Page 2 of Regancy & Savior
“Oh, well, I cooked.” She peered at me. “You must be hungry, right?” She was trying to read me like she knew me.
“Well, I’m hungry.” Kale’s voice interrupted my thoughts.
My mother looked down at her, then back at me. “If it’s okay, I can?—”
“She’s your grandchild, ma. You don’t have to ask.” It was something about the way she looked at her when she saw her that was able to melt the cold in my heart. My father always told me that my mother regretted her actions, but I didn’t believe him. I refused to see it because I was so angry with her for not being there when I needed her.
A smile crossed her face as she threw her arm around Kale’s shoulder and led us into her home. Once we walked in, I was shocked to see that nothing was the same. Everything was different, as if she had remodeled.
I took a seat and watched her move throughout the kitchen, making Kale’s plate before she sat down in front of her.
“You hungry, baby?” she asked.
“No. I?—”
“Mom is trying thirty days without meat. Pop-Pop said it won’t last long.” Kale stuffed her face, never looking up from the plate in front of her.
I shot her a glare before shaking my head.
My mama laughed. “Thirty days?”
“Well, I?—”
“Mama, whose car is that outside?” The sound of the front door opening and a deep voice filled the house.
Before she was able to respond, a familiar face entered the kitchen. He was just as astonished to see me as I was to see him all grown up. My brother and I always looked alike, but he looked like a grown ass man.
“Reg, is that you?” he asked.
I nodded with tears in my eyes. I hadn’t spoken to my only brother in eight years. He hadn’t done anything to me. I just couldn’t utter words to him because I was carrying my own pain, my own issues.
He didn’t say anything else. He walked up to me and pulled me into a hug so tight that I would’ve thought I was about to float away.
The day was a day about nothing but emotion because that was all I felt. I didn’t get to my bar to get any work done or anything. Kale and I ended up spending the entire day at my mama’s house while she attempted to cater to her every need. She tried to cater to mine, but I didn’t need that. She knew that, so after a while, she stopped trying to overcompensate, and she started trying to get to know me better. I liked that much more.
“Where are you staying?” Amil asked.
I glanced up from my phone into his direction. “I have a condo downtown.”
“Word? Downtown?” he questioned.
“Yeah. I got it for a great price just a few blocks from my business.”
He looked confused. “Your business? What? Do you finally own that clothing store you used to bitch about when we were young?”
I chuckled. “I wish, but instead, I decided to open a bar.”
“A bar? What yo’ upity ass know about a bar, Reg?”
I had to chuckle at that. “I am not upity, and I know quite a lot. But it’s more like a tavern.”
He nodded his head. “I’ma have to check you out.”
I wasn’t able to respond to him, because before I knew it, Kale had run into the living room from the kitchen. “Mama, instead of going to work with you tomorrow, can I come here with Grandma?” Her face lit up with the word.
“I—”
“Please, please, please? She said it was alright, and I don’t wanna be bored.” She begged like her little life depended on it. I allowed my eyes to leave my daughter and lock onto my mother, who wore the same begging expression. I definitely wasn’t ready for that, but I had to be, for her sake.
