Free Driving Heat by Zuri Day Page B

plates, and joined him at the dining room table.
    Jayden clumsily added a generous amount of grape jelly to the butter he’d already spread on his bagel and took a large bite. “Mom,” he began around the mouthful of food.
    “No, we do not talk with our mouths full of food. How many times do I have to remind you of that?”
    Jayden kicked his legs and bounced around as he finished the bite, softly humming some unknown melody.
    Cynthia began eating, deciding to chill out on the etiquette tips, and refrained from demanding he not only chew with his mouth closed but be still as well. When her brother, Jeff, was Jayden’s age, he did the very same thing. When she was Jayden’s age, her mother did the same thing to her—critique and instruct every gesture and movement. She’d hated it and even now was self-conscious as a result. She watched as he reached for a grape with his fingers, and remembered her aversion to Byron licking his in public. We are not in public, baby. Enjoy your food.
    The last of the bite was probably still traveling down his throat when Jayden began speaking. “Why am I going over to Bobby’s?”
    “Because I’m meeting a friend for dinner.”
    “You just did that last night.”
    “That is correct.”
    “And you’re going to do the same thing again? Sounds boring.”
    “For you, it probably would be.”
    “If you’re just going out to eat, then why can’t Tanishia just come over again? She’s fun. We play video games and sometimes she beats me, even though she’s a girl!”
    Cynthia frowned. “What makes you think being a girl has anything to do with winning and losing?”
    “Come on, Mom. You guys are weak.”
    “Oh, really, according to whom?”
    Jayden shrugged. “Everybody.”
    “While sometimes physically stronger, women are just as capable as men in getting jobs done. Don’t I do a good job taking care of you?”
    “Yeah.” He offered a slight smile and speared another chunk of omelet.
    But she’d seen it. The look of hurt that flashed in his eyes before pulling out a grin to cover it. When he first started school, the question came often. “Why doesn’t my dad live in the house?” These days, he rarely mentioned it. But clearly the pain was there.
    “Are you thinking about your dad?”
    “I try not to. He obviously doesn’t think about me.”
    “You don’t know that.”
    “Uh-huh. ’Cause if he did, he’d come see me. I have my own cell phone and he doesn’t even call.”
    There was no pretty answer to this ugly truth and no discussing the equally regretful reason why Jayden had never met his father. On the other hand, Cynthia’s world revolved around this little boy. Even single, raising him was a joy. But she’d give anything to go back in time and change the sperm donor. Amazing how one short month could so irrevocably change one’s life and affect many others. Her parents, brother, godmother, and one of her mother’s good friends had all felt scandalized when she announced her pregnancy. When the identity of the father was revealed, leaving no doubt that marriage was off the table, her cloak of heady accomplishments was replaced by a tattered shawl of shame. Mortified, and banished to upstate New York to have her child in secret, she’d danced with the idea of ending it all. The only reason she didn’t was sitting at the table, picking up pieces of fruit with his fingers.
    “While I’m clearing the table and cleaning things up, why don’t you call your uncle Jeff? I forgot to pass on that he’d asked about you. It might have something to do with just the two of you hanging out . . .”
    The light she so loved returned to his eyes. “Yes! I’ll go get my phone!”
    “Don’t run up the stairs!”
    Smiling, Cynthia sent Jeff a text to give him a heads-up on this little white lie. My brother is great, but Jay needs a male role model who lives close by. When Byron’s face instantly appeared in her mind, she was not as much surprised as she was