Page 14 of Saved By A Small Town Country Boy
I thought that was going to be enough for me to get away from the situation, but nope. “Please?” Khali pressed her hands together at her mouth as if she was about to say a prayer. She batted her long eyelashes at me, waiting for my response.
“Okay, fine.” I’m sure if I didn’t agree to it, she wasn’t going to let up on the matter.
“Khali, I’m sure that Remedi has better things to do than to go to church,” Khalif finally spoke as he stepped alongside her behind the booth.
“No, it’s fine.” Turning my attention back to Khali, I said, “I’d love to go to church with you.”
“Okay!”
I popped one of the grapes into my mouth and walked off. As I strolled back toward my truck, my phone rang. Fumbling with my bags, I unzipped my crossbody and pulled it out. It was a number that I didn’t recognize. Swiping the screen, I placed the phone to my ear and listened to see if I could recognize the voice on the other side.
“Remedi?” The masculine voice came through the line. I couldn’t place it, so I said nothing. “I know you’re there, I can hear you breathing. This is Detective Raymond Steele with the Atlanta Police Department. I’m calling because—” Before he could even finish his sentence, I hung the phone up, and his number immediately popped right back onto my screen.
“Shit,” I mumbled under my breath and rushed to my truck.
Chapter 6
Khalif
Sunday
Iset the plate on the table and trotted down the hallway toward Khali’s bedroom to see if she’d gotten dressed. Her bedroom door is wide open, letting me know that she probably has her clothes on. She’d gotten to the point where she likes to shut her door to change her clothes now, which I have no issue with. She’s getting a big girl and deserves her privacy just like anyone else.
“Are you ready?” I asked her from the doorway. She sat on the pink bench at the foot of her bed, slipping her baby doll’s shoes onto her feet.
“I’m ready.” She popped up and stood there dressed in this plaid, brown and black skirt and brown shirt. I wasn’t the best at shopping for lil girl clothes, so Dallas Reign did most of her shopping for me. I appreciate her for that shit. Without my family, I’d be lost than a mufucka tryna raise this girl.
“You look pretty. Why don’t you come here so I can brush your hair up for you?” I strolled into her bathroom and grabbed her hairbrush and hair gel. A lot of times, Dallas would comb her hair so that it would last for the week or a couple of weeksat least. She hadn’t gotten around to doing it for me yet; she had been keeping her hair in ponytails and pigtails for the moment. Today, I was just gon’ brush it up into two ponytails for her. It’s the best I can do. At least I wasn’t letting her go ’round looking nappy-headed. Some people don’t even try that.
She stepped in between me and the mirror. I parted her hair down the middle as best as I could and gelled her hair up.
“I can’t wait to see Remedi today.” Khali saying that caught me off guard. She’d been speaking so highly of Remedi lately and barely even knew her.
I wrapped her hair tie ’round her hair and said, “You do realize that Remedi is gon’ have to go back home soon or later, right? I don’t want you to get too attached to her.”
Khali peered at me through the mirror and frowned. “What makes you think that she’s leaving? She might like staying here. I’ll ask her today when I see her at church.”
“Khali?…”
“What, Daddy?” The corners of her mouth curled upward.
“I’m done.” I put all her things back into the cabinet drawers. “Gone in the kitchen and eat your breakfast. You know how yo’ grandma be whenever you’re late.”
“Okay.” She skipped out of the bathroom, and I stayed behind, staring at my reflection in her bathroom mirror. Khali is just a child, and sometimes, I have to remind myself of that fact. She has to learn that not all people are permanent. There’s some out there that only come into yo’ life for a reason and a season, and Remedi just might be one of those temporary people.
Sighing, I shut the light off in her bathroom and then her bedroom before meeting her back in the kitchen. Khali was already sitting down at the table, munching on her food, when I joined her in the chair directly in front of her.
“You think Tee Dallas is coming to church today?”
“I don’t know,” I responded, taking a bite from my bacon. Dallas had been up most of the night working in the barn. She more than likely wasn’t getting up this early to make it to church, but I wasn’t ’bout to tell Khali that. We kept a lock on the barn and cameras all over the place for Khali’s safety and to keep unwanted people out. Every time Dallas passed a camera, it alerted either one of our phones; that’s how I know she’d been out there so late.
Khali finished eating her food and took her plate and cup over to the sink. I sat there as I watched her wash both of ’em and put them up. Lil things like that I admired ’cause at one point, she didn’t even know how to do all that. It was in times like this that I noticed my lil girl was really growing up.
I chugged down the remainder of my orange juice and got up from the table. “I’m gonna go check on Beauty before we leave,” Khali said and raced out of the side door before I was even able to protest. I honestly need to thank Remedi for her help for real ’cause Beauty is doing much better than she was before.
By the time I stepped out onto the porch, Khali came out of the stable with a huge grin on her face. I placed my chestnut-brown cowboy hat on my head and headed for my truck. Khali stopped at the back passenger door, and I opened it for her.
“Thank you, Daddy,” she said as she pulled herself up. She grabbed her seat belt as I shut the door and then climbed into the driver’s seat.
