Love In the Red Zone (Connecticut Kings Book 1) (40 page)

Ezra gave a great eulogy. I appreciated—more like was relieved—how he was able to customize his message to my uncle’s life. The two weren’t friends, but had been around each other countless times over the years as it concerned me. Ezra even came down to the hospital and prayed over Shank the first time we thought we’d lost him months before I got locked up. Plus, Shank listened to Ezra’s sermons I had sent to him. He always spoke highly of my pastor. It didn’t hurt that Ezra didn’t fornicate with women or gamble with and without parishioners like the pastors around the way. 

During the repast at a banquet hall around the corner from the church, I tried staying in the cut. Jade and I took a table in the corner as she went over our travel plans to South Carolina with me. Tyheem stood posted near, but at a respectable distance. I wasn’t in any danger, but damn sure wanted my privacy while I mourned my uncle. So far at least ten people approached me asking for an autograph: one right in the church after I touched Shank’s coffin. I didn’t want to do pictures either. Unless it was with my blood family at the request of my grandmother or April, I wanted to be left alone.

Jade booked a house for our final goodbye to Shank while everybody ate and mingled. The food was delicious. Apparently, Eli Richardson commissioned a local soul food restaurant. It reminded me of the Eli I used to know. He knew I could afford to send my uncle off in style, but he wanted to show a sign of his support and this was how he chose to.

“It was either that one or this one.” Jade tapped her tablet to load another page. “This one is nicer, but I know how cheap you are and didn’t want to go overboard—”

“Daaaaamn…” I groaned. “Your tits are swollen!” I choked on my spit, I was salivating so hard.

“Trent!” she whispered, glancing around before she pulled at the cleavage of her black dress. “I told you I didn’t have time to shop for anything this week with you being home.” Her cheeks heated and she appeared self-conscious.

“I don’t remember you saying that at all, and damn sure don’t recall you stepping out of the house in that.” My eyes were pinned to her bountiful cherries. “I wonder if Ezra caught that while he was giving his sermon.”

“Trent!” She slapped my arm, trying to fight her giggle. Her hazel eyes bright with shameful humor. “You’re making me feel bad.”

“I don’t mean to, it’s just…” I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “Damn, Jade, the day is hard enough as it is.” I continued teasing her, needing the distraction from the day. It was strange to be in this circle without my uncle in the same room. Jade pinched the side of my abs. “Ouch!”

“Then stop it!” she whispered with force. “You know what you’re doing!”

“What?” I asked without the humor. That pinch hurt.

“You’re trying to put me on blast in front of your family.”

“Baby, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you’ve been on blast in front of them since you entered the church. Cat’s outta the bag—or in this case the boobs are out of the bra.”

Jade slammed her face in her palms. “Trenton!” That act told me to slow down. Shortie never wanted to mess up her carefully laid makeup.

I pulled her in my arms. “You know I’m just messing with you.” I whispered in her ear while stealing a feel of the underside of her right boob on the low.

“And trying to make me horny!” she whined quietly in her hands.

That made me smile on the inside and outside. Even if it was at her expense, Jade improved my mood. I got a kick out of teasing her because she made it so damn easy.

“Oh! Y’all back here!” April shouted over my head. “Where my bag?” she asked Jade. “I need to give that girl over there my brother’s number. You know…the one in Ohio, Trent.” She didn’t even look at me when she dug through her purse. “They used to go together. Can you believe—”  

“Who taking my brother’s ashes down south?” My mother appeared out of nowhere, her eyes on April.

“Me, Brenda. Who else?” April asked her with her brows meeting.

“Who all’s going?”

“Nobody, hardly. Me, Trent, and Jade here, is all I know,” April answered, still fixated on her bag.

“Momma?”

“I don’t know. Trent asked her and she said she hasn’t been feeling well this week, so she don’t know if she can fly.”

“Somebody need to be there to represent the family.” My mother had some gruff in her delivery with that.

I felt Jade squeeze my thigh underneath the table. If snatching her to leave the table wouldn’t have been disruptive, I would have.

“Trent don’t represent the Bailey’s, Brenda?” April asked with her fist on her plump hip, her eyes finally on my mother.

Things went quiet. Jade cocked her head to the side, waiting for her answer. My eyes hit the tablet in front of me.

“I wanna go. I just don’t have the money,” my mother whined.

My head shot up and found her eyes on me for the first time in a long time. She was acknowledging me. It was a simple action packing a mighty punch. I couldn’t speak. Next to me, Jade swung her head to the other side, her boobs were
really
poking now. Little mamma was flexing.

“Oh! Look who has peripheral view now, April.” Jade noted with a crook in her neck and squinted eyes. “So, it takes your brother’s ashes being dispersed out of state for you to acknowledge your son?”
Eeep!
I jumped to my feet and lifted Jade from her seat. She tried to keep her voice low as she continued. “No. That couldn’t be it because you’ve been around him all day and can’t even tell me the color of his suit!”

I hauled her out of the dining hall, praying we didn’t cause too much of a commotion. Tyheem followed us out but stopped when I signaled him to wait at the end of a hall when I turned the corner with her stilettos flailing in the air. I set her down on her feet, her back against the wall. Jade pouted with her arms crossed under her boobs, looking just like Kyree, height and all. If he were here instead of being in school, he’d clown her with me. She wouldn’t look at me. I paced the floor back and forth in front of her, trying to rein in my emotions. Hot air pushed out of my nostrils and my chest heaved as my fists rested on my hips.

She’s such a damn hot head!

I couldn’t have her flexing for me like I was a punk. I could fight my own battles, deal with my mother on my own. I could only imagine what would have gone down if I hadn’t dragged her out of there. My cousins would’ve raised up on her. They wouldn’t have viewed her as my girl. All they would’ve seen was some pretty bourgeois chick with a dope body and a long weave basing at their relative.     

Jade sucked her teeth and rolled her eyes. “Look! She ain’t gon’ be—”

I sealed that slick mouth with my own, silencing her flexing and thanking her at the same damn time. Her soft hands gripped the wings of back right away.

Jade thinks she’s so damn hard
…

She swung the silver and turquoise metal urn in the winded air. Shank’s dust flew out in sheets before breaking apart and flying with the uptake of the salted wind. Some of him hit April, and after closing her eyes and spitting out remnants of him, she raised her chunky arms in the air, embracing the last of his physical being.

Sucking in a breath, I tried reining in my emotions as we stood a few yards behind her. Jade’s little hand pushed up my t-shirt and rubbed my back. Her touch was soothing and timely. Jade had been an object of familiarity and comfort for me this past week. Other than that slip up with my moms, she’d been a quiet force of beauty and strength. It bothered me that I didn’t know how I would’ve made it through this first period of loss without her.  

I tightened my right arm caped lazily around Jade’s small frame, cuing her to walk down the beach to give my aunt privacy. Without further instruction, we left April alone with Shank. She cried out loud and laughed at the same time. And while I knew she was at peace and enjoying a defining moment with her husband, the groans in her cries tugged at me. As we paced slowly down the empty beach, I exhaled. I’d done it. With April by my side and this fiery midget underneath me having my back, I acted out the final wishes of the only man I ever knew as a father. It had been difficult and hella painful, and had come with its fair share of drama, but I’d gotten it done.

Jade and I talked, sometimes in silence and others in full blown random conversation. We walked for a while against the rumbling water until we came upon a boardwalk with shops, restaurants and a bar. Feeling I could use a drink after this past week, I asked Jade to slide inside.

I hummed on the way out, exhaustion coming over me. My hand was clutched tightly in Trent’s as I peered up at him to gauge his mood. He was good at hiding what he felt and I hated it. Sometimes I could catch mood swings in his eyes when I was lucky. His regard was between the air and water.

“What are you thinking about?” I asked with a nudge.

I felt a heavy dollop of rain hit my shoulders and squealed.

“That,” his thick baritone pushed out. “It’s about to pour down out here.”

I glanced around to what was a sparsely occupied beach on our stroll down here that was now almost empty. There was a crack in the sky, a roiling of thunder struck.

“Damn! C’mon, Jade!”

Trent yanked my hand, pulling me behind him in a hurried run. I screamed at the on rush of droplets falling from the dark sky. Trent’s long legs were hard to keep up with and eventually became difficult to see in the sheets of rain falling over us. I tried keeping up, maintaining a wide stride and rhythm that made me feel I was on his heels. My hand slipped from Trent’s grip and I panicked. The heavy drops pounding on my bare shoulders in a long tank maxi dress. I screeched, erratically feeling terrified by the disconnect. A heavy ground-shuddering thunder clap and blinding lightning struck at the same time. I was sure my life was about to expire. I heard horrified screams and shouts from other beach dwellers.

Oh, my Go
d…
Kyree! Trent!

Out of nowhere, I felt slippery arms encase me, lifting me from the sand. I was being carried on running legs, unable to see our destination.

“I gotchu, baby!” Trent tried to calm me over the roaring winds.

I wiped my eyes and saw we were under an artificial tree hut, no different from an oversized beach umbrella, just sturdier.

“Trent, this won’t hold up! Look!” I pointed at the flying beach particles: umbrellas, folding chairs, volley ball net, even a broken surfboard, all zipping around us.

I felt my body vibrate with fear, breaths coming out in drags. We weren’t going to survive this storm unscathed. It was impossible. I’d never seen anything like it in my life. The storm came out of nowhere, totally unexpected until it hit. We were a ways away from the beach house and without cell phones to call for help. How would we get out of this?