“Why Keyon wasn’t at practice yesterday, and according to the coach it’s been a habit. Care to explain?”
“Sure…he was at work.”
“Why? He’s in season. He needs to be focused on keeping his grades up and finishing out his last year strong. There’s scholarship offers on the table, but that can easily disappear if he shows signs of inconsistency.”
Rolling her eyes, Tokyo made her way into the dining room and grabbed the mop bucket that was sitting in the corner of the room.
I swallowed hard, hoping that this conversation wasn’t about to take a left turn.
I didn’t want her to think that I was trying to tell her how to raise her son. It was obvious that she was capable of that. She'd been doing it on her own since Keyon's father died, which was shortly after he was born. But no matter how good of a mother I knew she was, I always made sure to point out my concerns. Just in case I saw something that she didn’t see.
“Law, I had no idea that Keyon hadn't run his work schedule by Coach Jeffers. I thought they had some kind of understanding,” she said, placing the mop bucket into the farm sink.
“No, they didn’t. She was just as surprised by his absence as me.”
“I’ll be sure to talk to him. I definitely don’t want him missing practice.”
“Thank you.” I pulled out one of the dining chairs and took a seat. “Speaking of which, has he given you any hints on which schools he’s leaning towards. I was thinking about taking him on a few college tours.”
“The last time we talked about it, he said that he had a top three in mind. They’re all HBCU, so if any of the schools you’re thinking about taking him to aren’t historically black colleges, you can hang it up,” she said, laughing.
“Oh, I see. So, he wants the real deal experience?”
“You know it! There's nothing like attending an HBCU. I don't give a damn what these folks out here try to make everyone believe, HBCU's are the shit,” she said. “I loved every minute of my college days. Not only was I blessed to be surrounded by people that looked like me, but I had the opportunity to learn from some of the best and graduate at the top of my class. I'm looking forward to seeing Keyon do the same. He's so damn smart. I think he might go into the medical field.”
“Just like his mama,” I said, letting out a chuckle.
Pushing her sandy brown hair off of her shoulders, she gave me a playful shrug. “He definitely got it from the best. Of course, Keethan was smart as hell too. He was all about studying animals though.”
“Two science geeks. A match made in heaven.”
She let out a gentle smile before lowering her gaze. “That we were. I just wish we could have had more time.”
“I know you do. But, when it’s our time, it’s our time. There isn’t anything we can say or do about it.”
“True. I’ve witnessed that more times than I can count.”
Shaking my head, I said, “I don’t know how you do it.”
“Do what?”
“Be a nurse. You have to work with sick patients all of the time, and not all of them make it. I don’t think I could handle that.”
“Trust me, it’s not easy. But it’s not all bad. I’ve met some amazing people. I wouldn’t trade my job for anything.”
“Not even for Reggie?” I questioned with a lifted brow.
She frowned. “You already know the answer to that.”
“I’m not sure if I do. He doesn’t seem to be too thrilled about your job as a nurse, and he has some serious issues.”
I didn’t want to bring it up, but her decision to marry Reggie didn’t sit right with me. Their relationship had been a nonstop rollercoaster from day one, and he just didn’t seem like the kind of guy that Tokyo would go for. She was too strong and independent to be with a man that had the kind of issues that he had. Not only did he struggle with trusting her, but he’d cheated on her with one of his fitness clients. But instead of leaving, Tokyo stayed and begged us to be supportive. At first, we tried, but that all went out of the window when she accepted his marriage proposal a few months after finding out that he’d cheated.
Blowing out a heavy breath, Tokyo said, “Come on now, Law. Don’t even go there. Everyone has issues. Hell, even you do. When are you going to be honest about the real reason you quit working the police force?”
Confused, I jerked my head back. “What are you talking about?”
“You can’t hide things from me. We may be several years apart, but I know you. You didn’t just quit the police force because you wanted to walk away from danger and be a coach. Yeah, coaching is something that you love, but I know there’s more to the story than what you’re telling.”
