Page 74 of Kandie Shoppe

“I’m back.” I watch her settle a newborn baby on her breast to nurse.

“Ohmyfuckingoodness, Ohmyfuckingoodness,” I cheer over the line, clapping my hands.

“You had a baby. Jeeze Louise, Ezekiel-Jane, you had a baby? I didn’t know…” I trail off as the realization hits me like an unstable baking rack. “Ohhh, no wonder he lost his frigging mind.” Clutching my hair at the sides, I tip my head back, hearing but not registering the sounds I’m making. Heat burns my eyes, tears spilling over in a cascade down my cheeks. I cover my face for the sheer havoc this misunderstanding has wrought in my cousin’s life. Pulling my hands free, I wipe the tears away as best I can.

“I’m so sorry, Easy.” My hand trembles as I cover my mouth, looking into her earnest face that seems so perplexed right now. I don’t know how to tell her.

“Why?” Confusion and concern sharpen her tone. She looks at me like I’m having a full-on mental breakdown — which I am. She looks like she wants to come to comfort me. Only I don’t think I deserve that.

“What the fuck?” A roar sounds behind me. I jerk to find Ulysses storming over to me.

“What’s wrong? Who are you talking to?” His booming voice cuts in just before he fills the screen, upsetting what I was about to say.

“Ezekiel-Jane?” he whispers, like all the air has been sucked out of his large frame when he sees her sitting before him on the screen nursing the baby, his face paling under his tan skin. I’m guessing Angel kept her pregnancy a secret from him too. I wonder if Mimi knows who would have been the first person Easy went to then everything spiraled so fast afterward.

“It’s me.” She smiles at us over the screen. “This is Judah, my son.”

I stop at that, knowing she lost her parents just like I did when she was a kid.

“Judah? Like your dad?” I can’t help the emotional response I’m having.

“Yeah.” There is a long silence as we both drink in the baby and Easy.

“Why did you say you were sorry?” she asks after a long moment.

Searching U’s face, I struggle to find the right words. I see his jaw ticking, but when he looks at me it’s not recrimination there but the silent promise that I can count on him no matter the outcome. His solemn blue eyes hold that oath and it gives me the courage to say the next words.

“I made a huge mistake.” Dashing away tears, I forge ahead. “I didn’t fully understand the situation with the kids. Yeah, they were being trafficked. But the person who was behindit was Rudy not Angel…” I rush through the rest about how some deputies stumbled upon the two tractor trailers on some obscure side road pretending they had a break down when they were waiting for their connect — Rudy who turned out to be dead because of his challenge to Angel. It seems that he’d been running a trafficking side hustle in an attempt to get backing to take over El Diablo Cartel.

She listens, her face giving nothing away as the words pour out.

I end with what Krie told me when I came back to town. “They tried to contact you. To let you and Saban know he was innocent. They just had the kids in the warehouse until they could find them safe passage back home or place them with relatives here. The ones who’d actually been sold have been given asylum status. I-I’m so sorry, Easy,” I finally trail off.

She looks too stunned to speak. My tummy is in knots as I wait for her to lash out at me like anyone would be well within their rights to do, but especially her. I denied her the support of her husband through her first pregnancy. Not to mention Angel missing the entire pregnancy. Guilt has my tummy in knots.

“It’s not your fault, Kandie. It was an honest mistake,” she says in a distant, distracted voice. "I have to go now.”

“I’m sorry,” I whisper, watching the screen blur. I sit there for I don’t know how long. Absently, I notice Ulysses moving around in the periphery.

“Come on, wildcat.” I look at him, feeling so lost. “We can start fresh tomorrow.”

I look at his outstretched hand for a long moment before I place my hand in his and allow him to lead me out of the Kandie Shoppe.

“How we doing, wildcat?”Resting his chin on the pile of curls atop my head, he trails his fingers through the suds as he checks on me.

We stayed silent as we processed everything that’s happened.

“Angel says thank you,” he murmured before he went to run the tub. “He says you gave him his family back.”

His words cause more tears. I feel anything but worthy of gratitude. I feel like the worst of the worst people. I cost them nearly a year of time together. Me, who knows more than anything how precious family is and how fleeting time is. Forget tomorrow not being promised to you, right now isn’t either. “Find the one that speaks to your soul,” my mom would say to us. “And never let them go. Life is too fleeting.”

“Okay, I guess.” My answer is a shadow. I feel like a wraith. Hulled out and left hollow. “I will be,” I concede, watching as he twines his long fingers between mine. The bath served its purpose. Easing the aches, we both got setting the bakery back to rights before we open. We needed an entire new inventory. Krie offered to front me what I needed, but Ulysses took care of it. Said he was putting his Shelby inheritance to good use. I told him he was making his ancestors roll in their graves and he gave a quick reply. “Good, if it means it’s making you smile.”

“Alright, this water is getting cold.” Shifting me forward, he rises. Stepping from the garden tub, water sluicing down the hard planes of his body, I deliberately look away. He’s too much of a temptation. He’s been back in my life for three weeks and hasn’t made a move to touch me. Admittedly, I was skittish at first. Then he started looking good as fuck, especially when he was doing acts of service like organizing shelves and loadingfifty-pound bags of cake flour. Just so happens when he started seeming less hesitant my period started so that put a stop to that train of thought for both of us.

“Here.” Handing me the towel, he turns, and I see that little muscle working in his jaw.

“Thanks,” I say, wrapping the plush cotton around my body. Moving behind him, I press a kiss to his damp shoulder.

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