Chapter Thirty-Nine

 

Kimba

 

 

“This is actually pretty good,” Keith says, flipping through the manuscript Piers managed to procure so we’d have it first thing Monday morning.

“Stoke!” Kayla slaps her copy onto Mama’s dining room table. “It’s a lie.”

“I don’t mean the part about Daddy having an affair with Mrs. Stern,” Keith says. “But they got all the other stuff about his life right. His work in civil rights, all he’s done for the city, his record as a prosecutor in those early days right out of Emory. It’s well written and makes him look great.”

“You mean except for the whole cheating-on-his-wife part?” I ask, tossing my copy onto the table alongside Kayla’s. “Yeah, well if I put a drop of ink in a glass of water, will you still drink it?”

“Depends on how thirsty I am.” He laughs. “And based on our conversation with the publisher, they’re pretty thirsty.”

“He did sound like he will take this all the way,” I mutter, biting the inside of my cheek. “We need to find out who this biographer’s source is for the affair. He doesn’t make it clear in the text.”

“It’s such a small part of the book overall,” Kayla adds. “If they’d just remove that one lie, I’d be fine with it.”

“They’re counting on that lie to sell a lot of books,” I say.

“We can’t let that happen,” Mama says from the door, her copy tucked under her arm. She decided to read hers upstairs in her bedroom while my siblings and I have camped out downstairs all day reading it over wine and snacks from the pantry.

“It’s a lie,” she continues. “Joseph was never unfaithful, and for them to tarnish his reputation, his legacy this way…they can’t.”

“We won’t let them,” I promise, even though my back’s against the wall and I’m not sure how to stop them without drawing it out into a long court battle, and probably sensationalizing it even more.

“I’ll keep working the legal angle,” Keith says, standing and stretching. “Well, it’s been real, fam, but I’ve given my whole day to this. Didn’t make it to the office, but I gotta make it home.”

“Same.” Kayla stands. “My kids are on their way home from camp. I need to go get dinner ready.”

Kayla looks down at her phone when it buzzes. “Ugh. What’d I tell you? My kids. It’ll take me forever to get rid of them all. I want an empty nest so bad.”

“And you’ll be an emotional wreck when they leave. Believe me,” Mama says, laughing. “Send them over here next weekend. You and Lawrence get some time to yourselves.”

Kayla’s usually haughty expression softens, and she kisses Mama’s cheek. “I’m gonna take you up on it and leave before you change your mind.” She heads for the door and waves over her shoulder.

“I’m out, too,” Keith says. He bends to drop a kiss on Mama’s head and then mine. Mama walks him to the door and I hear my phone ringing in the distance. I race upstairs where it was charging.

Ezra.

“Hey,” I say.

“You said you’d answer your phone.”

“I know. I’m sorry. Phone died. Did you talk to your mom?”

“Yeah. She denies it.”

“Well, of course she does,” I say easily enough despite the deep relief that pours through me. “It’s not true.”

“Do you have any more to do there?”

“No. I’ve done all I can do for today, I think. We’ll start again tomorrow.”

“Come spend the night,” he says, sending shivers along my skin.

“With you?” I ask teasingly.

“That was the idea, yes,” he says, a smile evident in his voice.

“Could we…?” I hesitate, not sure I want to bring this up now. “I don’t want to stay at your house tonight.”

“Noah’s not due back yet. We—”

“It’s Aiko’s house, Ez. Her photos, her slippers and robe and clothes and Mommy mug. She’s everywhere, and I would like a night with you where every time I turn around I’m not confronted by your life with her.”

“I’m sorry, Tru,” he says after a loaded pause. “I should have realized that, but a hotel feels…seedy. I understand discretion, but I don’t want you to feel in any way that we’re sneaking around or doing something wrong.”

“I don’t feel that way, but we don’t have to go to a hotel. I know just the place.”