Page 108 of Misrule
“I asked her not to repeat that to you,” Johnnie confessed. “I tried to explain that your hair is normal. It’s just a different texture.” He gazed at Roxy’s hair. “Or had been until the cancer took it and it re-grew.”
“I know about hair, Johnnie,” Kendall huffed. “Fine, limp, brittle…See? I know about hair.”
“Wrong,” Knox snapped. “I’ll thank you to stop insulting Roxanne with your ignorance. There’s fine, medium, and coarse hair.”
If Johnnie and Kendall couldn’t find common ground for many things, they found it when someone insulted her. At Knox’s sharp words, they both stiffened.
Roxanne gazed at Knox. “Don’t sweat it, sugar,” she said to him. “If we can’t discuss something as simple as the differences in hair texture without flinging insults, then we can’t discuss shit. This is nothing to get ass hurt over.”
“How does Johnnie know this difference but Kendall, a woman like you, doesn’t?” Knox demanded, sounding as grumpy as Christopher had been acting.
Roxanne cleared her throat. “Johnnie has spent years around Mortician,” she explained. “These boys like brothers, so, of course, he’d know about hair texture.”
“I’ve also dated a Black girl and slept with more than a few.”
A murderous scowl spread across Kendall’s features at Johnnie’s casual information. Meggie felt like strangling him. It seemed as if hewantedto get a rise out of Kendall.
“Check your bullshit, Kendall,” Roxanne warned, seeing Kendall’s reaction. “The boy had a dick before he met you. Just like you had a pussy, and used it, before you methim.”
Kendall poked out her lower lip. “I don’t flaunt my affairs in his face.” She turned to Johnnie. “I don’t flaunt my affairs in your face.”
“Not your past ones,” Johnnie reminded her. “But every chance you get, you remind me you want to sleep with Christopher.”
Kendall glowered at Knox, then focused on Roxanne and sniffled. “Do you see how Johnnie treats me? As if I mean nothing to him. Johnnie hates me.”
“I don’t hate you, Kendall,” Johnnie told her. “I’m just sick of you.”
Huffing, Kendall got to her feet, then started for the door. “Excuse me for a moment.”
The thought to go after Kendall and talk to her crossed Meggie’s mind, but to say what? More than likely, Kendall didn’t even want Meggie’s interference.
She looked at Christopher. He didn’t smile or move, so she started for the door that led to the kitchen. “I’m going to start heating the food,” she said morosely.
“We can all help,” Zoann put in, following behind Megan.
Once they reached the kitchen, Meggie headed to the oven and turned it on. She loved to serve fresh-baked rolls and favored frozen ones that had to sit out for hours and rise. Setting the oven to four hundred degrees, she could almost taste the buttery goodness in her mouth.
Fee pulled the bowl of salad out of the refrigerator and handed it to Zoann, who put it on the counter. They repeated the process with a bowl of fresh fruit.
“I’m going to start warming everything in the microwave,” Roxy said.
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Bunny responded, carrying Meggie’s favorite set of dishes from the pantry.
“Stop!” CJ cried in a teary voice. “You hurtin’ me, Aunt Kenda.”
“Ouch!” Kendall yelled. “You little motherfucker, I’m beating your ass again for kicking me.”
“Mommie!”CJ yelled, alarming and angering Meggie, propelling her in the direction of the sounds. “’Law! Aunt Kenda got me.”
“Fuck!” Roxy said, running behind Meggie. “What the fuck is wrong with that girl?”
It took only a few moments for them to reach the main hallway, but Christopher, Knox, and the other men already stood there.
Johnnie grabbed Kendall’s arm and whispered to her, pointing to CJ.
“Come here, boy.” Christopher threw a death glare in Kendall’s direction. Wincing, he stooped down when CJ reached him and took their son into his arms.
Meggie wondered at her husband’s fleeting look of pain, but let it go as she watched CJ hugged Christopher.
