“We’ll see,” she answered.
I smiled and watched the reflection of the star my baby and I had placed in the glass.
Of course,Aziza and Zoriah wanted to have a sleepover. I got two surprises with that. Zahara said yes. She didn’t let Zoriah stay anywhere. The one big caveat was that she wanted me to stay, too. Surprise number two was that Kyleigh agreed.
“You sure?” I had asked.
She shrugged. “This house has seven bedrooms. It’s fine.”
And then, the girls swore they needed snacks. When two big pairs of brown eyes stared at you and one tremulous voice said, “Can you go to Dollar General, Daddy?”, you folded like a rickety lawn chair. Man, that “Daddy” did something to me. So, I drove my ass right back into town.
And here I was, at Dollar General, like a good little simp. I killed the engine, sat for a second, and checked my phone.
I had a text from Kyleigh:
They found another flamingo. They insist it goes in the front. I blame you.
I smirked.
Me:
Flamingo definitely goes up front. I want it to haunt you.
I was still grinning when I stepped out of the truck. That didn’t mean I was oblivious to my surroundings. And the conversation I heard as I approached the door had me repeatedly clenching my fists, then spreading my fingers.
“Ay, I’m just saying… whole year she been up on that hill acting like Batman, and now she in Bellarose’s like she ain’t the Grinch? Girl folded.”
The voice came from the left. Th barbershop two doors down had just let out a bunch of men. Three of them leaned against a car, talking too loud like clowns always did when they had an audience. One of them had a fresh line-up and more ego than brain.
Deon, of course. I walked a little faster than necessary.
“Nah, for real,” another one said. “David said you oughta see that tree. Big stupid-ass thing like she Ms. Christmas Spirit now. She ain’t slick. She trying to make y’all forget she was tryna shut down the hill.”
Deon laughed. “Facts. I said that. ‘Lil Miss Grindley Who Stole Christmas’ finally realized she can’t beat the town. Dude probably fucked her right, got her happy to be a citizen again.”
They laughed, then. I didn’t even realize I’d changed direction till I was walking straight at them.
“Who the fuck is ‘dude?’” I asked.
They shut up so fast it was funny.
Deon’s eyes widened. “Jay. What’s good, man?”
“Not this bullshit.”
He shifted. “We just talking shit, man. Relax. Merry Christmas and all that.”
I stepped in close enough to smell his cologne and cheap beer. “Run that last part back for me. The ‘folded’ thing.”
He licked his lips, looked at his friends like they could help. They could not, if they knew what was good for them.
“I mean… she came down. Got a tree. Letting people decorate the pines again. Town won. That’s all I’m saying,” he muttered.
“You know what I heard. I heard you a grown-ass man obsessed with a gate that don’t belong to you. Mad because that woman never belonged to you.”
One of the other dudes snorted, then swallowed it when I looked at him. Deon scowled at me.
“I’on want Kyleigh, man. That’s all you. Always been you. What, I can’t have an opinion now? Everybody got something to say about her. She ain’t no victim. She left, came back, and been acting brand new ever since. Now she smiling in folks’ faces ’cause you put your foot down? That’s all I’m saying. She sold out.”
