, but they were overwhelming as hell.
I smelled her fresh, clean scent before I opened my eyes, and my anxiety immediately decreased. She was the one person I could actually deal with.
“I looked all over for you. Something finally told me to see if you were asleep in your truck in the driveway,” she teased me from the foot of the bed swing. “Ooh, I never noticed that you had one of these. Can I lay on it with you? Do you think it’ll hold both of us?”
“It better.” I stopped it from swaying, and she climbed in beside me. My heart rate eased into a relaxed cadence.
She placed her head right next to mine on the pillow.
My breathing evened out. This girl was like medicine for my soul.
“Do you want to talk about how you’re feeling or no?”
“I don’t even know how I’m feeling outside of overwhelmed. I’m overstimulated like a motherfucker.”
A soft, tinkly giggle escaped from her. “That’s probably the understatement of the year, Kept. You know we had similar upbringings? We’re both the products of absentee mothers. You’re lucky because your father’s always been in your life. My father was killed when I was about three, and we both had lackluster maternal grandmothers. I mean, I heard that yours is a party animal and mine is just disconnected. You were lucky to have your great-grandmother, and I was lucky to have Mama Reese. But the similarities are wild.”
“Damn, you’re right. They are.”
“I don’t know how I would feel if Tasha, that’s my biological mom, showed up and expected to build a relationship with me.”
“It’s crazy work on her part to even presume that the shit is possible. I don’t know, man.”