The Realest Ever - By Keith Thomas Walker Page 0,85

their coffee, and then Donovan went out back to feed his dogs. He invited Kyra to tag along. Doc and Wyatt were scary, hulking creatures, especially at night. But they were friendly beasts. They surrounded Kyra and sniffed her and allowed her to pet them. Thankfully they didn’t jump up and soil her clothes with their grubby paws.

Donovan didn’t return to the house immediately after feeding them. He took a seat on a wicker sofa he had next to the back porch. Kyra sat with him and star gazed while she held his hand. Everything about Donovan’s home was perfect. Kyra wondered if she was a fool for not taking him up on his offer to move in.

“Your dogs fit you,” she said as she watched the four-legged buddies frolicking in the yard.

“Why’s that?” Donovan asked.

“Because you’re all big and ferocious,” Kyra said. “It makes sense that you have a German shepherd and a pit bull.”

“But I’m not ferocious,” Donovan said.

“And neither are your dogs. They didn’t bark at me or nothing.”

“That’s because you’re with me. If you jumped the fence one night by yourself, it would be a different story.”

“Same as you,” Kyra said. “You’re like a big, ole teddy bear. But if you have to take care of business, you wouldn’t hesitate to whoop a nigga’s ass.”

Donovan laughed. “I haven’t had a fight since high school.”

“You still got it in you, though,” Kyra stated. “It never goes away.”

Donovan shrugged.

They sat in silence for a few seconds, and then Kyra said, “There’s something I got to tell you.”

“What’s up?”

She swallowed. “I talked to Kat’s daddy the other day.”

She felt Donovan tense up. “Do you want me to kick his ass?”

Kyra smiled nervously. “No. But I am worried about something.” She sat up so she could look him in the eyes. The porch light provided enough illumination to see that Donovan was already worried as well.

“What’s wrong?”

“He’s been calling for a couple of weeks,” Kyra said. “I wouldn’t call him back, and I told my aunt not to give him my cell number. She didn’t, but I think she told him when to call back, so he could catch me at home.”

“Are you talking about that Leonard guy?”

She nodded.

“What does he want?”

Kyra sighed. She wished she could leave her past in the past, but some things never go away. “He said he wants to see Kat. But I know it’s really me he wants. He’s just using Kat as an excuse.”

Donovan’s expression was hard to read. “What’d he tell you?”

“He said I was wrong for taking Kat to Texas, and he’s gonna take me to court. He said he’s going to try to get custody, but he’ll be happy with visitation rights, so long as it’s in Arkansas. He wants me to go back.”

“Why do you think he wants to be with you?”

Kyra hesitated. She didn’t want to tell Donovan the whole conversation. When she talked to him, Leonard was practically crying on the phone. He begged Kyra to come back to him. Each time she said no, Leonard brought up Kat again, threatening legal action.

“He asked me to go back with him,” Kyra said. “He said I was wrong for leaving him while he was in jail. When I said no, that’s when he started talking about suing me.”

“Why did you leave him?” Donovan asked.

Kyra’s stomach twisted. When she first returned to Overbrook Meadows, she told Donovan approximately 75% of her hard times story. She wanted to be completely honest with him now, but she couldn’t. It would break Donovan’s heart, if he knew everything.

“He ruined my life,” Kyra said. “He was doing drugs and selling drugs, and the police were coming by the house all the time, them and all of Leonard’s dopefiend friends. I wanted to leave him, but I felt trapped. When he went to jail, I felt like I was finally free to get away from there. That’s why I came back to Texas.”

Donovan swallowed her story as easily as he did the first time. Why wouldn’t he? Kyra never lied to him before. “So, do we need to go to Arkansas?” he asked.

Kyra’s heart grew to twice its normal size. For as long as she’d known him, Donovan never let her fight a battle alone.

“I’m not going back to Arkansas unless I get a summons,” Kyra said. “Leonard’s just talking noise. He’s not gonna do anything. Every judge he ever saw sent him to jail. He’s not going to run to them for help.