Page 21 of The Only Shot that Mattered

“Yeah, but still.” She sighed like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders.

Damien kissed her temple, and they sat there in silence for a few seconds before Damien spoke. “Your mama told me you been catching a lil attitude. What’s that all about?”

Skylar stiffened and pulled away from him. She shrugged, avoiding his eyes. “I don’t know.”

“You do know,” Damien insisted, bumping up against her with his side.

Instead of answering, Skylar said, “When you get back, can we go to Benihana?”

Damien shook his head and rose from the bed. “You ain’t slick trying to change the subject. You need to be nicer to your mother and to Grayson, you hear me? If they let me know you been good, I’ll take you fo’ sho.”

Skylar rolled her eyes, but she smiled up at her dad. “Fine, that’s a bet.”

“That’s a bet?” Damien asked, holding his hand out to her. She grinned and shook up with him, a variation of the handshake he and Jendaya shared. When they finished, he leaned down and kissed her head. “I love you.”

“More than what?” she asked, and in that moment, Damien saw her as a little girl, not the newly aged teenager sitting before him.

He chuckled. “More than the sky, Skylar.”

“More than all the birds?”

“And all the clouds.”

“And all the stars?”

“All that,” he replied, and then he took a step toward the door. When they were in a silly mood, they could go on and on for hours, coming up with crazy ass things that could be found in the sky, from airplanes to dust particles. “Be good.”

After giving his last warning look at her, he closed the door and headed downstairs where his bag already waited. He stopped in the family room and plucked Jendaya on the back of her head.

“Ow, boy. Cut it out.”

“Girl, go home and eat up your own food. And what are you watching?”

“Love at First Sight, and I didn’t go grocery shopping,” she replied as she rubbed her flat stomach lazily while she sprawled out on his couch.

There were bags of chips, a glass of wine, some of the good chocolate he kept on hand, and an empty plate that looked to have once held a full course meal, judging by the crumbs and sauces left behind.

“While you’re laying there, you need to be putting in a grocery order to pick up on the way home.”

Jendaya shrugged. “Yeah, I’m sure Grayson would appreciate that.”

Damien shook his head and chuckled. “Where that nigga at anyway?”

“He’ll probably be home from work soon. He only had a few patients today and was just doing office work, mostly.”

Grayson was the chief of surgery at a hospital not too far from Damien’s house. He kept crazy hours, but he made a lot of money. Every moment he wasn’t at work, he spent with Jendaya and Skylar, which Damien appreciated.

“Aight, well, you enjoy eating up all my food, I guess. I’m about to get out of here. Shut down the house and lock up whenyou leave, and make sure you adjust the thermostat in Skylar’s wing too before she freezes the damn pipes.”

Jendaya held her fist out behind the couch for Damien to dap. “Got you. Have fun with your new girlfriend.”

Damien snorted. “She ain’t my girlfriend…yet.” He muttered that last word under his breath as he walked out of the house.

As soon as he got into the car, he texted Kenna and told her he was on the way. When he pulled out of his driveway, excited nerves danced around in his stomach. He had been thinking about Kenna ever since he met her. He couldn’t help it. At practice, when he showered, in his dreams… she was there. Before meeting her, he wasn’t too sold on the idea of love at first sight, but she made him reconsider that notion.

Kenna had sent him her address earlier, and he was happy to see they only lived fifteen minutes from each other. He easily turned that fifteen into ten, his excitement at laying eyes on her again giving him a bit of a heavy foot on that gas pedal.

When he pulled up to her townhouse, he was surprised by how nice it was and how quiet and manicured the neighborhood looked. It was then he realized he didn’t even know what she did for a living.

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