Page 6 of The Only Shot that Mattered

“Yeah, good luck with that. Her attitude has been something else lately.”

They stepped outside, and Damien locked the door. Jendaya walked toward her custom painted purple Lexus, but he stopped her. “Rock’s going to drive us.”

Jendaya pouted, but he didn’t care. She loved to drive, but he wasn’t trying to be on her time. There was no need for them to drive separately, and she knew it. She loved hanging back after his games and kickin’ it with his teammates. They all knew who she was, and when she wanted to be, she could be one of the guys. She was just cool like that and knew the sport better than most men. The issue was, Damien was around them niggas every damn day when they were in season. The last thing he wanted to do was spend more time with them.

They walked toward the waiting SUV, and he opened the back door for her. After they slid in and his bodyguard, Rock, pulled away from the house, Damien asked, “It’s gotten that bad?” referring to their daughter.

Jendaya buckled her seat belt and side-eyed him. “You haven’t noticed?”

“She ain’t like that with me.”

“That’s because you aren’t always around, and you know I don’t mean that as a dig, so don’t go getting defensive and in your feelings.” That was the thing about them. They knew each other too well not to anticipate their reactions to certain things. “I just mean that it makes sense that she acts differently with you. With me, she’s a brat.”

“Don’t do my baby like that.” Damien cut his eyes playfully at Jendaya, but she waved him off. Another thing about them, they always had each other’s backs. If Jendaya told him that Skylar was being a brat, then he believed her. They acted on one accord when it came to their daughter, and nothing could switch that up. “I’ll talk to her.”

“’Preciate that, potnah.” Jendaya stuck her fist out to Damien, and they did their secret handshake before he looked out the window, trying to get in the zone for his game.

Of course, as a player, he had to be at the stadium early. And he liked being extra early this season so he could interact with the fans and choose his meet and greet winner of the night.

Whenever Jendaya had the time, she always came to his home games. She was his day one and his ride or die, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“You’rein the upper section, ma’am. Row Z seats forty-two and forty-three.”

Cam politely thanked the chubby older man that handed the tickets back to him and then turned to glare at Kenna, who looked around nervously.

“Girl, would you come on. The boogeyman ain’t gon’ get you.”

Kenna shook her head. Cam was joking, but she couldn’t shake the nerves bouncing around within her. Her boogeyman was in the form of a boy named Zachary Nelson. She never would have thought the tenth grade student would be out to get the entire school on that random Wednesday all those years ago, either, but he was. Who was to say that wasn’t the case for one of the thousands of people brushing past her at that moment?

Trying her hardest not to cry, she glared back at him and snatched the tickets from his hand. Confirming what the guy atthe ticket booth said, she frowned back at him. Suddenly, Cam had an innocent look on his face as he smiled at her timidly.

“Cam, really? You told me you got seats that were practically courtside.”

“Girl, these seatsaregood. Everybody knows the nosebleeds are where it’s at,” Cam defended as he walked ahead of her and up the stairs, popping his booty with each step, knowing damn well it would irritate Kenna. She had to give it to him. His tactic worked. She didn’t feel nearly as anxious as she walked behind him, glowering at the back of his head.

The higher they climbed the stairs, the higher her irritation rose. She wasn’t even sure why the seats mattered to her so much, but then it hit her. They mattered because they were so far from an exit. If all hell broke loose, they would be screwed with these seats.

Fear gripped her once again as she scouted out the area, trying to spot a solution for her panic. When they finally made it to their seats, all Kenna could do was shake her head as she breathed heavily from that impromptu workout. It was Cam’s turn to get irritated.

“Now I know like hell they didn’t put a damn pole right in front of our seats. Kenna, we can’t even see the jumbo screen,” he fussed.

“Jumbotron,” she muttered.

Cam waved his hand dramatically. “Whatever.” After he perched on the edge of his seat, he looked up at her expectantly and sighed. “Come on, Kenny. It’ll be fun, seats be damned.”

She scrunched up her face at the nickname. He used it rarely and mostly when he wanted to get on her nerves. Again, his tactic worked because her anxiety took a backseat as she stared at him, ready to argue that there was no fun in staring at a damn pole for two hours.

Instead, she sat down and said, “I hope you liked walking those stairs. I’m going to need you to go grab me a drink.”

Cam didn’t put up a fight. He stood up and then bowed down dramatically at her. “Whatever you say, Queen Kenna.”

As soon as he disappeared into the crowd, Kenna wondered why she had even done that. She wanted to punish him for lying, but that had backfired quickly. With Cam gone, her anxiety went into overdrive. The tears she had been holding back sprang to the surface, and she looked behind her to see if she could spot her best friend. If she was brave, she would have gotten up and followed him, but she stayed glued to her seat as she felt panic set in.

The loud music playing caused mayhem to bounce around her body. Loud noises were extremely triggering for her, and she knew this was exactly why she didn’t want to come to this damn game in the first place.

To her right, a little boy about five or six sat in the seat next to her. She caught his eye, and he peered at her curiously before he proceeded to climb into Kenna’s lap, startling her.

“Boy! You can’t just climb into strangers’ laps,” the woman next to him scolded before looking at Kenna. “I am so sorry, honey.”

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