The Realest Ever - By Keith Thomas Walker Page 0,63
bedroom door, so he had no idea where she found those.
“There’s my precious baby!” Kyra knelt to give her a hug and a kiss. “Where’d you get these?” She took Donovan’s ties away from her and placed them on the coffee table. Kat went after them immediately.
“Mine!”
“No those are not yours,” Kyra said. She picked her daughter up to keep her away from them. “Where’s Q?”
“He’s in the den. Q!” Donovan shouted down the hallway. “Your mom’s here!”
They heard Quinell’s “Aww, man!” all the way in the living room.
“Thanks for watching them,” Kyra said.
“No problem. How was your date?”
“It was great.” Kyra’s eyes were twinkling. “But I think Roland might be part octopus.”
Donovan’s smile fell. “Why you say that? He tried something else?”
“Yep,” Kyra said. “An exact repeat of last time.”
Hot coals began to burn behind Donovan’s eyes. Kyra didn’t notice because Q walked into the room at that moment. She looked down at him.
“Hey, did you have a good time?”
“Yes. Mr. Mitchell said I can have his PS3. Can I get it?”
Kyra frowned. “No, boy. You’re not taking anything out of this house.”
Q’s whole face drooped.
“It’s okay,” Donovan said. “I told him he could have it. I don’t play with it anymore, since I got my Xbox.”
“No, Donovan,” Kyra said. “I don’t like that. I’ll buy him one when I get my check.”
“You can’t pay for everything with your first check,” Donovan said good-naturedly. “Go put your kids in the car, and I’ll unhook the system for him. I wanna talk to you about your date, when you get back.”
Kyra continued to frown, but she left the house and did as he asked her. She strapped Kat into her car seat and turned the engine on so the air-conditioner would blow. Before she went to retrieve the PlayStation, she gave Quinell a hard look.
“Did you ask him for that thing?”
“No.” He shook his head fiercely.
“Don’t be going to people’s house asking for stuff.”
“I didn’t, Mama. I swear.”
Kyra narrowed her eyes and stared at him for a few more seconds before she closed the door. When she reentered Donovan’s home, he had what looked like a very expensive electronic unplugged and waiting for her. Kyra started shaking her head before she spoke.
“Donovan, that’s nice of you, really. But we can’t take that. That’s too much.”
Donovan stood next to his recliner wearing camouflage shorts with a black tee shirt. His expression was dark. He told her, “Yes you are taking it, and I’m not going to argue about it. I told Q he can have it. That’s the end of it.”
Kyra was startled by his demeanor. “Okay. I, I didn’t know it meant that much to you.”
“I don’t care about this game,” he said. “I want to know about your date. What do you mean he was part octopus?”
Kyra’s heart began to race. She hadn’t felt this way since the first time she told Donovan about Roland. They talked about him plenty of times since then. Donovan never reacted like this.
“It, it was nothing,” she said. “He was just being silly.”
“Tell me what happened.”
Kyra swallowed hard. “I, I, we went out. He took me to Maggiano’s. We had a good time. When he walked me to my car, he tried to kiss me again. I kissed him.” Kyra had to lower her gaze. She never felt this nervous around Donovan. “Before I got in my car, he said he wanted a hug, too. I told him not to try anything like last time. He said he wouldn’t, but his hands started moving. I pushed him off.”
She looked up at him. Donovan was clearly upset. And he was huge. His anger seemed to add ten feet to his height. The last time Kyra saw that look in his eyes, they were children and she told him her mother’s boyfriend tried to pull her sheets away while she was sleeping.
“Do you like him,” Donovan asked.
“I, I, I don’t know,” Kyra said. “I wouldn’t have kissed him, if I didn’t like him. But I don’t like how fast he wants to move. I can tell he wants to go way too fast.”
“I don’t want you to see him anymore,” Donovan said. He didn’t mean to, it just came out. Once it was out there, Donovan felt like a fool. What the hell was he doing? Kyra said she liked her new friend. Donovan should’ve given his advice and left it at that. Instead he practically commanded Kyra to stop seeing Roland. What would she