Page 22 of Kaya's King
She turns to me and quietly says, “I need to get Noah ready for bed. Chelsea’s going to start homeschooling him in the morning, so he needs a good night’s rest.”
“Let me give you a hand,” I reply, standing and moving to where Noah is sitting on the floor, playing with Collette and Micah. “Hey, little man, it’s time to start thinking about heading to bed.”
He sighs even though I can tell from his drooping shoulders that he’s worn out. He’s been on the hardened floor since he finished eating, playing with the matchbox cars Micah keeps at the clubhouse. They’re just big enough that Collette can’t swallow them, but both little boys have to keep taking them out of her mouth since she’s apparently teething and keeps putting them in her mouth to chew and soothe her achy gums. “Okay, Mr. Specks. I think I’m ready.”
Leaning down, I instruct, “Put your arms around my neck, Noah.” Once he does so, I stand and adjust him so he’s more upright and comfortable then head inside, telling Kaya, “I’ll get him ready for bed, babe. Take your time and enjoy yourself.”
Her smile has my heart beating like a drum in my chest. The grin sent my way is full of gratitude and another emotion I can’t quite decipher. I have no expectations when it comes to what’s going to happen tonight simply because I don’t know where her head’s at right now. It’ll be enough to fall asleep with her curled in my arms.
CHAPTER
EIGHT
Kaya
“I like him for you,”Granny implies as we help the other women finish clearing and stacking up the last of the plates from the cake we enjoyed to celebrate the arrival of little miss Talia. I love baking but both Mary and Hayley have a God-given talent which makes anything they create absolutely mouth-watering. “I think you’ll balance each other out quite well, child.”
“You don’t think it’s too soon, Granny?” I quietly ask as we put the plates in the sink to be washed.
She stops in her tracks and takes my hands in hers. I wait her out since she seems as though she’s trying to think of the best way to say what’s on her mind. “Kaya, all your life, you’ve faced one obstacle after another, and you never let it get you down for very long. The closest I saw you come to breaking completely was when Foster died, but once again, you shook yourself off, picked up the pieces and kept on moving forward. When Noah got his diagnosis, you made the wise choice to relocate all of us here so he could see the top-notch doctors and get the best possible treatment. For so long, it’s just been the two of us and now, you’ve added to our family. Six years, Kaya, you’ve been going through the motions of life but since we’ve been here, I’m seeing you slowly start to live again. So, no, I don’t think it’s too soon and if others say it is, screw them.”
“Granny!” I exclaim, shocked at her word choice. She seldom swears or uses harsh language because she comes from the generation where ladies didn’t use ‘course’ words, so for her to evenhintat a curse word has me shaking my head.
“It’s the truth, Kaya Jean Mabry. You are due some beauty in your life outside of that little monkey of ours. Embrace it and enjoy, child.” She pulls me in close for a hug and kisses my cheek, much as she’s done all my life. “I love you and have never once begrudged or regretted the day you and your mom had to move in with me. Every sacrifice, every time we had to make a hard choice, it was done knowing that someday, we’d be past the hard times. Sweetheart, we’re past them now, even with Noah’s current situation, so embrace it, you hear me?”
“Yes, ma’am,” I reply. “I love you too, Granny. You’ve taught me everything I know about being a good person and how to rise above those who want to tear me down.”
“The only one who can tear you down is you, Kaya. Remember that,” she wisely counsels. We continue to work in silence, gathering trash, loading the sink, and washing plus drying the plates and utensils while my mind is firmly planted on the man who’s taking care of my son right this moment. I’m sure we’ll have growing pains, so to speak, because right now, Noah’s on his best behavior.
But he has his ornery days where he talks back, acts out, and in general, is whiny. Thankfully, those days are few and far between, but I suspect with his current limitations they may become more frequent. It’ll be interesting to see how Specks deals with him then.
“Kaya, do you want to leave Noah with me in the morning after breakfast?” Chelsea asks as we finish the last few things.
“That sounds pretty good. Will you be able to lift him on and off the toilet okay?”
“There’ll be a prospect around, Poseidon already told me he was leaving one here at the clubhouse for just that reason,” she informs me, which relieves my last concern. “If there’s anything that comes up, I promise I’ll call you.”
“I’ll try not to be that nervous mother who’s constantly blowing up your phone asking for updates,” I jokingly state. “He likes school, though, so you shouldn’t have any problems keeping his attention at all.”
I was surprised at how easy it was to get him enrolled in a homeschool program. He’ll eventually return to public school, of course, but for the time being, this is the best choice for him. In his current predicament, him navigating school hallways had my gut twisting with all kinds of wild scenarios. Kids are crueland if I can keep him from hearing them making fun of him being in a wheelchair, or pulling pranks on him, or tripping him I’ll take it. I’m looking forward to hearing about his day because Chelsea has already gotten hooked up with a local homeschool group and they coordinate field trips to various places, including a submarine museum, and a national park which has several school-oriented programs they offer. I suspect when they go to the museum several bikers will be volunteering as chaperones and will want to go as protectors seeing as, according to the old ladies, they’re former SEALs and protective of their charges and other youngsters. I imagine they may have been on one at one time or another, although I don’t claim to have a lot of military knowledge whatsoever.
“It’s fine if you are. I know all of this is new for y’all,” Chelsea replies. I like her and am looking forward to building a long-term friendship with not only her, but all of the old ladies. Heck, I even like Tessie and by her own admission, she’s one of their former club girls. Now she’s enrolled in school even though she hasn’t decided what she wants to do yet. There was another one here, Riah, but she and Dutch, another prospect, as well as a full-patch member, Reef, went to a new club that several other clubs are re-establishing, the Dishonored Angels Motorcycle Club. Don’t know a lot beyond that except Riah was only ever with Dutch, but has terrible self-esteem because she thinks everyone sees her as less than.
As I make my way to my room, I think about that very thing. My granny never treated me that way, and neither did my mom although she was limited in how much she was able to do with me after the accident. My teachers always encouraged my creativity, praising me when I drew something, calling them masterpieces, and my mentor, Miguel, was blown away with my steady hand when I was learning how to ink a tattoo. It wasonly the group of vipers, the mean girls club if you will, whoever treated me like I was a shit stain on the bottom of their shoe soles. If not for Foster’s constant encouragement, as well as my own inner fortitude that wouldn’t let them crush me completely, I might’ve had more emotional damage than I ended up having.
“Yeah, like you’re Miss Secure,” I mockingly scold myself as I reach my door. Opening it, since Specks left it unlocked for me, I can hear his and Noah’s voices coming from the depths of the bathroom. Locking it behind me, I approach the door then burst into laughter at the sight before me.
“You know the water’s supposed to stayinsidethe tub, right?” I tease. Noah’s soaked from head to toe, of course, but somehow, so is Specks. “Dare I ask what happened?”
“It’s probably best you don’t,” Specks replies. “We might have been re-enacting a raging sea battle between an octopus and a boat.”
Peals of laughter erupt from my mouth as Noah nods his head emphatically. “Mommy, it wasawesome! The octopus was a very old one and he was very, very large. He got tired of boats floating above his territory, so one day, when a boat was going by, he reached up with one of his tentacles and grabbed it! But the men on the boat wouldn’t give up without a fight, refused to let their ship sink so they started shooting off cannons and well, here we are!”
I turn away but not before saying, “I’m sure you know where the extra towels are, Specks, since you helped move us in here. You two have fun sopping it all up. Don’t trip.”
Specks
I grin at Noah as Kaya’s laughter continues to float through their suite. “We may have gone a little bit overboard,” I tell him, pulling the plug so the water will drain. But we had a good time and bonded over our love of water and using our imaginations. Picking him up, I wrap a towel around him then set him on the closed toilet seat. “Let me get some of this water up so I don’t slip, drop you, and hurt either one of us. I’m afraid if that happens, she won’t be laughing.”