Pretty Packages (31 page)

Kentucky
felt tears prick his eyes. His mouth went into a straight line. He looked away, took several deep breaths, and blinked his eyes clear.

When
Kentucky
had regained his composure, he squared his shoulders and turned back to his stepmother. “No wonder she was never at the house when I called,” he said, stubbornly setting his jaw.

“I hated lying to you, son. I just couldn’t tell you all this over the phone.”

“I guess he got her another cell phone number, too, because I never could reach her that way, either. I never had Giada’s work number,”
Kentucky
said matter-of-factly. Though his initial response was an emotional one, he now acted as if he didn’t care that the love of his life had moved on without him.

Why should he care? A part of him had expected this kind of thing from Giada.

“Kenny, are you gonna be okay?” Hannah asked with concern in her eyes. She touched his left arm to get his attention.

Kentucky
gave her a tender smile. “I’m fine, Mama.” He put his arm about her shoulders. “I’ve survived so much over the last three months. I’m confident I’ll survive a broken heart, too.”

A glossy-eyed Hannah nodded and snuggled against him as they walked toward the nearest exit.

There was no luggage to get. The tote bag on
Kentucky
’s shoulder was all he’d brought back from
Africa
. All of his other belongings had been sent to Hannah months ago.

On their way to the house on
Wilmington Street
, since
Kentucky
’s home had been sold last month, they talked about his African experience. They talked a lot about Malik and about the promise
Kentucky
made to bring him to
America
. It was Hannah who brought up the issue of finances.

“Kenny, you do know that, even after sending the life insurance money back, you are now richer than you ever were before,” Hannah said. “Your ‘death’ brought in donations from all over the world, and the school was able to repay every dime you spent on establishing it. The sale of your house generated triple what you paid for it. I have it all just waiting for you in a high-interest account, minus what I took out to pay for the remainder of Giada’s education. I hope you don’t mind about that last thing.”

Kentucky
’s jaw tightened for a brief moment before it relaxed again. “That’s fine. It was what I would have done for her anyway. But tell me this. Did you increase her scholarship fund before or
after
she started dating him?”

“Before. I wouldn’t have given her a brown cent if she was with another man at the time,” she added in a fiery tone.

Kentucky
chuckled. “Atta girl,” he said, so glad that he’d kept his stepmother as his beneficiary.

Knowing that Giada wasn’t somewhere wasting his hard-earned money with another man was comforting to him somehow. “By the way, what did you do with that wedding ring I entrusted you with before my trip to
Africa
?”

“I still have it. I didn’t think it was appropriate to give it to Giada considering everything. And I didn’t want to get rid of it because of how much thought you put into having it made.”

“It’s yours now, Mama.”
Kentucky
frowned at the memory of exactly how much thought he’d put into that ring. “And, Mama, let’s make this the last day we discuss Giada ever again, okay?”

Hannah frowned. “Okay, son,” she replied solemnly.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

December

Giada returned home alone after eating a late lunch with Fabian. They’d been dating for three months now, and she still couldn’t seem to give him anything beyond a kiss.

Giada knew Fabian was getting impatient, but she really didn’t care. She’d have sex when she was good and ready. When Fabian asked when would that be, she told him that she didn’t know.

Giada then went on to suggest that he start seeing someone else who was ready for that type of relationship with him. Fabian quickly backed off the whole subject of sex and insisted that he could wait after all. That Giada was worth waiting for. Then he asked her to go away with him for the Christmas weekend two weeks from now.

I should have told him no.
Giada went over to her fridge for a container of bottled water for Mercedes, who was still sleeping in her pink-and-white princess bed in the corner.

I need to just stop kidding myself,
Giada thought.
Kentucky
was my one great love. I’m never going to get another one like that. And if by some miracle I do, I’m pretty sure Fabian ain’t it.

Thinking of
Kentucky
caused Giada to also think of Hannah Jones. Guilt pricked her heart at the fact that she hadn’t called to check on
Kentucky
’s stepmother in a long while. Nearly two months to be exact.

Deciding to do so now, Giada picked up her house phone and dialed. She never used her cell phone in the apartment anymore. She stopped keeping it in open sight after Mercedes dumped the old one in the toilet on a particularly mischievous night three months ago.

“She should be home from church and cooking dinner by now.” Giada estimated aloud, still going by Hannah’s old Sunday schedule.

Someone picked up on the second ring. It was a man. It was a very familiar-sounding man.

Giada pulled the phone back from her right ear, looked at it in shock, and then slowly put it back to her ear again. Surely that wasn’t
Kentucky
’s voice she just heard. He was supposed to be dead, right?

“H-Hello? May I speak to Mrs. Jones please?” Giada said haltingly.

“She’s not here right now, Giada. I’ll tell her you called,”
Kentucky
replied, addressing her by name.

Giada swallowed hard. “Kenny, is that you, baby?” she squeezed out in a whisper. Surely she was losing her mind.

“Yep,”
Kentucky
replied, confirming that it was indeed him.

Not saying another word, Giada slammed the phone down. Then she grabbed her purse, scooped up her dog, and headed over to
Wilmington Street
.

* * * *

As
Kentucky
hung up the phone, he had the sneaking suspicion that Giada was on her way over to his stepmother’s house. Considering her impatient and impulsive nature, he expected her to rush right over after that shocking phone call.

In a way,
Kentucky
wanted to see Giada again. He wanted to see if she was still just as beautiful as he remembered. Plus, after months of refusing interviews and staying close to his stepmother’s house while continuing to rebuild his physical strength, he was starting to go a little stir-crazy hiding out from the world, particularly from her.

Giada was bound to find out
Kentucky
was alive sometime. She most certainly would find out when he went on a promotional tour after the book he’d been working on about his experiences in
Africa
was published. Why not just reveal his survival to her today and get it over with? What harm could it do at this stage in the game?

Hopefully not much harm
,
Kentucky
thought, recalling how he felt a few minutes ago when Giada issued that unexpected endearment. He’d had to brace himself against it. That fact that it had sounded so genuine had heat sweeping over his body even now.

No woman had ever affected
Kentucky
as much as Giada. He seriously doubted another woman could at this point.

* * * *

Giada got to the Jones residence within ten minutes. She took back roads and sped all the way there.

Ringing Hannah’s doorbell three times in a row, Giada waited impatiently on the front porch for someone to answer. Mercedes, who’d been let out of her arms by now, scratched at the door of the familiar house.

Soon
Kentucky
’s large frame filled the doorway.

Giada inhaled sharply at the sight of him. “So you
are
alive! You’re alive.”

Tears of joy swam in her eyes as she took in the sight of
Kentucky
in that white T-shirt, gray sweatpants, and white socks. Had she come thirty minutes earlier, she might have seen him in the black designer suit he’d worn to church today.

Giada didn’t care what
Kentucky
had on. He would have looked good in anything right now, standing there as fine as ever and alive.

Alive!

“Yes, I am very much alive,”
Kentucky
replied evenly.

“How? Why didn’t your mother tell me?” Pain saturated Giada’s eyes to discover that she’d been cut off from news this important.

“Mama didn’t think you knowing I was alive would matter much, considering the fact that you’ve moved on with your life and all,”
Kentucky
said with a neutral face and voice.

Giada’s cheeks felt hot with shame that she hadn’t followed her gut and just waited a while longer before dating anyone. “It would have mattered, Kenny. A lot,” she finally replied, feeling moisture well up in her eyes.

“As for how I survived, it was nothing short of a miracle,”
Kentucky
replied, seeming to deliberately ignore her last statement, her teary pools, and Mercedes’s scratching at the bottom of the door.

What was wrong with the man? Didn’t he feel anything for them at all anymore?

“After getting amnesia from a hard blow to the head, a serious wound and infection from a shot to the chest, I’m fortunate to not only be alive, but to also be in my right mind. Had it not been for God’s mercy and a medicine man named Malik, I would not have survived,”
Kentucky
continued.

Tears rolled down Giada’s cheeks now. “Oh, Kenny. I had no idea you’d gone through so much.”

“No one did,” he said curtly. “Now if that’s all . . .”
Kentucky
moved back as if he was about to close the door.

“All?”
Giada exclaimed, leaning closer to the locked screen door. “How can that be all, Kenny? I haven’t seen you in months. Can I come inside and talk a little bit more with you? At least get a hug or something?”

“No,”
Kentucky
quickly replied.

“N-No?” Giada’s lips trembled out that word as her eyes widened with shock.

* * * *

Slamming his eyes shut,
Kentucky
took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. The sight of Giada’s shapely body in that royal blue pantsuit was just too tempting for him. His hands twitched to touch her.

“No has to be my answer, Giada,”
Kentucky
said, opening his eyes a few seconds later to reveal the torment therein. There would be no more hiding his feelings. There were simply too many of them bombarding him at once.